“Ginger snaps!” interrupted Tubby. “Is there anything, except Coney Island, that he didn’t discover?”
“Shut up, can’t you,” cried Merritt indignantly. “Go on, Rob, it’s just the nature of the beast. Never mind him.”
“Well,” resumed Rob, “Columbus discovered the Chagres River and sailed up it. He called the beautiful harbor by which he entered it Porto Bello. Then came Balboa, who was the first to cross the Isthmus and view the Pacific. It was about this time that a road was built across and the city of Panama founded on the Pacific side. It was from Panama that Pizarro set out to begin his brutal campaign which ended in the practical extinction of the Incas of Peru.”
“Oh, cut out the history and let’s get down to the canal,” muttered Tubby; “I hate history, anyhow.”
“It’s my belief that you like nothing but eating,” declared Merritt indignantly.
“And sleeping,” put in Tubby without a smile.
“The road was fifty miles long and well paved and provided with substantial bridges, some of which are yet standing although the road is almost impassable,” went on Rob. “It was the war between Mexico and Uncle Sam in 1846-47 that brought about a change. But in the meantime, I forgot to tell you that old Panama was sacked by Captain Henry Morgan and his pirates in 1671, great stores of gold taken and the inhabitants put to the torture. The city was never rebuilt, but its ruins still stand some miles from the site of the present city.”
“Well, what happened in the Mexican war?” asked Tubby.
“I’m coming to that. At that time there were not more than 9,000 miles of railroad in America, and it was a hard matter to get as far west as Chicago by rail.
“Between the East and the Pacific Coast lay great prairies, practically unexplored. Indians were thickly scattered over this region and very hostile to the white man. The journey across took months. The lack of a short route to the Pacific coast set everybody to thinking. Then, in 1849, came the great gold rush to California. Hundreds of miners went by way of the Isthmus, but there was no railroad and they got sick, and many of them died on the way across. It became clear that there must be a railroad and, at last, in 1855, after unheard of difficulties had been mastered, one was completed with American capital.