[XXXIII-22] Costa R. has been quite successful. The number of pieces received at and forwarded by the main office at San José in 1883 were 1,377,243, against 549,096, in 1880, and 1,172,259, in 1882. In Nic. the service is a source of considerable expense to the govt. In 1861-2, the expenses were only $5,349. In 1881-2, $39,327; the receipts $19,476, leaving a deficit of $19,851. This is owing to long distances and sparse population. In Hond. the exchange of mail matter amounted in 1880 to 937,331 pieces; the expenses of the department, $17,102. In Guat. the aggregate amount of mail matter was as follows: 1880, 835,906; 1881, 1,039,652; 1882, 1,400,043; 1883, 2,111,366; 1884, 2,912,411. The receipts in 1884, $48,342; expend. $46,017. The appropriation for the fiscal year 1886-7 was computed at $58,812. Costa R., Mem. Sec. Gobern., years 1883-4; Id., Guerra, 1880, 1883; Id., Hac., 1884; Id., Gaceta, Feb. 3, 1885; Pan. Canal, Jan. 13, 1883; Id., Star and Herald, July 2, 1881; Feb. 8, 1883; Sept. 9, 1885; Nic., Informe Sec. Hac., 1875; Id., Id., 1883; Id., Mem. Sec. Gobern., 1883; Salv., Diario Ofic., Feb. 18, Nov. 30, 1875; July 12, Nov. 2, 1878; March 5, 1879; Guat., Mem. Sec. Fomento, 1880-5; Id., Presupuesto Gen., 1886, 18-19; Encyc. Brit., xvi. 492; El Guatemalteco, Feb. 2, Sept. 24, 1884; Batres' Sketch Guat., 69-76.
[XXXIII-23] Crosby's Statem., MS., 3-10. At the sailing of the Panamá there were 2,000 persons to embark for S. F.; four steamships to sail for the same destination; namely, Sarah Sands, Carolina, Isthmus, and Gold Hunter. Early in the summer of the same year there were 4,000 passengers waiting for vessels to take them to Cal., in a place which could hardly afford accommodations for 100. Hundreds of deaths occurred. Pan. Star, March 29, 1850; Sac. Placer Times, i., Apr. 26, 1850; Advent. of a Capt.'s Wife, 18; Cal. Courier, Sept. 14, 1850. The steamer W. H. Aspinwall then began to ply on the River Chagres, between Chagres and Gorgona, which did away with the bongos nuisance. Sac. Transcript, March 14, 1851.
[XXXIII-24] 1850-5 were years of brisk business for the Isthmus. Gold circulated so abundantly that few did not handle gold coin. Provisions ruled high. Silver was so scarce that in 1850 a five-dollar gold piece could buy only 40 dimes. Americans said that Panamá was a better place for business than S. F. Maldonado, Anales Polít. Pan., MS., 7.
[XXXIII-25] 1852-66: passengers, 517,852; gold and silver, $849,157,076; paper money, $19,062,567; jewelry, $513,001; 1855-66: merchandise, mail matter, baggage and coal, 614,535 tons. Mail matter averaged 380 tons yearly. Merchandise steadily increased from 10,658 tons in 1856, the lowest, to 93,414 tons in 1866, the highest; and coal from 8,934 in 1856 to 13,418 in 1866. In 1860 and 1861, the coal transportation exceeded 16,000 tons a year. The total tonnage transported across the road in 1856 was 20,053, which increased every year till it reached 107,590 tons in 1866. The largest number of passengers crossed was in 1859, 46,976, nearly 5,000 in excess of 1858; the smallest number was in 1862, 26,420, being 5,280 less than in 1866. The large travel of 1859 was due to great reduction of passage money by steam lines running in opposition. The gold transported in 1856 was $48,047,692; in 1866, $48,234,463; at no other period did it equal these amounts. Silver showed a gradual increase from $9,439,648 in 1856 to $18,653,239, declining in 1866 to $14,331,751. Paper money was transported by the U. S. govt during the war. Jewelry varied from $192,718 to $844,490, but gradually declined. The tariff rates established by the company Jan. 1, 1865, were as follows: passengers, foreign, $25 each, children of 6 to 12 years one half, under 6, one quarter; Colombians, $10 each. Baggage exceeding 50 lb., 5 cts per lb. Merchandise, special rates: 1st class paying 50 cts per cubic foot; 2d to 6th 1½ cts to ¼ cent respectively per lb. All payments in Am. gold, or its equivalent. Otis' Hist. Pan. R. R., 139-45; Bidwell's Isth. Pan., 277-86, 389-93. In 1867, the value of the transit trade in merchandise and treasure over the route was $92,191,980, and 35,076 passengers. In 1872 the road conveyed 194 millions pounds of weight, 2½ millions of feet, besides 215,000 gallons of oil, 13,952 of wine, and 13,952 passengers. Jülfs, Die Seehäfen, 11. 1878-9, merchandise, 314,220 tons; 1880-4, 1,033,596 tons; the quantity in 1884 was 287,243, not including 10,000 tons of bananas, an increase of 71,518 over 1883. 1880-4, passengers, 1,024,128; the number in 1884 was 515,520, an excess of 75 per cent over 1883; the large increase being mainly due to the operations of the interoceanic canal company, and the transportation of their vast material. Pan. Star and Herald, May 2, 14, 1867; May 17, Sept. 5, 1877; June 23, 1881; Apr. 22, 1885; S. F. Ev'g Bulletin, Apr. 12, 1878; Apr. 2, 1884; S. F. Chronicle, Apr. 3, 1884; Superint. Burt's Report, March 7, 1885; U. S. Govt Doc., Comm. Rel., years 1857-77.
[XXXIII-26] The steamship lines doing such service in 1867 were the following: 1st. The Pacific Mail Co. of N. Y., whose capital in 1847 was $400,000; raised in 1850 to $2,000,000; in 1860 to $4,000,000; and in 1866 to $20,000,000; the lowest estimate of its property being set down in 1867 at $30,000,000. This company has passed through many vicissitudes, as indicated by the stock market. The highest rates attained by its shares were 248 in 1863, 325 in 1864, 329 in 1865, 234 in 1866. Every other year they have been under 200, the highest being in 173½ in 1867. From that time they sank very low, even to 16¼ cents in 1876, the highest that year being 39¼. 2d. Brit. and W. India and Pac. running between Liverpool, W. Ind., W. coast of S. and Cent. Am., and Colon. 3d. Brit. Royal Mail, between Southampton, W. Ind., eastern coast of Mexico, S. and Cent. Am., and Colon. 4th. Brit. Pan., New Zealand, and Australia. 5th. Brit. Pac. Steam Navigation Co., between Pan. and ports of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. 6th. Pan. R. Road Co.'s steamers between Pan. and Acapulco, touching at all Cent. Am. ports. This line finally was merged in the Pacific Mail Co. 7th. Am. Cal. Or. and Mex. Co.'s line running between S. F. and Mex., and between S. F. and Portland, Or., and Island of Vancouver. It was afterward discontinued. 8th. French Transatlantic Co. running between St Nazaire in France, W. Ind., Mex., and Colon. 9th. German line. In 1871 the following arrivals of vessels occurred: steamers, Brit., 84, with 158,579 tons; Am., 25, with 66,813 tons; German, 36, with 42,740 tons; French, 24, with 15,782. Sailing vessels, 56 Brit., 43 Am., 12 German, 4 French, 8 Italian, 112 Colombian, mostly small. Grand total of tonnage, 316,271 tons. Otis' Hist. Pan. R. R., 50-6, 148-60, 169-232; Pan. Star and Herald, May 2, 1867; Apr. 14, 1877; U. S. Gov. Doc., Comm. Rel., 1871-2, 252, 263; Bidwell's Isth. Pan., 353-7. The author of the last-quoted work was British vice-consul at Panamá, and enjoyed leisure and opportunity for gathering facts from many sources, concerning the past and present history of Panamá, as well as on her resources, trade, etc. The arrangement of the book, as he acknowledges, is defective, there being no order—chronological or other—in the information he gives. The description of the social and political condition of the city and country, to the time of his writing, is quite accurate.
[XXXIII-27] Between 1825 and 1830 the expense of conveying a bale of goods overland, including duties and taxes, was $10 or $12.
[XXXIII-28] In 1820 it was deplorable. Córtes, Diario, 1820, iv. 180-2; Gordon's Hist. and Geog. Mem., 48-9.
[XXXIII-29] It was said that $45,000,000 of English manufactures unlawfully crossed the Isthmus for Sp. Am. between 1810 and 1817. Arrillaga, Inf., in Cedulario, iv. no. 1, 72; Alaman, Hist. Méj., iv. 473-4.
[XXXIII-30] Communication was kept up on the Atlantic side with Jamaica by a Brit. man-of-war which twice a month carried letters and specie; with Cartagena by government vessels bimonthly; and with the same and other points by independent traders. On the Pacific traffic was better along the whole coast. In 1825 the spirit of enterprise was rash. Exclusive of small coasters, there came to Chagres 1 ship, 7 brigs from France, 21 schooners from the W. Indies, 6 schooners from the U. S., and 3 from Cartagena. In 1828, these numbers were reduced to about 20 all together. In the same years the entries at Panamá were respectively 17 and 24 vessels. In 1830 trade was in a state of stagnation. Lloyd's Notes Isth. Pan., in Roy. Geog. Soc., i. 96-7; Niles' Reg., xxxviii. 141.
[XXXIII-31] Bocas del Toro was also made a free port. El Arco Iris, July 25, 1847; Molina, der Freistaat, Costa R., 58-9; S. F. Californian, ii., Sept. 29, 1847.