Sanitation in Panama

by William Crawford Gorgas

Tradition has it that the cause of the enmity between Balboa and Pedrarias was due to the fact that Balboa, being betrothed to the daughter of Pedrarias, became involved in an affair with the daughter of an Indian chief while absent on the south coast building the fleet with which he hoped to conquer the Inca empire. Pedrarias’ daughter, hearing rumors of this affair, became very jealous, and influenced her father’s mind against Balboa, even to the extent of having him beheaded. This is, however, probably pure romance.

The facts seem to be that Pedrarias, being a narrow-minded man and jealous in disposition, gradually became hostile to Balboa on account of the latter’s popularity with the Spanish colonists, as well as with the Indians. Balboa, for a conquistador, was humane in his attitude toward the Indians. For this reason Pedrarias began to make charges against and quarrel with Balboa. Pedrarias, being governor, had absolute power in the Province of Panama, and Balboa, to be successful in fitting out his expedition, knew that he had to have the support of Pedrarias. In his endeavor to placate him and insure his support, Balboa married Pedrarias’ daughter, a child of six years of age. The marriage ceremony was performed by proxy, Pedrarias’ daughter being absent in Spain. Balboa never saw his wife.

Pizarro was one of the lieutenants of Balboa, though as an officer of Pedrarias’ government he was actually in charge of the party that arrested Balboa. Balboa’s death was a great loss to Spain and to Panama. He would in all probability have made a much more humane conqueror of Peru than did Pizarro, and certainly would have made a much abler ruler of that country. He was beheaded at Acla, the capital of Panama at that time, situated on the north coast on Caledonia Bay. All trace of this town has now disappeared.

Panama when first known to the Spaniards, in the early part of the sixteenth century, was a thickly inhabited country, peopled by a mild-mannered Indian population, who lived principally by agriculture. Las Casas makes the statement that during the twenty years in which Pedrarias governed Panama he caused the death of three million Indians. I am inclined to think this a very great exaggeration, but it is evident from the accounts one reads of Balboa’s expeditions that there was a considerable population in the country. As day after day he makes marches from town to town, Balboa describes getting supplies from these towns, and that he was able to procure from five hundred to a thousand porters for carrying the baggage of the expedition. In every town he secured some gold, and none but a very populous country could have furnished the supplies of men and amounts of gold which he describes.

The Republic of Panama is something over half the size of the state of Alabama, containing some 31,571 square miles of territory, and is divided into two parts near its center by the Panama Canal. The western half contains at present all the population of the Republic. The eastern half has no population at all, with the exception of a few wild Indians. In Balboa’s time this eastern half was thickly populated, and contained most of the inhabitants. Columbus looked upon Panama as the richest portion of his American discoveries, particularly from a gold-producing standpoint, and the Spaniards generally shared this opinion. This was such a widespread belief that the country was known as Castilla del Oro.

The importance of Panama was vastly increased by the discovery and conquest of the Inca empire about 1530. Vast quantities of gold and silver bullion passed through Panama on its way to Europe. It seems to be an historical fact, mentioned by Prescott and other writers, that Pizarro exacted from the Inca emperor, Atahuallpa, for his ransom, a room full of gold, the dimensions of which are stated as being twenty-two feet long, seventeen feet wide and nine feet high. An adjoining room of somewhat smaller dimensions Atahuallpa agreed to fill twice over with silver. Such quantities of bullion were introduced into Europe as had never before been dreamed of, and prices rose to what was then considered an extraordinary figure.

The city of Panama became the commercial metropolis of the western hemisphere. The highway between Porto Bello and old Panama became a road over which there was a constant stream of people traveling. All the merchants, officials and colonists going to Peru, western Mexico, and the Spanish possessions in the East Indies used this route, and there was a steady and constant stream of such people going between the colonies and mother country.

About the beginning of the seventeenth century Panama was the chief port for the Spanish trade of the Pacific. This large travel and large business was fortunate for her from a commercial point of view, but it was the cause of her evil reputation as to health. Her location was in the tropics, where the stegomyia mosquito could breed freely all the year round. Yellow fever was early introduced by the Spanish conquistador. Then the constant stream of unacclimated Europeans passing for four hundred years through her borders made conditions ideal for the development and maintenance of yellow fever. And for four hundred years this region has been known as the most unhealthy in America.

As Panama grew in wealth and importance, and it became known what great amounts of treasure were passing through her borders, she became attractive to the English soldiers of fortune. Drake was one of the earliest of these, and his name and fame are intimately associated with the early history of Panama. He first came to the north coast in 1572, and remained in the country nearly two years. He secreted his ships in remote places among the beautiful San Blas Islands, and it was not discovered by the Spaniards just where he was. From this point he made frequent expeditions against the various Spanish possessions.

From Drake’s accounts there was still a considerable Indian population in the country, though not by any means as numerous as in Balboa’s day. This Indian population was bitterly hostile to the Spaniards, who, whenever they could get hold of them, were their harsh and cruel taskmasters. Consequently, the Indians were friendly to the English whom they knew to be the enemies of Spain.