CHAPTER III
THE ISTHMUS—THE CANAL—COLON
Two days from Jamaica, six, seven, eight, or nine from New York, one arrives at Colon, eager to witness the wonderful operations now well-nigh concluded, or to behold the finished work, when great ships, no longer halting at the Atlantic shore, shall, through a broad channel among green hills and islands, sail onward to the serene Pacific. Every one knows of the marvellous transformation on the Isthmus during the last ten years, but the most imaginative person, now arriving for the first time, will hardly fancy what it was like in 1903.
Colon, once called the most repulsive, disagreeable, filthy hole of a place in all Christendom, though always a pretty picture from the sea, is at present fair enough on land. The climate only remains unchanged. It still rains—and rains: 130 inches a year: not all the time even in the rainy season, which it is very apt to be, as that continues eight months, from the first of May to January, leaving a dry season of only four. Even in this period it is liable to rain, so it behoves every one to be provided with raincoat and umbrella, if not with overshoes. Everywhere there are good walks and in the towns, paved streets, beyond which the tropical sun soon dries the mud.
The agreeableness of the Isthmian climate as a whole and in various localities, if to some extent indicated by figures, is largely a matter of individual temperament. With little difference in temperature Colon has double the rainfall of Panama with a corresponding excess of humidity. Yet happily for the welfare of the great work and the workers, it has been the fashion on the Isthmus for every one to have local pride; to like his own station the best, whether on either shore, or in one of the pleasant villages along the line. It is genuine summer weather all the year around; not excessive heat, like our days in the 90’s and 100’s; but mostly in the plain 80’s by day, with cooler and comfortable nights.
Historical
This section of the New World was first visited in 1501 by Columbus, who touched at Nombre de Dios and Porto Bello east of Colon, perhaps sailing into Limon Bay; this he certainly did in 1502, naming the place Puerto Naos, Navy Bay, as it was called until recent years. It is just 400 years ago, September 25, 1513, that Vasco Nuñez de Balboa first saw the great Pacific, then named the South Sea,—not, as often said, from the hill near Gorgona, called Balboa, more properly the Cerro Gigante, but from another 120 miles east, as he was crossing the San Blas country. Thence he continued to the Bay San Miguel of Darien. This bold explorer, like many another, fared badly. He was beheaded a few years later at the age of forty-four. In 1519 the site of an Indian fishing village near the farther shore was selected by Governor Pedrarias as that of his future capital, and in 1521, it was made a city by royal decree. This was Old Panama which soon became a place of great wealth and luxury, as for a century or more the rich treasures of Peru passed by this route to Old Spain. Yet it suffered many vicissitudes from fires, buccaneers, and insurrections till at length, when its prosperity had already begun to wane on account of the ships going by the Strait of Magellan, it was captured, plundered, and destroyed, by the freebooter, Henry Morgan, January 19, 1671, never to be rebuilt. January 21, 1673, the new city of Panama, about four miles distant, was dedicated. Until 1821 the Isthmus was under the dominion of Spain, and after that, in spite of numerous insurrections, remained a part of the country of New Granada, later Colombia, until its sudden practical transfer to the United States. On November 3, 1903, its independence was proclaimed, on the sixth the infant Republic was recognized by the United States, and on February 26, 1904, a treaty with the United States was signed by which it became a Protectorate, with a position similar to that of Cuba.
As early as 1527 an explorer from Panama city went from the Pacific up the Rio Grande Valley, crossed the divide by Culebra and sailed down the Chagres River to the Atlantic Ocean. Soon this was a popular route,—to sail up the Chagres to a point fifteen miles from Panama and continue by land to that city. As early as 1534 the idea of a canal occurred to that great monarch, Charles V, who had a route surveyed. Pronounced too expensive even for his great wealth, the project was abandoned, but 381 years later, a far greater canal than he dreamed of will be opened in the very same track which his surveyors followed.
The French Canal
Various canal projects in the meanwhile have been cherished, though the building of the Panama Railroad, 1850-1855, had a deterrent effect on the enterprise; but in May, 1876, the Government of Colombia made a concession for the work to a French Company and operations soon followed. After surveys by Lieutenant Wyse a sea-level canal from Limon Bay to Panama by the pass at Culebra (meaning snake) was decided upon. January 10, 1881, Ferdinand de Lesseps, promoter of the Suez Canal, made the ceremonial beginning at the Pacific entrance, and January 20, 1882, the first excavation was begun near the continental divide where, in the section called the Culebra Cut, work has proceeded ever since except from 1888 to 1891. The French were badly handicapped by disease, Colombian interference, incomplete plans, and insufficient funds, and were injured at home by rumors of sickness, extravagance, etc. In 1887 the sea-level plan was transformed to a lock-level, and February 4, 1889, the company went into the hands of a receiver. Several persons were convicted of fraud including Ferdinand de Lesseps, who, eighty-six years of age, was probably in entire ignorance of the business details. He died soon after.
In 1894 energetic work was recommenced by the new company which continued operations until the Americans took possession, May 4, 1904. $225,000,000 had been spent upon the work for which the United States paid $40,000,000. Recently it was estimated to have been worth $42,799,826. The advantages of the Americans over the French in having political control of the region, modern sanitary methods, better means of excavating, and unlimited money should be considered; and due credit and admiration should be awarded by all to de Lesseps and the Frenchmen who did so much, according to the verdict of praise rendered by our own engineers.