The Port of San Juan derives its principal importance from the fact that it is the only possible eastern terminus for the proposed grand inter-oceanic canal, through the territories of Nicaragua, via the river San Juan and Lake Nicaragua; and from the farther circumstance of being the only available port of Nicaragua upon the Atlantic. The harbor is not large, yet it is altogether better and more spacious than is generally supposed. The entrance is easy, and vessels of the largest class find little difficulty in passing the mouth, and obtaining within a safe and commodious anchorage. It has been represented that, in consequence of the peculiar make of the land, it is extremely difficult to be found. This is true to a certain extent; but although the coast in the immediate vicinity is low, yet a short distance back the land is high and marked, and cannot be mistaken. With proper charts, correct sketches of the coasts, and with a lighthouse on Point Arenas, every difficulty would be obviated. This is evident even to the unprofessional observer. The harbor is probably adequate to every purpose connected with the proposed canal. The town of San Juan consists (June, 1850) of fifty or sixty palm thatched houses, or rather huts, arranged with some degree of regularity, upon the south-western shore of the harbor. It is supported entirely by the trade carried on through it; and its inhabitants are dependent upon the supplies brought down from the interior, or furnished from trading vessels, for the means of subsistence. There are no cultivated lands in the vicinity, and excepting the narrow space occupied by the town, and a small number of acres on the island opposite, where a few cattle find pasturage, the primitive forest is unbroken by clearings of any description. The ground upon which the town is built is sandy, and although elevated but a few feet above the water, is, nevertheless, dry. The country all around it is low, and is a short distance back from the shore really marshy, interspersed with numerous lagoons. After penetrating a number of miles into the interior, however, higher land is found, with a soil adapted for every purpose of cultivation.