[XXXIV-19] The report of course gives in minute detail the engineering features of the three divisions. The proposed locks have a uniform length of 650 ft between gates, and at least 65 ft of width. The canal is to have a depth of 28 or 30 ft. It is anticipated that a ship can pass from San Juan to Brito in 30 hours. Thirty-two vessels can pass the canal in a day. Excellent materials for construction are at hand. Pan. Star and Herald, Dec. 5, 1885, and San Francisco newspapers.
[XXXIV-20] This latter objection seems to be disproved by the researches of the American engineers. But the great difficulty still remains about the establishment and future maintenance of a deep-water entrance to the canal at San Juan del Norte. Encyclop. Brit. (Am. ed.), iv. 701.
[XXXIV-21] This Isthmus was surveyed in 1520 by two Flemish engineers, who reported adversely. The king for politic reasons would not have the subject mentioned again. So it has been said. Duflot de Mofras, Explor. de l'Oregon, i. 119. The section was repeatedly explored. In 1534 preliminary work for a ship canal was done, under royal order, by Gov. Gama. The Chagres River was made navigable to where the wagon road began. Pan. Céd., in Squier's MSS., xi. 1-6; Andagoya, Carta al Rey., in Id., 8; Garella, Isth. de Pan., 3-5; Datos Biog., in Cartas de Ind., 761. Various schemes were broached in the 17th century, meeting with no encouragement. In 1687 Lionel Wafer was guided by Mandinga Indians from the gulf of San Miguel to Concepcion on the Atlantic side. W. Paterson, from his settlement at Caledonia Harbor, made several journeys into the interior, recommending it to his company for interoceanic traffic. Ulloa and Jorge Juan explored Panamá for a route in 1736. Juan and Ulloa Voy., i. 94; Fitz-Roy, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., xx. 170, 178; Reichardt, Cent. Am., 164-5. A road was opened on the isth. of Darien by Gov. Ariza from Puerto Escocés to Puerto del Príncipe on the Sabana River, which enters the Pacific. Ariza, Darien, MS., 11-12; De Puydt, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., xxxviii. 69; Cullen's Darien, 192-204; Pim's Gate of the Pac., 183-4; Scherzer, Cent. Am., i. 248-9. In 1820 Capt. Illingsworth of the Chilian corvette La Rosa (a) Andes had his shallop drawn across the cordillera, and launched in the Napipi, whence it proceeded to Quibdó or Citerá, near the mouth of the Atrato, where it was found in 1824 by Cochrane, who in examining Darien for a canal route found the obstacles almost insurmountable. Annales des Voy., cliii. 8, 22, 36. Domingo Lopez, a Colombian, traced a line for a canal between Panamá and Portobello. Arosemena, Apuntes Hist., 4. In 1827, C. Friend of the British navy made an excursion from the banks of the Atrato to the bay of Cupica. But the first formal exploration was made, shortly after Friend's tour, by Lloyd of Pres. Bolívar's staff, and Capt. Falmarc, a Swede in the Colombian service, under Bolívar's auspices. After completing their labors in 1829, they declared that a railway, if not a canal, was feasible between Chagres and Panamá. The notes of the expedition were published in Philosophical Trans., for 1830, and in London Geog. Soc., Jour., i. 69-101; Chevalier, Pan., 112-13; Bull. Societé Geog., xiv. 88, 53-66; Democ. Rev., vi. 297-8; Nouv. Annales des Voy., xlviii. 380-1; Garella, Isth. de Pan., 8-9.
[XXXIV-22] Thierry's canal project, 1835; Biddle's survey for a canal, 1836; Morel, soon after Lloyd's survey, in 1837-8, sought a canal route somewhat south of the line from Chagres to Pan. in the angle between the rivers Chagres and Trinidad, through Vino Tinto Lake. In a later survey he kept more to the left; Watts' explorations in 1838; Barnet's survey of Chiriquí in 1839. Niles' Reg., xlviii.; Arosemena, Exámen, 8-34; Pinart, Misc. Papers, no. 1, Decrees 113-17; Pan. Star and Herald, Oct. 4, 1882; Interoc. Canal and Monroe Doct., 23-4; Chevalier, Pan., 117-22; Barnet's Surv., in Chiriquí Imp. Co. Coll.; Pan., Gaceta Ist., Sept. 20, 1841; G. B. Watts, in Am. Geog. and Stat., Soc. Bull., i., pt. iii. 64-80.
[XXXIV-23] Garella's canal, beginning at Limon Bay, was to pass under the Ahogayegua ridge by means of a tunnel 120 ft high and 17,390 ft long, to the bay of Vaca del Monte, 12 miles west of Panamá. The route follows the Bernardino and Caimito valleys on the southern slope, and those of Quebrado and Chagres on the northern. The highest elevation 459 feet above the sea level, the mountain being tunnelled 324 feet 9 in. below its highest point; so that the canal would at the summit be 135 feet above the sea, and require 35 locks. Lloyd, acting for the British government, arrived at the same conclusions. Garella, Projet d'un canal, 11-194, 230; Nouv. Ann. des Voy., cvi. 36-40; U. S. Gov. Doc., H. Com. Rept, 145, p. 70-7, 506-71, Cong. 30, Sess. 2; Arosemena, Exámen, 5-6, 11. Hellert, in 1844-5, explored the Darien from Rio Paya to the Atrato. W. B. Liot, of the Brit. navy, proposed in 1845 a macadamized road, or a railroad from Portobello to Panamá. Capt. Kellet, being informed by Indians that the Napipi River, a tributary of the Atrato, approached very closely to the bay of Cupica, crossed on foot in 1847 till he reached a river which was supposed to flow into the Atlantic. Cullen claimed to have crossed the Darien. In 1849 he found the Sabana River, ascended it, crossed from Cañasas to the sea-shore at Port Escocés and returned. In 1850 and 1851 he crossed several times alone by different routes from the Sabana to Escocés, convinced that this must be the future route for ships. Here are the requisite secure harbors; the highest elevation of the valleys through the ridges is not over 150 feet, which is lower than any level as yet found; locks and tunnel might be avoided; the canal need be only 26 or 27 miles long, two miles through hard rock. Unfortunately, Cullen gave no notes or measurements to prove this. Capt. Fitz-Roy, of the British navy, published a memoir on a communication between the Atrato, by way of its tributary the Napipi or Naipi, and Cupica Bay. Greiff, a Swedish engineer, confirmed his observations. In 1850-1 Chevalier explored the Isthmus for information on interoceanic routes. U. S. Coast Survey, 1868, 260-7; Liot's Pan., etc., p. iii.; Seemann's Voy., i. 220; Davis' Rept, 9-14, and several maps; Cullen's Isth. Darien Ship Canal, 2d ed., 19; Annales des Voy., cliii. 23; Chevalier, in Soc. Géog. Bull., ser. iv., tom. iv., no. 19, pp. 30-70.
[XXXIV-24] The U. S. had the country surveyed in 1833-4 between the Chagres and Panamá. Fairbairn, in United Serv. Jour., 1832, pt ii. 207-9; U. S. Gov. Doc., 4 Ex. Doc. 228, vol. iv., Cong. 25, Sess. 2; Id., Id. 77, vol. iv., Cong. 28, Sess. 1; Id., U. S. Comm. Rep. 145, p. 3, 265-332, Cong. 30, Sess. 2; Pub. Treaties, 1875, p. 558; Nic., Gaceta, Nov. 18, 1848; Niles' Reg., i. 440; Tucker's Monroe Doc., 43-4.
[XXXIV-25] The parties forming the company were William H. Aspinwall, Henry Chauncey, and John L. Stephens, all of New York, who on the 15th of April, 1850, made a contract with the New Granadan government, binding themselves to construct within a given time a railway between a point on the Atlantic and Panamá, for the transportation of travellers, cattle, merchandise, etc., under a fixed tariff of rates. Certain advantages were allowed New Granadan citizens. It is not necessary to state here all the terms of the contract. It was to be in force 49 years, and the New Granadan government was to receive three per centum of the net profits. It subsequently received $10,000 a year additional on the mails. Passengers, merchandise, and everything else passing in transitu over the railroad, were to be free of duties and imposts. The contract was amended July 5, 1867. Under the new arrangement the company was to own the railway for 99 years; and pay the Colombian government one million dollars in gold, and thereafter $250,000 a year in quarterly instalments, Colombian mails passing over the road free of expense. Large grants of land were made to the company, who further bound themselves to carry the railroad to the islands of Naos, Culebra, Perico, and Flamenco, or to some other suitable place on the bay. The prolongation has never been carried out. Bidwell's Isth. Pan., 299-308, 397-417; Pan., Boletin Ofic., Nov. 15, 1867; Id., Gaceta, Oct. 31, 1880; Arosemena, Pan. Prolong. Ferrocarril, 1-18; Pan. Star and Herald, Sept. 3, Oct. 5, 1867; Sept. 12, 13, 28, 1877; Rouhaud, Régions Nouv., 1878-9, p. 343-51; Pan. Mem. Sec. Jen., 1877, 21-2.
[XXXIV-26] The difficulties of the ground and climate, together with scanty resources of the country and scarcity of labor, were overcome. The road runs on the easterly bank of the Chagres River as far as Barbacoas, where it crosses the river over a bridge 625 ft long, 18 ft broad, and 40 ft above the mean level. A full account of the construction may be found in Otis' Hist. Pan. R. R., 1-46; Thornton's Oregon and Cal., ii. 349-52; Pim's Gateway, 192-209, 415-28; Nic., Corr. Ist., May 30, June 12, 1850; De Bow's Encyc., pt ii. 493-4; Fremont's Am. Trav., 171-2, and other authorities too numerous to name here. The construction cost many lives of all nationalities, owing to the climate; and was finally completed with negroes of the Isthmus, Jamaica, the coast of Cartagena and Santa Marta. Maldonado, Asuntos Polít., MS., 6.
[XXXIV-27] Receipts from 1852 to Dec. 31, 1854, $1,026,162; 1855-60, $8,748,026; 1861-6, $12,369,662. Total, $22,143,850. Expenses to end of 1855, including share of profits paid the New Granadan govt, $1,123,081; of 1856-66, $8,748,318. Total, $9,871,399. Net proceeds, $12,272,451. The transit trade has been the main business of the Isthmus. For many years, till the Brit. steamship trade by the straits of Magellan developed, and the overland railway between Omaha and S. F. was completed, almost all merchandise going to or from Europe and the eastern ports of the United States, Cuba, etc., to California, the west coast of South America, and Central America, was sent by way of the Isthmus, including even copper from Bolivia and Chile. Receipts of the railroad 1883-4, $6,306,760. Expenses in same years, $3,979,144. Net proceeds $2,327,616; a net increase of earnings in 1884 over 1883, of $24,032. Further information in the last preceding chapter connected with the Isthmus transit trade. Bidwell's Isth. Pan., 286; Otis' Hist. Pan. R. R., 59-69; Superint. Burt's Rept, March 7, 1885, in Pan. Star and Herald, Apr. 22, 1885; La Estrella de Pan., May 2, 1885.
[XXXIV-28] Pan. Star and Herald, June 23, 1881; Sept. 18, 1882; U. S. Gov. Doc., H. Ex. Doc., Cong. 48, Sess. 1, i. pt 1, 217-19.