The next point where the communication is practicable, either by water or a short distance by land, where a canal could be cut, or a road made, is between the Gulf of St. Miguel on the Pacific, to the bottom of the Gulf of Darien, due east, and also to the Port de Escoces, or _New Edinburgh_, more to the N. (N. E. by E. from St. Miguel) in the upper part of the Gulf of Darien, on the Atlantic. The distance from the head of the Gulf of St. Miguel to the latter point is 30 miles, and to the former 45 to 50 miles, but with river communications to within 16 miles of the latter, and 10 miles of the former. The Gulf of St. Miguel opens to the Pacific from 8 deg.8' to 8 deg.17' N. lat., and runs E. N. E. and N. E. by E., fully 22 miles into the country, its centre crossing the meridian of 78 deg. W. long. As has been shortly adverted to, the rivers which seem to form the Gulf of St. Miguel run deeply into the country, both to the S. E. and to the N. E., one particularly, the Chuqunaque, with an extremely zigzag course between ridges of mountains, is laid down to within 10 miles of New Edinburgh; which, by the last Admiralty charts, drawn from the best Spanish authorities, is (p. 089) placed in 8 deg. 55' N. lat. and 76 deg. 45' W. long. To the S. E. the source of streams which run into the Gulf of San Miguel spring within 15 miles of the mouth of the Atrato, while branches of each approach within half that distance of each other. The land in this quarter is clearly low, because, for a considerable distance from its mouth, the Atrato runs through a very marshy and flooded country. New Edinburgh, or Port de Escoces, is an excellent port, commodious, and well sheltered, and is the celebrated spot where, in 1699 (one hundred and thirty-eight years ago), the Scotch colony, under the direction of a Scotch clergyman, named Paterson, a most intelligent and enterprising man, was established, in order to open up a communication between both seas, and which was afterwards so shamefully, disgracefully, stupidly, and unguardedly abandoned by the then Government of Great Britain, spurred on to the act by the miserable and contracted commercial rivalry of England and Holland; and afterwards by the jealousies, the fears, and the representations of the Government of Spain, which at that time had really no right to the country, the natives thereof being independent of, and at war with, Spain. The Gulf of Darien is of easy entrance, and penetrates southward to a little beyond the 8 deg. of N. lat., and to the southward of the principal mouth of the Atrato; the centre of the bottom of the Gulf being in the meridian of 76 deg. 55' W. longitude.