What will be the future of Panama, it is impossible with any precision to say. Situated as it is about midway between Patagonia and the United States' possessions up to the confines of Oregon, it is most favourably placed; and its commercial facilities in this central position, are almost unrivalled by any port on the western side of this great continent nearer than Valparaiso in the south, or San Francisco in the west.

If it ever has a railroad or a canal connecting the waters of the two oceans, terminating at this point or in the vicinity, it would be scarcely possible to exaggerate the enormous magnitude and amount of the trade, which would follow the completion of either of these means of transit and oceanic intercommunication. What an immensity of traffic would necessarily centre here! How would this wretchedly dilapidated city spring up from ruin and decay, and more than regain its pristine splendour! how would it extend its dimensions; recruit its impoverished finances, and probably become at no very distant period the capital and the commercial metropolis of a wealthy and a widely-spread empire.

The products of China and Japan, and the innumerable fabrics of eastern climes and lands, would assuredly seek this as the easiest and most direct communication with the United States and with Europe; and the route of Cape Horn, so tedious and perilous, would be entirely abandoned.