iE Tehuantepec

r-Ocean Railroad;

RCIAL AND STATISTICAL REVIEW SHOWING ITS
,, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL FEATURES,
AND ADVANTAGES.

ALEX. D. ANDERSON,

|'HE SILVER COUNTRY, OR THE GREAT SOUTHWEST;" AND " THE
MISSISSIPPI AND TRIBUTARIES."

i Mexico
;Nflft34

BARNES & COMPANY,
NEW YORK AND CHICAGO.
1831.

The Tehuantepec

Inter-Ocean Railroad;

A COMMERCIAL AND STATISTICAL REVIEW SHOWING ITS
LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL FEATURES,
AND ADVANTAGES.

ALEX. D. ANDERSON,

AUTHOR OF " THE SILVER COUNTRY, OR THE GREAT SOUTHWEST ;
MISSISSIPPI AND TRIBUTARIES.*"

A. S. BARNES & COMPANY,
NEW YORK AND CHICAGO.
1881,

Copyright, 1880, by Alex. D. Andeeson.

TO
HON. EDWARD LEARNED
OF MASSACHUSETTS,
Whose energetic efforts insure the immediate consummation of
Inter-Ocean Transit across the iBthmus of Tehuantepec — an enterprise
which will supplement the Mississippi River and practically extend it
to the Pacific Ocean, give to the United States an Isthmus Route pre
eminently the most advantageous to her commerce, inaugurate in Mexico
a new era of commercial progress, stimulate closer intercourse between
the two sister Republics, and which merits the co operation of all inter
ested in the material advancement of America — these pages are respect
fully inscribed.

PREFACE

TT is not the purpose of this paper to engage in a discus
sion of the various schemes for a ship-canal across the
American Isthmus, but to consider the merits of the route
which is nearest our shores, most easily protected, and pre
eminently the most serviceable to American Commerce.
An Inter-Oceanic Railway is already under construction
across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and will soon be ready
to transport from sea to sea the interchanges between the
two coasts of the New World, and the older nations on the
East and West. It is to the very superior advantages of
this route that the attention of the public is invited.
The following pages have been prepared in legal brief
style with a citation of authorities ; first, because the value
of any statistics depends largely upon knowing the sources of
their derivation ; second, that the reader who dwells on a
less favored part of the earth may know that the statements
concerning the marvelous fertility of the Isthmus are collected
from official and other standard sources, and not works of

fiction ; and finally, because this is simply a summary of lead
ing facts, and the reader may wish to examine more in detail
some of the many advantages of this commercial highway. If
so, the authorities cited in the foot-notes and in the appendix
will furnish a great variety of information.
Washington, D. C, Oct. 28, 1880.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

HISTORICAL NOTES  9

Map of the Isthmus ,

19

CHAPTER II.
LOCAL FEATURES.
Descriptive Notes  19
Climate and Health  21
Products  23

Coffee  24
Sugar  25
Oranges  26
Corn  27
Bananas  27
Cotton  28
Tobacco  29
Rice  30
Cocoa  30

Timber  30
India-rubber  32
Vegetable Dyes  33
Indigo  33
Cochineal  34
Petroleum  34
Ixtle or Pita  35
Cattle  36
Fish and Game  37

Water Power and Manufactures  38
Population  39
Antiquities  39
Harbors and Railway Line  43
Land Grant  46
Map Ixlyustkating Relations to Mexico  47

CHAPTER III.
COMMERCIAL RELATIONS TO MEXICO.
Need of Railways  47
Topographical Features  49
A Eailway Era  50
The Isthmus as an Outlet  53
As a Transcontinental Highway  56

Vlll PAGE
Map Illustrating Relations to the United States  58
CHAPTER IV.
COMMERCIAL RELATIONS TO THE UNITED STATES.
To the Mississippi Valley  58
To the Valley and Gulf States combined  62
To the Atlantic States  63
To the Pacific States  65
Map Illustrating Relations to the World  67
CHAPTER V.
COMMERCIAL RELATIONS TO THE WORLD.
Its Central Position  67
Possible Present Patronage  69
Possible Future Patronage  69
From the Natural Growth of Commerce  71
From Exceptional Causes  73

CHAPTER VI.
POLITICAL FEATURES  77

APPENDIX.
Table of Distances  81
List of Authorities  85
Surveys  85
Popular Publications  86
Congressional Documents  88

CHAPTEE I.
HISTORICAL NOTES.
ri^HE importance of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec may
-L readily be seen from a glance at its varied history during
a period of more than three hundred and sixty years, under
Indian, Spanish, and Mexican rule.
In 1520, as soon as Cortez had, through the hospitality of
Montezuma, become installed in the Aztec national palace, and
before the bloody conflict which resulted in the conquest and
destruction of the ancient city of Mexico, he sent out exploring
parties to discover the mines of precious metals, and to find on
the Gulf coast a better harbor. In his dispatches to his king,
Charles V of Spain, Cortez tells the story as follows : " I like
wise inquired of Muteczuma if there were, on the coast of the
sea, any river, or bay, into which ships could enter and lie
with safety. He answered that he did not know, but that he
would cause a chart of the coast to be painted showing the
rivers and bays, and that I might send Spaniards to examine
them, for which purpose he would dispatch suitable persons
with them as guides ; and he did so. The next day they
brought me a chart of the whole coast, painted on cloth, on
which appeared a river that discharged into the sea with a
wider mouth, according to the chart, than any others." *
He further relates that he sent " ten men, and among them
several pilots, and persons acquainted with the sea,"2 to ex
amine this river Coatzacoalcos — that they departed from Vera
Cruz, and proceeded along the coast until they reached its
i The Dispatches of Hernando Cortes, p. 99. 2 Ditto, p. 100.

10
mouth — that " they found two fathoms and a half of water at
its entrance, in the shallowest part, and ascending twelve
leagues, the least depth they found was five or six fathoms ;" 1
also that they reported " there were numerous and large towns
on its banks, and the whole province was level and well forti
fied, rich in all the productions of the earth, and containing a
numerous population who are not vassals, or subjects of Mutec-
zuma, but rather his enemies." 2
Cortez then adds the following comment : " When I was in
formed by the Spaniards that the province they had visited was
in a situation to be colonized, and that they had discovered a
harbor in it, I was much gratified, since from the time that I
had first set foot in this country I had constantly sought to
find some harbor upon its coast where I might found a settle
ment, but I had not been able to discover one, nor is there any
on the coast from the river San Antonio, which is next to Gri-
jalva, to that of Panuco, which is down the coast." 3 The river
Grijalva is now called Tabasco, at its mouth, and is in the
State of Tabasco. The River Panuco is in the State of Tamau-
lipas, and empties into the harbor of Tampico.
Immediately upon the return of this exploring party he sent
'out another expedition of one hundred and fifty men, "for the
purpose of tracing, planning, and settling the town, and erect
ing a fortress."4 Soon after he sent out, for the same purpose,
another expedition of four hundred men.5 Later, probably in
the year 1523, he sent still another expedition to the Isthmus
under the lead of Sandoval.6 One of the party was Bernal
Diaz, who afterward became the Spanish historian of the con
quest. He, with several others of. the expedition, settled at
Guacasualco, and remained there until Cortez himself passed
through that place, in October 1524, when they joined his
party on an excursion still farther south.7
1 The Dispatches of Hernando Cortes, p. 100. 2 Ditto, p. 100.
8 Ditto, p. 101. 4 Ditto, p. 102. 5 Ditto, p. 144.
6 The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz, vol, ii, p, 141,
7 Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, vol. iii, p. 265.

11
The Conqueror improved this opportunity to visit the birth
place of his celebrated mistress, Dofia Marina, called by the
Aztecs Malinche.1 She was born at the village of Jaltipan (for
merly known as Painala), in the northern division of the Isth
mus.2 In return for her invaluable services to the Spaniards,
as interpretess, and secretary, in negotiations with the native
officials, and otherwise, she received large grants of land, part
of which were located on the Isthmus, near her former home.3
Cortez's chief ambition at this time seems to have been the
discovery of a highway between the two oceans, for, in his
fourth letter to Charles V, dated October, 15, 1524, he says,
"Being well aware of the great desire of your majesty to know
concerning the supposed strait, and of the great advantage the
crown would derive from its discovery, I have laid aside all
other schemes, more obviously tending to promote my inter
ests, in order to pursue this object alone."4
A few years later, in 1529, he was made Marquis of the Valley
of Oaxaca, in the state of the same name, which the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec intersects. He also received from the king a grant
of large estates.5 Part of these lands, situated in the central
division of the Isthmus, are alluded to by J. McL. Murphy, of
the U. S. Navy, who visited the Isthmus, in 1851, with the Sci
entific Commission sent there to make a railway survey. He
said of these estates, in a lecture before the American Geo
graphical Society : "From these gigantic hillocks" (Maletengo
Hills) "were spread out before us, like a map, the estates of
Marquesanas — the gift lands of Charles V to the Conqueror of
Mexico — stretching away to the south, even beyond the sharp,
angular peaks of the dividing ridge. All through this vast
estate, which embraces an area of somewhat less than 200,000
1 Diaz's Memoirs, vol. i, p. 84.
2 Ditto, p, 84 ; and "The Isthmus of Tehuantepec," by J. McL. Mur
phy, in Journal of American Geographical and Statistical Society for
1859, p. 162,
3 Prescott's Conquest, vol. iii, p. 279.
4 Cortez's Dispatches, p. 419.
6 Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, vol. iii, pp. 306-7.

12
acres, there are ruins of indigo-vats, lime-kilns, corrals, and
other improvements." 1 Another part of his marquisate com
prised the town of Tehuantepec, on the Pacific side of the Isth
mus, and at that place, together with the harbors of Zacatula
and Acapulco, was fitted out his expedition on the Pacific in
1533, " according to his agreement with the Empress Isabella,
of glorious memory, and with the Council of the Indies, for dis
coveries in the Soutjh Sea." 2
Before sailing he sought to provide a commercial highway
across the Isthmus. Says a Mexican authority : " It was he
who conceived the idea of a lucrative speculation by means of a
road over the Isthmus to supply Spain with the spices of the
East Indies, and the products of such new regions as he ex
pected to discover." 3 It is evident that he constructed a mili
tary road from the town of Tehuantepec across to the head of
navigation of the Coatzacoalcos River, and that it remained in
use for a period of about one hundred years, for these facts are
stated in a carefully prepared lecture before the American Geo
graphical Society by one who explored the Isthmus as a mem
ber of Barnard and Williams' surveying party.4
A century later, citizens of Oaxaca presented a petition to the
Viceroy, under Spain, of Mexico, asking that the harbor of
Coatzacoalcos might be made " a port of entry, and a great
depot of commerce instead of the port and city of Vera Cruz." 5
In it they also suggest that a canal or road be constructed across
the Isthmus.6
In 1774 Don Augustin Cramer, a civil engineer, made, by
order of the Viceroy of Mexico, a voyage of discovery. In his
report he said of Tehuantepec : " It would not be a work of
great difficulty, nor excessively costly, to effect a communication

1 Journal of Amer. Geog. and Statistical Soc. for 1859, p. 174
2 Diaz's Memoirs, vol. ii, p. 349.
3 The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, by Garay, pp. 27-8.
4 Jour, of Amer. Geog. Soc, June 1859, p. 164.
6 Memoirs of the Mexican Revolution, by W. D. Robinson, pp. 359-60,
6 Ditto, p. 360.

13
between the two seas across this Isthmus."1 Don Jose de
Garay, from whose pamphlet we have just quoted, says of the
next movement in favor of a canal, in the year 1814 : " The
Spanish Cortes, having in view all that had been written upon
this subject, and the various reports presented by persons
charged with the surveys of the principal points suggested for
the communication, by a decree of the 30th of April, 1814, au
thorized the opening of a canal across the Isthmus of Tehuan
tepec in preference to those of Nicaragua and Panama."2
In 1824, three years after Mexico had become an independ
ent republic, the state of Vera Cruz, and the general govern
ment of Mexico, appointed respectively Don Tadeo de Ortiz
and Col. Don Juan de Orbegozo to survey this Isthmus. Each
party made a report.3
On the 1st of March, 1842, the President of Mexico, General
Santa Anna, granted to Don Jose de Garay, a citizen of .that
republic, the right of way across Tehuantepec for communica
tion between the Atlantic and Pacific. Article 2 of the grant
says : "This shall be performed by water ; but when this may
not be convenient, then railroads and steam carriages may be
used." 4 At the commencement of the decree Gen. Santa Anna
uses the following significant language : " Enow ye that, firm
to my purpose of exalting the nation, and of rendering the peo
ple happy, and taking into consideration the proposition which
Don Jose Garay has presented, and considering that no means
are so sure and effectual for promoting the national prosperity
as that of creating the republic the centre of communication
and navigation of all countries," 5 etc. On the 30th of April fol
lowing, Gaetano Moro, the engineer appointed by the grantee,
started on the surveying expedition.
In 1844 Mexico extended the time for beginning the con
struction for one year, ending July 1st, 1845.6
On the 5th of November, 1846, the acting President of Mexico
extended the grant to Garay for two years from that date.7
1 An account of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, by Don Jose de Garay,
pp. 28-9. s Ditto, p. 23. 3 Ditto, p. 30. 4 Ditto, p. 105. 5 Ditto, p. 104.
6 Senate Ex. Doc. 72, Thirty-fifth Cong. First Sess., p. 40. ' Ditto, p. 41.

14
On the 15th of April, 1847, during the negotiations between
the United States and Mexico, which finally resulted in the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, James Buchanan, then
Secretary of State, sent the following instructions to Nicholas
P. Trist, the commissioner of the United States at the City of
Mexico, viz. : " Instead of fifteen millions of dollars stipulated to
be paid by the fifth article for the extension of our boundary
over New Mexico and Upper and Lower California, you may
increase the amount to any sum not exceeding thirty millions
of dollars, payable by instalments of three millions per annum,
provided the right of passage and transit across the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec, secured to the United States by the eighth article
of the projet, shall form a part of the treaty." *
This offer shows how important the United States then con
sidered inter-oceanic communication at the Isthmus, but it was
rejected by Mexico for the sufficient reason that she had
already granted the right of way to one of her own citizens,
and was not, therefore; at liberty to grant the same to the
United States.2
On the 28th of September, 1848, Don Jose de Garay trans
ferred his grant to Messrs. Manning and Mcintosh, citizens of
Great Britain.3
On the 5th of February, 1849, the grant was transferred by
them to a citizen of the United States, one Peter A. Hargous.4
In December, 1850, the Scientific Commission under the
command of Major J. G. Barnard of the U. S. Engineers,
assisted by J. J. Williams, C. E., landed at the Isthmus and
immediately commenced a thorough survey for the purpose of
an inter-oceanic railway. This was in behalf of the Tehuan
tepec Railroad Company of New Orleans, organized under the
assignment to Hargous.
On the 23d of May, 1851, the Mexican Congress declared

1 Senate Ex. Doc. No. 60, Thirtieth Congress, First Session, p. 44.
2 Senate Ex. Doc. No. 72, Thirty-fifth Congress, First Session, p. 12.
3 Senate Report 355, Thirty-second Congress, First Session.
4 Ditto.

15
the extension of the grant issued by the Acting President on
the 5th of November, 1846, to be null and void.1
On the 14th of May, 1852, the Mexican Congress provided
for an invitation of proposals for opening a highway across the
Isthmus.2 Under this Act, on the 5th of February, 1853, the President
of Mexico awarded the contract to a Mixed Company — part
Mexicans, and part citizens of the United States — of which,
one A. G. Sloo was the leading spirit.3
On the 30th of December, 1853, a treaty (commonly known
as the Gadsden Treaty) was concluded between the United
States and Mexico, which, in Article VDH, after referring to the
Sloo grant just mentioned, guaranteed the right of transit to
the United States and its citizens.4
In 1855, November 26th, the President of Mexico recognized
one F. de P. Falconet, a British subject, as the sole owner of
the grant to the Mixed Company, it having been pledged to
him as security for the repayment of $600,000 which he had
advanced to Mexico in behalf of the Company.5
On the 3d of September, 1857, the President of Mexico
annulled the contract with Sloo and Associates, composing the
Mixed Company.6
On the 7th of September, 1857, President Comonfort granted
the right of way for a railroad to the Louisiana Tehuantepec
Company.7 On the 28th of March, 1859, Mexico extended the time of the
grant last mentioned.8
On the 25th of October, 1860, this grant was again extended
by Mexico.9
In 1861 Napoleon HI instructed his Minister in Mexico to
secure the grant which the Louisiana Company had forfeited.10

1 Senate Ex. Doc. No 72, Thirty-fifth Congress, First Session, p. 41.
' Ditto, p. 41. 8 Ditto, p. 41. 4 U. S. Statutes, vol. x, pp. 1031-37.
5 Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 72, Thirty-fifth Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 41-2. 6 Do., p. 54.
1 Ditto, p. 55. 6 Sen. Ex. Doc. 25, Thirty-ninth Cong., 2d Sess., p. 10.
a Ditto, p. 10. 10 Commodore Shufeldt, in N. Y. Herald, Oct. 22, 1879.

16
On the 12th of October, 1866, the Emperor of Mexico, Max
imilian, extended the time of the grant formerly made by the
Republic of Mexico to the Louisiana Company.1
Three days later, on October loth, President Juarez, not
recognizing the authority of Maximilian, then in possession of
the capital, granted the right of way for a railroad and tele
graph line to the Tehuantepec Transit Company. By the same
instrument he annulled the grant of September 7th, 1857, and
extensions of £he same, because of an infringement of its obli
gations. This new Company had its head-quarters at New
York, and Charles Knap was its President.2 This grant was
subsequently declared to be forfeited,3 and
On the 6th of December, 1867, a grant was made by the
President of Mexico, to Emilio de la Sere, a citizen of the
United States, of the right of way across the Isthmus.4
On the 10th of November, 1868, the General Assembly of
Vermont passed an Act estabhshing the incorporation of the
Tehuantepec Railway Company organized on the strength of
the last mentioned concession from Mexico.5
On the 29th of December, 1868, this grant was modified by
Act oi the Mexican Congress.6
On the 18th of February, 1869, La Sere conveyed his grant
to said Tehuantepec Railway Company.
On the 14th of December, 1870, this Company was, by Act
of the Mexican Congress, also granted the right to construct a
canal across the Isthmus.7
In 1870 and 1871, Commodore Shufeldt, under the direction
of the Secretary of the U. S. Navy, made a survey of the Isth
mus " to ascertain the practicability of a ship-canal between

1 Senate Ex. Doc. No. 25, Thirty-ninth Congress, Second Session,
p. 6.
2 Ditto, page 9. Also Report of Secretary of Finance of Mexico of the
15th of January, 1879, p. 52.
8 Ditto, p. 52, 4 Ditto, p. 52.
6 Laws of Vermont for 1868, p. 218.
6 Report of Secretary of Finance of Mexico, p. 52. ' Ditto,

17
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans." 1 He reported it practicable,
as a matter of engineering.2
In 1871, the La Sere grant became forfeited for non-fulfil
ment of conditions.3
On the 22d of May, 1872, the grants of December 28, 1868,
and December 14, 1870, were renewed by Mexico.4
On the 15th of January, 1874, the same grants were again
renewed by Mexico.5
On the 14th of December, 1874, the said grant, for purposes
of a canal, was amended by the Mexican Congress, giving "new
and important advantages to the Company. " 6
Early in October, 1878, application was made to the Mexican
Government in behalf of Edward Learned of Massachusetts, for
a railway grant across the Isthmus. On the 31st of the same
month it was favorably acted upon by the Executive of Mexico,
and referred to the proper committee of Congress. They
made a favorable Report, which was approved by the Chamber
of Deputies by the significant vote of one hundred against
only twenty-eight, showing, as Secretary Romero well said,
" the feeling of a majority of the Chamber of Deputies with
regard to railroad grants in favor of North American Com
panies." 7
On the 31st of May, 1879, President Diaz, acting under* the
authority of an Act of Congress, declared all prior grants at
the Isthmus to be null and void.
On the 2d of June, 1879, the Mexican Congress completed
and ratified the pending Executive grant to said Learned, con
ceding to him, or such company as he might organize, the
right to construct a telegraph fine and railway across the
Isthmus.8

1 Senate, Ex. Doc. No. 6, Forty-second Congress, Second Session.
2 Ditto, p. 20. 3 Ditto.
4 Report of Secretary of Finance of Mexico, p. 53
5 Ditto, p. 53. 6 Ditto, p. 53. ' Ditto, p. 53.
8 See pamphlet of the Company, entitled " The Tehuantepec Railway
Grant." 2

18
In pursuance of this grant " The Tehuantepec Inter-Ocean
Railroad Company " was organized, November 18, 1879, under
the general railroad law of the State of Massachusetts, and
Edward Learned elected President.
The Company have their head-quarters in New York, have
recently purchased and shipped to the Isthmus rails for
one-third of the line, are now engaged in the work of con
struction, and will soon consummate the grand enterprise
which the indomitable Hernando Cortez commenced three
hundred and fifty years ago.

RUflBELL * STRUTNERS.ENGft'S N.V.

CHAPTEE II.
LOCAL FEATURES.

Descriptive Notes.
THE Isthmus of Tehuantepec is near the southern extremity
of Mexico, and comprises the eastern portions of the
states of Vera Cruz and Oaxaca. Its width in the narrowest
part and in a direct hne from ocean to ocean is 143-J miles.1 Its
length, east and west, is 106 miles, and is terminated by two
parallel lines, as indicated by the map on the preceding page.
We have been unable to find the length definitely stated in any
survey of the Isthmus, or in any geographical dictionary, not
withstanding its divisions, towns, products, and other features
are fully described. It is probably because the Isthmus is so
shaped that its terminal fines may, with propriety, be differ
ently located. In one popular publication we find its length
on the Gulf side defined as extending from the Bay of Alvarado
to the State of Yucatan. That of course is too loose a con
struction of the term.
But in the Report of the principal survey is a map of the
Isthmus which apparently includes nothing else, and we have
followed its lines in the map we have prepared. It evidently
coincides with the area covered by the several towns mentioned,
and with the region described in the statement of products.
The area of the Isthmus, according to this definition, is over
15,000 square miles, or larger than the combined areas of Mas
sachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
1 Barnard and Williams' Surrey r> 57,

20
It has three distinct divisions, which are clearly and con
cisely described by J. J. Williams, whose Report of the Survey
of 1850-1 is the leading authority on this Isthmus, and is
largely followed by most recent writers. He says as follows :
" In considering the Isthmus with reference to its general topo
graphical features, it may properly be said to comprise three
main divisions, more or less distinct in their general character
istics, the first embracing that portion extending from the Gulf
to the base of the Cordillera, and which may be called the
Atlantic plains ; the second comprising the more elevated or
mountainous districts, in the central parts, and the third includ
ing the level country bordering the ocean on the south, and
known as the Pacific plains.'' * * * " The first division
comprises a belt of country of some forty or fifty miles in
breadth, lying contiguous to the Gulf coast, and made up of
extensive alluvial basins of exceeding richness and fertility,
through which the drainage of the northern slope of the Cor
dillera discharges itself into the Gulf." * * * " The sec
ond or middle division may be said to extend from the Jaltepec
River on the north to within twenty or twenty-five miles of the
Pacific coast, comprising a strip of country through the central
portions of the Isthmus of some forty miles in breadth on the
west, and gradually widening out towards the east to sixty or
seventy miles. This division represents a great diversity of
feature." * * * " By a narrow opening in these mountains
we descend suddenly from the elevated table-lands to the Pa
cific plains which form the third or southern division. These
plains average about twenty miles in breadth from the base of
the mountains to the Pacific coast, and descend on the meridi
ans to the lagoons at an inclination varying from ten to fifteen
feet in the mile, thus forming, as it were, an immense inclined
plane, with its side next the mountains, about 250 feet above
the Pacific." 1
By referring to the map of the Isthmus the reader will ob
serve that the middle division, or mountainous district, is in-
1 Barnard and Williams' Survey, pp. 13-17.

21
dented on the north by a lower elevation in the shape of table
lands, which extend southwardly from the rivers Jaltepec and
Chalchijapa nearly across its whole width. These table-lands
are about 1,400 square miles in extent, or larger than the State
of Rhode Island.1
Between them and the Pacific plains are six known passes
through the higher elevations, or southern part of the middle
division.2 Their names and elevations above the level of the Pacific
Ocean are given as follows in Williams' Report : 3
La Chivela  780 feet
Masahua  843 "
West Piedra Parada  800 "
East Piedra Parada  825 "
Tarifa  684 "
Convento  750 "
By again referring to the foregoing map, or what is better,
a drainage map of the Isthmus, the reader will find, what is
very unusual in Mexico, an abundance of rivers, a few of which
are navigable. To their presence is largely due the wonderful
fertility which we will have occasion to describe on subsequent
pages. Climate and Health.
In his valuable Report on the Survey of 1851, Williams, after
reviewing in detail the subject of chmate, reaches the following
conclusion : " The conviction in the minds of those engaged in
drawing up this Report, and one founded on a residence upon
the spot, is that the climate of the Isthmus is a mild and healthy
one, favorable to longevity, and free from many diseases inci
dental to more temperate latitudes. The health of those en
gaged on the survey was unusually good during their entire
stay ; and although frequently, by accidents, wetted to the skin,
1 Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 15. 5 Ditto, p. 81. 3 Ditto, p. 81

22
and remaining in wet clothes the whole day, and this occurring
on successive days, with limited food at long intervals, yet none
suffered in consequence — a strong proof that their health was
due to the favorable climate."1
Doctor Kovaleski, one of the surgeons who accompanied this
surveying party, testifies to the same effect in his^report. Of the
northern division of the Isthmus he says : "I took particular
care to inquire among the inhabitants what were the diseases
from which they most suffered, and how strangers settling
among them were affected, and I ascertained beyond doubt
that not only Minatif.an, but the whole plain of the Coatzacoal
cos River, wherever inhabited, was a remarkably healthy coun
try. Not a single case of yellow fever has ever occurred in
Minatitlan, or any other part of the Coatzacoalcos plain, al
though in the years from 1829 to 1832, when the French emi
grants attempted to form a colony on the Isthmus, the number
of unacclimated strangers was considerable in the country, and
they were exposed to every kind of privation and suffering." 2
Of the middle division, or mountainous district, he says :
" This entire region, for its salubrity, cannot be surpassed by
any country whatever," and adds that three villages in the
table-lands are patronized as health-resorts by people from
Oaxaca and other Mexican states.3
Of the Pacific plains he continues : " Although the mean tem
perature of this valley is higher than that of the plain of Coat
zacoalcos, it enjoys a degree of salubrity not inferior to that of
the region of the mountains."4
In conclusion, he says of the whole Isthmus: "All these
three regions together form a broad surface of country, from
the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of the Pacific, of a great variety
of resources and of remarkable healthiness, a feature peculiar to
the Isthmus, as the lands on both of its sides are very un
healthy—such as Vera Cruz and Tabasco on the Gulf, Acapulco,
Huatulco, and the coast of Guatemala on the Pacific shore.
'¦ Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 172. 2 Ditto, p. 174.
3 Ditto, p. 176. 4 Dut0> p m

23
This peculiar and exclusive salubrity of the Isthmus is, in my
opinion, chiefly due to its configuration, which forms, as it
were, a gate, walled on both sides by heavy masses of moun
tains, through which pass currents of air, that render the coun
try they traverse so permanently salubrious. That the winds
prevail only within the Umits of the Isthmus, and not within a
few miles on either side of it, I am informed from most reliable

sources.

1 1

Surgeon J. C. Spear of the U. S. Navy, who was a member of
Commodore Shufeldt's surveying party in 1870-1, testifies in his
report : " It is the boast of the inhabitants that yellow fever has
never visited them." 2
Of the temperature he says : " Frost is never seen on the
Isthmus, and none of the mountain peaks in sight from any
point have snow on them, even in winter. The temperature
in the summer never rises very high, rarely above ninety de
grees." 3
In a letter from Coatzacoalcos, dated August 17, 1880, Martin
Van Brocklin, late chief engineer of the Metropolitan Elevated
Railway Company of New York, and at present chief engineer
of the Tehuantepec Railroad Company says: "The ther
mometer hanging in my office has not been above 85° since
July 10, when it reached 88°, nor has it been more than 10°
below those figures. Products.
The popular idea of an inter-oceanic railway is usually asso
ciated with that of through freights. But those who have had
occasion to observe how richly nature has endowed the Isth
mus of Tehuantepec and consider its marvelous yield of nearly
all the great staple products of the earth, see another source
of profit largely supplementing that arising from transporta
tion between the two seas. We think it easy to demonstrate
that its local business per mile will, when properly developed;
1 Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 179.
2 Shufeldt's Survey, p. 110. 3 Ditto, p. 108.

24
equal that of the most profitable section of the New York Cen
tral Railroad between Albany and Buffalo. But facts best
speak for themselves, and we will proceed to state them.
Coffee. —Of this product, Mr. Williams says, in his official
report: "The banks of the Coatzacoalcos exhibit in a wild
state the greatest abundance of coffee, and, with few excep
tions, no pains are taken to cultivate it, although the quality is
admitted to be very superior. This neglect may be readily
accounted for in the universal preference which exists among
the natives for chocolate."1
U. S. Consul Hoyt, in a report to the State Department
dated Minatitlan, Nov. 31, 1868, says, " Coffee attains perfection
in three years, almost anywhere on the Isthmus." 2
Hon. John W. Foster, late U. S. Minister at Mexico, in an
elaborate review of Mexican coffee, published by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture in 1876, said its quality was " equal
to the best known in any country," and that Mexico in coffee
alone " possesses a far greater source of wealth and prosperity"
than in her product of silver.3 To appreciate this tribute we
should bear in mind that her yield of silver averages about
$26,000,000 annually.4
Whoever develops this important industry upon the Isthmus
will not have to go far to find a market; for the United States,
during the ten years ending June 30, 1879, imported coffee to
the amount of $452,615,511 in value, or $>45,Q00,000 annually.5"
During the last one of those years, her imports were $47,356,819,
of which $31,795,101 came from Brazil.6
As the Mississippi Valley is a great consumer of coffee, and
as the mouth of its great river system is 4,550 nautical miles
nearer the Isthmus of Tehuantepec than to Rio Janeiro, it
should give the neighboring Isthmus the preference.
1 Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 188.
- Commercial Relations for 1868, p. 652.
3 Monthly Report of Department of Agriculture for 1876, pp. 269-74.
4 " The Silver Country," by A. D. Anderson, p. 43.
0 Statistical Abstract No. 2 of Bureau of Statistics, p. 133.
6 See Commerce and Navigation for 1879.

25
San Francisco purchases her coffee elsewhere than in Brazil.
During 1879 she imported, in all, 13,889,462 pounds, of which
nearly all, or 11,757,501 pounds, came from Central America.1
In other words, to get her supply she passed directly by the
door of Tehuantepec. When the Isthmus is opened by a rail
way, she will naturally buy at the nearer source of supply.
Stjgae. — The report of Commodore Shufeldt's Survey of
1870-1 says, " Sugar-cane grows in all the several natural
divisions of the Isthmus, but the high ridges on the Atlantic
¦Slope are best suited to its cultivation. It is said that a cane-
field here produces as long as thirty years without replanting,
when properly managed; and we saw, ourselves, several deserted
plantations on the banks of the Coatzacoalcos where the cane
was large and very sweet." 2 Still more emphatic testimony on
this subject may be found in a letter to the State Department
by U. S. Consul Hoyt, fromMinatitlan,in 1868. After speaking
of the then proposed railway across the Isthmus, and the
American capital likely to flow in as a result of that project, he
says : " The culture of sugar-cane I look upon as being the best
investment for large capital, requiring but one year for
maturing the first crop ; after which two crops can be obtained
in fifteen months. The cane once started, will contiuue to
yield prolifically twenty years without replanting ; and I have
seen plantations that have not been replanted for forty years.
When the plants have obtained a good setting, they require
but little care or cultivation, as the towering growth of the
stalk effectually shades the ground, and prevents the growth of
weeds. I have seen a sample of sugar-cane eighteen feet in
length and three inches in diameter. The yield will average a
ton of sugar to the acre at each cutting after the first year, and
the product of rum and molasses will be sufficient to pay the
expenses of cultivation. The lands along the banks of all the
rivers are admirably adapted to the culture of sugar-cane, and
in many places on the high lands, I have seen good crops suc-
1 San Francisco Journal of Commerce, Jan. 21, 1880.
* Shufeldt's Survey, p. 117

26
cessfuLly raised year after year without irrigation, the rainy
season being sufficiently long to mature the crop." x
For this product also there is an excellent market in the
United States, her imports of sugar alone for the ten years end
ing June 30, 1879, being $703,200,567 in value, or $70,000,000
annually.2 Oranges. — When one of the promoters of the proposed Flor
ida Ship Canal was asked by a New York Herald correspondent
how the company proposed to improve the land grant of one
million acres it was seeking from the State of Florida, he re
plied : "By colonizing Frenchmen and Germans upon it to
grow oranges and olives and the like products of Southern
France and Germany." 3 Tehuantepec possesses equal if not
better conditions for successfully producing this valuable fruit,
as may be seen from the following extract from the Report of
Shufeldt's Survey : " Oranges grow in all parts of the Isthmus,
but those of the Atlantic plains and the central division are the
best. At Santa Maria Chimalapa this fruit is particularly fine,
and there are two crops yearly, but not always on the same
tree." * * * « On the banks of the Coatzacoalcos there is
an orange grove of about ten acres, planted by an American,
where the fruit is equal to the best Havana oranges. We mea
sured a large basketful, taken indiscriminately from the trees,
and found the average circumference of the oranges to be 9|-J
inches. We estimated that the ripe crop we found on this de-
ssrted and unfilled orange grove was as much as one hundred
and fifty bushels to the acre. On the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
there is no frost to blight this crop as there is occasionally in
Florida and Louisiana, nor hurricanes to destroy it, as in the
West Indies ; nor are the northers violent enough on the At
lantic plains to materially injure it. Oranges of the very best
quality can be readily grown along the banks of the Coatzacoal-

1 Commercial Relations for 1868, pp. 651-2.
2 Statistical Abstract No. 2 of Bureau of Statistics, p. 131.
3 N. Y. Herald, August 2, 1879.

27
cos and Uspanapa in quantity sufficient to supply the market of
the United States." 1
Of the demand for oranges and lemons in the United States
and Europe, the Annual Report of the U. S. Department of
Agriculture for 1877 says as follows : " The statistics of the
orange trade, both in this country and Europe, bear out the
statement that but few valuable fruits ever exceed the demand."
* * * « T^g importations into Great Britain show that the
trade and consumption in these fruits have more than doubled
in that country during the past ten years." * * * " The
importation of oranges and lemons into France from Spain and
Italy have increased in the last few years more than fourfold
in quantity." 2
Bananas. — Doctor Spear, of Shufeldt's Survey, describes the
great profusion of this product on the Isthmus as follows :
" There are as many as fifteen well known varieties of the
banana, some of which are of a very superior quality. The
manzana variety is the most delicious of all, and, as its name
indicates, has the flavor of the apple. Like the orange, the best
bananas are found on the Atlantic plains and in the central
division, and they are ripe at all seasons of the year." 3
Williams' Report says of the same fruit : " The warm, humid
valleys of the Gulf shore appear to be the natural position for
the banana, where the fruit is occasionally eight inches in cir
cumference, with a length of ten or twelve. Forty plants grow
ing on a space of 1,070 feet are calculated to furnish 4,400
pounds of nutritive matter — a quantity above the acreable
product of any cereal crop.m In other words, the same extent
of ground under bananas which will support fifty individuals,
when under wheat will only support two." 4
Corn. — Of this staple product Williams' Report says : " This
is the native country of maize, and upon the wet land, milpos
(those subject to periodic overflow), the yield is two crops an-
1 Shufeldt's Survey, pp. 119-120.
2 Report of Department of Agriculture for 1877, pp. 566-7.
3 Shufeldt's Survey, p. 120. 4 Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 194.

28
nually, each of which averages sixty bushels to the acre, and
without other labor than the mere planting. Indeed, it is no
uncommon sight to see the reaper and sower in the same field."
* * * " On the margin of the Uspanapa at some of the elevated
points, three crops, each yielding seventy bushels to the acre,
have been raised in a favorable year." * * * " The fecundity of
the Mexican variety of maize is astonishing. Fertile lands
usually afford a return of three or four hundred fold; even
when the soil is sterile, the produce varies from sixty to eighty.
The general estimate for the Isthmus may be considered as one
hundred and fifty fold." J
In the United States, the average yield of corn per acre, in
1878, was 26^ bushels, and, of course, but one crop per

annum.

1 2

Cotton. — Another important industry which can be success
fully developed upon the Isthmus is cotton-growing. Williams'
Report says : " The cotton-plantations of the Isthmus are so
trifling as scarcely to deserve the name, but the fitness of the
soil and chmate to produce it ase beyond question. There are
two varieties, one of which, raised in the neighborhood of
Minatitlan, is not inferior in texture, whiteness, or length of
staple, to the finest uplands of the Southern United States."
* * * " What would seem to favor the cultivation of cotton is
the sheltered condition of the table-lands and savannas, and
the entire absence of the army-worm which so seriously dam
ages the cotton crops of the Southern States. It is entirely
unknown to the natives." 3
Mexico has for centuries been a large consumer of cotton.
Mayer, the historian, says : " Cotton was among the indigenous
products of Mexico at the time of the conquest ; and the early
adventurers not only found it to constitute the common vesture
of the masses of the people, but also that the most delicate and
luxurious articles of dress were made of it. The Aztecs pos-
1 Barnard and Williams' Survey, pp. 185-6.
2 Statistical Abstract No. 2 of Bureau of Statistics, p. 157.
3 Barnard and Williams' Survey, pp. 188-9.

29
sessed the art of spinning it to an extreme degree of fineness,
and of imparting to it the beautiful and brilliant dyes for
which they were celebrated." 1
There were, in 1876, over seventy cotton-factories in that
republic, most of them being in the states of Mexico, Puebla,
and Vera Cruz, not far distant from the Isthmus. They require
annually 7,013,122 kilograms of raw cotton.2
Even these factories do not supply the Mexican demand, for
the chief item of her annual imports is invariably cotton. Of
her total imports for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1873,
amounting to $29,062,406 in value, $10,531,970, or over one-
third, were cotton stuffs.3
In this connection, it should be stated that the Isthmus pos
sesses superior water-power, a description of which will be
given on a subsequent page.
As one of its commercial outlets rests upon the Pacific, the
Isthmus has excellent facilities for supplying the extensive cot
ton demand of China, Japan, and the western coast of Central
and South America.
These facts and figures point to the Isthmus as a most
promising field for cotton-growing, and capitalists would do
well to give the subject careful consideration.
Tobacco. — Doctor Spear, of Shufeldt's Survey, reports: " The
best tobacco found in Mexico grows on'the Isthmus of Tehuan
tepec, on the Atlantic plains west of the Coatzacoalcos River.
It is extensively cultivated by the Indians belonging to the
towns of Jaltipan, Acayucam, and Chinameca." 4
The Report of the prior survey, by Williams, says : " The
plantations of tobacco (the Nicotiana tabacum, Linnceus) are
both numerous and considerable, especially in the northern
and central divisions of the Isthmus. That raised in the Chi-
malapas and on the uplands generally, is known by the name
of " Tabaco del Monte." This variety is powerfully narcotic,
1 Mexico ; Aztec, Spanish, and Republican, by B. Mayer, vol. ii, p. 67
- The Republic of Mexico in 1876, by A. G. Cubas, p. 2S-9.
3 Commercial Relations for 1875, p. 1129.
* Shufeldt's Survey, p. 118.

30
coarse, and grows to a large size, the leaves averaging thirty-
three inches in length, and fifteen in breadth.
Another kind cultivated on the plains, and called " corral,"
is smaller, and of a flavor and quality which is said to be
superior to the best vuelta de abaja of Cuba." 1
Cocoa.— This product is raised chiefly in the northern
division of the Isthmus, and is not found on the Pacific plains.
Williams reports two qualities, and of one he says : " The qual
ity is said to be superior to that of Guayaquil or Maracaibo, and
the prolific return which characterizes its cultivation is sure
evidence of its importance and value. The lands east of the
Coatzacoalcos seem particularly adapted to its growth." 2
Rice. — U. S. Consul Hoyt reports that " rice grows well either
in the high or low lands, the best quality and yield being obtained
on the mountains dividing the Atlantic and Pacific coasts." 8
The Report of Shufeldt's Survey states : " Rice at present is
produced in only very small quantities, but as soon as there is
a demand for it, the central division and the Atlantic plains will
be found capable of producing it in any quantity that may be
desired." 4
On this subject Williams quotes from Don Tadeo de Ortiz,
who was appointed by the state of Vera Cruz to survey the
Isthmus in 1824. In speaking of the region between the Coat
zacoalcos and Tonala rivers, he says : " That which most par
ticularly characterizes this privileged region is the singular fact
that one single sowing of rice will yield successively two large
crops without the slightest additional labor." 5
Timber. — After reporting upon various natural products of
the Isthmus, Williams says : "But among all these productions
the timber of its immense forests deserves particular mention.
Its abundance is such that the only limit which can be assigned
to the supply it may yield is the demand for centuries to come.
From the fir, the oak, the cedar, and every description of build-
1 Barnard and Williams' Survey, pp. 187-8. , Ditto, p. 187.
3 Commercial Relations for 186S, p. 650. 4 Shufeldt's Survey, p. 117.
6 Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 188.

31
ing timber, to the dye and fine woods, their profusion is abso
lutely incredible. None of the countries which at present sup
ply these species of woods could compete with the Isthmus,
where they are found on the very banks of the river which facil
itate their carriage." 1
The great variety of valuable timber and fine woods may be
seen from the enumeration in Shufeldt's Survey, as follows :
" In the Chimalapa region, along the banks of the Upper Coat
zacoalcos and the Rio Blanco, white pine, pitch pine, white oak,
cypress, mammee-sapote, and chico-sapote abound." * * *
" On the Atlantic plains mahogany, cedar, macaya, guapaque,
mammee-sapote, and piqui, or iron wood, are abundant."
* * * " On the Pacific plains lignum-vitse, rosewood, cala
bash, and ebony are the most common." 2
Robert Dale, who visited the Isthmus about 1850, and has
since published, in London, a book on the excursion, says :
" We found the mahogany trees very plentiful, growing gener
ally from fifty to two hundred feet apart ; many of them were
of great girth, say from eighteen to twenty-four feet in circum
ference, and as high as fifty or even sixty feet without branches,
when they threw out large arms, often thickly covered with
parasitical plants and flowers, and with vines hanging down
from them. Here we saw a raft of one hundred logs on the
river, besides other trees which were cut in the forests ready
for removal. A good many of them, very sound and free from
defects, were well squared, and about three feet deep." 3
A work on the mahogany tree by Messrs. Chaloner and Flem
ing of Liverpool, is authority for the following j "The first
mention of it occurs shortly after the discovery of the New
World, when Cortez and his companions, between the years
1521 and 1540, employed it in the construction of the ships
- which they built for prosecuting their voyages of discovery after
1 Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 140.
2 Shufeldt's Survey, pp. 121-2.
3 Notes of an Excursion to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, by Robert Dale,
p. 34

t 32
their conquest of Mexico."1 If these writers are correct in
this historical point, it is likely the mahogany for these ships
was cut at the Isthmus ; for a part of Cortez's expedition to the
South Sea was fitted out at the port of Tehuantepec, or his own
port, as it is called.
The imports of mahogany by Great Britain during the ten
years ending 1879, were in value $22,200,102, or 12,220,000 an
nually.2 Of the varieties of fancy woods which, as we have above
stated, grow upon the Isthmus, the United States imported
from various sources during the year ending June 30, 1879, as
follows, in value : 3
Cedar  $192,688
Mahogany  182,283
Rose  106,811
Ebony  43,055
Lignum-vitse  19,781
Whoever makes the business connection between the enor
mous supply of these valuable timbers to be found in the great
forests of the Isthmus, amd the steady demand existing in
Great Britain, the United States, and other countries, may feel
assured of large returns.
Inma-rubbeb. — Williams' Report states that the India-rubber
trees are "found in astonishing numbers throughout the
forests that skirt the tributary streams," and adds : " Taking
half the number of trees found within an area of one-fourth of
a square mile on the Uspanapa River as a basis of an estimate,
and allowing none to grow on the Pacific plains, there would
be found not less than two millions of India-rubber trees within
the Umits of the Isthmus, some of which yield four and five
pounds of gum in a year. If, from this prodigious number of
' " The Mahogany Tree," by Chaloner and Fleming of Liverpool p 37
2 Statistical Abstract of United Kingdom, No. 27, pp. 48-9.
3 Commerce and Navigation for 1879, p. 599.

33
trees, we suppose one-half only to be available, and that a
single pound per tree per annum be the average yield, we
should then have one million of pounds, which, at the present
value of forty cents, would realize the sum of $400,000 for this
article alone." 1
The United States alone imported during the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1879, India-rubber and gutta-percha, crude, to
the value of $3,296,766.2 Add to this the value of the imports
of European countries, and it is apparent that this product
of the Isthmus, when properly developed, will find a ready
market. Vegetable Dyes. — Of these products, Williams reports: "The
enumeration of all the vegetable dyes found on the Isthmus,
with all that might be said of the numerous varieties, would
constitute matter for a well-filled volume on botany, rather
than the general details of a statistical report. Many, never
theless, deserve an especial notice, either from the brilliant
colors which they yield, or the pecuniary considerations in
volved in their growth and production. Among these may be
classed the indigo-trees, which are indigenous to Mexico." 3
Indigo. — Of this dye, Shufeldt's Report says : " The most im
portant article of export cultivated on the Isthmus is indigo.
Its cultivation is confined entirely to the Pacific side, in the
light and dry atmosphere of which this plant seems to do
remarkably well." 4
The official representative of the United States, in a report
to the State Department, dated Tehuantepec, October 15, 1871,
says : " Indigo is the principal produce of this part of the
country on the Pacific plains, from twenty to forty miles wide
in a direct line from the sea to the Cordilleras, and about
eighty miles in length, running nearly east and west." * * *
"If an inter-oceanic canal should be constructed across the
1 Barnard and Williams' Survey, pp. 183-4.
2 Commerce and Navigation for 1879.
3 Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 189.
4 Shufeldt's Survey, p. 1 18.

34
Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the natural influx of foreign popula
tion drawn by such an enterprise would develop in a few years
the growth of indigo to an extent sufficient to rival the East
Indies, and increase many other products in corresponding
proportions." 1
The imports of indigo by the United States during the
year ending June 30, 1879, were $1,488,481 in value, of which
about half, or $700,318, came from the distant British East
Indies.2 Cochineal. — Williams says: " Formerly this insect was reared
with care, and formed a valuable article of commerce until the
discovery of French chemical dyes." 3
How extensively it formerly figured in the commerce of
Oaxaca. the state which includes the larger part of the Isthmus,
is told by the Acting British Minister who resided in Mexico
about 1827. He says of that state : " By the official returns
which I possess, it appears that the value of cochineal entered
upon the books of this office up to 1815, was $91,308,907,
which upon fifty-seven years, gives an average of $1,601,910
per annum, without making any allowance for contraband."4
The historian Mayer brings the record down to a later date
as follows : "It appears that from 1758 to 1832 inclusive, or
in seventy-five years, 44,195,750 pounds of cochineal were
produced in the state of Oaxaca alone, which were worth
$106,170,671 at the market price." 5
We see no good reason why Oaxaca, when supplied with a
railway across the Isthmus, should not regain some of her lost
prestige in this industry; for the United States, during the
year ending June 30, 1879, imported cochineal to the value of
$716,171. Of this total, only $41,931 was from Mexico, the
rest coming from England, Africa, and adjacent islands.6
1 Commercial Relations for 1871, p] 916.
2 Commerce and Navigation for 1879.
* Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 215.
4 Mexico in 1827, by H. G. Ward, vol. ' pp. 84-5.
5 Mayer's History of Mexico, vol. ii.
6 Commerce and Navigation for 1879.

35
Petroleum. — In his official report from Minatitlan, in 1868,
U. S. Consul Hoy t says : " Petroleum is sufficiently abundant in
this district to supply the world. Indications of its locality
exist everywhere, and in many places it comes to the surface
and forms small lakes and springs to such an extent, that it
can be dipped up in large quantities. In fact, the whole of
this side of the Isthmus is a vast lake of petroleum, in my
estimation ; and from the explorations I have made, I believe
it can be found almost anywhere. Its richness has been tested
by some of the best chemists in the United States. Professor
Percy of New York has made an analysis of some of this petro
leum taken from the surface (or rather from one of the springs),
the result being as follows :
Volatile combustible matter  75.95
Coke  24.05

100.00

Submitted to distillation in solid retorts it furnishes a thick
lubricating oil of specific gravity of 0.897 (26° Beaume) in the
following proportions : One pound of bitumen yields eight and
a half fluid-ounces of oil ; hence one ton of 2,240 pounds yields
148.75 gallons, or 3.72 barrels of forty gallons each.
A separate fractional distillation, with the heat raised to 400°
Fahrenheit, yielded, in hundred parts :
Illuminating oil  13
Lubricating oil  87
100'"
Ixtle or Pita. — Williams' Report of the Railway Survey says :
" Among the spontaneous products is the bromelia pita, or ixtle
of the Isthmus, which differs in some respects from the agave
americana of Europe, the pulque de maguey of Mexico, and the
agave sisalana of Campeachy. Of this prolific plant there are
numerous varieties, all yielding fibres which vary in quality
from the coarsest hemp to the finest flax. Nor is the value of
1 Commercial Relations for 1868, p. 652.

36
the plant diminished by its indifference to soil, climate, and
season. The simplicity of its cultivation, and the facility of ex
tracting and preparing its products, render it of universal use.
From it is fabricated thread and cordage, mats, bagging, and
clothing, and the hammocks in which the natives are born, re
pose, and die. The fibres of the pita are sometimes employed
in the manufacture of paper ; its juice is used as a caustic for
wounds, and its thorns serve the Indians for needles and pins." x
On the following page he says : " In 1831, according to the
statements of Seflor Iglesias, the ixtle plantations in the north
ern division numbered 1,221." 2
In a recent conversation with a correspondent of the New
York World, Dr. Trowbridge, the U. S. consul at Vera Cruz, in
speaking of this product as found in Southern Mexico (either
Vera Cruz or Yucatan), said : " There is a species of cactus here
called pita (I do not know its botanical name), some of the
fibres of which are sixteen feet long. It is strong and silky,
and capable of being divided into threads, from which gossamer
webs might be woven. In fact a few months ago a Vera Cruz-
ano sent some of the fibre to England and had a few handker
chiefs made, which were extremely beautiful and appeared more
like silver tissue than linen, and were quite strong." * * *
" There are millions of acres of the pita plant, which, if utilized,
might bring an immense revenue to the coffers of this impov
erished country." 3
Cattle. — We have stated on a previous page that Cortez had
large estates on the Isthmus. Part were in the middle division
and part on the Pacific plains, near the town of Tehuantepec.
On his return from Spain to Mexico, in 1530, says the historian
Prescott, " he imported large numbers of merino sheep and
other cattle, which found abundant pastures in the country
around Tehuantepec."4 Three hundred and twenty years
later, or in 1850-1, the same grazing facilities were found by
1 Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 184. '•' Ditto, p. 185.
3 N. Y. World, May 3, 1880.
4 Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, vol. iii, p. 332.

37
Williams. He reports : " The immense potreros which border
all the principal streams on the northern division, furnish rich
pastures of never-failing verdure for numerous herds. During
the short season that these potreros are inundated, the cattle
are driven to the more elevated savannas remote from the river
margins. The extensive table-lands in the central portions of
the Isthmus, as well as the plains bordering the Pacific, also
furnish abundance of excellent pasturage. Indeed the whole
country seems peculiarly well adapted to the raising of horned
cattle. With little care on the part of their owners, they in
crease rapidly, grow to a large size, and have a remarkably
sleek and well-favored appearance. Enjoying a range of the
finest pastures in the world, they are usually in good condition
and make fair beef." 1
Fish and Game. — According to the same Report, "deer are
found in great multitudes in all sections, and serve as an abun
dant source of prey for the numerous voracious animals which
infest the country." 2 Also, "there is perhaps no country in the
world, situated within the same parallels of latitude, that pro
duces an equivalent quantity and variety of fish and wild game
as the Isthmus." * * * " Excellent fish are found in great pro
fusion in all the rivers and arroyos that drain the slopes of the
Cordillera, particularly in the smaller streams. In most of the
larger ones there are many varieties of good size, and fine
quality ; indeed, fish constitutes an important item of food for
the inhabitants. Those living at Santa Maria Clrimalapa,
having but few domestic animals, and no means of killing
game, subsist almost entirely upon the fish obtained from the
Rio del Corte. These are taken in such numbers that they are
salted and transported to supply the towns of the cantral
division." 3
The great number of these fish-producing streams may be
seen by a glance at a map of the Isthmus.
1 Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 202. 2 Ditto, p. 207. 3 Ditto, p. 213.

38

Water-Power and Manufactures.
By referring again to a drainage-map, the reader will
readily see that nature has provided abundant water-power for
manufacturing the raw material of which the Isthmus is so
prolific. These many streams, both on the Atlantic and Pacific
slopes, have their sources in the central, or mountainous dis
trict, and therefore have a sufficient fall to furnish a motive-
power. Of the rivers on the Pacific slope, Williams reports : " All of
these streams, as they issue from the mountains, are remark
ably pure and limpid, even in times of flood, thereby indicating
the rocky nature of the districts which they drain. In their
descent towards the plains, they offer almost unlimited sources
of water-power." 1 His description of the leading rivers of this
slope also indicates very clearly that the supply of water is un
failing, for he says : " The elevated mountain-peaks, near the
source of these streams, are almost constantly enveloped in
clouds, which may account for their remarkably uniform flow
of water throughout the entire year." 2
Doubtless the same may be said of many of the rivers of the
Atlantic slope, for their sources are in the same dividing ridge.
Another important consideration is that these streams are
never frozen, as is occasionally the water supply in manufac
turing districts of New England.
All of the conditions are then favorable for developing at the
Isthmus an extensive manufacturing industry. Factories ad
joining the cotton-fields and pita-plantations, and saw-mills in
the great forests of mahogany, cedar, and other valuable woods,
may here be made a source of great profit.
1 Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 18. 2 Ditto, p. 18.

39

Population.
Those unfamiliar with the ancient and modern history of the
Isthmus must not think that it is entirely undeveloped. At
the time of the railway survey by Barnard and Williams in
1851, there were on the Isthmus thirty-eight towns and cities
with a total population of 61,393 souls.1 The city of Tehuan
tepec, on the Pacific side, was the largest, and contained
13,000 people. In the list is another containing over 8,000
inhabitants, another containing 6,000, another 5,000, three con
taining 2,000 each, and seven having 1,000 each.
The Report of the Canal Survey of 1871 says : "The last
census of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec gives the number of in
habitants as 82,395 ; but since this enumeration was made,
the population, from civil wars and other causes, has greatly
fallen off, and probably does not exceed 50,000." 2
Formerly Southern Mexico was the most densely populated
part of that republic, and with railway facilities to develop its
visible and latent resources, its future population is likely to
exceed that of the native races found there by Cortez, and pos
sibly equal that of pre-historic times, when, as M. Charnay
states of a part of Yucatan, east of the Isthmus, " there are
unmistakable indications that this district, and these cities,
were more densely populated than any known portion of the
globe at the present moment." 3
Antiquities.
A little east of the Isthmus, in the state of Chiapas, are the
massive ruins of the ancient city of Palenque, which Stephens,
the explorer, says "are the first which awakened attention to
the existence of ancient and unknown cities in America." -
1 Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 257.
2 Shufeldt's Survey, p. 135.
3 Remarks on Lorillard Expedition in New York Herald, April 22, 1880.
4 Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, by J. L.
Stephens, vol. ii, p. 294.

40
The principal building, called the Palace, is thus described by
Baldwin : " It stands near the river, on a terraced pyramidal
foundation forty feet high, and three hundred and ten feet
long, by two hundred and sixty broad, at the base. The edifice
itself is two hundred and twenty-eight feet long, one hundred
and eighty wide, and twenty-five feet high. It faces the east, and
has fourteen doorways on each side, with eleven at the ends.
It was built entirely of hewn stone, laid with admirable pre
cision in mortar, which seems to have been of the best quality.
A corridor nine feet wide, and roofed by a pointed arch, went
round the building on the outside, and this was separated from
another within, of equal width. The "Palace" has four inte
rior courts, the largest being seventy by eighty feet in extent.
These are surrounded by corridors, and the architectural work
facing them is richly decorated." 1
A clearer idea of the grandeur of this palace, and of other
ruins of Palenque, may be found in Lord Kingsborough's costly
illustrations of the " Antiquities of Ancient Mexico," vol. iv,
Plates 19 to 45 inclusive, of Part III ; in Catherwood's " Views
of Ancient Monuments," Plates 6 and 7 ; in Stephens' illus
trated work on " Chiapas, Yucatan," etc., vol. ii, pp. 284-358,
and in Bancroft's " Native Races," vol. iv, p. 310, which con
tains a view of the palace restored.
Stephens' comment, after visiting these ruins, indicates the
attractions they offer for the student of Ancient America. He
says : " In the romance of the world's history nothing ever
impressed me more forcibly than the spectacle of this once
great and lovely city overturned, desolate, and lost." 2
A lit de west of the Isthmus, in Oaxaca, are the ruins of the
ancient city of Mitla. They are even more magnificent than
those at Palenque. According to Baldwin, the ruins of six
edifices and three pyramids are all that now remain.3 He gives
a translation of Dupaix's description of four palaces, as follows :
They "were erected with lavish munificence ;" * * * "they
1 Ancient America, by J. D. Baldwin, p. 104.
2 Vol. II of his '' Incidents of Travel," p. 357.
3 Ancient America, by J. D. Baldwin, p. 117.

41
combine the sohdity of the works of Egypt with the elegance of
those of Greece." * * * "But what is most remarkable,
interesting, and striking in these monuments, and which alone
would be sufficient to give them the first rank among all known
orders of architecture, is the execution of their mosaic relievos,
very different from plain mosaic, and consequently requiring
more ingenious combination and greater art and labor. They
are inlaid on the surface of the wall, and their duration is
owing to the method of fixing the prepared stones into the
stone surface which made their union with it perfect." '
The justice of this tribute will readily be admitted by the
reader, if he will visit the Congressional Library at Washington,
the Astor Library in New York, or some other of the few public
libraries which possess a copy of Lord Kingsborough's illus
trated work, and examine Plate No. 82 of vol. iv, Part III,
which represents the ruins of the "First Palace."
Other illustrations of the ruins of Mitla may be found in
Bancroft's " Native Races," vol. iv, pp. 388-417 ; and in vol. iv,
Part II, Plates 78-95, inclusive, of Lord Kingsborough's work.
East of the Isthmus, in Yucatan, the evidences of a dense
population and high civilization are very numerous.
Bancroft says : " The state is literally dotted, at least in the
northern central, or best known portions, with ruined edifices
and cities." 2 Stephens says of the same state : " In our long,
irregular, and devious route, we have discovered the crumbling
remains of forty-four ancient cities, most of them but a short
distance apart." 3
Of the Isthmus itself, Williams reports : " Everywhere on the
Isthmus — even on loftiest mountains, in the deepest dells, and
in the most impenetrable forests — there are silent evidences of
the history of a vast and powerful people, of which there
scarcely remains now a tenth part." 4 In speaking of the region
around the city of Tehuantepec, on the Pacific plains, he says :
1 Ancient America, by J. D. Baldwin, p. 117.
2 " Native Races," vol. iv, p. 143.
3 His " Incidents of Travel," vol. ii, p. 444.
4 Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 223.

42
"One of the most interesting features near Tehuantepec is
Mount Guiengola, some five leagues distant in a northwesterly
direction. This mountain is celebrated for having once been
inhabited by a very large population, the evidences of which are
palpable to this day from the immense heaps of ruins which
are now found in various parts of it." J
In Lord Kingsborough's illustrations of Ancient Mexico,
Plates 1 to 18 inclusive, of vol. iv, Part III, are devoted to the
"Antiquities of Tehuantepec." One of these represents the
pyramid near the city of Tehuantepec.
It is hoped that the Lorillard expedition, under the direc
tion of the distinguished M. Charnay, which a few months ago
commenced a thorough exploration of Southern Mexico for the
discovery of its antiquities, will give to the world more definite
information about those on the Isthmus. The programme of this
expedition, which is now at work near the city of Mexico, was re
cently announced in the New York Herald as follows : " Working-
its way around by Oajaca, the expedition will investigate the
sculptures of Mount Alban, and the rich remains of that region.
It will then proceed to Mitla, and after spending some time in
the mountainous and almost unexplored districts adjoining the
Tehuantepec, will arrive at Palenque. It is anticipated that
this famous seat of worship will yield a rich store of inscrip
tions and bas-reliefs," 2 etc., etc.
The growing interest in the history and antiquities of the
civilized races of Ancient America is likely to make the Tehuan
tepec Railway a base of operations for tourists and explorers,
for it is projected midway between Palenque and Mitla, which
ancient cities are situated in regions likely to have tributary
roads to connect with the trunk line across the Isthmus.
1 Barnard and Williams' Survey, pp. 253-4.
' N. Y. Herald, June 20, 1880.

43

Harbors and Railway-Line.
The road commences at the mouth of the Coatzacoalcos
River, on the Gulf of Mexico.
As we have stated in the " Historical Notes," Cortez sent a
party of experts to examine the harbor at that point, was
greatly pleased at their favorable report, and so expressed him
self in a dispatch to the King of Spain.
Engineer Fuertes, who accompanied Commodore Shufeldt's
Survey of 1870-1, reports : " I feel no hesitation in asserting
with unusual confidence that the Coatzacoalcos River can be
made a very safe and snug harbor for any class of ships with
but comparatively small expense." 1
The consulting engineer of the Tehuantepec Inter-Ocean
Railroad Co., Hon. Wm. J. McAlpine, has, under date of Oct.
22, 1880, favored the writer with the following notes on the sub
ject of harbors and location of the road, viz. : " During the early
months of this year I made a thorough personal examination
of the northern half of the Isthmus, and also of the harbor and
river of Coatzacoalcos, for seventy-five miles of its length.
Previous and subsequent to these personal examinations, I
have carefully studied all of the reports, surveys, and maps
which have been made for this railroad, so as to form very
correct opinions of the facilities and difficulties of constructing
it, and its necessary harbors.
The following remarks are the result of these examinations
and studies.
There are three distinctive districts of country through
which this railroad must be built, viz. :
The northern table-lands, the middle (so called) mountain-
district, and the southern, or Pacific plains.
The northern division of the railroad, of seventy-five miles
length, commences on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the
Coatzacoalcos River, and, after running ten miles on nearly a
level grade, ascends to and follows on the eastern divide of
1 Shufeldt's Survey, p. 36.

44
that river and the San Juan, until it descends to the JalUpec
River, a tributary of the Coatzacoalcos, which, running easterly,
skirts the northern base of the Cordilleras.
The grades up to and over this divide are easy ; in no place
exceeding forty feet to the mile. The highest part of the divide
is from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet above the
level of the sea, and the crossing of the Jaltipec at the seven
tieth mile is but one hundred and twenty-five feet above the
sea. This division of the road presents no unusual difficulties;
only two streams of any size are crossed, and these require but
single span bridges of one hundred and fifty feet each.
The dense tropical forests require heavy clearing, but the
grading will generally be quite light.
The tributaries of the Coatzacoalcos penetrate the mountain
region to within ten miles of the southern or Pacific base of
the Sierra, and allow the location of the railroad along their
valleys, with grades in no place exceeding fifty feet to the mile,
and with the highest summit between the oceans of only seven
hundred and seventy feet above the sea.
The hne passes over several mountain plains where the
grading will be light, and elsewhere it will not be expensive.
The crossing of a dozen or so mountain streams will be made
with bridges of spans of one hundred to one hundred and fifty
feet at each place.
The western slope of the Cordilleras is steep, falling about
five hundred feet in a direct line of four or five miles, but by
extending the length of the line along the mountain slope it is
believed that grades of eighty feet or less, can be obtained
without an excessive cost.
The whole length of the mountain division will be about
sixty miles.
The Southern, or Pacific division, will be from thirty to forty
miles long, depending upon the location of the southern termi
nus. It extends from the southern base of the mountain over
a gently sloping plain to the ocean, with easy grades, none of
which will exceed thirty to forty feet to the mile.

45
The grading will generally be light, with no large water
courses to cross."
" The harbor on the Gulf side is one of the best on the Atlan
tic side of the continent south of Norfolk.
As soon as vessels have passed in from sea, they are com
pletely protected from all winds from the ocean for half way
around the circle, by the coast range of hills, which are from
two to four hundred feet high, while on the land side the
gigantic forests protect the harbor for the remainder of the
circle. I witnessed several severe storms, both from the ocean and
landward side, and never saw the waters of the harbor as much
disturbed as they are along the wharves of New York.
The water inside of the bar is from thirty to sixty feet deep,
and extends more than twenty miles at not less than twenty-five
feet depth and a width of one or two thousand feet, with many
deep side bayeux.
The water on the bar was sixteen feet deep when first visited
by the Spaniards, and has never changed in direction or depth.
This is due to the material which forms the bottom and sides
of the channel, which is a hai'd, stiff clay, the same which is
found along the bed and banks of the harbor and river, on
which the swift currents have almost no visible effect.
There is a little sand overlying this bed of clay near the
ocean shore, but a comparatively inexpensive mole will prevent it
from drifting into the entrance channel, and the large volume
of water from the six to eight thousand square miles of drain
age of the Coatzacoalcos River, aided by the influx and reflux
of the ocean water, will doubtless prevent any deposit being
made in the new channel across the bar.
A cut of three thousand feet in length, averaging less than
six feet depth, will open a straight channel of twenty-five feet
depth directly into the calm water of the land-locked harbor.
I have examined the charts of all of the proposed harbors on
the Pacific coast suitable for (he terminus of the railroad, and
particularly a very recent and accurate chart of several of the

46
proposed harbors, and can confidently state that a most suit
able one exists, which, with a moderate expenditure, can be
adapted to immediate wants, and can be enlarged and im
proved from time to time, to meet the increasing demands of
the growing commerce." Land Grant.
That a grant of land through the rich agricultural regions
which we have above described must become a source of im
mense profit to the Company is very apparent.
What then is the grant ?
Article 10 says as follows : " Of unoccupied public lands the
Government gives the Company such a strip as it may require
for the line of the road, and, in addition thereto, one-half of
unoccupied public lands that may be found within one league
from each side of the railroad only, throughout the whole extent
thereof; provided that only such lands shall be considered un
occupied as shall not have been conveyed to private parties
prior to or at the date of the approval of this contract, or taken
up according to law prior to or at the same date."
It is estimated by the Company that the area thus granted
will amount to about two hundred thousand acres.

RUESELL £ 6TtHJTHER3,ENG'S N.Y,

TEHUANTEPEC-lTS RELATION TO MEXICO.

CHAPTER III.
OMMERCIAL RELATIONS TO MEXICO.
"No one can fail to see how exceedingly important this communication
would be to the Government of Mexico. It proposes to give her a practical
highway from sea to sea. It opens to her a communication on the one side
and the other with the eastern and the western world. It gives her access
to the markets of all nations, and makes her, in short, a central point of
the commerce of modern times."
From official leltw 5y Daniel Webster, while Secretary of State, in 1851. See Sen. Exec.
Boo. No. 97, Thirty-second Congress, First Session.
Need of Railways.
THE United States, with an area of 3,026,494 square miles,
had, in 1879, 86,497 miles of railways.1
Mexico, with an area of 763,804 square miles, or twenty-five
per cent, of that of the United States, had, in 1879, but 549
miles of railways.2 To be on a level with the United States in
this respect, she should now have 21,829 miles. She needs
such public highways more than the United States, for the rea
son that she has not, like us, a system of navigable rivers to sup
ply transportation facilities from the interior to the seaboard.
The United States had at the time of the last census, in 1870,
a total population of 38,558,371.
Mexico had, in 1876, a population of 9,495,157, or twenty-four
per cent, of that of the United States six years previous.3 Her
population, then, nearly equals ours in density to the square
mile, and from this standpoint also she now requires about
twenty thousand miles of railways to be on a level with us.
' Poor's Railway Manual for 1880.
2 Commercial Relations for 1879, vol. i, p. 420.
8 The Republic of Mexico in 1876, by A. G. Cubas, p. 12.

48
On the Isthmus itself— an area, as we have previously stated,
equal to that of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island
combined, there is not a mile of railway except the interoceanic
road just commenced. And the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas,
Tabasco, and the southern third of Vera Cruz — which states
are to a greater or less degree tributary to the Isthmus, and
which comprise an area of 66,018 square miles,1 larger than
that of England and Wales — have no existing railway.
Mexico's commercial necessity for railways, and the difficulty
of building them except in certain directions, was very clearly
stated a few years ago in the Report of the Mexican Committee
on Mining Taxes, as follows : " The central table-land of our
country is separated from either sea-coast by rugged mountains
and deep ravines, breaking it into longitudinal zones of differ
ent temperatures and varied productions ; but this fact almost
cuts off communication between these zones and the sea-coast
east and west. While such natural difficulties exist, increased
by territorial extent, manufactures and agriculture cannot
thrive, because the cost of transportation is so great we cannot
contend with foreign competition, and our vegetable products
must be confined to home consumption." 2
Again, Mexico, unlike the United States, has no trans-conti
nental railway connecting the two oceans; and in most parts of
that republic, because of the peculiar natural formation, such a
road is either impossible or impracticable.
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec possesses exceptional facilities
for supplying this urgent demand for transportation, not only
from the interior to the seaboard, but from ocean to ocean.
To appreciate its advantages in this respect, a general view of
the topographical features of Mexico is necessary.
1 Article on Mexico, in Johnson's New Universal Cyclopedia.
2 See Appendix to Blake's " Production of Precious Metals," p. 318.

49

Topographical Features.
All Mexico, above the Isthmus, is wedge-shaped, and the
Tehuantepec Railway, located across its apex, connects the two
coasts. Generally speaking, the Cordilleras, table-lands and valleys
all run parallel with the sides of the wedge converging at the
Isthmus. Roads parallel with the drift of this formation are .
easy of construction, and at right angles are very difficult, ex
cept at the apex, where there is a cross valley, or depression.
The formation is described in Lippincott's Gazetteer as follows :
" Starting from Tehuantepec on the shore of the Pacific, lati
tude 16° 20' north, we soon reach the plain of Oajaca, at a
height of five thousand five hundred feet, and thence a wheel-
carriage can roll without difficulty to Santa Pe, in New
Mexico (latitude 36° 12' north), a distance of about fourteen
hundred miles. Though some parts of the route might fall
below the level of two thousand feet, and others nearly reach
an elevation of eight thousand feet, yet the slopes are so
gradual as to offer no serious impediment to the construction
of an easy road ; but the descent from the table-lands to the sea
is everywhere rugged and abrupt, presenting great difficulties
in the way of carrying goods. In going from the City of Mex
ico (seven thousand four hundred feet) to Acapulco on tho
Pacific, the road attains a height of eight thousand six hundred
feet before the rapid descent commences. The railway between
the Capital and Vera Cruz is regarded as one of the greatest
feats of modem engineering." x
Adding to this description that contained in McCulloch's
Geographical Dictionary, the reader will have a more complete
view of the natural formation. It states : " The Cordillera, or
chain of mountains, generally regarded as a portion of the
great chain of the Andes that enters Mexico on the south,
where it borders with Guatemala, diverges, as it proceeds
north, into two great arms, like the upper part of the letter Y,
1 Article on Mexico in Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer of the World.

50
following the line of the coasts on either side. The most west
erly of these chains, or that parallel to the shores of the Pacific
Ocean, has some very high summits, and preserves its moun
tainous character until it joins, on the border of the United
States, with the Oregon or Rocky Mountains. The other, or
eastern arm of the Cordillera, begins to subside after reaching
the twenty-first or twenty-second degree of latitude, and
ultimately subsides, about the twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh
degree of latitude, into the vast plains of Texas. The whole of
the vast tract of country between these two great arms, com
prising about three-fifths of the entire surface of the empire,
consists of a table-land called the plateau of Anahuac, elevated
from six thousand to upwards of eight thousand feet above the
level of the sea." 1
The map preceding this chapter, the hypsometric features of
which we have copied from Ravenstein's map, contained in a
London publication, corresponds with the above description.2
It shows that only at the Isthmus is there a depression of
less than one thousand feet in elevation, extending from sea
to sea.
It also illustrates the general drift of the table-lands toward
the Isthmus. A Railway Era.
The administration of President Diaz will ever be memorable
in the history of Mexico as the beginning of a new era of mate
rial development and progress, based upon the construction of
rail highways of commerce. The Tehuantepec Inter-Ocean
Railroad has the proud distinction of being the first North
American Company to consummate, in this way, commercial fel
lowship between the two sister republics. Since its grant was
obtained, in June, 1879, Mexico has awarded two other valuable
and comprehensive concessions to citizens of the United States,
viz. : to the Mexican Central Company, commonly known as the
1 Article on Mexico in McCulloch's Geographical Dictionary.
2 See Map in " Peep at Mexico," by J. L. Geiger,

51
Boston Company, the right of way from El Paso southwardly
along the central table-lands, and from some point on this line
another road to the Pacific coast ; also to the National Mexican
Railway Construction Company, commonly known as the Sul
livan Palmer party, the right of way from the City of Mexico
to Manzanillo, on the Pacific, and from some point on that line
to the Texas border.
These three concessions comprise a system of railways esti
mated to be about two thousand seven hundred miles in
extent. It is evident from these facts that Mexico is endeavor
ing to make up for much valuable time lost since Cortez com
menced the work of internal improvements, early in the six
teenth century.
The question naturally arises, on the part of those unfamiliar
with modern Mexico, why has she so long neglected her evident
self-interest in this respect, and why have not the restless Anglo-
American railway builders long since acquired fortunes in that
inviting field ? The answer to these questions would require a
large volume, containing a review of the frequent revolutions
(now ended, we trust) of that magnificent but unfortunate
country — a consideration of the war of 1846-7 between the
United States and Mexico, the memory of which remained for
years an obstacle to the introduction of North American enter
prises — a notice of the border troubles arising every now and
then during the past ten years, and caused by cattle thieves on
the one side and disreputable fillibusters on the other, etc., etc.
Suffice it to say the past is being rapidly forgotten, and the
business men of the two neighboring countries see great and
mutual profits and advantages, to be derived from an inter
change of commerce and friendly services.
But there is one point in the history of this new railway
movement which a portion of the people of this country seem
to misunderstand, and which it may be well to notice. We
refer to the supposed indifference of Mexico to the introduction
of railway enterprises by North American companies. A part
of the Mexican people and politicians may be so blind to their

52
own material welfare as to desire a Chinese wall to forever re
main in the pathway of commercial intercourse, but that is not
the wish of modern Mexico, as expressed by repeated official
acts in the shape of railway concessions. The facts in this re
spect have recently been officially compiled and stated by Sefior
Matias Romero, late Secretary of Finance of that republic. In
his report, dated January, 1879, after reviewing the individual
contracts awarded to North American companies, he gives the
following summary :
"From the preceding data, it appears that from the year
1865 Mexico has granted to companies or citizens of the United
States, nineteen concessions of railroads in the republic, in the
following order : To the line from Paso del Norte to Guaymas,
six times ; to that of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, nine times ;
once to each of the lines from Tuxpam to the Pacific ; from
Vera Cruz to Anton Lizardo, to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec,
and from San Anton Lizardo to Matamoras Izucar, Cuernavaca,
and Acapulco ; from Leon to the frontier of the United States,
and from Mexico to the Pacific and to the frontier of the
United States ; and, as has already been stated, additional con
cessions have been made to them for the laying of submarine
cables, and for other purposes." 1
He then reviews the history of railway concessions to compa
nies of other nationalities, and concludes as follows : " The
summary, then, of all these important data is that, since the year
1866 to this date, the Mexican government has granted, without
counting the contracts made with the governors of states/thirty-
three railroad concessions, of which nineteen have been given in
favor of citizens of the United States, four in favor- of citizens of
other nationalities, and the remaining ten in favor of Mexi
cans." 2 And he adds with much force :
"It seems impossible to present a more eloquent demonstra
tion than that which the preceding facts bring up, to show that
so far from the assertion being demonstrable that Mexico looks
1 Report of the Secretary of Finance of Mexico, January, 1879, p. 53.
" Ditto, p. 58.

53
with jealousy or hostility upon the building of railroads which
would put her in communication with the United States, or that
even, without this circumstance, that the roads should be con
structed by North American companies, the truth is that she
has, on the contrary, granted them a marked preference up to
this time."1 The Isthmus as an Outlet.
The population of the table-lands is fully three-fourths, and
probably four-fifths, of that of the whole republic."2
It is also much more dense in the states a little north of the
Isthmus, than in those near the boundary of the United States.
This shows the commercial importance of a railway outlet from
the interior of Southern Mexico. The Isthmus furnishes such
an outlet, not only to one, but to two oceans. It is the natural
trunk hne for numerous tributary roads.
The survey of Barnard and Williams treats of this point as
follows : " We have said that what would conduce to the inter
est of the owners of the grant would also conduce to that of
Mexico herself by connecting railroads which, from the neces
sity of the case, and in order to supply the wants of commerce,
would be constructed. The topography of the contiguous por
tions of the Mexican Repubhc exhibits such favorable features
that, at a comparatively small outlay, roads can be built which
will bring into the lap of the Isthmus the mineral resources
and dyes of Oaxaca, the indigo of Guatemala and Chiapas, the
sugar and cotton of Vera Cruz, and the tobacco, coffee, and
chocolate of Tabasco." 3
Commodore Shufeldt also has, since his survey in 1871,
spoken as follows of the necessity for connecting lines from the
four surrounding states : "For the more perfect development
' Report of the Secretary of Finance of Mexico, January, 1879, p. 58.
2 Estimated from statistics of the various states on p. 12 of the Republic
of Mexico in 1876, by A. G. Cubas.
8 Barnard and Williams' Survey, p. 143.

54
of this country the main road would need branches extending
through these states to the cities of Vera Cruz, Oajaca, and
into Chiapas and the harbor of Tonala. These roads can be
constructed with comparative ease and cheapness, from the
nature of the ground over which they would pass being nearly
level plains." i
The general characteristics of these four tributary states are,
in products, so similar to the Isthmus, that a detailed state
ment of their probable patronage of the railway is unnecessary.
But Oaxaca, which state is perhaps the most interested in a
railway outlet at the Isthmus, possesses some element's of
wealth which we have not heretofore described. In a report to
the State Department in 1877, the official representative of the
United States writes : " This state is rich in iron, lead, copper,
gold, and silver, all of which are worked in a limited way. The
future prosperity of this state depends on the development of
its mineral wealth ; when that time comes, the extent and rich
ness of these mines will give Oaxaca a corresponding interest
and importance equal to California and Australia." 2 A few
other points relative to this state, and which we have omitted
in describing the Isthmus, are mentioned by Robinson, who
visited Oaxaca about 1820. He says : " In all the mountainous
districts of Oaxaca, and more especially in the spacious valleys
which are situated from twenty-five hundred to six thousand
feet above the level of the sea, we find a soil and climate at
least equal, if not superior, to any on the globe. There is not
a single article raised in the temperate zone that would not
here find a congenial region. Wheat and all kinds of grain
yield a return to the cultivator equal to that of the most fertile
parts of Europe. The fruits and vegetables of Oaxaca are un
rivalled for luxuriance and delicacy, Peaches, pears, apricots
and strawberries are here to be found of a size and flavor supe
rior to those of the south of France ; and the variety and

1 His statement in New York Herald, Oct. 22, 1879.
2 Commercial Relations for 1877, p. 740.

55
excellence of the grape point out the valleys of Oaxaca as the
great future vineyard of New Spain," J
The testimony of European writers is equally emphatic.
Baron Humboldt, who visited Mexico about the beginning of
the present century, and whose work, in four volumes, is
universally accepted as a standard authority on that country,
says : " The intendancy of Oaxaca is one of the most delightful
countries in this part of the globe. The beauty and salubrity
of the climate, the fertility of the soil, and the richness and
variety of its productions, all minister to the prosperity of the
inhabitants ; and this province has, accordingly, from the
remotest periods, been the center of an advanced civilization." 2
The area of this state is 27,389 square miles, or larger than the
combined areas of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachu
setts. It has a present population of 661,706 s souls, yet not a
single mile of railway. Its area combined with the other states
which need railways to connect with that projected across the
Isthmus, viz : Tabasco, Chiapas, and the southern third of
Vera Cruz, is, as we have already stated, larger than that of
England and Wales. It is difficult to overestimate the advan
tages to Mexico which would accrue from railway trans
portation in these states so rich in natural and undeveloped
resources. But the Isthmus may become an outlet for a still broader
area by a connecting railway from the capital of Mexico, which
has no steam communication with the Pacific coast of its own
country. It would also bring the city of Mexico into direct
commercial relations with the Orient. One feature of such
communication is worthy of notice, viz.: '''Asia has been known
in all historical times as the sink of silver." We quote this re
mark from the Report to Congress in 1877 of the U. S. Mone
tary Commission, commonly known as the Silver Commission.
The Report shows that British India alone, during the forty
! Memoirs of the Mexican Revolution, by W. D. Robinson, p. 358.
2 Humboldt's New Spain, vol. ii, p. 188.
3 The Republic of Mexico in 1876, by A. G. Cubas, p. 12.

53
years from 1836 to 1875 inclusive, imported, in excess of its ex
ports, silver to the value of about $1,000,000,000, or $25,000,000
annually. It also states that England alone (which is not a
silver-producing country) exported, in 1876, to India and China
combined silver to the amount of 145,975,43s.1
Mexico can easily supply the whole of this steady demand.
Her total product of silver alone, from 1492 to 1875 inclu
sive, a period of three hundred and eighty-four years, was
$3,262,370,247.2 Her present annual product of silver is about $26,000,000. s
Silver is also the chief annual export of Mexico. During the
year ending June 30, 1873, of the total exports of that country,
amounting to $33,168,609, the precious metals constituted over
five-sevenths, or $25,373,673, nearly all of which was silver.4
Instead of going by way of England and the Suez Canal to
the Orient, these enormous exports should go from Mexico
directly across the Pacific ocean.
But silver is but one item in the commercial exchanges which
the interior of Mexico should develop with the Orient by means
of a railway to the Tehuantepec outlet. We mention it simply
as a sample of the commercial possibilities of such a road.
As a Transcontinental Highway.
It seems strange that in this progressive age, and in a North
American republic, a country which has a coast line on the
Pacific of 4,415 statute miles, and on the Gulf of 1,779 miles5 —
a country, too, rich in nearly all the products of the earth,
should have no transcontinental railway. The omission is par
ticularly noticeable when we refer to the map and find that
nature has provided a convenient pass, only one hundred and

' Report of Monetary Commission, Senate Report 703, Forty-fourth Con
gress, Second Session, pp. 74-76.
- The Silver Country, by A. D. Anderson, p. 57. 3 Ditto, pp, 42-3.
4 Commercial Relations for 1875, p. 1129.
5 Distances furnished by Navy Department.

57
fifty miles long from sea to sea. The road will place the com
mercial centers of the two coasts of Mexico in easy intercom
munication. It will connect her western coast with the West
Indies, the Gulf and Atlantic ports of the United States, and
with Europe. It will connect her eastern coast with the Orient
and the western coasts of South and Central America. In brief,
it is a matter of national importance to that republic, and, like
our own Union Pacific road, will bind her sections together in
commercial ties.

CHAPTEE IV.
COMMERCIAL RELATIONS TO THE UNITED STATES.
" The proximity of the Isthmus to our shores, the salubrity of the cli
mate, the adaptness of the ground for the construction of a railroad, and
the great diminution of distance in comparison with more southern routes
between our Atlantic and Pacific possessions, all conspire to point it out as
far preferable to any other route outside of our own territory."
From official letter by Lewis Cass, while Secretary of State, in 1S57. See Senate Exec.
Soc. No. TB, Thirty-fifth Congress, First Session, pp. S9-W.
CONSIDERED from the standpoint of either coast of the
United States, the Atlantic, Pacific, or Gulf, the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec is preeminently the most serviceable to our
commerce. As Commodore Shufeldt forcibly said in his letter
transmitting to the Secretary of the Navy the Report of the
Survey of 1871 : "Each Isthmus rises into importance as it lies
nearer to the center of American political and commercial in
fluence, and the intrinsic value of this eminently national work
ought to be based upon the inverse ratio of the distance from
that center.1
The Mississippi Valley is fast becoming that center, and
as the natural relations between its great river system and
Tehuantepec are most intimate, we will first consider the
question from that standpoint.
To the Mississippi Valley.
Directly opposite Tehuantepec is the sole outlet of the Missis
sippi River and its forty-two navigable tributaries (forty-three
rivers in all), comprising a system of inland navigation through
1 Shufeldt's Survey, p. 20.

New York tu San Francisco : Stat, miles
Via Fla. Canal and,Tehuantepec  4.725
" Isth. of Panama  6,057
Saving via Canal and Tehuantepec (one way) .... 1,332
" •> " " •' (round trip).. 2,664
New York to San Francisco :
Via Isth. of Tehuantepec  4,905
" Cape Horn  18,872
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  10,7t>7
" " •' (round trip)  21,534
New York to Honq Kong :
Via Isth. ol Tehuantepec (gr. cir.)  11.591
*" " "Panama  12941
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,350
¦< " " (round trip)  2.700
New York to Hong Kong :
Vialstli or Tehuantepec (gr. cir.)  11,591
" Cape Hm-n (gr. cir.)  20,359
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  8,766
" '¦ " (round trip)  17,536
San Francisco to Liverpool:
Via Isth. of Tehuantepec (gr. cir.l  8.267
" " " Panama (gr. cir. and St. Thorna- )  9,154
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  887
(round trip)  1,774
San Francisco to Liverpool :
Via Isth. of Tehuantepec (gr. cir.)  8,267
" Cape Horn  15,787
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)   7,520
" '¦ " (round trip)  15.040
San Francisco to Havana :
Via Isth. of Tehuantepec  3 527
" " " Panama  4.957
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1.430
" " " (round trip)  2,860

New Orleans to San Francisco
Via Isth. of Tehuantepec  3,576
" '¦ " Panama   ¦ • 5.412
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  l,r~"
" " (round trip)  3,672
New Orleans to Yokohama :
Via Isth. of Tehuantepec (gr. cir.)  8,659
'¦¦ '• "Panama "  10,479
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,820
" " " (round trip)  3,640
New Orleans to Hong Kong :
Via Isth. of Tehuantepec (gr. cir.)  10,202
" " "Panama "  12,022
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1 "~
" " " (round trip)  3,640
New York to San Francisco :
Via Isth. of Tehuantepec Panama

Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)   1.
" " " (round trip)  2,

TEHUANTEPEC-ITS RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES.

Ruaatll <£> SlruOieT«lEn<j,i JV. Y,

59
the productive center of the United States to the extent of
15,710 miles, as follows : 1
Rivers. Heads of Navigation. Navigable.
1. Mississippi  St. Anthony's Falls, Minn  2,161
2. Missouri  Great Falls, Mon  3,127
3. Ohio  Pittsburg, Pa  1^21
4. Red  State Shoals, Tex  986
5. Arkansas  Wichita, Kan  884
6. White  War Eagle, Mo  779
7. Tennessee  Knoxville, Tenn  759
8. Cumberland  Waitsboro. Ky  609
9. Yellowstone. . . . Belle Butte, Mon  474
10. Ouachita.  Camden, Ark  384
11. Wabash. ... ... .Lafayette, Ind  365
12. Alleghany  Olean, NY  325
13. Osage  Papinville, Mo  303
14. Minnesota  Patterson's Rapids, Minn  295 >
15. Sunflower  Clarksdale, Miss  271
16. Illinois  La Salle, 111  270
17. Yazoo  Greenwood, Miss  228
18. Black  Perkins, Mo  212
19. Green  Greensburg, Ky  200
20. St. Francis  Wittsburg, Mo  180
21. Tallahatchie  Hill's Place, Miss  175
22. Wisconsin  Portage City, Wis  160
23. Deer Creek  Stoneville, Miss  116
24. Tensas  Lake Providence, La  112
25. Monongahela . . .Morgantown, West Va  110
26. Kentucky  Cogar's Landing, Ky  1 05
27. Bartholomew. . . . Baxter, Ark  100
28. Kanawha  Great Falls, W. Va  94
29. Muskingum  Dresden, O  94
30. Chippewa  Chippewa Falls, Wis  90
31. Iowa  Iowa City, la  80
32. Big Hatchie  Bolivar, Tenn  75
33. St. Croix  Falls St. Croix, Wis  65
34. Rock  Sterling, 111  64
35. Black, La  Mouth Ouachita, La  61
36. Macon  Floyd, La  60
37. Boeuf  Rayville, La  55
38. Big Horn  Ft. Custer, Mon  50
39. Clinch  Clinton, Tenn  50
40. Little Red  Searcy's, Aik  49
41. Cypress, and Lake.Jefferson, Tex  44
42. Big Black  Bovina, Miss  35
43. Dauchite  Minden Landing, La  33
Total miles navigable  15,710
1 The Mississippi and Tributaries, by A. D. Anderson, chap. ii.

60

The navigable parts of these water-ways intersect or border
the following twenty-two States and Territories :

Alabama,

Iowa,

Missouri,

Pennsylvania,

Arkansas,

Kansas,

Montana,

Tennessee,

Dakota,

Kentucky,

Nebraska,

Texas,

Illinois,

Louisiana,

New York,

W. Virginia,

Indiana,

Minnesota,

Ohio,

Wisconsin.

Indian Ty.,

Mississippi,

Omitting New York, which has but a trifling interest in one
tributary ; Pennsylvania, which, although a large patron of the
Ohio in shipments from Pittsburgh, is chiefly tributary to the
Atlantic coast ; West Virginia, which is also chiefly tributary
to the Atlantic ; Alabama, whose chief outlet is at the Gulf ;
Texas, which, although a large patron of Eed Eiver, exports
her products mainly from Gulf ports ; and the three Territories,
Montana, Dakota, and Indian Territory, whose annual products
are not separately stated by the Department of Agriculture,
and we have left fourteen States tributary, to a greater or less
degree, to the Mississippi Eiver system, having, as we have
above remarked, but one outlet, and that near and opposite
Tehuantepec. The fourteen States which constitute the Missis
sippi Valley are, then, substantially as follows :

Arkansas,

Kansas,

Mississippi,

Ohio,

Illinois,

Louisiana,

Missouri,

Tennessee,

Indiana,
Iowa,

Kentucky,Minnesota,

Nebraska,

Wisconsin,

By contrasting their great staple products for the year 1879
with those of the whole United States, we find they produced —
Eighty-one per cent of the corn, or 1,263,318,700 bushels ;
Sixty- four per cent of the wheat, or 289,708,550 bushels ;
Sixty per cent of the oats, or 222,028,100 bushels ;
Fifty-five per cent of the tobacco, or 216,842,000 pounds ;
Forty-nine per cent of the cotton, or 2,616,763 bales ; and
contained —

61
Sixty-six per cent, in value, of live hogs, or $97,455,823.!
While these water-ways which tap the great and productive
Valley have an outlet at the Gulf, the Gulf itself has no com
mercial outlet on the west, or to the Pacific Ocean. This, is a
commercial absurdity, as a glance at the map preceding this
chapter will illustrate.
The necessity for direct communication between the mouth
of the Mississippi and the Pacific is increasing more rapidly
than the general public are, perhaps, aware. During the single
fiscal year following the completion of the jetties at the mouth
of the river, the year ending June 30, 1880, the domestic ex
ports of New Orleans increased $26,456,077 ; the total exports
for the year ending June 30, 1879 being $63,782,426, and for
the year ending June 30, 18S0, $90,238,503.2 This new com
mercial movement from the Valley States, down the river to the
Gulf, is likely to increase from year to year until it assumes
immense proportions. Important railway lines, also, are seek
ing an outlet at New Orleans.
In brief, the products and manufactures of the Valley are
seeking their natural outlet to the seaboard. They should now
seek markets in the countries around two oceans instead of
one. The designs of nature were never more clearly indicated
than that the Mississippi Valley and the countries of the Pacific
Ocean should have an interchange of commerce across Tehuan
tepec. The saving of distance over the present isthmus route
via Panama will be as follows : 3
New Orleans to San Francisco, Miles6
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec  3,576
Panama  5,412
Saving, via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,836
(round trip)  3,672

1 Report of Department of Agriculture for 1879.
2 From Bureau of Statistics.
3 Prepared by II. S. Coast Survey. See Appendix.

62
New Orleans to Yokohama, *rniies,e
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle)  8,659
Panama " "  10,479
Saving, via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,820
(round trip)  3,640
New Orleans to Houa Kong,
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle)  10,202
Panama " "  12,022
Saving, via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,820
" " (round trip)  3,640
New Orleans to Sidney (Australia),
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle). .... 9,298
Panama " "  10,451
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,153
(round trip)   2,306
New Orleans to Mazatlan,
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec.  2,142
" " Panama  3,966
Saving, via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,824
" " (round trip)  3,648
To the Valley and Gulf States Combined.
The relations of Tehuantepec to the Gulf States, Texas,
Alabama, and Florida, are nearly the same as to the mouth of
the Mississippi. The saving of distance from Galveston to the
countries of the Pacific is a little greater than from New
Orleans ; and from Mobile, Key West, and Fernandina, a little
less. Texas has a coast line opposite Tehuantepec of 378 statute
miles. Her area is 274,356 square miles, or larger than that
of France, England, Wales, and Belgium combined. In 1878,
on IyI^ per cent of her area, she produced 497,310,000 pounds,
or 1,105,133 bales of cotton,1 being the largest cotton crop of
any State. 1 See Report of Department of Agriculture &r 1878.

63
The total foreign commerce, exports and imports combined,
of her Gulf ports was, for the year ending June 30, 1879,
$22,682,334 in value.1
The total foreign commerce of Mobile, during the same year,
was $6,764,446 in value.2
The necessity for a commercial outlet from the Gulf to the
Pacific becomes still more apparent when we combine the lead
ing products of the Valley with those of the remaining three
Gulf States ; in other words, the products of the above-men
tioned fourteen river States, with those of Texas, Alabama, and
Florida. Their combined products for the year 1879, contrasted with
those of the whole United States for the same year, shows that
they yielded in. quantity —
Eighty-five per cent of the corn ;
Sixty-five per cent of the wheat ;
Sixty-two per cent of the oats ;
Seventy-eight per cent of the cotton ;
Fifty-five per cent of the tobacco, and contained
Seventy-two per cent in value of live hogs.
Yet there is no commercial highway from the Gulf to the
Pacific, either canal or railway. Such an omission is a discredit
to American enterprise. To the Atlantic States.
The voyage from the chief port of the Atlantic States, via
Tehuantepec to San Francisco, will be along our own coast and
that of a friendly republic, with the following saving of distance
over Panama : 3
New York to San Francisco, statute
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec  4,905
" Panama  -.  6,057
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,152
" " (round trip).  2,304
1 Commerce and Navigation for 1879. 2 Ditto.
3 Prepared by U. S. Coast Survey. See Appendix.

64
New York to San Francisco, statute
' miles.
Via proposed Florida Canal and Tehuantepec. . 4,725
" Isthmus of Panama  6,057
Saving via Fla. Canal & Tehuantepec (one way) 1,332
" " " " (round trip) 2,664
New York to San Francisco,
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec  4,905
" Cape Horn  15,672
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  10,767
(round trip)  21,534
It will be observed, by a reference to the map, that the pro
posed Florida. Canal has no connection with the Isthmus of
Panama, but a very intimate one with Tehuantepec and the
Mississippi Eiver. The able official report of Gen. Q. A.
Gilmore, showing its commercial necessity, was recently sub
mitted to Congress, and is now awaiting their action.
From New York to the Orient, the comparative distances are
as follows : 1
New York to Yokohama, milef.6
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle)  9,996
" Panama " "  11,013
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,017
" " " (round trip)  2,034
New York to Yokohama,
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle)  9,996
" Cape Horn " "  19,783
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  9,787
(round trip)  '. . . 19,574
New York to Hong Kong,
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle)  11,591
" Panama " "  12,941
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,350
" " " (round trip)  2,700
1 Prepared by U. S. Coast Survey. See Appsndix.

65
New York to Hong Kong, statute miles.
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle)  11,591
" Cape Horn " "  20,359
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  8,768
(round trip)  17,536
While the distances from Portland, Boston, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, and Norfolk to San Francisco and the Orient will
differ from the above figures, the saving will be substantially
the same as from the New York .standpoint.
To the Pacific States.
At the close of our late civil war the United States loaned to
the Union and Central Pacific Eailroads $53,121,632 in bonds,
and granted 20,000,000 acres of public lands to help build
those roads, and thereby strengthen the political and com
mercial ties between^ the Pacific States and the rest of the
Union. The Tehuantepec Eailroad will add other ties of great
strength, and at no expense to the general government. • The
saving of distance over Panama we have just stated from the
New Orleans and New York standpoints, and need not there
fore repeat the tables in this connection.
But there will be via Tehuantepec a saving of distance in
other directions of great commercial importance to the Pacific
ports. We refer particularly to direct trade between San Fran
cisco and Liverpool and Havana. The distances are as follows : J
San Francisco to Liverpool, miles6
Via Isth. of Tehuantepec (great circle)  8,267
" " " Panama " and St. Thomas . 9,154
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  887
" " " (round trip)  1,774
San Francisco to Havana,
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec  3,527
" " Panama  4,957
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,430
" (round trip)  2,860
1 Prepared by IT. S. Coast Survey. See Appendix.
5

66
The great interest California has in a short route to Liver
pool via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec may be seen from a glance
at the statistics of her wheat product.1 In 1878 she produced
41,990,000 bushels, the yield being seventeen to the acre. In
1879 she produced 35,000,000 bushels, the yield per acre being
the same.
In 1880, according to the preliminary estimate of the Depart
ment of Agriculture, she has under cultivation 3,043,000 acres
of wheat. If the yield per acre proves to be as great as in 1878
and 1879, her product for the present year will be 51,731,000
bushels. A large portion of this enormous annual product goes to the
Liverpool market. It can save by way of Tehuantepec, in
contrast with Panama, as we have above stated, 1,774 miles on
the round trip.
But all, or nearly all, of these grain shipments were made by
way of Cape Horn. The remarkable saving of distance via
Tehuantepec over the Cape Horn route may be seen from the
following contrast.3
San Francisco to Liverpool, statute miles.
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle)  8,267
" Cape Horn  15,787
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  7,520
" " (round trip)  15,040
The total annual commerce, exports and imports combined,
of the various West India Islands is, in value, $309,769,000,3 in
which grand total the port of San Francisco has no recorded
direct participation. As the Tehuantepec Railroad will shorten
the distance between the chief port of the Pacific States and
Havana, the chief port of those fertile islands, 2,860 statute
miles on the round trip, it is to be hoped that an extensive and
profitable interchange of commodities will be the result.
1 Compiled from official statistics of U. S. Department of Agriculture.
2 See distances in Appendix of this paper.
s Commercial Relations of U. S. for 1879, p. 32.

TEHUANTEP E C-ITS RELATION TO THE WORLD .

CHAPTER V.
COMMERCIAL RELATIONS TO THE WORLD.

Its Central Position.
A GLANCE at a map of the world shows that the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec is located midway between North and
South America ; the two coasts of America ; Europe and East
ern Asia ; Europe and Australia ; and on the ocean highway
between Europe and the western coast of America ; New
York and the Orient ; New York and Australia ; the Missis
sippi Valley and the Orient ; the Mississippi Valley and
Australia ; the Mississippi Valley and the western coast of
America ; and the West Indies and the countries of the
Pacific Ocean. In brief, its natural relations to the commer
cial nations are more general and advantageous than those
of any other Isthmus of the earth.
Possible Present Patronage,
The recent report on the Inter-Oceanic Canal question by
the United States Bureau of Statistics, gives an estimate, from
the Panama standpoint, of the possible commerce across the
American Isthmus during the last attainable year, as fol
lows :

68

"Number of Vessels and Amount of Tonnage which might
have passed through the proposed canal if it had been con
structed. [N. B. — This table is based upon statistics of the latest year for which
the requisite data can be obtained.]

1. Average number of vessels and amount of ton-
age entered at and cleared from either side of
the Isthmus of Panama, annually, in trade
with all nations.1 (Appendix 2 and 3) 
2. Vessels entered at and cleared from Pacific ports
of the United States in trade around Cape
Horn with Atlantic ports of the United States,
during the year ended June 30, 1879.2 (Ap
pendix 4) 
3. Vessels entered at and cleared from Atlantic
ports of the United States in trade with foreign
countries west of Cape Horn, during the year
ended Juue 30, 1879. (Appendix 5) 
4. Vessels entered at and cleared from Pacific ports
of the United States in trade with foreign
countries east of Cape Horn, during the year
ended June 30, 1879. (Appendix 6) 
5. Vessels entered at and' cleared from ports of the
several countries of Europe in trade around
Cape Horn with foreign countries other than
the United States, during the latest year for
which the data can be stated with respect to
each country. (Appendix 7) 
6. Vessels entered at and cleared from ports of
British Columbia in trade with countries of
Europe, during the year ended June 30, 1879 . .
Total 

No. of
Vessels.

338

75

273

455

1,644

33

2,818

Tons.

533, 000

120, 662

247, 567

551, 929

1, 462, 897

22, 331

2,938,386

The foregoing statement, as already mentioned, is based upon
the single condition of distance, and embraces only shipping
when employed upon voyages which are shorter by the way of
the proposed canal than by any other practicable route."

1 An estimate from the report of the United States Consul at Panama
(Appendix 2), and from a statement compiled from British consular returns
(Appendix 3).
2 Compiled from special reports by collectors of customs.

69
This estimate has recently been reviewed by the Executive
Committee of the proposed Nicaragua Ship Canal Society, cor
rected and changed so as to represent the "probable Canal
trade for the year 1880." Their conclusion is as follows :
"Item 1  746,200 tons
" 2  250,000 "
" 3  230,447 "
" 4  1,500,000 "
" 5  957,448 "
" 6  22,331 "

Total  3,706,426 tons."
We will not attempt to review either of these estimates, un
less it be to substitute in the latter the word " possible " for
" probable." We assume that what is possible for an Inter-oceanic Canal
is substantially so for a Eailroad.
Possible Future Patronage.
The Chief of the Bureau of Statistics confines his estimate
almost exclusively to the commerce which " might have " passed
through the Isthmus during the last attainable year. He seems
to have forgotten that he was writing in progressive America,
where people live more in the future than the past, where mate
rial development progresses with lightning-like rapidity, an-d
industrial and commercial statistics double every few years.
Again, he makes his calculations from a standpoint which we
must discard in forming an estimate of the future, for the Isth
mus of Panama has several disadvantageous features. It is
too remote from the United States. The commercial route by
way of it is, as we have shown in a previous chapter, far
greater between our Gulf and Atlantic ports, Liverpool,
Havana, etc., on the one side, and the principal countries of
the Pacific, on the other, than by way of Tehuantepec.

70
The states and countries which immediately surround it have
less commercial possibilities than those around Tehuantepec.
A highway across it cannot possibly open up so many new mar
kets as can the latter route.
Its surroundings in the Pacific are particularly disadvan
tageous. The Eeport of Commander Selfridge on the Darien
Ship Canal says : " Lying near the equator, but generally a
little north of it, is a belt, some four or five degrees wide, of
calms, rains, and light baffling winds, that separates the wind
¦ systems of the north Pacific from those of the south. Its aver
age northern limit may be placed at 8° north and its southern
at 3° north, but both are very variable. This is often spoken
of as a ' calm belt,' which term is calculated to mislead one as
to the nature of the weather to be expected within these limits.*
Neither does the term 'region of variable winds' appear satis
factory, as it does not express the peculiar character of the
weather. 'Doldrums' seems to be the correct word, for,
although it may be, as some say, ' uncouth,' it is the only single
word that conveys to the mind of the seaman all that can be
expressed by saying 'a region of calms, squalls, light baffling
winds, and storms of wind and rain.' " 1 On this same subject
Capt. DeKraft, Hydrographer of the United States Bureau of
Navigation, has recently stated as follows :
'• In order to reach the region of the trade-winds, sailing ves
sels from Panama, bound to India, Japan, California, or the
northwest coast, in coming out of the bay and afterward mak
ing the necessary northing, will be obhged to make about six
hundred miles through variable winds and vexatious calms
before finding themselves in as good a position to make their
westing as the vessels leaving the coast of Nicaragua." 2
That eminent authority on the physical geography of the sea,
Lieut. M. F. Maury, says, after describing the winds and cur
rents around the American Isthmus : " You will observe at a

1 House Mis. Doc. No. 113, Forty-second Congress, Third Session, p. 231.
0 Prom letter in N. Y. Herald, September 29, 1880.

71 «
glance that the Isthmus of Panama, or Darien, is, on account
of these winds and calms, in a purely commercial point of view,
the most out of the way place of any part of the Pacific coast of
inter-tropical America." 1
These vexatious doldrums do not extend so far north as the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec. For this and the other reasons before
stated, Tehuantepec is a more desirable standpoint from which
to estimate the possible future patronage.
From the Natural Growth of Commerce. — As it is from
American commerce that the railroads ill derive its chief sup
port, it is important to consider its rapid growth. During the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1869, the total foreign trade of the
United States (exports and imports of merchandise) was
$703,624,076 in value. Since then it has, through a natural
growth, more than doubled, being for the fiscal year ending-
June 30, 1880, $1,503,586,897.
The products of corn and wheat of the fourteen States of the
Mississippi Valley, which have through its great river system so
close a connection with Tehuantepec, have changed as follows
during the past ten years, viz. : 2
COBN.
For year 1869  639,850,000 bushels
" <¦¦ 1879  1,263,348,700
Increase  623,498,700 "
WHEAT.
For year 1869  161,737,000 bushels
1879  289,708,550 "

it (t

Increase  127,971,550 "
Texas, also, whose outlets at the seaboard are near Tehuan
tepec, shows a remarkably rapid development. She had under
1 See statement by Lieut. Collins, of U. S. N., before House Committee
on Inter-oceanic Canals, February 28, 1880, p. 41 of testimony.
2 Compiled from Official Reports of U. S. Department of Agriculture.

*72
cultivation, in 1870, 104,700 acres of wheat, which acreage has
increased to 459,000 in 1880.1 This product in bushels was as
follows, from 1872 to 1878 : 2
1872  1,377,000 bushels
1873  1,404,000 "
1874  1,474,000 "
1875  2,510,000 "
1876  4,750,000 "
1877  4,800,000 "
1878  7,200,000 "
Her cotton product increased from 350,628 bales in 1870, to
1,105,133 bales in 1878.3 The product for this year bids fair
to be still larger.
On the other side of the Isthmus we find as remarkable an
increase in the wheat product of California, the surplus por
tion of which now passes the doorway of Tehuantepec in going
around Cape Horn to the Liverpool market. The following is
her product for the last nine years :4
1871  16,757,000 bushels
1872  25,600,000 "
1873  21,504,000 "
1874  28,380,000 "
1875  23,800,000 "
1876  30,000,000 •'
1877  22,000,000 "
1878  41,980,000 "
1879  ,  35,000,000 "
She has under wheat cultivation, the present year, 3,043,000
acres,5 and if the yield per acre is as great as in 1878 and 1879,
the record of her product for 1880 will be 51,731,000 bushels.
; From statistics of Department of Agriculture— that for 1880 being a
preliminary estimate.
2 Ditto. s Ditto, and United States Census,
4 From Reports of Department of Agriculture.
h Preliminary estimate of Department of Agriculture.

73
. The foreign commerce of Australia, which, by means of a rail
way across Tehuantepec, will have direct connection with that
of the Mississippi Valley and our Atlantic ports, has increased
in value from $259,625,097 in 1868, to $374,282,078 in 1878.1
These figures represent her total commerce, exports and im
ports of merchandise, coin, and bullion.
The total foreign trade of New Zealand, which island bears a
similar commercial relation to Tehuantepec, has increased in
value from $45,568,338 in 1868 to $71,493,396 in 1878.2 These
figures also represent a combination of exports and imports of
merchandise, coin, and bullion.
The above are but a portion of the statistics which we might
exhibit to illustrate the remarkable growth of the products and
commerce of the various countries surrounding and interested
in the Tehuantepec route. As they are a record of a natural
and not exceptional growth, they are a safe guide for esti
mating the future regular growth. We conclude, then, that
the products and trade of those countries will double again in
a few years, and with them the patronage of the Isthmus Bail-
way. From Exceptional Causes. — The Gulf of Mexico, or "Ameri
can Mediterranean," with an area of about 700,000 square
miles, or nearly as large as the Mediterranean of Europe, has
never had a commercial outlet to the Pacific Ocean, either canal
or railway. It is difficult to over-estimate the amount of new
trade which the proposed Tehuantepec outlet will create. It
is safe to say it will be immense, for the Gulf is surrounded by
countries rich in natural resources, and great in commercial
possibilities. The Mississippi Eiver has never, until recently, had an un
obstructed outlet at the Gulf. The recent improvement, by
jetties, at its mouth, has given a wonderful impetus to ship
ments down the river. Since their completion, a little more

1 Compiled from Statistical Abstract No. 16 of United Kingdom.
2 Ditto.

74
than a year ago, the exports of grain and cotton from New -
Orleans have increased remarkably, as may be seen from a con
trast with those of the year previous, viz. : '
Year ending WHEAT.
Aug. 81.
1879  1,868,084 bushels
1880  5,344,510 "
Increase in one year . ... 3,476,426 "
Corn.
1879  5,117,825 bushels
1880  9,863,790 "
Increase in one year  4,745,965 "
Cotton.
18"9  1,435,336 bales
1880  1,696,718 "
Increase in one year  261,382
As this new commercial movement, southward, has its outlet
at the Gulf, near and directly opposite Tehuantepec, it is
apparent that its future patronage of the supplemental Isth
mus outlet to the Pacific will develop very rapidly.
The important port of Havana has never had a direct com
mercial highway to California, China, and Japan. With a short
connection across Tehuantepec, new markets will be the natural
result. The Eailroadwill greatly facilitate an interchange of trade
between the Mississippi Valley and the western coast of South
America, for vessels in sailing from the west coast of Tehuan
tepec can steer clear of the doldrums to which they are now sub
jected in sailing from Panama.
China has recently made an immense gap in her conservative
wall by sending, for the first time, and under her own flag, a
steamer to one of our ports.3 Direct trade relations between
that country and the Mississippi Valley by way of Tehuantepec
is only a question of time.

' From New Orleans Price Current, September 1, 1880.
2 See N. Y. Herald, August 14 and 15, 1880.

75
Mexico has never had a transcontinental railway connecting
her two coasts — her western coast with foreign countries on the
, Atlantic, or her eastern coasts with foreign countries on the
Pacific Ocean. This is perhaps the chief exceptional reason for
expecting a remarkable future patronage of the Tehuantepec
route. The new era of development upon which Mexico has just
entered, is in rapidity, riches, and brilliancy likely to astonish
the civilized world — for that republic is one magnificent mine
and plantation combined, unstocked and undeveloped.
Gen. Grant, ever since his recent visit to Mexico, has been
trying to impress upon the business men of the United States
the importance of railway and commercial connection between
the two Republics. In a recent speech before the Mechanics'
Association of Boston, he said : " There is no secret of the
capacity of Mexico for production, if you think about it. We
now do an importation business of nearly $200,000,000 of trop
ical and semi-tropical products. Mexico could produce the
whole of them, if she had railroads to give her an outlet for
them, and her people have the industry to do it — a fact not
generally credited, nor did I believe it until I was there this
last time." *
On the subject of Mexican possibilities, SefJor Eomero, while
Secretary of Finance, in the early part of last year, wrote that,
if the mines were worked as in California and Nevada, "it can
be assured that without any great effort it would be easy to
augment the annual production of silver from about twenty-five
millions — about the average it has amounted to for some years
past— to a hundred or a hundred and fifty millions." 2
This new development, already commenced in a wholesale
manner by railway grants to American companies to the extent
of about two thousand seven hundred miles, will have a decided
effect in increasing the regular patronage of the Inter-ocean
Eailroad. Again, there is at the present time, aside from the regular
' N. Y. Tribune, October 14, 1880.
2 Report of Secretary of Finance of Mexico, p. 128.

76
growth of our foreign commerce, a special and popular demand
throughout the United States for new markets and a new mer
chant marine. The consummation of such national enterprises
will have an immediate and marked effect upon the business of
the Tehuantepec route.
Having stated the leading facts bearing upon the possible
present and future patronage of the Eailroad, we prefer that the
reader should draw his own conclusion about the probable ton
nage and value.

CHAPTER VI.
POLITICAL FEATURES.
T~T is fortunate that this Isthmus, so near our shores and so
J- advantageous to our coastwise and foreign trade, is located
in a sister republic.
The two countries are now rivaling each other in the arts of
peace, and seeking closer commercial intercourse.
They furnish in their history many striking political parallels.
Both were at an early date occupied by European civilization,
the one by Spain, in the sixteenth century, and the other
by England, in the seventeenth. Both developed in strength,
sought and struggled for independence. The one threw off the
European yoke in 1776, the other in 1821.
They adopted similar forms of government and constitutions,
and, what is still more important for the purposes of this paper,
they have a mutual appreciation of and respect for the Monroe
doctrine. When Maximilian had for the time being overthrown
the young republic, that historic doctrine was reaffirmed by the
United States, and became largely instrumental in undermining
the foreign and monarchical pohtical structure which Napoleon
III had sought to build up in the New World. The structure
soon tottered and fell, and Mexico naturally respects the poht
ical doctrine which helped regain her liberties. For these rea
sons political complications concerning the interoceanic high
way across this Isthmus are unlikely to arise between the two
Eepublics, or between the United States and European powers.

78
To quarrel there must be two sides, and as neither France nor
England possesses a grant of the right of way across Tehuan
tepec, nor is likely to have one, either by original concession or
by assignment, there can, here, be no basis for an international
dispute over the Monroe doctrine.
Mexico's friendly desire to cooperate with the United States
in opening the Isthmus to commerce is well illustrated by her
repeated concessions to American citizens, and by the treaty of
1853, commonly known as the Gadsden Treaty. In it she stip
ulates as follows :
" The Mexican government, having on the 5th of February,
1853, authorized the early construction of a plank and railroad
across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and to secure the stable
benefits of said transit way to the persons and merchandise of
the citizens of Mexico and the United States, it is stipulated
that neither government will interpose any obstacle to the
transit of persons and merchandise of both nations ; and at no
time shall higher charges be made on the transit of persons and
property of citizens of the United States than may be made on
the persons and property of other foreign nations, nor shall any
interest in said transit way, nor in the proceeds thereof, be trans
ferred to any foreign government. The United States, by its
agents, shall have the right to transport across the Isthmus, in
closed bags, the mails of the United States not intended for dis
tribution along the hue of communication ; also the effects of the
United States government and its citizens which maybe intended
for transit and not for distribution on the Isthmus, free of
custom-house or other charges by the Mexican government.
Neither passports nor letters of security will be required of per
sons crossing the Isthmus and not remaining in the country." '
As was shown in the Historical Notes, Mexico has " fifteen
times" made or renewed to American citizens grants of the
right of way across the Isthmus for purposes of a canal or rail
way. No grant has ever been made to Europeans, and but two
assignments to them recognized.
1 U. S. Statutes, vol. x, pp. 1031-1037.

79
These facts are ample evidence of Mexico's friendly regard
for citizens of the United States, and her willing co-operation in
the opening of a commercial highway across her territory.
If for any unforeseen reason a war should occur between
either Mexico or the United States on the one side, and some
European power on the other, Tehuantepec has peculiar
advantages for purposes of defence.
The Gulf of Mexico is nearly surrounded by the two Eepub-
lics interested in its protection. Its coast-hne from Cape
Sable, Florida, around to Cape Catoche, Yucatan, is two thou
sand six hundred and ninety-two miles. It has but one en
trance from the ocean, and that is between the extremities of
Florida and Yucatan, a distance of only five hundred and fifty-
three statute miles, and part of that is closed by the Island of
Cuba, leaving for vessels two channels, one of only one hundred
and forty-three miles in width, and the other still less, or one
hundred and thirty-eight miles.1
The question of protection from possible European inter
ference is, then, practically settled by nature.
The pohtical as well as material welfare of Mexico depends
very largely upon a system of internal improvements and new
commercial relations with the outside world. We have a
political as well as business interest in the success and perpe
tuity of Eepublican institutions, particularly those of a great
and neighboring American nation, whose organic law is so
similar to our own. We cannot afford to see Mexico decline.
We should rejoice at her welfare and progress. Our political
sentiments toward her should be as liberal and friendly as
those of France toward us during our Eevolutionary struggles.
All fillibustering schemes for conquest or plunder inaugurated
by a few adventurers on the border should receive from us an
emphatic condemnation. The true sentiment for* the United
States to harbor is well illustrated by the remark of our
great and grand President Lincoln, who said, while lament
ing the temporary downfall of that Eepublic at the time of
1 See Table of Distances in Appendix.

80
Maximilian's conquest, "The Eepublic of Mexico must rise

aofarn

" 1

Setting aside all considerations of pecuniary profit to the
Eailway Company, or to citizens of the United States and
Mexico, the Tehuantepec Inter-Ocean Eailroad is of great polit
ical importance as a, pioneer movement in the direction of closer
intercourse and good-fellowship between two great and adjoin
ing North American Republics.
1 Mexico and the United States, by Gt. D. Abbott, p. 391.

APPENDIX,

TABLE OF DISTANCES.
U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Office,
Washington, October 18, 1880.
Mr. A. D. Anderson, Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir : The following table of distances has been pre
pared by the Hydrographic Inspector in reply to your request
of October 1st.
Distances in Statute Miles along the shortest Steamship Routes.
New Orleans to San Francisco : statute miles.
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec  3,576
" Panama  5,412
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,836
(round trip)  3,672
New Orleans to Yokohama :
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle)  8,659
Panama " "  10,479
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,820
(round trip)  3,610
New Orleans to Hong Kong :
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle)  10,202
Panama " "  12,022
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,820
(round trip)  3,640

82

New Orleans to Sidney : statute miles.
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle)  9,298
Panama " "  10,451
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,153
(round trip)  2,306
New Orleans to Mazatlan,
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec  2,142
Panama  3,966
Saving via Tehuantepe? (one way)  1,824
(round trip)  3,648

New York to San Francisco :
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec  4,905
Panama  6,057
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,152
(round trip)  2,304
New York to San Francisco :
Via proposed Florida Canal & Tehuantepec  4,725
" Isthmus of Panama  6,057
Saving via Canal & Tehuantepec (one way)  1,332
(round trip) .... 2,664
New York to San Francisco :
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec  4,905
" Cape Horn  15,672
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  10,767
(round trip)  21,534
New York to Yokohoma :
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle)  9,996
Panama "  11,013
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,017
(round trip)  2,034

83

New York to Yokohoma: statute milee.
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle) . . . 9,99(j
" Cape Horn  "  19,783
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  9,787
" " (round trip)  19,574
New York to Hong Kong :
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle) .... 11,591
Panama "  12,941
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,350
" " (round trip)  2,700
New York to Hong Kong :
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle) .... 11,591
" Cape Horn  '.  " ....20,359
Saving, via Tehuantepec (one way)  8,768
(round trip)  17,536
New York to Sidney :
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle) .... 10,628
Panama .... " .... 11,133
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  445
" " (round trip)  890
New York to Sidney
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle) .... 10,688
" Cape Horn  " ... 14,739
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  4,051
(round trip)  8,102

San Francisco to Liverpool :
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle) .... 8,267
Panama ...("& St. Thomas) 9,154
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  887
(round trip)  1,774

84
San Francisco to Liverpool : stotate
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle)  8,267
" Cape Horn  15,787
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  7,520
" (round trip)  15,040
San Francisco to Havana :
Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec  3,527
Panama  4,957
Saving via Tehuantepec (one way)  1,430
(round trip)  2,860

New York to Isthmus of Tehuantepec (mouth of Coat
zacoalcos Eiver)  2,241
New York to Isthmus of Panama (port of Aspinwall) . . . 2,268
San Francisco to Isthmus of Tehuantepec (entrance to
Lagoon)  2,493
San Francisco to Isthmus of Panama (port of Panama). .3,754

Coast Line of Gulf of Mexico : From Cape Sable, Flor
ida (not including indentations) around to Cape
Catoche, Yucatan  2,692

Entrance to Gulf of Mexico : From Cape Sable to Cuba
(Cardinas)  113
From Cardinas to Cape San Antonio (coast line of
northern part of Cuba, not including indentations) . . 272
From Cuba (Cape San Antonio) to Cape Catoche  138
Total from Cape Sable to Yucatan  553
Yours respectfully,
C. P. PATTEESON, Sup't.

LIST OF AUTHORITIES.

SUEVEYS.
Barnard, J. G., and Williams, J. J. — The Isthmus of Te
huantepec being the result of a survey for a railroad to con
nect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans made by the Scientific
Commission under the direction of Major J. G. Barnard, U. S.
Engineer, with a resums of the climate, local geography,
productive industry, fauna and flora of that region. Illus
trated with numerous maps and engravings. Arranged and
prepared for the Tehuantepec Eailroad Company of New York,
by J. J. Williams, principal assistant engineer. New York,
1852 : D. Appleton & Co.
Cramer, Don Augustln. — He was a civil engineer, and* in
1774, by order of the Viceroy, made a voyage of discovery. He
surveyed and reported upon the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. A
brief quotation from his Eeport may be found in EngHsh in
Garay's publication mentioned on a following page.
Moro, Signor Gaetano. — He was the engineer in charge of
the Scientific Commission appointed by Garay, which surveyed
the Isthmus in 1842. The substance of his report is given in
English in Garay's publication hereafter mentioned.
Orbegozo, Juan de, and Ortiz, Don Tadeo de. — These engi
neers constituted a commission appointed in 1824, the former
by the Government of Mexico, and the latter by the State of
Vera Cruz, to survey the Isthmus. Each made a report, and
extracts from each are given in English in Garay's publication.
Shufeldt, Eobert W. — Eeports of Explorations and Surveys
to ascertain the practicability of a Ship-canal between the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by way of the Isthmus of Tehuan-

86
tepee, by Eobert W. Shufeldt, Captain U. S. Navy.. Made
under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy. Senate Ex.
Doc. No. 6, Forty-second Congress, Second Session. Washing
ton, 1872 : Government Printing Office.
Sidell, W. H. — He made a survey of the Isthmus in 1859, as
Chief Engineer of the Louisiana Tehuantepec Company. If his
report was ever printed, it is now very difficult to find.

POPULAE PUBLICATIONS.
Abbott, Gorham D. — Mexico and the United States. New
York, 1869 : G. P. Putnam & Son.
It treats largely of interoceanic transit, expressing a prefer
ence for Tehuantepec.
Baldwin, J. D.— Ancient America. New York, 1872: Harper
& Brothers. Pages 104-111 are devoted to the ruins of Palen
que, near Tehuantepec.
Bancroft, H. H. — The Native Eaces of the Pacific States of
North America, five volumes. New York, 1876 : D. Appleton &
Company. Pages 286-423 of Vol. IV relate to the antiquities
around Tehuantepec in the States of Oaxaca, Chiapas, and
Tabasco, and contain numerous illustrations.
Brasseur de Bourbourg. — Voyage sur ITsthme de Tehuan
tepec. Paris, 1861.
Cabrera, P. F. — Description of the ruins of an ancient city
discovered near Palenque in the kingdom of Guatemala in
Spanish America. Translated from the original manuscript
report of Captain Don Antonio Del Bio, etc., etc. London,
1822 : Henry Berthoud.
Catherwood, F.. — Views of Ancient Monuments in Central
America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. New York, 1844 : Bartlett &
Welford. Plates VI and VII are elegant views of the ruins of
Palenque near the Isthmus.

87
Chalonee and Fleming. — The Mahogany Tree. Its botan
ical characters, qualities, and uses, with practical suggestions
for selecting and cutting it in the regions of its growth in the
West Indies and Central America ; with notices of the pro
jected interoceanic communications of Panama, Nicaragua,
and Tehuantepec, in relation to their productions and the
supply of fine timber for ship-building and all other purposes.
With a map and illustrations. London, 1851 : Effingham
Wilson. Cortez, Hernando. — The dispatches of Hernando Cortez, the
Conqueror of Mexico, addressed to the Emperor Charles V,
written during the Conquest, and containing a narrative of its
events. Translated by George Folsom. New York, 1843:
Wiley & Putnam. Pages 99-102, 144, and 360-361 relate to
Tehuantepec. Dale, E. — Notes of an Excursion to the Isthmus of Tehuan
tepec, in the Eepublic of Mexico. London, 1851 : Effingham
Wilson. Garay, Don Jose de. — An account of the Isthmus of Tehuan
tepec in the Republic of Mexico, with proposals for establishing
a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans,
based upon the surveys and reports of a Scientific Commission
appointed by the projector, Don Jose de Garay. London, 1846:
J. D. Smith & Co.
' Hermesdorff, Heer M. G. — The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Vol.
XXXIII of Journal of Royal Geographical Society, pages 536-
554. Kingsborough (Lord). — Antiquities of Mexico, 9 vols, Lon
don, 1830. Plates 1 to 18 of Vol. IV, Part HI, are views of
the Antiquities of Tehuantepec. Plates 19 to 45 of Vol. IV,
Part III, represent the ruins of Palenque, a little east of the
Isthmus. And Plates 78 to 95 of Vol. IV, Part II, are views
of the Antiquities of Mitla, west of the Isthmus. These costly
and magnificent illustrations must be seen to be appreciated.
Plate 82 of the last mentioned list is particularly worthy of
mention. Liot, W. B. — Panama, Nicaragua, and Tehuantepec ; or, con
siderations upon the question of communication between the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. London, 1 849 : Simpkin & Mar
shall.

Murphy, John McLeod. — The Isthmus of Tehuantepec ; its
inhabitants and resources. An address delivered before the
American Geographical and Statistical Society. In Journal of
that Society for 1859.
Eamirez, J. F. — Seasons which the Government of Mexico
has for not recognizing D. Jose Garay's privilege to open com
munication across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. New York,
1852. Eobinson, Wm. D. — Memoirs of the Mexican Eevolution, in
cluding a narrative of the expedition of General Xavier Mina,
with some observations on the practicability of opening a com
munication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through
the Mexican Isthmus in the province of Oaxaca and at the
Lake of Nicaragua ; and on the future importance of such com
merce to the civilized world, and more especially to the United
States. Philadelphia, 1820.
Stephens, J. L. — Incidents of Travel in Central America,
Chiapas, and Yucatan, 2 vols. New York, 1841 : Harper and
Brothers. Vol. II, pages 284-358, are devoted to the ruins
of Palenque, and contain numerous illustrations of the same.
Stevens, Henry. — Historical and Geographical Notes on
Tehuantepec, 1453-1869. New York, 1869 : D. Appleton & Co.
Stuckle, Henry. — Inter-Oceanic Canals. An essay on the
question of location for a Ship Canal across the American con
tinent. New York, 1870 : D. Van Nostrand.

CONGRESSIONAL DOCUMENTS.
Senate Exec. Doc. No. 60, 30th Cong., 1st Sess. — Message
from the President of the United States, communicating a copy
of the treaty with the Mexican Eepublic of February 2, 1848,
and of correspondence in relation thereto, and| recommending
measures for carrying the same into effect. Page 44 contains
the instructions from James Buchanan, Secretary of State, to
the United States Commissioner at the City of Mexico, author
izing him to offer Mexico fifteen million 'dollars for the right of
way across Tehuantepec.
Senate Mis. Doc. No. 50, 30th Cong., 2d Sess. — Petition of
P. A. Hargous, offering to the consideration of Congress the
advantages of a railroad across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec,
and praying that Congress, before its final action on the subject,
will allow time for establishing the facts therein stated.
Senate Exec. Doc. No. 97, 32d Cong., 1st Sess. — Message from
the President of the United States, in answer to a resolution of
the Senate, calling for the correspondence between the govern
ments of the United States and Mexico respecting a right of way
across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
This relates to the Garay grant, the subsequent assignment
of the same to Hargous, and correspondence relative to a pro
posed convention between the two countries.
Senate Eeport of Com. No. 355, 32d Cong., 1st Sess. — Eeport
of the Committee on Foreign Eelations on the above-mentioned
message of the President concerning the Garay grant and as
signment to Hargous.
Senate Exec Doc. No. 72, 35th Cong., 1st Sess. — Message of
the President of the United States, in answer to a resolution
requesting him "to inform the Senate whether any efforts have
been made or authorized by the Executive Department or any

90
officer thereof, to induce the government of Mexico to annul or
impair the grant of February 5, 1853, for the construction of a
plank road and railroad across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as
recognized in the treaty published at Washington on the 30th
of June, 1854, and to obtain a new grant of the same or like
character for other parties ; and if so, that he communicate the
names of those parties, together with the terms, conditions, and
considerations of the grant, and all correspondence connected
therewith." This document relates to the Garay transfer and the Sloo
grant. Senate Exec. Doc. No. 25, 39th Cong., 2d Sess. — Message of
the President of the United States, communicating, in compli
ance with a resolution of the Senate of the 6th of February,
1867, correspondence on the subject of grants to American citi
zens for railroad and telegraph lines across the territory of
Mexico. This document relates to the La Sere grant for railway, etc.,
across Tehuantepec.
Senate Exec. Doc. No. 6, 42d Cong., 2d Sess. — Report of Sur-.
vey by Capt. Shufeldt. (See Surveys.)