M. de Lesseps suddenly became very pale, but remained silent. His hand, quite cold, let mine go. He carried his handkerchief to his lips, as if to stifle a cry. Then, resuming all his calmness, and drawing himself up to his full height, he murmured, “It is impossible.”
“It is infamous,” exclaimed Madame de Lesseps.
“I could not have believed,” he proceeded, in a sad tone, “that a French Chamber would thus sacrifice all the best interests of the country. Have they then all forgotten that one milliard and a half of French savings (60,000,000l.) are jeopardised by this vote, and they could have saved everything by a reprieve? However, in this appalling crisis I have nothing to reproach myself with. I have done all that was humanly possible to safeguard the interests of each and all, because I know that the final collapse of the Panama Canal would be not only the ruin of the shareholders, but also a calamity for the country, and a disaster for the national flag. What consoles me is the frankness with which our new provisional administrators have hastened to acknowledge that in our operations everything has been clear, honest, and straightforward. They told me so this very day, only an hour ago, and I have no evidence to contradict that. I am also encouraged by the thousands of letters I receive from my subscribers and shareholders, those unknown friends who trust me as they ever did, and who support me with valiant hearts in this last battle. Their name is legion, and to save their earnings I am prepared to make every sacrifice. Nay, even monarchs have sent me telegrams to express their anguish and sympathy. See, I have just opened this letter from Queen Isabella. It is written in Spanish, but I will translate it for you:—
My dear friend, Count de Lesseps,—At the time when difficulties are accumulating around you I feel impelled to tell you how firmly I believe in your great work, which is an object of envy to the whole world, and how much I admire your energy.
(Signed) Isabelle de Bourbon.”
As he concluded the reading of this letter his children came round him and kissed him. “But you will succeed all the same, won’t you, father?” they kept on repeating; and one of the younger children, a little girl about seven, coming up to me, said, “Did the Right vote against papa, Monsieur?” I replied, “I do not think so, Mademoiselle.” She said, “Ah!” and, delighted at having had her say, she rushed into her mother’s arms, who, still thinking of the vote, repeated, “It is infamous, and will drive six hundred thousand subscribers to revolt. It will be the ruin of all these poor folk.”
The experience of the Panama Canal Company, has only been a repetition, on a large scale, of that of the Panama Railway projectors. That line was commenced in 1850 and completed in 1855. The distance which it traverses, between Aspinwall and Panama, is 47½ miles, and the cost of construction was 48,600l. per mile, as compared with an average cost of under 12,000l. per mile for the railways of the United States as a whole. The great summit-level was attained at a height of 264 feet above the mean tide of the Atlantic, and the ascent required gradients of 1 in 18. The greatest source of the heavy expense of the Panama Railroad was the labour difficulty, resulting from the influences of the climate. Of this Dr. Otis[187] says:—
“The working force was increased as rapidly as possible, drawing labourers from almost every quarter of the globe. Irishmen were imported from Ireland, coolies from Hindostan, Chinamen from China, English, French, Germans, and Austrians, amounting in all to more than 7,000 men, were thus gathered in, appropriately, as it were, to construct this highway for all nations. It was now anticipated that, with the enormous forces employed, the time required for the completion of the entire work would be in a ratio proportionate to the numerical increase of labourers, all of whom were supposed to be hardy, able-bodied men. But it was soon found that many of these people, from their previous habits and modes of life, were little adapted to the work for which they had been engaged. The Chinamen, 1000 in number, had been brought to the isthmus by the company, and every possible care taken which could conduce to their health and comfort. Their hill-rice, their tea, and opium in sufficient quantities to last several months, had been imported with them; they were carefully housed and attended to; and it was expected that they would prove efficient and valuable men. But they had been engaged upon the work scarcely a fortnight before almost the entire body became affected with a melancholic suicidal tendency, and scores of them ended their unhappy existence by their own hands. Disease broke out among them, and raged so fiercely that in a few weeks scarcely 200 remained. The freshly-imported Irishmen and Frenchmen also suffered severely, and there was found no other resource but to re-ship them as soon as possible, and replenish from the neighbouring provinces and Jamaica, the natives of which, with the exception of the northmen of America, were found best able to resist the influences of the climate.”
The proposed Panama Canal locks.—The original plans of the Panama Canal provided for a waterway that should be 28 feet below the mean ocean level throughout its entire length. It has since been found that this design would involve an enormous expenditure and a serious delay, and hence the decision in 1888 to provide a series of four locks on the Pacific, and four locks on the Atlantic side. On the Atlantic side, two of the locks were to have a fall of 8 metres (26 feet 5 inches), and two others a fall of 11 metres each (36 feet 3 inches), while on the Pacific side, three locks were to have a fall of 11 metres each (36 feet 3 inches), and one a fall of 8 metres (26 feet 5 inches). The height of the water level on the Pacific side would, therefore, be 41 metres (135·6 feet), and on the Atlantic side it would be 38 metres (125·7 feet). The width of the lock gates was to be 18 metres (59·5 feet), and the length was 180 metres (595·5 feet). The locks and their gates were to be constructed in iron, and it was estimated that 20,000 tons of cast, and 15,000 tons of wrought, iron would be employed in their construction. The effect of this modification of the original plans would, of course, be to reduce the amount of excavation necessary in the Culebra cut by at least one-third, but it would also obviously alter the entire character of the canal as first projected.
The opinion of some engineers appears to be that the frequent opening and shutting of the sluice-gates, with such a considerable pressure of water, would not be without a certain amount of danger. The pressure would be increased little by little until it had been raised to a breadth of 10 metres, and even as much as 15·40 metres. It is not unusual to find a pressure of this extent at dock gates, but in the largest canals hitherto constructed with locks, the pressure has seldom exceeded three to four metres. In order to meet similar cases, it has been proposed, where there was a constant use of a canal at all hours of the day and night, to employ a very large number of small sluices adapted to the slopes of the canal. This expedient has been put in practice in the case of the eight successive sluices known as Neptune’s Staircase, on the Caledonian Canal, and, on the Canal du Midi in France, in the case of the seven sluices of the staircase of Béziers. It is, however, held by Le Génie Civil that such small sluices, although more easy to open and offering perhaps greater resistance, are, nevertheless, not well adapted to the necessarily rapid and constant working of a canal like that of Panama. This expedient having, therefore, been abandoned, there remained that of movable caissons suspended by the upper part, which is known as the Eiffel system. This system, with its movable gate shut, and the recess into which it fits when open on the right, is illustrated in one of the drawings attached to this chapter, while another drawing shows the lock gate open.