Читать книгу Notes and Queries, Number 180, April 9, 1853 - Various - Страница 2

As public attention is now much directed to the canal across the Isthmus of Darien, one end of which is proposed to communicate with the harbour which was the site of the ill-fated attempt at colonisation by the Scotch about 150 years ago, the subjoined extract, giving an account of that harbour, by (apparently) one of the Scotch colonists, may be interesting to your readers. It is taken from a paper printed in Miscellanea Curiosa, vol. iii. p. 413., 2nd edit., entitled "Part of a Journal kept from Scotland to New Caledonia in Darien, with a short Account of that Country, communicated [to the Royal Society] by Dr. Wallace, F.R.S.":

"The 4th [November] we came into the great harbour of Caledonia. It is a most excellent one; for it is about a league in length from N.W. to S.E. It is about half a mile broad at the mouth, and in some places a mile and more farther in. It is large enough to contain 500 sail of ships. The greatest part of it is landlocked, so that it is safe, and cannot be touched by any wind that can blow the harbour; and the sea makes the land that lies between them a peninsula. There is a point of the peninsula at the mouth of the harbour that may be fortified against a navy. This point secures the harbour, so that no ship can enter but must be within reach of their guns. It likewise defends half of the peninsula; for no guns from the other side of the harbour can touch it, and no ship carrying guns dare enter for the breastwork at the point. The other side of the peninsula is either a precipice, or defended against ships by shoals and breaches, so that there remains only the narrow neck that is naturally fortified; and if thirty leagues of a wilderness will not do that, it may be artificially fortified in twenty ways. In short, it may be made impregnable; and there are bounds enough within it, if it were all cultivated, to afford 10,000 hogsheads of sugar every year. The soil is rich, the air good and temperate; the water is sweet, and every thing contributes to make it healthful and convenient."

C. T. W.