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Utilitarian Design for the New World Bentham’s Plan for a Nicaraguan Canal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Miriam Williford
Miriam Williford*
Affiliation:
Winthrop College, Rock Hill, South Carolina
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Extract

A Water passage to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans became a passionate desire of Spain “from the year 1513 in which Núñez de Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean.” When the search for a natural water route failed, Spain decided to build a canal. In 1528 Spain proposed to cut four canals through Middle America: from the Lake of Nicaragua to the South Sea, from the River Chagres to Panama, across the Isthmus of Tecoantepec (sic), and from Nombre de Dios to Panama. In 1800 she added two more possible canal sites to her list, from Rio Grande near Panama to Rio Chagres and from Rio Caymito to the Embarcadero of Rio Trinidad. But none of Spain’s plans came to fruition, and independence came to Spanish America without the construction of an interoceanic canal.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , July 1970 , pp. 75 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1970

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References

1 Napoleón Garella, Engineer-in-chief, Royal Corps of Miners of France, 1842, as quoted in Duval, Miles P. Jr., Cadiz to Cathay. Stanford, 1947, p. 1.Google Scholar

2 As shown on map by Aaron Arrowsmith, published 1 June 1803 in London as it appears in Atlas to Thompson’s Alcedo; Dictionary of America & West Indies by Arrowsmith, A. (London, 1819)Google Scholar, plate XIII.

3 Bentham, Jeremy, The Works of Jeremy Bentham (New York, 1962), XI, 439.Google Scholar

4 de Jovellanos, Gaspar Melchor, Obras (Madrid, 1859), II, 319–320.Google Scholar

5 Bentham Manuscripts, University College Library, University of London (hereinafter cited UCL), fol. 106, pp. 266-267. I wish here to express my thanks to the authorities of University College Library for permission to consult these manuscripts, and particularly to Miss Sheila Williams for her aid and assistance.

6 Mexico at this time included all of New Spain, that is, Central America and Mexico.

7 Bentham used the terms Junctiana and Junctiania interchangeably.

8 UCL, fol. 106, pp. 266-267.

9 Ibid., pp. 268-269.

10 Ibid., p. 270.

11 Ibid., p. 291.

12 Ibid., p. 285.

13 Ibid., p. 270.

14 Ibid., pp. 295-296.

15 Ibid., p. 296.

16 Ibid., p. 272.

17 Ibid., p. 279.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid., p. 274.

20 Ibid.

21 Ibid., pp. 275-277.

22 Ibid., p. 275.

23 Ibid., p. 281.

24 Ibid.,, p. 283.

25 Ibid.,, p. 284.

26 UCL, fol. 60, pp. 16-19. A partial copy of this letter is also found in fol. 12, pp. 387-388.

27 Robinson, William Davis, Memoirs of the Mexican Revolution (London, 1821), II, 285.Google Scholar Robinson generally refers to the Nicaragua route as being in Costa Rica, but states, “The province of Costa Rica or, as it is named by some geographers, Nicaragua . . ., ” II, 276.

28 Edinburgh Review or Critical Journal for October 1808 . . . January 1809, XIII, 277–311 Google ScholarPubMed.

29 UCL, fol. 106, p. 265.

30 UCL, fol. 60, pp. 76-85.

31 Ibid., p. 75. In del Barrio’s memorandum to Bentham, he told Bentham that his was the first family in Guatemala and the only title in Guatemala belonged to his second cousin, a Marquis and that many of both his maternal and paternal relatives in Spain were titled.

32 Ibid., pp. 76-85.

33 Ibid., p. 75. Bentham had wanted del Barrio to ask for an interview, but del Barrio insisted that he simply let Secretary Canning know that he was available should Canning wish to see him. He further informed Bentham that he was leaving the next morning for Paris, where he would inform the British Embassy of his address.

34 del Valle, José Cecilio, Cartas de José Cecilio del Valle. Pròlogo de Rafaél Heliodoro Valle (Tegucigalpa, 1963), p. 203 Google Scholar.

35 UCL, fol. 106, pp. 298-306.

36 Bentham, Works, II, 501.