Sanitation in Panama

by William Crawford Gorgas

The San Blas Indians who inhabited this country east of Porto Bello, are a peculiar and interesting people. This was the region first occupied by Balboa and his Spanish companions. They found here a pretty dense population of Indians, Carib in language and probably in descent. Their habits were agricultural and their character rather warlike. They were thoroughly subjugated and were worked by the Spaniards under their apartamiento system. Las Casas states that the governor, Pedro Arias, during his governorship of some twenty years, caused the death of three million Indians in the present state of Panama. I have no doubt that such a figure is a very great exaggeration, but it shows what a very good old Spanish priest thought of the destruction of Indian life due to the cruelties of the conquistador.

Fifty years later when Sir Francis Drake appeared upon the scene, this Indian population had almost disappeared. Sir Francis Drake, in 1572, secreted his three ships in one of the sheltered and well concealed bays among the San Blas Islands, and marched his one hundred Englishmen through all parts of the present San Blas country. His narrative shows that the Indian population was very much less than that described sixty years before by Balboa, marching through the same country. They had been treated so cruelly by the Spaniards that they thoroughly hated them. As they knew that the English were fighting the Spaniards, they were always ready to help the English and give information.

The governor of Panama, all through the colonial period, was constantly trying to overrun this country, and though at various times forts were built in many localities, and these forts garrisoned for a considerable length of time, the country was never conquered, and the Indians after their original conquest by Balboa never recognized the authority of the Spaniards. They early adopted the policy of not allowing, under any pretext whatever, a white man to come into their country. This law they have enforced up to the present time, and still enforce it. Many white men have lost their lives in trying to explore the interior of the San Blas country.

For generations there has been a good deal of commerce in light-draft schooners along the northern coast of the San Blas country. The San Blas Indian himself, like all the other Carib tribes, is a natural-born sailor. You see him miles from shore in his frail dugout, in the roughest sort of weather. It has been his custom for generations to ship aboard sailing-vessels visiting his country, occasionally for very long voyages, as far even as London or New York, so that when you meet him, he is very likely to speak English, and on occasions of state, wear European clothes. In the ten years that we have been at work on the Isthmus the San Blas Indians have acquired considerable confidence in us, and have become quite friendly. They come to the hospitals very freely for treatment and surgical operations, and the men can now be seen almost any day in Colon trading. Whenever they come up to Colon, they wear European clothing. This is of every variety and style, but the hat is always the same, a derby!

The present government of the Republic of Panama has induced the old Chief to recognize formally the authority of the Republic. This has not been brought about by force, but principally by freeing the trade with the Indians of all duties, and by flattering the old Chief.

As an official of the Panaman Government, the Chief is authorized to wear a most splendid gold-laced uniform coat, furnished by the Panaman Government. This will not, however, always retain the allegiance of the old man.

Not very long ago the Panaman Government established a small police station at the extreme end of the northern coast of the Republic. The President of the Republic took occasion to inspect this post, and went down on the only war vessel the Republic possessed, a twenty-ton steam launch. As they passed the island in San Blas Bay on which was located the principal town of the Indians, the old Chief ran up the Colombian flag, and notified the President that he had changed his allegiance from Panama to Colombia. As the old fellow controlled a full quarter of the territory of Panama, this meant a good deal to the Republic, but the President very wisely made no attempt at force. He granted the few unimportant requests of the Indians; increased the old Chief in his rank; gave him a new coat with more lace than the former, and the flag of Panama now floats serenely where the Colombian flag then floated.

While the Indians recognize the overlordship of the Republic of Panama, I doubt if the President, or any other white official, would be allowed to spend a night in the San Blas country, nor would they during our whole stay on the Isthmus allow any official of the Canal Commission to spend a night in this domain.

Some years ago the Indians reported to me that they had yellow fever among their people, and requested my help. As their territory came directly up to the Canal Zone, it was important for us to know whether or not this was really true. A party of sanitary officials, consisting of Dr. Carter, Major Lyster, myself and others, went down on a steamer to investigate. We went by appointment to the principal town. The Indians were very glad to see us, and received us most hospitably. It was a very picturesque scene as we approached the landing. The whole population was drawn up on the beach in their gala attire, to do us honor. The women, who had probably never before seen a white man, were dressed very much as described by the earlier explorers in the middle of the seventeenth century; a skirt of some bright material and a scarf of brilliant red around the shoulders; gold ornaments in great profusion; nose rings, ear-rings, heavy bracelets on the upper arm and around the ankles. A most peculiar custom among the young women was that of binding very tightly around the calves of both legs a band of beadwork, from four to six inches broad. Some had the same band on the upper arm. This band had been worn so long and was so tight that it had made a deep, permanent depression in the muscular tissue; enough I should have thought to cause some lameness, but in no case could I see that it interfered with locomotion. The early explorers also refer to this custom.

Another custom which I have seen referred to and which attracted our attention among these Indians, is the manner in which the women smoke their cigars. I saw many of them putting the lighted end in their mouths and smoking the cigar by drawing the air through it that way.