In April 1842 Maury published a letter[1] to the Honorable T. Butler King about Steam Navigation to China, recommending his "great circle route," which would take in the Fox Islands, and advising that coaling stations should be established there. "You know", he said, that the shortest distance between two points on a plane or flat surface is a straight line; but the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a globe or sphere is a section of a great circle, or a circle which has for its centre the centre of the globe or sphere. Such a curved line is the one I recommend as the shortest route between our Pacific shores and China."
He urged the building of a ship-canal and railroad across the isthmus to the Pacific, and showed the advantages possessed by Panama only forty five miles across, or Nicaragua, over Tehuantepec, which is three times that distance, and has besides no harbour.[2] The expense of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama has been estimated by European engineers at $25,000,000. The summit to be overcome is 275 or 280 feet above the level of the sea. The River Chagres is navigable only for small vessels a part of the year, and for a part of the way across the isthmus, which here is about forty five miles broad. A railway is already in process of construction. A canal across Tehuantepec is out of the question; there are difficulties both of the land and water which make it impracticable. It is useless therefore to discuss the hypothetical advantages of this route.
I am not in possession at present of the information necessary to speak of a canal by the Nicaraguan route, although it offers advantages which are very inviting. There are valuable letters on this subject on file at the
