HARPER'S
NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.
No, LVIII.—MARCH, 1855.—VOL. X.
camp scene
| DARIEN EXPLORING EXPEDITION, |
UNDER COMMAND OF LIEUT. ISAAC GRIER STRAIN.
BY J. T. HEADLEY,
[Having from the first become deeply interested in the Darien Exploring Expedition, and afterward doubly so in the fate of Lieutenant Strain, I was very anxious to know its history. Subsequent acquaintance with Lieutenant Strain, ripening into a warm friendship, enabled me to gratify this desire. With that grew the wish to make the facts public. At my request, therefore. Lieutenant Strain gave to me his private report to the Secretary of the Navy, whose permission to use it was cheerfully granted, also the journals kept by both parties, together with the book of sketches made by the draughtsman. Interesting interviews with Lieutenant Maury and civil engineer Mr. Avery, have enabled me to add many details not incorporated either in the report or the journals. For any personal matters relating to Lieutenant Strain I solely am responsible, as well as for any special praise bestowed on him. I know it would be his wish that I should speak of him personally as little as possible; but I have thought it best to look only at the truth and interest of the narrative, and make every other thing subservient to these.
IT is not necessary here to speak of the importance to the whole civilized world of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Darien, nor of the different surveys that have been made.
The route of the following Expedition, beginning in Caledonia Bay and ending in Darien Harbor, had not been passed over since 1788. and was a terra incognita. In 1849, an Irish adventurer published a book, which went through several editions, in which he declared that he had "crossed and recrossed it several times and by several tracks," and that only "three or four miles of deep cutting" would be necessary for a ship canal the entire distance. Aroused by this report—which proved to be a mere fiction—Sir Charles Fox and other heavy English capitalists took up the subject, and sent out Mr. Gisborne, a civil engineer, to survey the route. He pretended to do so. and also published a book. mapping down the route, and declaring that it was only "thirty miles between tidal effects" and the "summit level one hundred and fifty feet." An English company was immediately formed with a capital of nearly $75,000,000.
Without following the progress of this scheme in England and on the Continent, it is necessary, in this connection, to state only that Mr. Gisborne's favorable report resulted in enlisting England, France, the United States, and New
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by Harper and Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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