New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-07-24
TEHUANTEPEC.
THE TEHUANTEPEC RAILWAY Its

Ou ucdNy paper anu HdluSOnCly uOuHui
has been prepared under the direction
of Mr.. Simon Stevens, President of the
Tehuantepec Railway Company, and is
something decidedly unique in the an
nails of Railway literature" 1t not
only sets forth in q comprehensive
form, for the use and information of
capitalists ard others interested, the
resources and prospects of this parti
cular enterprise, but it contains a fund
OF information of value to the general
reader, and is enriched with an histori-
cal summary of the annals of American
discovery and development, by Henry
Stevens, esq, G.. NJ. B.; F.S. A.; Fellow
of the Royal Geographical Society Of
London, &c, as well as with carefully
prepared maps and statistics. The feel
ing of vague dissatisfaction with which
the completion of tie Pacific Railroad
has been greeted in the minds of a large
portion of our people, has prepared them
90 ask a number of important ques-
tons, which this volume is intended to
answer; and it does very much more.
We have for years been accustomed
10 think of the Panama route as the
best if not the only gateway to the
Pacific, provided that the overland
railway, for which the country has
paid so dearly, should not be found to
supplant it. A glance at the map con-
viuces us, specifically, that this road
crosses the Isthmus at very nearly Its
narrOwest point, and other relative dis
tances look small enough on the Ordi-
nary sketches of the earth's surface.
We know, vaguely, that the commerce
of the world is increasing; that South
America, cur own Western coast, and
the various Asiatic nationalities, are
yearly conveying more and more OF
their varied productions, and satisfying
more of their requirements, by way OF
the trans American routes; but when
ever the subject has been brought be-
fore us we have been prone TO inquire,
mentally, if not orally, els not the
Panama route obviously the best I Is
il not sufficient Is lit not the piOn-
neer ? and would not new enterprise
interfere with, if not wholly destroy,
its prosperity 2 Have not all investi-
cations demonstrated that no other line
offers the same practical advantages"
All these questions, the volume OF
which we are speaking clearly answers
in the negative, and gives at length
its reasons for so doing. In order to
allow Tehuantepec to speak for
itself, we have divided its somewhat
desultory collection of materials under
the several heads" to which they
properly belong, and we herewith
present a chart of the world on Merca-
tors Projection, showing where the
Tehuantepec Railway connects the Gulf
of Mexico with the Pacific Ocean.
HISTORICAL.
If any one route between the At
lantic and the Pacific Oceans is en-
filled to consideration as the pioneer"
it is the Tehuantepec its advantages
having been first advocated by no less
renowned a parsonage than fernando
Cortez, who proposed to the Emperor
Charles V. to build Roman Road"
On the very line contemplated by the
present company, or near it. 1t was
proposed (as Mr. Stevens shows, at
tbat early day, to undertake the con-
ytruction not only of the road but of
a ship canal, and this was only pre-
vented by the pecuRiary considerations
growing ont of tie EmperoFs European
Complications. To this day, the de- /
scendants of Cdrtez own and reside |
upon large estates selected by him on
the line of his intended road. COrtez |
was something more than a cruel and
desperate adventuTer - his prophetic
perceptions Of commercial develop
ment stamp him as a statesman of no
mean order. From the estates acquired
by him on the Isthmus of Tehuante
pec he derived his title of " Marquis
del Vale :" and they are to this day
known as the COrtez estates, or the
"Marquesanas." He was enDobled in
1929.
The idea entertained by Columbus
and his cOtempOraries that they had
reached the outlying islands and the
eastern coast of Asia died a very slow
death under the cumulative discoveries
of one exploring expedition after an
other, and the crude ideas which. even
subsequently, obtained concerning the
size of the globe, and the nature and
extent of the American continent, are
admirably and suecinctly set forth in
this essay of Mr.. Henry Stevens. 1t
was not until the famous voyage of
Magellan's squadron, in 15l9-1522, that
the Pacific was crossed and the world
circumnaVigated but, even with a
clear idea, at last, of the vast extent
of salt water between Spain and the
lard of spices, the mind of Cortez re-
tanned in all its vividness the original
dream of Columbus; and dwelt less
upon the unknown and incalculable
riches of the New World than upon the
advantages TO European commerce OF
securing a western passage to Cathay,
which should neither be subject to the