Let us next consider the Canal as the starting place for Transpacific voyages, the _rôle_ for which it was originally projected in the sixteenth century. In those days the Isthmus of Suez was firmly held by the hostile Moslem, and even if a canal had then been open there, it would not have been available for the commerce of Christian Europe. Thus the discovery of a strait, or the cutting of a canal, at the Isthmus of Panama would at that time have opened to Europeans a shorter seaway to the Orient. But now that the Suez route has been opened for ships, the _Panama Canal will not bring any port in Australia or the East Indies, nor any ice-free port in Asia or Asiatic Islands, nearer to any European port_. Of all ports on the west, that is to say the Old World or "Oriental" side, of the Pacific, only those of New Zealand and some in Siberia will be brought nearer to Liverpool, and that to an insignificant amount. [Illustration: LA BOCA, FROM ANCON HILL.] [Illustration: ANCON CEMETERY.] Distances are, however, much diminished between New York and both the northern and the southern ports of the Oriental Pacific coasts, as the following table shows:-- New York to-- Reduction. Yokohama { by Suez 13,564 } 3,729 miles. { by Panama 9,835 } Shanghai { by Suez 12,514 } 1,629 miles. { by Panama 10,885 } Sydney { by Cape of Good Hope 13,658 } 3,806 miles. { by Panama (_viâ_ Tahiti) 9,852 } Melbourne { by Cape of Good Hope 13,083 } 2,656 miles. { by Panama (_viâ_ Tahiti) 10,427 } Wellington,{ by Straits of Magellan 11,414 } 2,542 miles. N.Z. { by Panama (_viâ_ Tahiti) 8,872 } Since the Canal does not reduce the distances between these places and Europe (except slightly in the case of Wellington), the competitive gain of New York is equal in all cases to the absolute gain in distance. The following figures show the distances from New York to Hong Kong and Manila by the Suez and Panama routes:-- New York to-- Reduction. Hong Kong{ by Suez 11,655 { by Panama 11,744 Manila { by Suez 11,601 } { by Panama, _viâ_ San Francisco } 16 miles. { and Yokohama 11,585 } { by Panama, Honolulu and { Guam 11,729 Ports on the mainland of Asia in these latitudes are of course nearer to New York by way of Suez.