Only one train each week to connect with the mail steamers was run for several years. Finally, in 1902, the government took up the project with renewed vigour and secured the services of Sir William Van Horne, the man who made possible the Canadian Pacific transcontinental line, and later built the Cuban railways. Hundreds of men were placed at work reconstructing the road, building new bridges and completing the gap to the capital of about seventy miles. This last extension was within the mountain ranges and required some remarkable engineering feats. There are many tunnels and cuts through solid rock and the longest stretch of straight track is less than a mile. This last section was finally opened for traffic on the 19th of January, 1908, and imposing ceremonies were begun that day which continued throughout the entire week. President Cabrera and his cabinet, and the diplomatic corps took part in the ceremonies, and were passengers on the first through passenger train which was run from the capital to the Gulf on that date. The dream of several presidents and the despair of many engineers has at last become a reality, and another ocean-to-ocean line has been thrown open for the world’s commerce.
THE WEEKLY TRAIN ON THE GUATEMALA NORTHERN.
There are no large towns along the line of the Guatemala Northern. Zacapa, a town of about 10,000 inhabitants, is the largest place and contains the railroad shops and offices. From this city it is the ultimate intention to build a branch to San Salvador, the only Central American republic with no Atlantic seaport, and give that republic an opening to the Gulf of Mexico and the near ports of the United States. The first rails for this very feasible project have already been laid and this important line will be of great advantage to American merchants. It is said that the road will be built without delay and I sincerely hope that such will be the case. That word mañana (to-morrow), however, cuts a very important figure in affairs in this part of the world, and money is not always as plentiful as desired.
After leaving Gualan, the next place of importance, the road plunges into the denser tropics, where forests of the graceful bamboo, and the palms which are the personification of grace and beauty, alternate with plains fit for grazing. Ferns, tall canes, and the lianes predominate in vegetation, while birds with strange voices, insects with equally strange shapes and noisy lizards become the visible life of the jungle. The road follows near the Montagua River with its ever-varying shores, where much trouble has been experienced during the rainy season. The large bridge across this stream has been torn away twice during the rainy season, and, in a number of places, the track has been washed away or has slipped into the stream a number of times. Every few miles there are section houses for the accommodation of the track employees built in the sombre forest. The management found it almost impossible to get the Indians to work in these tropical swamps. Hundreds of southern negroes had been brought over, being lured by the promise of $1.50 per day, in gold, and their board. Most of them would leave by the first boat if they had money enough to get back or could work their passage across. A party of twenty-two had just come over on the boat that took me away and a more dejected lot of “cullud gemmen” I never saw, for they had already heard of the life that was in store for them, and they were trying to devise ways and means for their return to “God’s Country,” as one of them called it.
Puerto Barrios, the terminus of this railroad, will be the great distributing centre not alone for Guatemala, but also for San Salvador, which is the smallest but most densely populated of the Central American republics. It is only a four days’ journey from New Orleans and Mobile with the present service, and the nine hundred miles of water could be covered in two and one-half to three days easily. At present it takes fifteen to eighteen days from New York to Guatemala City, via Panama, and nearly as long by the monthly steamer from that city to Puerto Barrios. The steamers from San Francisco to San Jose consume almost an equal amount of time. With proper service Guatemala City could be reached in four days from New Orleans, which would certainly give the United States a great advantage over any European country in the commerce of the future. The distance by rail from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or from Puerto Barrios to San Jose, is two hundred and seventy miles. The opening of the railway will also reduce to an appreciable extent the freight charges which hitherto have been heavy because it was necessary to transport everything on mule back for seventy miles.
At the present time the real Puerto Barrios consists of a single row of lazy, steep-roofed, palm-thatched, native huts, that spring from the very water’s edge. There are four large wooden buildings which shelter the customs officials, local garrison, commandante and officers of the transportation company. There is also a very creditable hotel. The port officers strut around in their gay uniforms and make a very close examination of both incoming and outgoing baggage. Though the population is not numerous, the languages are many, and one can hear Spanish, German, French, English, the sibilant Chinese, and the unintelligible gibberish of the Carib.
A BELLE OF PUERTO BARRIOS.
In addition to the lines already enumerated there is a road about twenty miles in length running from the Pacific port of Ocos inland and which will reach the projected Pan American railway. There is another short road extending from Panzos, at the head of navigation on the Polochic River to Pancajche, a distance of about twenty-eight miles. This road was intended to be built to Coban, a city of twenty-five thousand people, and the largest city on the Gulf side of the mountains. It is an old place founded soon after the conquest, that has been prosperous in times past but is probably no larger now than a half century ago. It is also in a rich coffee section which furnishes the bulk of the commerce from there.