When, however, the power of Spain began to decline and her hold over her colonies gradually relaxed, a quickened interest arose in the Panama trade route, whilst the ever-increasing wealth pouring across the isthmus on mules’ backs or men’s shoulders, continually emphasised the necessity for better facilities of transit. By the end of the eighteenth century it had come to be recognised on all sides that the interests of international commerce demanded the opening up of a line of communication across this strip of land; and the construction of other canals such as the Caledonian and the Forth and Clyde, gave an impetus to the idea of a waterway from the Atlantic to the Pacific at a favourable point. The early years of the next century saw the first of a number of explorations with the object of determining the most favourable point, and in 1827 Bolivar, the liberator of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru from the yoke of Spain, commissioned Captain Lloyd and M. Falmarc to survey the isthmus. It seems but natural that these two explorers should start from Panama and follow the old road to Cruces. From that point they worked their way down the River Chagres to within a few miles of where it empties itself into the Atlantic. Their observations led them to the opinion that a canal scheme was premature, and for immediate purposes they recommended a combined rail and water route, by means of a short canal from Limon Bay to the Chagres River, and the use of its tributary the Trinidad, to a spot favourable for a junction whence a railway could be established to the Pacific coast either at Panama or Chorrera. It is curious how subsequent events have endorsed the ideas of these two men, and that developments have followed so closely upon the lines they suggested, by the construction, in the first instance, of a railway the whole distance from Limon Bay to Panama, and then by the present undertaking of a canal to follow almost the same route. Whether Bolivar purposed carrying out the ideas of the pioneers he sent forth, or was merely calculating possibilities, was never known; for by one of those frequent internal rearrangements which afflict South American republics, New Granada separated from Colombia and formed itself into an independent state. Thirty years before Bolivar had instigated a survey for canal purposes in the Central American isthmus, Napoleon I had ordered a survey of the Isthmus of Suez with the idea of connecting by canal the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Possibly this was the origin of the fascination which canal building seems ever since to have exercised over certain minds in France. The New Granada State had not been long in existence as a separate national entity, ere a French company succeeded in obtaining from its Government a concession for the construction of highways, railroads, or canals, from Panama to the Atlantic coast.