Topographical Map of a Portion of the Isthmus at Darien

Lithographed map of a proposed canal in Panama.

Published to accompany Lionel Gisborne’s The Isthmus of Darien in 1852: Journal of the Expedition of Inquiry for the Junction of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, this map shows a 19th century version of a scheme that was proposed hundred of years earlier by William Patterson, the wealthy Scottish banker who was a main proponent behind the idea of a Scottish settlement in Panama.

The idea was originally for an overland route to connect the oceans that would propel Scotland into a world economic power, but mismanagement, poor planning, disease and the English doomed the colony to failure. Gisborne explored the area much later, and discussed at length the Darien Scheme in his volume containing this map.

The canal was ultimately built in Panama (completed in 1914), but not between Caledonia Bay and Darien Harbor, as proposed here.