The Panama Canal

by Duncan E. McKinlay

The History of the Canal

The idea of constructing an artificial water-way between the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Panama is as old as the discovery of America. Christopher Columbus, in early life, became converted to the idea that the world was round, and his studies led him to believe that by sailing in a direct course and sailing far enough, he could circumnavigate the globe and come back to the point from which he started, provided he could keep on that straight course. This belief naturally led him to the conclusion that by sailing westward from Spain, across the Atlantic, he could reach the coasts and the islands of Asia, which about that time were coming into great prominence as a desired market for the exchange of the wares of the producers and the manufacturers of Europe.

RUINS OF SANTA DOMINIE CHURCH, PANAMA.

The only mistake made by Columbus was that he estimated the circumference of the world at about 8,000 miles, instead of over 24,000. Following his theory, Columbus embarked on his first and greatest voyage, and was successful, as we know, in discovering one of the islands of the West Indies. Columbus made four voyages in all to the newly discovered land, but it is doubtful as to whether or not he ever reached the mainland of America. One of his historians claims that on his last voyage he landed upon the coast of Honduras in Central America, and on the land now known as Venezuela, farther toward the south. This fact is of little importance to us at this time. We do know, however, that Columbus died in ignorance of the fact that he had discovered a great continent instead of some of the islands of the East Indies.

Immediately following the death of Columbus, his enterprising lieutenants, men like Vespucci, Ojeda, Balboa, and others of equal prominence, pushed their explorations farther westward, and Balboa, the boldest of the Spanish conquistadores, fitted out an expedition in Hispaniola, which island was then the base of operations of Spanish exploration and conquest, and sailed across the narrow sea to the coast of that portion of Central America we now call Panama.

Balboa established a rendezvous and base of supplies and operations on the coast, and thence continued his journey inland, and on the 23rd of September, 1513, surmounted the heights of Darien, and from that eminence beheld the expansive stretches of watery waste known today as the Pacific Ocean. Balboa, continuing his explorations along the coasts of Panama, soon discovered that the land was not an island, but a continent, and becoming acquainted with the Indians who inhabited the country, he learned that there were two large bodies connected by a smaller body.

Balboa understood this statement to mean two large bodies of water connected by a smaller body of water, and therefore, naturally came to the conclusion that the Indians meant that the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans were connected at some point or other along the isthmus by a natural water-way. What the Indians really meant was that there were two large bodies of land, to the north and south, and that these large bodies were connected by a long, narrow strip of land, part of which he was then exploring.

The Spaniards, naturally eager to extend their explorations into the great western ocean, began to search for the connecting water-way, and this quest was continued by them for nearly half a century; but they finally realized that the two great oceans of the world were separated by the impassable barrier of a continuous chain of mountainous land. The conquerer of Mexico, Cortez, after finishing the subjugation of the Indians of that part of the Spanish possessions, in 1526, was commanded by the King of Spain to proceed to the Isthmus and to assist in the search for the secret water-way.

Cortez answered the command of the King by saying that if he could not find the natural water-way he would proceed to make one. The brave old soldier, all his life trained in the habit of surmounting great difficulties, declared that if there were obstacles and mountains, there were also men with brains and hands, and that if he could not find the water-way as commanded by the King, he would carry out the order by constructing a canal to connect the two oceans. And so, the idea of Columbus being to find a short water-route between Europe and the East Indies and coasts of Asia, by the completion of the Panama Canal, the United States is carrying out the original purpose of efforts of the discoverer of America and the orders of the King of Spain to Cortez, to make an artificial water-way which will shorten the lines of trade and commerce around the globe.

Between those early days and the present time every great maritime nation of the world has been interested in isthmian canal construction—Spain, Portugal, Holland, Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy have all, at one time or another in the intervening years, considered the advisability and feasibility of constructing a canal somewhere across the narrow territory between the Atlantic and Pacific.