from Panama to Porto Bello. The aristocratic nonchalance of Spain, and
her fear to open to strangers the way to the countries explored for her
own profit, only kept those countries closed." The court forbade, on
pain of death, the use of plans at different times proposed. They
wronged their own colonies by representing the coasts as dangerous and
the rivers impassable. On the presentation of a memoir for improving the
route through Tehuantepec, by citizens of Oaxaca, as late as 1775,
an order was issued forbidding the subject to be mentioned. The
memorialists were censured as intermeddlers, and the viceroy fell under
the sovereign's displeasure for having seemed to favor the plans.

The great isthmus was, however, further explored by the Spanish
government for its own purposes; the recesses were traversed, and the
lines of communication which we know to-day were then noted.

In addition to the fact that comparatively little was explored north or
south of that which early became the main highway, the Panama route,
there is confirmation here of the truth that Spain concealed and even
falsified much of her generally accurately made surveys. No stronger
proof of this need be asked than that which Alcedo gives in connection
with the proposal by Gogueneche, the Biscayan pilot, to open
communication by the Atrato and the Napipi. "The Atrato," says the
historian, "is navigable for many leagues, but the navigation of it is
prohibited under pain of death, without the exception of any person
whatever."

The Isthmus of Nicaragua has always invited serious consideration for
a ship canal route by its very marked physical characteristics, among
which is chiefly its great depression between two nearly parallel ranges
of hills, which depression is the basin of its large lake, a natural and