The time has not yet come when the true history of the Panama Canal Scheme can be written. It may have been an ill-judged project, or it may not. It has, however, had enormous difficulties to contend with. Those difficulties began with the climate, continued with the administration and finances, and concluded with the open hostility of very many individuals and interests that were never very friendly to its success. The enterprise was essentially French, alike in its conception, initiation, engineering, and finances. The phenomenal success that attended the Suez Canal probably led the majority of the unfortunate people who put money into the Panama Canal to suppose that it was to be another Egyptian Canal “writ large;” but there has also been a strong feeling of esprit de corps, which we cannot fail to admire, however disastrously it may have turned out for themselves, which the French have put into this matter. The truth is that the French people have come to regard themselves as a royal race in canal construction. The Languedoc Canal, which they constructed in the reign of Louis XIV. cost 14,000,000 livres, and marked a new epoch in the history of canal construction.[202] Of the Suez Canal, the leading features of which are so well known, it is unnecessary to say more than that its success has not only been phenomenal, but has been achieved in the face of the most discouraging attitude on the part of the engineers of other countries, including England. At the time that the Panama Canal was being promoted, M. de Lesseps was able to point his countrymen to the fact that the shares in the Suez Canal, which had been issued at 500 francs, had risen to a value of 2200 francs, while the debentures issued at 300 francs were worth 565. The impressionable French people did not stay to recollect that the two enterprises were totally different in character, in cost, in accessibility, in practicability, and in prospects. And it is only fair to recollect that the original estimate of the cost of the canal has been largely exceeded by circumstances that were hardly capable of being foreseen. The repeated attacks made by inimical interests, led to the company having to borrow on higher terms, as well as to the suspension of work on the isthmus for nearly a year. A much larger amount and higher rate of interest has had to be paid to share and debenture holders than was ever expected. The Company have also had to contend with a want of navvies, and with labour disturbance, that told unfavourably on their interests.
The Report of the Special Commission appointed in 1889 to inquire into the affairs of the Panama Canal was published in May, 1890, and describes in detail the position of the undertaking. It is estimated that some 30 millions will be required to complete it, so that its ultimate construction does not appear at present very probable.
FOOTNOTES
CHAPTER XXI
[165] In 1588 P. Acosta, an old Spanish historian, wrote, with reference to the proposal to construct a canal between the two oceans, that “it would be just to fear the vengeance of Heaven for attempting such a work.”
[166] William Paterson, the originator of the Darien Expedition, was also the founder of the Bank of England.
[167] Dampier was born in Somersetshire in 1652. In 1673 he served in the Dutch war under Sir Edward Sprague. He was afterwards for some years overseer of a plantation in Jamaica. Several vicissitudes of fortune followed, and it is stated that for a time he was one of a band of pirates who roved about the Peruvian coasts. He made several voyages to the northern coast of Mexico, to the East Indies, and to the islands in the Pacific. His ‘Voyages’ have been many times reprinted.
[168] Lionel Wafer was bred a surgeon in London, and in 1677 embarked as such on board a ship bound for Bantam. He afterwards engaged with Linch and Cook, two celebrated buccaneers, which brought him into the company of Dampier. The two did not, however, agree, and Wafer was left on shore on the Isthmus of Darien, where he spent some years among the Indians. He returned to England in 1690, and published an account of his adventures.
[169] De Ulloas was born at Seville in 1716. He distinguished himself as an engineer and man of science. In 1730 he was sent to Peru to measure a degree of meridian, and remained nearly ten years in South America. Afterwards visiting England, he contributed several papers to the Royal Society, and was appointed by Ferdinand III. to collect information as to the condition of the arts and sciences in Europe.
[170] Letter to Mr. F. Kelly, in ‘Proceedings’ of the Royal Geographical Society for 1856.
[171] Vide ‘Philosophical Trans.,’ 1830, p. 62 _et seq._