Sanitation in Panama

by William Crawford Gorgas

Drake in his last expedition attempted to capture Porto Bello. He was repulsed in his attempt to storm the forts, but succeeded in capturing the Spanish fleet in the harbor. He died in the harbor of Porto Bello a few days after the fight, January 28, 1596. His followers placed his body in the flagship of the Spanish fleet, took the ship to the mouth of the harbor and there scuttled her. The island at the mouth of the harbor is still known locally as Drake’s Island. I cannot imagine a more appropriate burial place for Drake than this spot, nor a more fitting tomb than the Spanish flagship. For this was the scene of some of his greatest triumphs over the Spaniards.

Morgan, about seventy years later, succeeded in storming the forts and capturing the town, and Admiral Vernon again captured it in 1730.

In its prosperous days Porto Bello was every fall the scene of the great fair. This was one of the great fairs of the world. The merchants from Spain and Europe, Cuba and Santo Domingo brought their goods to Porto Bello, and at the same time the Spanish treasure fleet collected here for the purpose of starting on its trip to Spain. The merchants from Peru and all the western coast of South America, the western coast of Mexico and the Philippine Islands collected here for the purpose of purchasing from and exchanging with their confrères from the east. All the bullion, gold, silver and precious stones which had been collected at Panama during the year from these same places was now brought on pack mules across the Isthmus on the royal highway, and placed aboard the treasure fleet. The royal highway was not much used at other times; the ordinary route of travel across the Isthmus was north from Panama to Cruces on the Chagres River, and from the mouth of the river by sea to Porto Bello. But this thirty miles of sea trip exposed the traveler to possible capture by the buccaneers who infested these waters. The ordinary merchant, in ordinary times, was willing to take these chances, but when it came to the Imperial treasure collected for a whole year, and to the whole year’s supply of merchandise, they would not risk the attack of the buccaneers, but came across the old highway.

Porto Bello rapidly lost its importance after the revolt of the Spanish colonies in the early part of the nineteenth century. There was no longer any treasure tribute to be shipped to Spain. The building of the railroad in 1855 entirely deprived Porto Bello of the little importance left it by the Spanish colonial revolution, and when we first occupied it, we found nothing but a fishing village of a couple of hundred natives, who lived by fishing and some agriculture. There was a very marked contrast between the squalid native and the carved stone building which made his residence. The walls of many of the public buildings and some of the more opulent private buildings are still standing, and are used by the natives. And the frowning old forts are in an excellent state of preservation.

We placed a large force here which worked the quarry. At first our malarial rate was excessively high, but in a very few months malaria was controlled and the force here got along about as well as at the other places of employment. It was always the case that when our forces occupied a locality, for the first three or four months the malarial rate was high. Of course we could have avoided this if we had been notified two or three weeks beforehand and had sent up a sanitary force to do preliminary work, but such notification was not always possible in the exigencies of construction work.

Porto Bello at first gave us considerable anxiety; we knew its ancient history, and feared that we might not be able to control disease there. But the difficulties appeared no greater there than at several other points occupied by us.

Our laborers and working forces occupied the side of the mountain on the north side of the bay opposite the old town of Porto Bello, and the quarry was worked first where the old fort stood. We soon found that our employees were so much in the town of Porto Bello that they contracted malaria there, and that though we were able to control it in our own village on the mountain side, we could not prevent our people from contracting malaria from the natives in the town of Porto Bello. The town was located outside the Canal Zone, in the jurisdiction of the Republic of Panama. We therefore requested the Panaman Government to appoint the chief sanitary officer the health officer of the town of Porto Bello. It had been generally agreed that wherever it was necessary for the protection of the health of the Canal employees the Panaman Government would surrender this authority to the chief sanitary officer of the Isthmian Canal Commission.

We introduced the same health measures as in the other sanitary districts, which we expect soon to describe, and in a few months had malaria here completely under control. Porto Bello was located well within the San Blas country. Though the inhabitants of the town were Panamanians and recognized the authority of the Republic of Panama, all of the Republic east of this point, in area about one-half of the state of Panama, was entirely uninhabited, except by a few San Blas Indians, not more than thirty thousand all told.

The largest product of these Indians was cocoanuts, and this cocoanut trade employed a considerable number of light draft schooners and canoes. These fleets rendezvoused in the harbor of Porto Bello. They carried on their trade as far east as the Gulf of Atrato, and the city of Cartagena, in Colombia. There was, therefore, a probability of the introduction of infectious disease to the Canal Zone by this route.

To protect ourselves against this disease we had to establish a quarantine station at Porto Bello. The Panaman Government was asked to appoint the chief sanitary officer of the Canal Zone quarantine officer for the port of Porto Bello. This they promptly did.