However, it was not long afterwards that a project for utilising the isthmus was brought under the consideration of the British Government by General Miranda, of whom we have spoken in another chapter. He wanted Pitt to assist him in his projects for the emancipation of the Spanish colonies, and, as a means to this end, in 1790, proposed that the British should take possession of Darien, and thus further their commerce in the Pacific. Nothing was done at that time, and a few years later Miranda made a second proposition that the United States should join with Great Britain, and open roads and canals for both nations.
Mr. Pitt seems to have agreed to this, and was only prevented from attempting to carry it out by the delay of President Adams. The United States were to furnish ten thousand men, and Great Britain money and ships. In 1801, under Lord Sidmouth, an expedition was actually set on foot, only to collapse at the Peace of Amiens. Again, in 1804, Pitt tried to carry out the project with Miranda, but the condition of Europe stood in the way of expeditions to the Spanish Main.
[Illustration: ATLANTIC ENTRANCE TO DARIEN CANAL.
In enumerating the advantages likely to accrue from the emancipation of South America, a writer in the _Edinburgh Review_ of January, 1809, laid great stress upon a passage across the isthmus. It was the most important to the peaceful intercourse of nations of anything that presented itself to the enterprise of man. So far from being a romantic and chimerical project, it was not only practicable, but easy. The river Chagré, about eighteen leagues westward of Porto Bello, was navigable as far as Cruzes, within five leagues of Panama. But there was even a better route; at about five leagues from its mouth the Chagré received the river Trinidad, which was navigable to Embarcadero, from which Panama was only distant thirty miles through a level country. The ground had been surveyed, and not the practicability only, but the facility of the work _completely ascertained_. Further north was the grand lake of Nicaragua, which by itself almost extended the navigation from sea to sea. The Governor of St. John's Castle (Fort San Juan) had been instructed by the king of Spain to refuse permission to any British subject desirous of passing up or down this lake, "for if ever the English came to a knowledge of its importance and value they would soon make themselves masters of this part of the country."