A Tour Through South America

by A. S. Forrest

This island of Manzanilla, upon which Colon is built, was passed and repassed many times by Columbus, when, on his fourth and last voyage, he searched so diligently for the Straits which he believed existed. His objective was to reach India, the land of the Grand Khan, and it was only after his ships had been reduced to mere leaking hulks, that he abandoned the search for the opening which he imagined must be there. Four hundred eventful years have passed, yet men’s minds have never ceased from

OLD WHARVES, COLON.

dwelling upon the idea of making a waterway through the narrow neck of land that connects two great continents and divides two vast seas. From the beginning of the eighteenth century, plans have been put forward for the accomplishment of this task; but it was not until the railway across the isthmus was completed in 1854 that any serious thought was given by responsible persons to such projects. The building of the Panama Railway was brought about by the discovery of gold in California in 1849, when hundreds of adventurers from every part of the globe found this the shortest and quickest route to the western El Dorado. The history of how Aspinwall and Stevens accomplished their task of completing this short railway across a fetid tropical country, is one of the finest records of human endurance and perseverance. Sickness and disease thinned the ranks of their labourers, and the graves of hundreds of workers who perished in this enterprise are scattered profusely across the isthmus. There is a legend current in Panama that every tie on the railroad represents a human life. (That this is an exaggeration, anyone who reflects will readily perceive; for it would mean that 150,000 deaths had occurred in the five years, a number ten times greater than the whole population of the isthmus at that period.) Trains carrying thousands of passengers, and tons of goods across the forty-seven miles of track, have never been able to cope with the enormous and increasing traffic. That a canal, through which the largest ships might pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific, would eventually be constructed, few people doubted; and when De Lesseps, fresh from winning his laurels at Suez, undertook to construct a waterway, his enthusiasm quickly spread to thousands of his countrymen, and a French company was formed to carry out his schemes. The history of the French Canal Company is sad reading, and is now almost forgotten. The Panama scandals and the trial of the De Lesseps, father and son, with many others connected with the affair, are things of the past: the United States Government have taken over the assets of the derelict company, and innumerable American citizens are carried annually to the scene of the great undertaking. From the moment the ship leaves New York, all the talk on board is of the isthmus and the canal, and those who have never visited the narrow belt of land look forward eagerly to catching their first glimpse of this much-talked-of country.

But the unfamiliar light that is frequently diffused over all, producing ever-changing and delicate tints of grey, purple, and blue, veils the landscape in indistinctness, so that expectations of beholding a land on which the sun pours down its burning rays, are unrealised, for a deluge of rain almost invariably welcomes the visitor.

Directly the vessel is berthed, the formalities attendant upon landing attract the attention. All the passengers are ordered into the saloon, and are medically examined by the officer of health for the port. Those unable to produce evidence of recent vaccination are promptly operated upon, and negroes and negresses reappear upon deck with crimson stains upon their long black arms, testifying to the work of the lancet.

Frightened mothers and terrified children are sobbing all around, adding to the general din that arises with the arrival of a steamer. The rain still pours from the leaden sky, which seems as if it could never exhaust its weeping grief, and even in the short distance from the shed upon the wharf to a ramshackle bus or cab, the exposure is sufficient to ensure a thorough drenching.

The main street, and indeed all of Colon, has undergone great improvements of recent years. A short drive and Christobal is reached, a kind of suburb of Colon, now within the territory called Canal Zone, owned by the American Government.

A FAMILY PARTY, COLON.