Over Darien by a ship canal : reports of the mismanaged Darien expedition of 1854, with suggestions for a survey by competent engineers, and an exploration by parties with compasses.

  • Cullen, Dr.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Over Darien by a ship canal : reports of the mismanaged Darien expedition of 1854, with suggestions for a survey by competent engineers, and an exploration by parties with compasses. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    that Lieut. Strain deliberately chose to act independently of the English a,nd French engineers, who had been led to expect liis co-operation, and to dispense with the assistance they could have given him ; that he started upon an expedition into a wilderness without furnisliing himself with any of the necessary prelimmary information; and, moreover, that he was commissioned by his Government to perform a difficult and dangerous sei-vice, strictly within the limits of his professional duty and on American soil and that in accepting such commission, he was in no way influ- enced by any statements of mine ; I cannot admit the justice of the censures that have been heaped on me for the sufferino-s of his party. I own I am surprised to find that Lieut. Strain, whose party were discovered thirty miles to the east of the Canal route, ajid who admits he never had any idea of his whereabouts, has published a map of the route, with a section of the Isthmus! 3. prevost's exploration. The exploration from the Pacific side had no connection what- ever either with the expedition under Mr. Gisborne or that under Lieut. Strain, and requii-es sejiarate notice. Commander Prevost, of her Majesty's steamer Virago, sailed from Panama on Dec. 16, 1853, and ai-rived in the Savana river on the following day. On the 18th he proceeded up the river with a party of 15, including Messrs. Kennish and Nelson, volunteers, interested in the rival route via the Atrato, and passing the Lara mouth, the site of Fuerte del Principe, and the mouth of La Villa, he built a ranclio a little above the latter. From thence he advanced in a N.N.E. direction, cutting a path as he went. After 11 days' journey, in which he had proceeded 22 miles over a level country, crossed by a single ridge from 50 to 60 feet in height, he arrived at the bank of the Chuquanaqua, opposite the mouth of Morti. Here, the provisions bemg much reduced, he sent four men back to the ship, left four at the rancho (No. 10), and proceeded across the river, on his course, with the remaining seven. In the first day's march, on the Atlantic side of the Chuquanaqua, he reached a hiU SO and another 120 feet high. From a tree on the summit of the latter, his native guide, Maria, reported a distant view of the Atlantic to the N.W., and mountains to the N, and N.E. Instead of altering his course to the N.W., he proceeded in the N.N.E. direction, ascended the Cordillera to an elevation of 800 feet, and then descended it to a river rumiing into the Atlantic, most probably the Aglaseniqua. His provisions being then nearly exhausted, he returned to the Chuquanaqua, though being within a few miles of the Atlantic, and reaching rancho No. 10 on the third day from the date of his leaving the four men there, was hoiTified to find the bodies of three of them laid across the path. They were shot, stabbed, and had their throats cut According to the oi)inion of Dr. Ross, they had been forty-eight hours dead. This dreadful event natundly exciting alarm for
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