After leaving Mexico, Champlain returned to San Juan de Luz, and from there sailed in a patache to Porto Bello, “the most pitiful and evil residence in the world.”  The harbour, however, was good, and well fortified.  From Porto Bello to Panama, which is on the sea, the distance is only seventeen leagues, and it is interesting to read Champlain’s description:—­

“One may judge that if the four leagues of land which there are from Panama to this river were cut through, one might pass from the South Sea to the ocean on the other side, and thus shorten the route by more than fifteen hundred leagues; and from Panama to the Straits of Magellan would be an island, and from Panama to the New-found-lands would be another island, so that the whole of America would be in two islands.”

It is thus seen that the idea of connecting the Atlantic ocean with the Pacific by cutting through the Isthmus of Panama is not a modern one, as it was promulgated by Champlain over three hundred years ago.

At this time Spain was in great need of a good transportation service at the isthmus.  The treasures of Peru were sent to Europe by the Panama route to Porto Bello, from where the ships sailed to the old continent.  The route between the Pacific coast and the Gulf of Mexico was exceedingly bad.  Sometimes the merchants forwarded European goods to Panama, having them transported to Chagres.  Here they were landed in boats and conveyed to Cruces.  From Cruces to Panama mules were employed for the remainder of the journey.  It was, however, the route taken by travellers visiting Peru, Chili, New Granada, Venezuela, and other Spanish possessions on the Pacific coast.  The most regular connection between the two oceans was from Fort Acapulco to Vera Cruz, through Mexico.  If Spain had adopted a better line of communication with her western territories in the New World she might have derived vast treasure from that source.  In the year 1551 Lopez de Gomara, the author of a “History of Indies,” a work written with care and displaying considerable erudition, proposed to unite the two oceans by means of canals at three different points, Chagres, Nicaragua and Tehuantepec.  Gomara’s proposals were not acted upon, and the honour of carrying out the project was reserved for France.  Ferdinand de Lesseps, who succeeded in connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, was the man who, after the lapse of centuries, seriously interested his fellow-countrymen in boring the Isthmus of Panama.

Champlain returned to San Juan de Luz, where he remained for fifteen days, and he then proceeded to Havana, the rendezvous of the army and of the fleet.  Eighteen days later he embarked in a vessel bound for Cartagena, where there was a good port, sheltered from all winds.  Upon his return to Havana Champlain met his general and spent four months in collecting valuable information relating to the interesting island of Cuba.  From Havana he proceeded past the Bahama channel, approached Bermuda Island, Terceira, one of the Azores, and sighted Cape St. Vincent, where he captured two armed English vessels, which were taken to Seville.