All the officials were highly paid, and lived in residences which were surrounded by spacious ornamental grounds laid out at superfluous expense.
But the labourers imported from Jamaica and other West Indian islands were, on the other hand, housed so badly and with such lack of all proper sanitary precautions that sickness and disease quickly devastated their ranks.
The Panama Railway had been acquired at almost three times its market price. The defence afterwards made for this was that an understanding with the railway company was essential, as the shares were held in few hands, and the proprietors of these were becoming exorbitant.
BARBADIAN LABOURER ON THE ZONE
Losses occurred in September, 1882, when the railway and works were partly destroyed by earthquake, whilst three years later, in a rebellion which broke out, Colon suffered severe damage by fire.
At the end of 1884 little of the actual work of excavation had been accomplished, but the preliminary plans had been prepared and soundings taken. The line of route had also been cleared of tropical vegetation, dwellings and barracks erected for the employees, hospitals built, and large supplies of materials of all kinds were at command.
Twenty contracting firms had the work pieced out amongst them. At this time the Panama Canal Company had raised and received close upon £19,000,000, of which sum it had expended about £14,750,000, too heavy a proportion of which had gone in preliminary expenses. A further sum of £5,500,000 was raised by the issue of 4 per cent bonds, but a year later only about one-tenth of the actual work of excavation had been accomplished.
This state of affairs gave rise to a great deal of adverse criticism, and the adoption of a high-level canal with locks began to be thought of as a less costly and more expeditious scheme—for it had now become so extremely difficult for the company to raise money, that successive reductions had to be made in the amount of proposed excavation work. It was even seriously proposed to build a lock-level canal, with a summit-level of one hundred and ten feet above mean ocean-level; and it was only on the reorganisation of the enterprise and the extension of the time limit that a modification was made to a plan with a summit-level of sixty-one feet. But the slow progress of the work and the continual alteration of the plans and details, combined with the enormous sums of money already swallowed up, had shaken public confidence. Financial aid from at least two large banking institutions and from syndicates formed for the purpose was obtained at a ruinous price. By the end of 1887 the funds of the company had again sunk very low, and it was estimated that a further £12,000,000 would be required within a year.
De Lesseps, who had paid another visit to the isthmus and sailed three miles up the Chagres River, still declared that the work would be ultimately completed, and obtained the sanction of the French Parliament for the issue of lottery bonds. This sanction was not obtained without considerable expenditure; one Cabinet Minister stipulating for a million francs, half to be paid when he introduced the Bill, and the balance when the Bill passed.