THE STORY PANAMA AUSE & CARR BANCROFT LIBRARY > THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA T = -. ' ' ,"-' , B) 2 THE STORY OF PANAMA THE NEW ROUTE TO INDIA BY FRANK A. GAUSE SUPERINTENDENT CANAL ZONE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND CHARLES CARL CARR PRINCIPAL CANAL ZONE PUBLIC HIOH SCHOOL SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO OOPTBIGHT, 1912, BT 8ILVEE, BURDETT AND COMPANY BANCROFT LIBRARY PREFACE THE attention of the world is now turned upon Panama. For Panama that is no new experience. American history had its beginnings in this part of the world. From the day when Columbus found his path to the Indies obstructed by the low-lying Isthmus, a shorter route to India has been the dream of men and of nations. So the story of Panama involves an account of great exploits and of great achievements. There were the daring explorers and the hardy buccaneers ; then the stirring days of canal making, with Panama as the scene of the greatest engineering feat of modern times; and already there are evidences of coming expansion in new directions, following the operation of the canal. Yet this great canal only represents improved facilities for handling a long-established transisth- mian traffic. There were trade routes and trade centers on the Isthmus of Panama half a century before the foundations of St. Augustine were laid, and a century before the first permanent English colony in North America was established at James- town. If present plans materialize, the Isthmian VI PREFACE canal will be dedicated to the world's commerce on the four hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the old Royal Road, the first commercial high- way across the two Americas. The story of the canal as an engineering project has already been written in engineering terms, for engineers. Its picturesque features have also been displayed in many forms by writers whose acquaint- ance with the work and with the country was neces- sarily limited to the observations of a few days. But there still seems to be place for an account of the principal features of the construction as witnessed during several years' residence in the Canal Zone. Because of the authors' long acquaintance with the country and association with the actual work THE STORY OF PANAMA tells at first hand of life and conditions in Panama ; and it is hoped that it will do something toward correcting misapprehensions and arousing new interest. The authors owe much to the Canal Zone officials and to the officials of the Republic of Panama, who have accorded them every courtesy in the prepara- tion of this book and have given them access to many unusual illustrations. ANCON, CANAL ZONE, October 31, 1912. CONTENTS PART ONE: CANAL MAKING CHAPTER PAGE I. THE BIRTH OF THE PROJECT 1 II. THE FRENCH ATTEMPT . . . . . . 7 III. PANAMA BECOMES A REPUBLIC 17 IV. ON THE WORKS 30 V. THE Bio CUT 78 VI. ORGANIZATION 97 VII. QUARTERMASTER'S DEPARTMENT .... 101 VIII. SANITATION Ill IX. SUBSISTENCE DEPARTMENT 124 X. DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ADMINISTRATION . . . 132 XI. OTHER DEPARTMENTS 150 PART TWO: THE CANAL COUNTRY I. COLUMBUS 159 II. BALBOA 168 III. THE ROYAL ROAD 179 IV. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE 196 V. MORGAN'S ISTHMIAN RAIDS 205 VI. PANAMA AND THE PIRATES 218 VII. THE LAND OF DREAMS 227 VIII. THE PANAMA OF TO-DAY 243 IX. THE PANAMA RAILROAD 258 X. DIPLOMACY OF Two HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS 268 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PART ONE MM MAP OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA, (In color) MAP OF THE CANAL ZONE, (In color) THE COLUMBUS MONUMENT AT CRISTOBAL . . . xvi LANDS THAT COLUMBUS DISCOVERED 5 THE FOUR MOST FAVORABLE ROUTES .... 5 TOSCANELLI'S MAP OF THE WORLD 5 INTERSECTION OF AMERICAN AND FRENCH CANALS . . 6 IDLE SINCE THE FRENCH DAYJ 11 CULEBRA CUT AS THE FRENCH LEFT IT . . . .11 AN OLD ANCHOR FOUND NEAR CRUCES .... 15 CULEBRA CUT EXCAVATIONS 16 PESTILENTIAL PANAMA OF FRENCH DAYS .... 23 TRANSFORMED PANAMA OF AMERICAN DAYS ... 24 JUST OFF CRISTOBAL 31 ROOSEVELT AVENUE, CRISTOBAL 35 CAMP BIERD, THE WEST INDIAN SECTION OF CRISTOBAL 39 DIAGRAM OF LADDER DREDGE 41 A PAIR OF THE BIG GATES, GATUN LOCKS ... 45 THE GREAT WATER PIPE IN THE " FILL" ... 49 LOADING BUCKETS WITH CEMENT, AT GATUN ... 49 GATUN DAM, SPILLWAY AND LOCKS 51 DIAGRAM OF SPILLWAY 52 "BEFORE" . . 53 ix X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGB "AFTER" 54 DIAGRAM OF CROSS-SECTION OF LOCKS .... 58 MONOLITHS IN MIDDLE WALL, UPPER GATUN ... 59 GATUN UPPER LOCKS, SHOWING GATE SILLS ... 59 WEST CHAMBER, GATUN UPPER LOCKS .... 63 FOREBAY AND LlFT SlLL, GATUN LOCKS .... 63 A TYPICAL LABOR TRAIN . . .. . . . .67 TRACK SHIFTING MACHINE 73 MOSQUITOES 75 PAY CAR AT CULEBRA 79 CULEBRA SLIDE, WEST BANK, LOOKING SOUTH ... 80 CULEBRA CUT, CROSS SECTION 81 STEAM SHOVEL LOADING ROCK, CULEBRA CUT ... 83 BOTTOM OF CANAL RAISED THROUGH PRESSURE . . 84 CULEBRA CUT FROM CONTRACTOR'S HILL .... 84 A SEAGOING SUCTION DREDGE 87 PEDRO MIGUEL LOCKS, LOOKING SOUTH .... 88 PEDRO MIGUEL LOCKS, LOOKING NORTH .... 88 ON THE WAY FROM BALBOA TO ANCON .... 91 HOTEL TIVOLI 92 THE ISTHMIAN CANAL COMMISSION 96 ORGANIZATION CHART 99 SLEEPING QUARTERS FOR NEGROES 105 LABOR QUARTERS 105 A BEDROOM IN FAMILY QUARTERS 106 Y. M. C. A. CLUBHOUSE 106 MALARIA CHART 113 APPLYING LARVACIDE WITH KNAPSACK SPRAY . . . 119 BURNING GRASS FROM SIDES OF A DITCH .... 119 ENTRANCE TO ANCON HOSPITAL GROUNDS .... 120 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XI PACK I. C. C. SANITARIUM AT TABOGA 120 MEAL TIME AT AN I. C. C. KITCHEN 129 SQUAD OF CANAL ZONE MOUNTED POLICE. . . .139 A QUARTERMASTER'S CORRAL 139 SCHOOL GARDEN AT EMPIRE 147 PRIMARY GRADES AT PLAY, GATUN WHITE SCHOOL . 148 NATIVE SCHOOL, SAN MIGUEL 148 PART TWO CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS ....... 161 BALBOA DISCOVERING THE PACIFIC OCEAN . . . 173 "MORGAN'S BRIDGE," ENTRANCE TO OLD PANAMA . . 181 A GLIMPSE OF THE ROYAL ROAD 181 HISTORIC VILLAGES AS THEY ARE TO-DAY . . .185 PORTO BELLO, SHOWING CANAL ZONE VILLAGE . . . 193 OLD PORTO BELLO AS IT is TO-DAY 194 THE PANAMA TREE 197 FORT LORENZO OF TO-DAY 213 RUINS OF A SENTRY Box 231 TOWER OF ST. ANASTASIUS 223 SAN BLAS INDIANS AT ARMILLA 229 NATIVES POUNDING RICE 237 WASH DAY AT TABOGA 238 SAN BLAS INDIAN WOMAN 241 CHIRIQUI VOLCANO AND BOQUETE VALLEY . . . 247 NATIVE HOTEL, DAVID 247 PATIO SCENE NEAR DAVID 248 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DAY, DAVID 248 PEARL ISLANDS, PANAMA BAY 253 PEARL DIVERS 253 Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGK THE PANAMA LOTTERY 253 SKATING ON SEA WALL 253 AT FORT LORENZO . 254 IN THE JUNGLE 265 GATHERING COCONUTS . . . . . . .266 A PINEAPPLE PLANTATION 266 CITY OF PANAMA, FROM ANCON HILL .... 271 THE GOVERNMENT PALACE, PANAMA 272 CATHEDRAL PLAZA, PANAMA 277 INSTALLING THE WATER SYSTEM, PANAMA . . . 277 PAET ONE CANAL MAKING THE COLUMBUS MONUMENT AT CRISTOBAL CHAPTER I THE BIRTH OF THE PROJECT WHEN Columbus, searching for a new route to the Orient, chanced to land in the West Indies, the natives there told him strange stories about a strait through which one might travel westward into waters that led directly to the land for which he was seeking. His belief in these stories increased as his later voyages took him closer and closer to the western continent and finally to the mainland itself. In those days maps were based on beliefs as well as on facts. The faith Columbus had in this secret strait which he had never seen is shown in the map that was inspired by him, although not published until two years after his death. This map has no Isthmus of Panama, but shows in its place a strait permitting direct passage from Europe to India. Following Columbus came Balboa with his ex- ploration of the Isthmus and his discovery of the Pacific Ocean. Curiously enough, the legend of a strait still persisted. The Indians told Balboa that across the newly discovered isthmus there was an all-water connection between the Atlantic Ocean and the " South Sea." Balboa believed this story l 2 THE STORY OF PANAMA just as Columbus had believed the legend told him by other Indian tribes. Geographers and explorers accepted the existence of this unseen strait, and the discovery of the elusive and mysterious stream became the chief incentive to most of the exploration up and down the coast. The explorers never found the strait, but out of their failure grew the idea of digging a waterway to connect the two oceans. And so the Panama Canal is not a project of the twentieth century; nor yet of the nineteenth. The conception dates back to 1523. The project was first proposed to Charles V of Spain fully two hundred and fifty years before the birth of the nation destined to construct the canal. It was Hernando Cortez, the Spanish conqueror of Mexico, who first proposed making the great waterway. Cortez was sent by his monarch, Charles V, to find the strait which was said to connect the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. He searched dili- gently along the Spanish Main, with an expenditure of much time, energy and money. Failing to find this mythical stream, the stern old conquistador determined upon the brilliant expedient of making a strait. His plans were cut short by the treachery of his followers, but he deserves men- tion as the pioneer in a movement which men were destined to exploit for four centuries. He en- THE BIRTH OF THE PROJECT 3 couraged his cousin, Alvaro de Saavedra Ceron, to follow up his work; and Saavedra finally drew plans -for four transisthmian water routes, intending to submit these plans to the king of Spain. The routes which Saavedra had in mind were the four that have received most attention in later years Darien, Nicaragua, Tehuantepec and Pan- ama; but he did not live long enough to develop any one of these plans. Then Charles V encouraged other explorers to continue the search for a natural water route. It was not until the abdication of Charles V and the accession of Philip II that the Spanish ceased the attempt either to find an all- water passage or to pierce the Isthmus. Philip II introduced a reactionary policy which put an end to Spanish enterprise along that line for almost a hundred years. After an unfavorable report from Antonelli, who had been sent out by the king to survey the Nicaraguan route, Philip laid the matter before his Dominican friars, who in reply quoted from the Bible, "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." Decid- ing that this passage referred directly to Panama, the Spanish king forbade any further attempts at canal making as sacrilegious. From the tune that Cortez conceived the idea of making a strait to the first attempt at its actual accomplishment, three and a half centuries later, the 4 THE STORY OF PANAMA Isthmus of Panama was the center of stirring events. The conquest of Peru, the pirate raids of Drake and of Morgan, the diplomatic skirmishes of England and Spain, all contributed to keep Panama hi the eye of the world. The United States had been slow to recognize the commercial necessity for a transisthmian canal, but the subject was frequently considered in Congress during the first half of the nineteenth century. One commissioner after another was sent to investi- gate possible routes and to approach the states of Central America whose cooperation was essential to any such project. Various plans were made, and at several different times a canal under American con- trol seemed to be assured ; but always some insuper- able difficulty was encountered. While canal building was still under discussion, three enterprising Americans built the Panama rail- road, which for a time served to relieve the impera- tive demand for transcontinental transportation. During the late fifties and early sixties the United States was too deeply engrossed with the vital issues of the Civil War to consider canal construc- tion; and before the country was prepared to take the matter up in all earnestness the French were ready to engineer and to finance a canal. This was not, however, their first Isthmian Canal project, for they had previously made several attempts. ) . EQUATOR (JO ^ N N / "" TOSCAXK LLPS MAP OF eAMMCjmT 1474 Cotumbut taw Mu map /ur * tailed. It rjplaint the gmtral iilta of tkt M u/ M )lur( PANAMA BECOMES A REPUBLIC 25 had the support of Philippe Bunau-Varilla, a promi- nent French engineer, who had his heart set on see- ing the Panama Canal built by the United States. Bunau-Varilla lent his aid to the revolutionary junta, and was selected by it to represent Panama in framing a canal treaty with the United States. Upon Amador's return the wheels of revolution were set in motion. November 4, 1903, was set for the date of the coup, but it was precipitated a day earlier by Colombia herself. Alarmed at last, the government at Bogota sent an "army" to Panama. This army, which was representative of the disorganized con- dition of Colombia at the tune, consisted of four hundred and fifty soldiers. They arrived in Colon, but found that the Panama Railroad would not transport them without carfare a thing they did not have. The fifteen officers succeeded in getting together the price of transportation to Panama City ; they had to leave then 1 forces bivouacked in the streets of Colon. The officers were met with all courtesy by General Huertas, a Panamanian patriot, who was heart and soul in the revolutionary movement. They were entertained at dinner, but when they asked to see the sea wall they were arrested by General Huertas, at a prearranged signal, and were informed that they were prisoners of war; Panama was independent. 26 THE STORY OF PANAMA Protestation availing nothing, the Colombians could get out of their plight only by acquiescing gracefully. Meanwhile their soldiers in Colon were being looked after by the citizens and by the Panama Railroad; they were prevented from doing any damage. Five days later the whole Colombian force departed from the Isthmus. The revolution, effected in a day, was practically bloodless the only life lost was that of a Chinese coolie who was killed in Panama when one of the three Colombian gunboats fired its only shot into the city. The other two boats raised the Panamanian flag. The local officers of Colombia were arrested as a matter of form ; but most of them, like Governor Obaldia, were glad to enroll themselves later as citi- zens of Panama. On November 4, Panama was declared a free and independent republic, and on November 7 the United States recognized the Provisional Govern- ment. By January, 1904, practically all the nations of the world had recognized the independence of Panama. Within three months from the date of its Declara- tion of Independence, Panama had become a self- governing Republic. A constitution was drawn up, and by February 13, 1904, it had been signed by the deputies to the Constitutional Convention and by nearly all the leading Panamanians. The Republic PANAMA BECOMES A REPUBLIC 27 is centralized in form, though the municipal districts in the various provinces have almost unlimited powers of local government. The executive power is vested in the president, elected for four years, with the power of appointing not only his own cabinet, but also the governors of the different provinces. His executive orders, however, must be countersigned by the secretary of state hi the particular depart- ment to which the order applies. He must be a Panamanian by birth and at least thirty-five years of age. He has a limited veto in legislative matters. The National Assembly consists of one chamber to which deputies are elected for a term of four years, one deputy for every 10,000 inhabitants. The deputy must be over twenty-five years old and a citizen. The Assembly meets every other year, opening on September first; there may be special sessions. The Supreme Court is composed of five members who must be over thirty years old and must have practiced law for ten years. For the adminis- tration of local government there are the municipal districts in the seven provinces of Bocas del Toro, Code, Colon, Chiriqui, Los Santos, Panama and Veraguas. There is no state church, but the Repub- lic has subsidized the Roman Catholic Church. From the first there have been two political parties in the Republic, Liberal and Conservative, the same names as those applied to the parties which 28 THE STORY OF PANAMA existed in Panama when it was a province of Colom- bia. The national flag represents the friendly rivalry of these parties. It is composed of four fields, one of red and one of blue, alternating with two white fields. The red is for the Liberals, the blue for the Conservatives, while the white fields are for peace. The most important diplomatic matter in which the new Republic engaged was the consummation of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty which was signed at Washington on November 18, 1903, and proclaimed February 26, 1904. Its terms are, briefly : First, the United States guarantees to maintain the independence of the Republic of Panama. Second, Panama grants to the United States in perpetuity a strip across the Isthmus extending five miles on each side of the canal, the cities of Colon and Panama excepted. Over this strip, called the Canal Zone, the United States is conceded absolute jurisdiction. Third, all railway and canal rights of the Zone are ceded to the United States. Fourth, the property of the United States in the Zone is exempt from taxation. Fifth, the United States is to have the right to use military force, to build fortifications and to per- fect transit. Sixth, the United States is to have sanitary juris- diction over the cities of Panama and Colon, and the PANAMA BECOMES A REPUBLIC 29 right to preserve order in the Republic should the Panamanian government, in the judgment of the United States, fail to do so. Seventh, the United States agrees to pay Panama $10,000,000 at once, and to pay an annuity of $250,000, beginning with the year 1913. CHAPTER IV ON THE WORKS THE negotiations which gave us the Canal Zone were not consummated with more despatch and effectiveness than was the work of organizing the forces to construct the canal. The treaty with Panama was ratified in February, 1904, and from that day the work went rapidly forward. To ap- preciate the magnitude of the task and the effective- ness with which the American organization went at it, let us take a trip to the Canal Zone. For the sake of seeing things as they looked at the most interesting stage in the progress of the work and just as the waters of Gatun Lake began to rise, we will suppose that the time of our visit is back in the year 1911. We will start from New York. On the evening of the third day out we sight Watling's Island, the first land seen in the New World by Christopher Columbus. We cross the path of the Great Navi- gator, and on the fourth day round the eastern point of the "Queen of the Antilles." Just as the sun sinks into the Caribbean we see against the eastern sky the blue mountain ranges of Haiti and San Domingo; 30 ON THE WORKS 33 on the morning of the sixth day out the captain who has been scanning the horizon announces that the end of our journey is in sight. That scene is one not soon to be forgotten. As the sun bursts through the clouds hanging over "Fair Marguerita's Hill" the whole world seems lit up with the glory that Keats describes as "wild and celestial." The time and place are full of sentiment. Upon those same hills the great Columbus looked four centuries ago ; over these same trackless waters glided the swift craft of the buccaneers, laden with booty; and " The waves are softly murmuring Stories of the days of old." Far to the east of the low-lying, palm-bedecked island of Manzanillo are the blue foothills of the Cordilleras, just awakening from their heavy sleep ; away to the south stretches the valley of the Chagres; while there beyond Toro's palms Lorenzo rises out of the sea " Guarding the Chagres' entrance still." The cayucas and sailboats hi the harbor belong to San Bias Indians, who have come from down the coast forty or fifty miles, with coconuts, bananas, beads, beautifully woven textiles and other products. They have brought then* children with them. The voyage, hi fact, has been a part of the manual train- 34 THE STORY OF PANAMA ing of the youngsters, and the bartering done by their parents has been a lesson in business methods which they must some day apply. Measured by the standards of the society in which these chil- dren are to move as men, there will be no fail- ures. To the east, to the west, to the south are primeval jungles, still the habitations of primitive men and savage beasts undisturbed by the vandalism of civilization. After passing the artificial land exten- sion which is to form the breakwater for the Atlantic entrance to the canal, and which, by the way, is the first evidence of the work of the canal builders, we come into Limon Bay, just off the twin cities of Colon and Cristobal. Soon we have a full view of the beautiful Cristobal, whose harbor we are about to enter. Our reveries are suddenly interrupted by the command to " assemble in the saloon." The Quar- antine Officer is coming aboard. His work done, we land. After inspection we are allowed to pass the ropes. The train standing there at our dock is a " special" waiting to take recruits for the service or those re- turning from leave. Passing out at the north end of Pier 11 we come in full view of the old De Lesseps buildings, now used for offices by the Com- missary, Subsistence and other departments. We pass out upon Roosevelt Avenue and then ON THE WORKS 37 get a first glimpse of the quarters furnished white employees. They are not unlike the commodious quarters to be seen everywhere along the canal line. They are the homes of Americans who, because they are happy and contented, are bringing to a speedy conclusion this greatest of human undertak- ings. But if we are to see the canal in a day, we must hurry. As we are bound for Gatun, we will take a cab and drive to the pier. How clean the paved streets are ! Passing the post office, the police station, the Y. M. C. A. clubhouse, the I. C. C. hotel, the white school building and the fire station, we come out through the West Indian section of Cristobal to Pier 13. That boat at the wharf is a dynamite carrier, and the men are just beginning to unload one and one quarter million pounds of dynamite for use in blasting. This load of dynamite is a part of the twelve million pounds brought annually from New York. The boat unloading there to those sand cars has carried sand down from Nombre de Dios for the concrete construction at Gatun. The forty or fifty other large and small vessels you see plying in the bay are the dredges and tugs in the service of the Atlantic Division of the Department of Construction and Engineering ; and there is a boat with rock from the quarries at Porto Bello, twenty miles down the coast. This sand and rock will become a part 38 THE STORY OF PANAMA of the two million cubic yards of concrete to be molded into the great leeks at Gatun. Just below us are the docks, and the huge build- ings you see beyond are those of the Mount Hope storehouse the clearing house for all the depart- ments on the canal. In them are stored stationery, school supplies, desks, nails, wire, steel rods, rope, chain, household furniture, steam shovels, tools and equipment of every description. There is a stock here at all times averaging about $4,000,000 worth of material. As needed, this material is requisitioned through the heads of departments and is shipped by rail to the points where it is to be used. The place is in charge of the Depot Quartermaster. But time is passing. To the left of us is Mount Hope cemetery. It is not difficult to imagine that the place took its name from the feeling back in the French days that this was the one hope to which the ill-fed, ill-quartered, fever-stricken employees could look with any degree of satisfaction Mount Hope, indeed ! From Pier 13 we may take a boat for Gatun. We pass first into the mouth of the old French canal. The intent of its original builders was to make it thirty feet deep and seventy feet wide at the bottom. For four miles we pass up the channel of the French canal, which crosses the line of the American canal at Mindi. The sunken boats and dredges which ON THE WORKS 41 we see on both sides were at one time considered the best excavating machines in the world. Left to combat rain, sun and the sea, they at last yielded to their fate and lie there at the bottom of the watery grave they themselves helped to dig. These ma- chines represent another source of enormous loss to the French company. Some of them survive and are DIAGRAM OF A LADDER DREDGE now doing good work for the Isthmian Canal Com- mission. The ladder dredge you see at work is one of the survivors. When we come to Mindi we find, running to right and left at an angle of about forty-five de- grees, the channel of the American canal. At this point the old and the new canals intersect, to converge again in the Chagres River at Gatun. To get to grade at this point nearly forty feet of solid rock blasting had to be done. Imagine the expense of constructing a sea level canal when 42 THE STORY OF PANAMA here, within sight of the sea, and yet thirty miles from the continental divide, it becomes necessary to excavate through solid rock for a depth of more than forty feet ! While we are approaching the great dam, we might gather some general information. The frontispiece map indicates the extent of the Canal Zone, the line of the Canal and the Zone boundaries, and the loca- tion of Gatun Lake, formed from the impounding of the Chagres by Gatun Dam. In a booklet compiled by Mr. Joseph Bucklin Bishop, Secretary of the Commission, there is a con- densed table, which summarizes the canal statistics ; revised to October 1, 1912, they are : CANAL STATISTICS Length from deep water to deep water (miles) 50 Length from shore line to shore line (miles) 40 Bottom width of channel, maximum (feet) 1000 Bottom width of channel, minimum, 9 miles, Culebra Cut (feet) 300 Locks, in pairs 12 Locks, usable length (feet) 1000 Locks, usable width (feet) 110 Gatun Lake, area (square miles) . '. . . 164 Gatun Lake, channel depth (feet) ... 85 to 45 Culebra Cut, channel depth (feet) ... 45 Excavation, estimated total (cubic yards) . 200,000,000 ON THE WORKS 43 Excavation, amount accomplished Octo- ber 1, 1912 (cubic yards) 180,000,000 Excavation by the French (cubic yards) . 78,146,960 Excavation by French, useful to present Canal (cubic yards) i 29,908,000 Excavation by French, estimated value to Canal $25,389,240 Value of all French property $42,799,826 Concrete, total estimated for Canal (cubic yards) 5,000,000 Time of transit through completed Canal (hours) 10 to 12 Time of passage through locks (hours) . . 3 Relocated Panama Railroad, estimated cost $9,000,000 Relocated Panama Railroad, length (miles) 47.1 Canal Zone, area (square miles) .... 448 Canal and Panama Railroad force actually at work (about) 35,000 Canal and Panama Railroad force, Ameri- cans (about) 5000 Cost of Canal, estimated total .... $375,000,000 Work begun by Americans May 4, 1904 Anticipated date of completion .... Jan. 1, 1915 In an article in the National Geographic Magazine of February, 1911, Colonel Goethals gives the follow- ing condensed statement : "The canal which is now building consists of a sea level entrance channel from the sea through Limon Bay to Ga- tun, about 7 miles long, 500 feet bottom width, and 41 44 THE STORY OF PANAMA feet deep at mean tide. At Gatun the 85-foot lake level is obtained by a dam across the valley. The lake is confined on the Pacific side by a dam between the hills at Pedro Miguel, 32 miles away. The lake thus formed will have -an area of 164 square miles and a channel depth of not less than 45 feet at normal stage. "At Gatun ships will pass from the sea to the lake level, and vice versa, by three locks in flight. On the Pacific side there will be one lift of 30 feet at Pedro Miguel to a small lake held at 55 feet above sea level by dams at Miraflores, where two lifts overcome the difference of level to the sea. The channel between the locks on the Pacific side will be 500 feet wide at the bottom and 45 feet deep, and below the Miraflores locks the sea level section, about 8 miles in length, will be 500 feet wide at the bottom and 45 feet deep at mean tide. Through the lake the bottom widths are not less than 1000 feet for about 16 miles, 800 feet for about 4 miles, 500 feet for about 3 miles, and through the continental divide, a distance of about 9 miles, the bottom width is 300 feet. "The total length of the canal from deep water in the Caribbean, 41 -foot depth at mean tide, to deep water in the Pacific, 45-foot depth at mean tide, is practically 50 miles, 15 miles of which are at sea level. The variation in tide on the Atlantic side is 2.5 feet as a maximum, and on the Pacific it is 21.1 feet as a maximum. "Provisions are made to amply protect the entrances of the canal. During the winter months occasional storms occur on the Atlantic side of such violence that vessels cannot lie with safety in Colon Harbor, and during ON THE WORKS 47 the progress of such storms entrance and egress from the canal would be unsafe. To overcome this condition, a breakwater will extend out about two miles from Toro Point in a northeasterly direction, which will not only protect the entrance, but will provide a safe harbor. "The Pacific entrance requires no protection from storms, but the set of the silt-bearing current from the east is at right angles to the channel, and the silting made constant dredging necessary. To prevent this shoaling a dike is being constructed from the mainland at Balboa to Naos Island, a distance of about four miles." The following table presents comparative data: GREAT CANALS KIND WHEN OPENED TO COM- MEKCK LENGTH IN MILES COST CONNECTS Erie .... Lock 1825 363 IS.OOO.OOO 1 Lake Erie and Hudson River Soo . . . . Lock 1855 1.5 10,000,000 Lakes Superior and Huron Suez .... Sea level 1869 90 100,000,000 Mediterranean and Red Seas Kronstadt . . Sea level 1890 16 10,000,000 St. Petersburg and Bay of Kronstadt Corinth . . . Sea level 1893 4 5,000,000 Gulfs of Corinth and J2gina Manchester . Lock 1894 35 75,000,000 Liverpool and Manchester Kaiser Wilhelm Lock 1895 60 40,000,000 Niemen River and the Baltic Elbe-Trave . . Lock 1900 41 6,000,000 Elbe and Trave Panama ... Lock 1915 50 375,000,000 Atlantic and Pa- cific Oceans 1 Original cost. 48 THE STORY OF PANAMA While the great dam is still half a mile away we may get a good conception of its general plan. To the extreme left are massive walls of concrete. These are the walls of the locks. The mound of earth t ; the right is the dam proper, which is pierced near tl.r middle by the spillway. It may be said that t. construction of the Panama Canal involves at once the greatest piece of constructive work and the greatest piece of destructive work ever undertaken by man the locks, dams and spillways, and the Culebra Cut. Gatun Dam is about 7500 feet long, 2100 feet wide at the base and 100 feet wide at the summit of the crest, 115 feet above sea level. In building this mountain of earth a huge artificial valley was left in the middle, which is being filled with a mixture of sand and clay pumped in by dredges at work in the vicinity of the dam. The silt settles down into a hard, rock-like mass which is impervious to water. The walls or outer portions of the dam are built from dry excavation brought in from other points along the canal. Our boat lands at the foot of the dam. Let us climb the man-made mountain. There, right before us, is the great water pipe pouring forth its black slime into what is to be the core of the dam. This sea of mud the engineers term the hydraulic fill. The other end of the pipe connects with a suction I. THE GREAT WATER PIPE IN THE " FILL " (49) II. LOADING BUCKETS WITH CEMENT, AT GATUN ON THE WORKS 51 dredge nearly a mile distant. The excavation, wet and dry, used in the construction of the dam aggre- gates 21,000,000 cubic yards. Below is a diagram of the entire work. We are standing at the point marked X, facing to the south- east. To the left are the great locks. In front of us is the hydraulic fill ; to the right, the spillway, QATUN DAM, SPILLWAY AND LOCKS with its mad, irresistible torrent of water. Close your eyes, and imagine, if you can, a cement-lined, waterless depression 300 feet wide, 1200 feet long, with forty or fifty huge cubical concrete blocks dis- persed at regular intervals near the upper end, the bottom sloping upward from these to the concrete dam, and you have the spillway as it appeared on the day before the Chagres was turned into its new concrete bed. Open your eyes upon the foaming, raging, seething rapids, and you have the contrast 52 THE STORY OF PANAMA presented in the two pictures " Before" and " After." At the foot of the slope the channel of the over- flow suddenly widens to twice its previous width. This sudden widening, and the concrete blocks above mentioned, provide two very effective checks to the velocity of the current. These checks are necessary, for without them the under suction which would be DIAGRAM OF SPILLWAY caused as the waters leave the concrete floor would quickly undermine the floor itself. Notice the semicircular construction, made of concrete, that is placed at the head of the spillway. Against this form the spillway dam is being built. At the top of this dam sliding gates will be con- structed. From above, the form presents an ap- pearance something like the diagram. ON THE WORKS 55 By this device the waters of the lake may be raised or lowered when reports from the Alhajuela fluvio- graph station warn of floods, or when the approach- ing dry season renders advisable a greater storage supply. The maximum overflow at the spillway may thus always be kept within safe limits, while storage for the dry season may likewise be provided. Remember, while we walk the next mile, that we are still walking on the dam. An artificial mountain, indeed ! Ribboned everywhere with railroad tracks, over which scores of trains run daily, carrying their mites to contribute to the ever growing dam. We again pass around the north side of the hydraulic fill, and approach the factories where the composition that is to go into the locks and into the dam is made. A most interesting feature is the making, handling and placing of the concrete. The machines with the funnel-shaped nozzles are the concrete mixers. (See second cut, page 49.) The cars standing at the side are run by the third-rail system, so have a care. One of the mixers is now tilted and is filling the bucket with concrete. In a very few minutes all the buck- ets will be filled, and the little cars will go spinning down the track with then- loads of sand, water, stone and cement. We shall see later how this material is deposited in the huge molds in which the locks are being cast. There are four of the big mixers on each side of the shed. We will now walk over to the 56 THE STORY OF PANAMA great concrete locks, where we can see one of them in process of construction. Note the middle wall rising to a height of ninety feet, between the east and west chambers of the locks. (See page 63.) The great cylinder at the base of this wall is one of the three delivery and drainage culverts. This, as you will note, is duplicated in size by culverts in the side walls. The three culverts are eighteen feet minimum diameter and extend the entire length of the walls, or more than three thousand feet. Above the side walls to the right are the buckets which come from the concrete mixers we visited. These buckets, with their tons of concrete, are hoisted to wire cables attached to steel derricks on either side of the works, and run out on pulleys to the point where the concrete is to be used. They are then lowered, their contents is dumped, and spread by hand. The whole process of delivery involves the labor of a very few men. A daily average of more than twenty-four hundred cubic yards of con- crete is thus laid. A glance at the railroad tracks, regular width, running up into the chambers on either side of the middle wall, will indicate to some extent the pro- portions of the structure. The view of the monolith on page 59 shows the cul- vert with a projecting steel tube. This tube is re- moved and replaced for another length when the ON THE WORKS 57 concrete about it becomes set. The steel framework against the left side of the middle wall is supporting a part of the mold into which the concrete form has been cast. Looking from the east wall one gets a good view of the upper locks, the concrete gate sills, and in the distance the waters of the Chagres backed up by the elevation of the spillway. The lake will rise almost to the elevation of the wall when the dam is completed. Again, one gets a fair conception of the proportions of this work by a glance at the opening through the gate sills. Through this opening a railway locomo- tive may pass. Over these gate sills will swing the heavy steel gates. Had you visited the place in March, 1910, you would have seen the foundation work of this mountain of concrete as reproduced on page 63. The general plan of the locks and their operation is shown in the cross section diagram, page 58. The inside surfaces of the side walls are perpendicular, while the outside surface rises by steps. At the base these walls are fifty feet thick ; at the top, eight feet thick. The middle wall is slightly more than sixty feet thick. As already indicated, the openings at the base of the walls are for delivery and drainage. The culverts are eighteen feet in diameter, and con- nect by lateral culverts with openings in the floor, 58 THE STORY OF PANAMA F F F F. The second chamber in the middle wall, marked C in the cut, is the drainage gallery; the third, B, will be used for the electrical connections, while the upper chamber, A, will furnish working space for the operators of the machinery used in CROSS SECTION OP LOCK CHAMBER AND WALLS A. Passageway for operators. E. Culverts under the lock floor alter- B. Gallery for electric wires. nating with those from side walls. C. Drainage gallery. F. Wells opening from lateral culverts D. Culvert in center wall. into lock chamber. G. Culverts in side walls. H. Lateral culverts. manipulating the gates and the valves and in pro- pelling boats through the locks. A ship passing south will enter the first lock at sea level ; the gate behind it will then be closed and the first lock filled with water. This will raise the boat to a water level with the second lock, and so on. In passing north through the left series the order is reversed. The danger of a boat's ramming the gates either by forward or by backward motion is guarded against in several ways. First, the boat will be drawn through the locks by electric locomotives running on the side walls. The stern of the boat will be con- trolled by two cables with power attachments, so I. MONOLITHS IN MIDDLE WALL, UPPER GATUN, JULY, 1910 II. GATUN UPPER LOCKS, SHOWING GATE SILLS (59) ON THE WORKS 61 that at any point the boat may be brought to a stand. This system of four cables likewise guards against any possibility of the lateral motion of the boat against the side and the middle walls. Second, the gates and the valves are operated by electric power and are as thoroughly under control as is the move- ment of the boat itself. Third, the higher level is separated from the level next below by two sets of gates. At each flight two barriers are thus provided. Fourth, above the upper gates are two movable dams or drawbridges which can be so manipulated as com- pletely to cut off the water of the lake from the water of the locks. Commenting on these various provisions against accidents, Commissioner Rousseau said in an address at Denver: " These devices have all been success- fully tried, separately, on different locks in this coun- try and abroad, but hi no case has it ever been deemed necessary to install all of them in the same work." Referring to the first named safeguard, Mr. Rousseau continues: " Practically all recorded acci- dents to locks in recent years have occurred through some mistaking of signals between the pilot house and the engine-room while the vessel has been passing through locks under its own steam. To obviate this source of danger, it is proposed to provide on the walls of the locks electric locomotives, which under proper control will tow vessels through the locks, 62 THE STORY OF PANAMA there being one locomotive on each side of the lock forward and astern, or four in all, vessels not being allowed to move their propellers meanwhile." The gates are hollow steel structures seven feet thick and sixty-five feet long, and they vary in height and weight from forty-five to eighty-two feet and from three hundred to six hundred tons, respectively. Intermediate gates cut the locks into chambers four hundred and six hundred feet long. As over 90 per cent of the merchant ships of the world are under six hundred feet in length, this arrangement makes possible a great saving of water. Adequate water supply is a subject of great im- portance and interest. The November visitor to the Zone who has seen the floods of the Chagres carrying before them trees, houses and bridges, submerging steam shovels, destroying miles of railroad, will never question the adequacy of the water supply. Somebody has said that in the Canal Zone there are two seasons of the year, the rainy and the wet. Still, it rains only occasionally during the months of Jan- uary, February and March, and during the dry season of 1911-1912 there was very little rain from December first to May first. Decidedly there is a dry season here, and during this period of three months or more the average flow of the Chagres for the past twenty years has been something like six hundred cubic feet per second ; while at one time I. WEST CHAMBER, GATUN UPPER LOCKS, DECEMBER, 1910 *II. FOREBAY AND LIFT SILL, GATUN LOCKS, MARCH, 1910 (63) ON THE WORKS 65 during that period it reached the very low figure of three hundred feet per second. Besides the use of water for electrical power, the water supply will be drawn on in three ways leak- age, lockage and evaporation. It is estimated that the loss in these ways will be about three thousand feet per second. When the Chagres flow is at its minimum of three hundred feet per second there is a disparity between loss and supply of 2700 feet per second. The possible net loss in one day would be over 130,000,000 cubic feet, and in one month about 4,000,000,000 cubic feet. It must be remembered, however, in this connection that three hundred feet is the minimum flow of the river itself, and that these figures have not taken into account the dis- charge of its tributaries below Bohio. The slope of the land on the Isthmus is very sharp, and as a result the minimum flow is reached early in the dry season, and as that season lasts at times for over three months, it is obvious that in an enterprise of such magnitude as the Panama Canal, involving so large a part of the world's commerce, provision must be made against the possibility of any interruption from a shortage of water supply. This contingency is met by the large area, 164 square miles, of Gatun Lake. It pro- vides ample storage capacity losses from all sources are not likely to lower the lake more than three feet while the canal will be usable after the lake has been 66 THE STORY OF PANAMA lowered by five feet. In the very improbable event that future commerce should make demands on the lake beyond its estimated capacity, a dam which might be constructed at Alhajuela would furnish ad- ditional storage to be drawn upon in time of need. On our way to lunch we shall pass the Adminis- tration Building of the Atlantic Division, the Com- missary and Panama Railroad Depot, and the Y. M. C. A. Clubhouse. We will visit the Isthmian Canal Commission hotel for luncheon. The Jamaican waiter first serves us with soup of a choice variety, then with an A 1 steak, baked beans, mashed pota- toes, salad, good bread, genuine butter, apple pie, of the variety mother makes, coffee and [ice cream. You may top off the meal with a Gatun cocktail from that amber bottle if you like. Bitter ? Well, yes, but you didn't give us time to explain. The cocktail is a solution of liquid quinine ! You will find such a cocktail as this at every I. C. C. hotel. After lunch let us take a special train across the line of the canal. From Gatun the old line, which long ago was taken up but on which we are to take our imaginary trip, winds its snaky way out through the jungles of the great Black Swamp. To right and left the impounded waters of the Chagres already spread out before us for miles. The cleared passage in the jungles to the right is the line of the canal. Little excavation is necessary here, for the ON THE WORKS O9 land to Bohio is practically all below the grade line of the canal. Take a look at nature now, while we are out of sight of the canal. Over there is a twenty-foot alligator, basking his huge bulk in the sun. Just beyond him are forty or fifty white cranes ; wheel- ing above the water, now high, now low, are many varieties of sea birds, for we can still scent the salt sea. The train dashes into the jungles and we see "fronded palms," ferns, canebrakes, bamboo, wild bananas, lignum- vitae with its gaudy dress, and myriads of botanical species garbed in purple, pink, red, white and gold. You may not see them, but these jungles teem with snakes, lizards, deer, jaguars, monkeys, wildcats, armadillos, tapirs, wild hogs, sloths and countless varieties of plant and animal life. Here and there a stream penetrates the other- wise impenetrable network of vegetable life to break the monotony of the fast moving panorama. Only at such intervals does one get an adequate notion of the grace and beauty of the tropics of Panama. Bohio is called, and as our train slows down, the voice of the ever-present vender of bananas is heard, luring the hungry passenger to invest. Just as we pull out from the station, on the right side of the track, there is a funny little structure with a cylin- drical brick foundation supporting a miniature house, reached by a long flight of stairs. This is 70 THE STORY OF PANAMA the Bohio fluviograph station, and the river is the far famed Chagres. This is one of several stations along the river where records are made of the volume of water discharged by it. This one was installed by the French in 1890, and has been in use for more than twenty years. The fluviograph work comes under the Division of River Hydraulics, Meteorology and Surveys. The other three stations along the Chagres are at Gatun, Gamboa and Alha- juela. The importance of measuring the river's dis- charge has already been indicated. The other work of this division, as its name indicates, is the deter- mination of the amount of rainfall and evaporation, and observations of seismological disturbances. The table on page 71 summarizes the results of the observations of the Subdivision of Meteorology on the distribution of rainfall on the Canal Zone, show- ing hourly periods of maximum and minimum rain- fall during an average year. This table will help one to appreciate one of the greatest difficulties with which the Commission has had to contend, as well as the mathematical pre- cision and the scientific method brought to bear on this great engineering proposition. The station just called is Tabernilla. To the left is the Tabernilla dump. Here millions of cubic yards of dirt from Culebra Cut have been piled up. Had we passed this point in 1910 we should have I I s 5 ! o n 4" 1 2 I OS 10 OS M < 5 * 7 ~ - ~ ~ ---------- SS r: r: S . es S g 2 -g 2 pq p^ ^H ^ > ^ e n o PI H 72 THE STORY OF PANAMA seen dirt train after dirt train going out on this dump with its cargo from the Cut, unloading with its great plow. This plow will unload a dirt train of twenty-one cars, carrying more than six hundred tons of material, in less than fifteen minutes. The train just pulling out from the siding there is a typical labor train, which will carry out on the works some six hundred of the thirty-five thousand em- ployees of the Commission. Another very interesting piece of work which you could have seen here a little while ago is that of track shifting. Special machinery for this purpose has been put into service. As the track quickly gets out of reach of the edge of the dump, it be- comes necessary to shift it. This is not done by taking it to pieces, for not a spike is lifted, not a bolt removed. The machine by which the process is performed is a track shifter. It lays hold of a section of track, picks it up bodily, and puts it in position again with very little ceremony. One of these machines is said to be capable of moving from one to two miles of track a day. It is manipulated by nine men and will do the work of six hundred laborers. There are ten of these big machines in the service of the Commission. The man you see there with the queer little ma- chine strapped on his back, and the two others just beyond him, are members of the small army whose ON THE WORKS 75 business it is to guard the large army of canal diggers against a flank attack of the enemy most dreaded in Panama the mosquito. One man is spraying the sides of the ditch with larvacide ; the other two are burning the grass along an open ditch to prevent the hatching of eggs deposited in these moist places by mosquitoes. Surface of Wafer MOSQUITOES Figures a and 6 show the larvae in water. At c is shown the position assumed by the harmless type (Culex) upon alighting, and at d the position of the dangerous one. At e is shown the Anopheles with spotted wings and five hair-like feelers in front ; at / the Culex with plain wings and three feelers. 76 THE STORY OF PANAMA You will note by this time that we are following the valley of the Chagres. The conductor calls San Pablo just as we cross the bridge over this river. To the right there are signs of excavation. We are fast approaching the continental divide, and the shallow excavation observed is really the beginning of the great Cut. Just below San Pablo the rail- road crosses the line of the canal and follows that line almost to the Pacific. If you will watch closely, you will see some old French dredges, long ago sunk to the bottom of the channel silent reminders of the French failure. Such part of the old French machinery as is no longer of use to the Commission is sold to the highest bidder, as so much junk. But remember that this first part of our trip is an imaginary one. For the route we have covered since leaving Gatun has been submerged for some time, and the people of the little towns we have passed fled long ago to the hills bordering the man- made Gatun Lake. Had we traversed the relocated line from Gatun to Gorgona, we should have seen many of them in their new homes. When warned of the rising floods, one old lady who had lived at Bohio for a half century, so the story goes, expressed, with a religious fervor to be envied by more en- lightened Christians, her faith in the promise, "And the waters shall no more become a flood." She was, however, doomed to disappointment, for her ON THE WORKS 77 little homestead, like thousands of others in the lake district, is now fathoms under water. The government has reimbursed her for the losses she sustained. As we pass Gorgona, Matachin, Bas Obispo and Las Cascadas, we are rapidly coming to the crest of the continental divide. At Matachin the Chagres breaks off to the east, and we now leave its valley. In some remote geological age this river found its way through the divide somewhere near Culebra and poured its floods into the Pacific. The final upheaval which gave the Isthmus its present con- tour diverted the course of the Chagres to the north. Were it not to minimize the work of man, we might compare the present artificial diversion of this river with nature's diversion on the divide. CHAPTER V THE BIG CUT IT has already been said that the construction of the canal involved at once the greatest piece of constructive work and the greatest piece of de- structive work ever undertaken by man. We have seen something of the constructive work, and we will now descend into Culebra Cut to see the other phase of this great work. We enter the Cut just below Matachin. Note the solid stone walls on either side. Through this flint-like rock the workers have cut a channel three hundred feet wide at the bottom, and at places nearly two hundred feet deep. The depth of the Cut at various points is indicated in the dia- gram. In the Cut millions of pounds of the dyna- mite we saw unloading at Cristobal have been dis- charged. As we go up the Cut you may witness a blast of several tons which will displace thousands of yards of the granite-like mass, on which the steam shovels are set to work. You will notice at the top of the bank of rock and to the right several queer- looking machines. These are the compressed air drills manipulated by West Indians, and used in drill- 78 THE BIG CUT 81 ing holes for the dynamite charges. The charges are detonated by means of electric connections, and it is done with such skill and care that accidents in the way of premature discharges, so common in the handling of explosives elsewhere, are now en- tirely relegated to the past. As we pass up the Cut to the next point of attrac- tion we may make some observations of interest. CULEBRA CUT atCoUHtt Culebra Cut begins at Bas Obispo and the excava- tion gradually increases in depth for a distance of about five miles to Gold Hill, where it reaches the maximum elevation of 534 feet on the east bank, 312 feet on the center line, and 410 feet on the west bank. (See diagram above.) At Gold Hill, Culebra, the Pacific slope begins, and the Cut continues down the southern incline to Pedro Miguel, a distance of three miles. While the Cut proper, as the engineers define it, is said to be nine 82 THE STORY OF PANAMA miles in length, the excavation is continuous from San Pablo to Pedro Miguel, a distance of sixteen miles. The amount of excavation throughout this distance in the Cut is estimated at something near 100,000,000 cubic yards, equivalent to a mound of earth three hundred feet high, three hundred yards wide, and two miles long. The total excavation for the canal is estimated at nearly 200,000,000 cubic yards. You may now extend our little mound two miles farther. To make these figures more concrete, imagine a team of horses and the ordinary one-yard gravel wagon at work moving this dirt an average distance of twenty miles, and you have the size of the job. You will notice that the banks of the canal on either side are rising higher above us. We are approaching Culebra. The suspension bridge over the canal at Empire hangs high above our track, and still the side walls of the canal are rising. The hills rising beyond Culebra are the famous Gold Hill and Contractor's Hill. Through these the steam shovels are gradually but surely cutting their way. Many obstacles present themselves, but all are insignificant in comparison to the one in evidence yonder the famous Culebra slide, which, like the mighty Ameri- can glaciers of days gone by, is working its way, inch by inch, toward the prism of the canal. It is now estimated that this and other slides involve the removal of an extra seventeen million cubic yards BOTTOM OF CANAL RAISED EIGHTEEN FEET THROUGH PRES- SURE OF THE BROKEN EAST BANK, JUNE, 1910 II. CULEBRA CUT FROM CONTRACTOR'S HILL, APRIL, 1910 (84) THE BIG CUT 85 of dirt. The bulk just in front of us is only one of many subsidiary slides the mere breaking off from the main bulk of huge chunks which tumble into the Cut like avalanches, burying steam shovels, cars, locomotives, tracks, everything in their way. There are two kinds of slides; those which slowly and imperceptibly move toward the Cut, such as the largest Culebra slide, covering an area of nearly thirty acres, and the Cucaracha slide, covering an area of about fifty acres; and those that break off and topple over precipitately into the Cut. The latter are insignificant hi point of size as compared with the former. The total area involved by the slides in Culebra Cut is one hundred and sixty acres, equal in area to a good-sized farm in the States. The Cucaracha slide began moving in 1884, or twenty-eight years ago. The Culebra and Cucaracha slides are the most notable among the obstacles to the speedy com- pletion of the work in the Central or Culebra Divi- sion. These caused Colonel Goethals to say in an interview in New York that the only significant ele- ments in the uncertainty as to the date of the com- pletion of the canal are the two big slides, and the obstacles growing out of them. The mound of earth there in the middle of the prism and to the left of our tracks is one of these obstacles. The mound is the result of the buckling of the bottom of the prism, 86 THE STORY OF PANAMA supposed to have been caused by the pressure of the broken east bank. If you could brave the tropical sun and make the climb to the top of Gold Hill, you would get a splen- did view of the Cut, and such an appreciation of the magnitude of the work as you could not otherwise get. Here the canal makers have had to cut through solid rock for a distance of nearly five hundred feet. By climbing these steps we shall come up into the town of Culebra, and incidentally get, through the muscular sense, a concrete notion of the depth of the Cut. As we come out on level ground we may get a second concrete notion of the magnitude of the work, for it is near the middle of the month, and the pay car has arrived to present "the laborer with his hire." From one end of the Zone to the other this train goes on its errand each month, distributing the earnings of the makers of the canal. Before we leave this spot, notice the big steam shovels at work below us. They seem almost human when at work. Under favorable conditions the big fellow there will load a Lidgerwood car in about two minutes, and a whole train of cars in less than fifty minutes. Watch him as he dips down for his mouth- ful of dirt, then watch him hoist the seven or eight tons of clay and rock, swing it over to the car, and de- posit it again with less show of effort than would be displayed by a boy with his toy shovel. A SEAGOING SUCTION DREDGE (87) I. PEDRO MIGUEL LOCKS LOOKING SOUTH, AUGUST, 1910 II. PEDRO MIGUEL LOCKS LOOKING NORTH, NOVEMBER, 1910 (88) THE BIG CUT 89 As we pass out onto the main street of Culebra we come into full view of the Administration Building. Here are the offices of the Chairman and Chief Engineer of the Commission. Our special train will now take us down the main line past old Paraiso, where the Panama Railroad re- crosses the canal. Looking south from the bridge we get a view of the huge berm cranes spanning the locks at Pedro Miguel. A nearer approach will re- veal the fact that the locks at this end of the canal practically duplicate those at Gatun, except that the first flight is separated from the second and third flights, a distance of two miles, by Miraflores Lake. The Pedro Miguel locks really mark the foot of Culebra Cut, for from Pedro Miguel to Miraflores comparatively little excavation has been necessary. The canal descends to sea level at Miraflores, and most of the excavation from here to deep water in the Pacific is below sea level. We can take a dredge from here to La Boca, at the Pacific entrance. There is the " Culebra," one of the largest suction dredges in the service. As it is just now ready to leave with its great load of mud, we will go with it far out into the Pacific. As we pass out of the Pacific entrance, the Balboa docks will be the first point of interest. This is the southern freight terminal of the Panama Railroad, which has for more than half a century received the commerce of the Pacific, to redeposit it 90 THE STORY OF PANAMA in the Atlantic steamers at Colon, bound for eastern America and Europe. Our boat will carry us near Flamenco Island, which is soon to become the Gibral- tar of the New World. The dredge will deposit its burden in the deep waters of the " South Sea." To our left is Culebra Island, where the Pacific quarantine station is located. From the vicinity of Flamenco Island we may see a score of small islands lying at the Pacific entrance of the canal. As we again approach Balboa on our return trip, we note a flat looking boat at the docks in front of us. This is a sand barge from Chame, and the machinery which is relieving it of its burden is a Cleveland crane unloader. The drive from Balboa into Ancon will be an interesting one. We come around the north side of Sosa Hill and into full view of Mount Ancon. Around the foot of this hill is one of the prettiest drives one could find anywhere. The macadamized road, palms of a hundred varieties, mango trees, coconut trees, Chinese gardens, historic Ancon Hill, the blue Pacific stretching away to the horizon, the cool evening breezes, the quaint Spanish suburbs of the typical Spanish city of Panama all combine to make this three-mile drive a most pleasant and interesting one; and when you arrive at Ancon, you will be prepared to do justice to the sumptuous dinner provided for you at the Tivoli Hotel. THE BIG CUT 93 Standing on an eminence above the city of Panama the Tivoli Hotel commands a magnificent view of the mountains to the northeast. We are, indeed, in a land of countless manifestations of nature's power and diversity a land where history lends its in- terest to every hilltop, and romance its charm to every valley. Away to the east, on, on, on, and out of sight, stretches the Pacific like a sea of glass, guarded on the left by the blue ranges that the buc- caneers of centuries ago scaled hi their search of wealth; that Balboa climbed in quest of the South Sea and eternal fame ; that Pizarro crossed in his march toward the land of the Incas. In the midst of your reverie you are awakened by the sudden lighting up of the whole sky. The green of the near- by hills and the blue of the distant mountains are slowly transformed, now into purple, now into violet, and then finally into an almost invisible gray. When at last you turn your eyes in the direction of the source of all this splendor, you behold a sunset so splendid as to make one feel that nature herself, despairing of words, is giving utterance to her emotions in this wild, inarticulate harmony of colors. Resting upon the hills that border the Pacific to the west is a great billowy cloud fringed at its lower edge with a brilliant crimson, and undulating into myriad flames of scarlet, orange and gold. Above the cloud for some distance is clear sky not blue, but liquid 94 THE STORY OF PANAMA emerald ; then again there are light fleecy clouds of delicate pink, imperceptibly fading as they recede toward the darkness. At last the landscape sinks back into night's embrace. After a day's strenuous observation you have probably dismissed from your mind the idea that the canal diggers are outside the pale of civilization. Our imaginary trip has taken us across the Isthmus at the most interesting stage of the work. But re- member that it is all a dream, for things happen so fast in the Canal Zone that what is news to-day is history to-morrow. Some of the ground we have covered is now under the waters of Gatun Lake. CHAPTER VI ORGANIZATION To the tourist crossing the Isthmus one thing is everywhere in evidence effective organization. As David Starr Jordan says, "The world stands aside to let the man pass who knows where he is going." The men here know both where they are going and when they will arrive. Never before have so many ex- perts been called together on one piece of work. The Panama Canal will stand as the product of American genius and as a monument to thousands of intelligent Americans who knew their business. Mention has been made of the treaty under which the United States acquired control of the territory known as the Canal Zone. The necessity for such an arrangement was obvious. All obstacles which might be put in the way of the construction work and the general administration of affairs were wisely anticipated by the provision giving the United States government absolute jurisdiction over a strip of territory extending five miles on either side of the line of the canal, and the right to the use of any territory adjacent thereto which might be made 97 98 THE STORY OF PANAMA to contribute to the construction and operation of the canal. In other words, it was intended that there should be nothing to do but to "go ahead" when the Commission began the work of actual digging. While some departments have been absorbed by others, and while new departments have been created, the organization has not been changed in any es- sential feature since the beginning of the under- taking, though the same cannot be said of the per- sonnel. In 1904 the Commission was organized under the Department of War of the United States and has continued its operations under that depart- ment. The diagram opposite will indicate the gen- eral plan of organization. It will be noted that the Panama Railroad is not included in this diagram. The omission is due to the fact that the railroad, though owned by the gov- ernment, is operated as a private corporation ; such an arrangement permits the company to sue and to be sued, and to continue the passenger and freight traffic which it has built up. Any arrangement which resulted in discontinuing this traffic would have been a serious menace to the commerce which has taken this route for a half century. Besides this advan- tage to those interested in transisthmian commerce, the company has continued to earn a large dividend for the government. ORGANIZATION 99 For some time prior to 1904 the road was handling, annually, traffic averaging nearly 20,000,000 ton- Lnjinr STHMtAN CANAL COMMISSION CoLGtO.W.GOCTHA Oilburiinf Offittr C J. WILLIAMS fffrtm^ r Construction A Cnginitnng Cot. GCO. W. GOCTHALS Cft.tf Cflf>W ORGANIZATION CHART H I$T H MIAN CANAL miles. The additions incident to the Commission's work increased the amount to 280,000,000 ton- 100 THE STORY OF PANAMA miles. Such an enormous increase necessitated much reconstruction. As the road followed the line of the canal, practically all of the roadbed from Gatun to Bas Obispo would be submerged on the completion of the dam, and the relocation of many other miles of the road was necessary. To meet the increased demands of transportation about thirty-seven miles of the road were double-tracked ; to get out of Gatun Lake and to avoid crossing the canal another thirty-seven miles of road have been relocated. The double tracking was accomplished early in the history of the work under American control. The relocated line was completed in 1912 at a cost of about $9,000,000. The old line from Gatun to Gorgona, a distance of twenty miles, was taken up in the early part of the year, and its bed will soon be forty feet below the surface of the now fast rising Gatun Lake. CHAPTER VII QUARTERMASTER'S DEPARTMENT THE organization in this department includes the Chief Quartermaster, Assistant Chief Quartermaster, Depot Quartermaster, Constructing Quartermaster, eleven District Quartermasters, six Storekeepers, two hundred and twenty-one "gold" employees and over three thousand "silver" employees. The De- partment was organized in July, 1908, by Colonel C. A. Devol, U.S.A. Its business may be summarized as follows : (1) to recruit all unskilled labor for the work ; (2) to assign, furnish and take charge of all commission quarters; (3) to execute the orders of the Sanitary Department in matters relating to grass cutting and the removal of debris; (4) to con- struct and to repair all Isthmian Canal ^Commission buildings ; (5) to make requisition for and to distrib- ute all supplies for the Commission; (6) to "scrap" the old French material ; and (7) to audit all prop- erty returns pertaining to the business of the Com- mission. Colonel Devol says in his annual report: "The administration of the various districts by District 101 102 THE STORY OF PANAMA and Assistant District Quartermasters is an evolu- tion from the administration of an army post. In each case the Quartermaster attends to all ma- terial wants of the community except food sup- plies. Even these latter are delivered from the Commissaries to the consumers by this depart- ment. Each district has a small working force of artisans, utility men, janitors, etc., to attend to the wants of the district, and maintains a corral with a sufficient number of animals and vehicles for local needs. " The 39,000 employees of the Commission and of the Panama Railroad are classified under the two general heads, " gold " and " silver ; " and quarters are classi- fied under the same heads. Assignments are made by the District Quartermasters in accordance with an established code of rules, based on the date of application, rate of salary and date of entry into the service. The rules governing assignments have stood the test of time, and it is seldom that com- plaints go above the Quartermaster in charge of the district. The quarters, both for bachelors and for married men, are furnished by the Government, and fuel, light and water are supplied without charge. These allowances for the married men and for the bache- lors differ somewhat ; the table on page 103 gives the monthly allowances per capita. QUAETEEMASTEE S DEPAETMENT 103 From this table it will be observed that married employees receive benefits beyond their stipulated salaries amounting to something like $40 per month, while the benefits received by the bachelor employees amount to about $14 per month. The quarters are all provided with modern plumbing MONTHLY ALLOWANCES MARRIED MEN BACHELORS Fuel $3.30 $0.00 Light . 6.13 .67 Water 1.25 .26 Garbage and care of .... . 1 61 16 Janitor service ......... 00 1 26 1.00 1.00 Y.M.C.A. and Band .76 .76 7.60 600 2000 6 00 140.44 $13.98 and with necessary furniture. Assignment to married quarters is graded as to the class of houses as follows : Employees drawing less than $200 a month are assigned to four-family houses, known as Type 14 ; those drawing from $200 to $300 a month, to cottages known as Types 15 and 17, and to two-family houses known as Type 19 ; those draw- ing between $300 and $400 to two-story one-family houses known as Type 10 ; from $400 up, assign- ments are made to official class houses, of which there are several types. 104 THE STORY OF PANAMA "Silver" bachelor employees are housed in bar- racks, each accommodating seventy-two men. The barrack system is modeled directly after the United States Army transport plan. The barracks are equipped with bunks of the triple standee type, fitted with laced bunk bottoms. The barracks are in charge of janitors, who clean them each day. The trunks and the effects of the laborers are kept on broad shelves, no bundles or baggage of any kind being permitted on the floors. The floors are thoroughly scrubbed twice each week, and once every twenty days all bunk bottoms are taken out and boiled. As stated elsewhere, Young Men's Christian Association clubhouses are maintained in the large towns along the line of the work. There are seven of these buildings, located at Cristobal, Gatun, Gorgona, Empire, Culebra, Corozal and Porto Bello. In them employees are given additional facilities for social, church and lodge functions. The ornamentation of the grounds about "gold" quarters and about the public buildings is carried on systematically by gardeners under the District Quar- termasters. A propagating garden is maintained at Empire, from which plants are distributed. The Quartermaster's Department provides, free of charge, to all "gold" employees, such plants as they desire for ornamenting the premises about their quarters. I. SLEEPING QUARTERS FOR NEGROES (105) II. LABOR QUARTERS I. A BEDROOM IN FAMILY QUARTERS II. T. M. C. A. CLUBHOUSE (106) QUARTERMASTER'S DEPARTMENT 107 As plants grow luxuriantly in the tropics, most of the yards about the quarters present an appearance which would be the envy of any professional horti- culturist in the United States. There are few houses that are not surrounded with a luxuriant growth of flowers, shrubs and vines. Indeed, the employees, bachelor and married, are provided with quarters which often exceed in furnishings, both inside and out, those to which they were accustomed before coming to the Isthmus. The Building and Construction Division is organ- ized with a small force in each district. In addition to these forces there are what are known as traveling gangs four carpenter gangs and three painting gangs. It is the business of these men, together with those employed in each district, to construct all new buildings not built under contract and to maintain the three thousand buildings in the Canal Zone. The buildings already constructed have cost about eleven million dollars, their upkeep averaging a yearly outlay of about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which is about two and one half per cent of their valuation. The materials and supplies for the work on the canal requisitioned through the Quartermaster's Department amount to about eleven million dol- lars annually, while the stock on hand at all the storehouses is estimated to be worth nearly five 108 THE STORY OF PANAMA million dollars. When it is remembered that this material has to be carried by ship for a distance of two thousand miles and that the stock includes railway supplies, steam shovel supplies, and all the diversified handling plants, this amount does not seem excessive. The price book published by the department itemizes more than twenty thousand articles, and it is required of the department that it meet every emergency. Quite a complicated business, this ! All purchases and contracts for supplies must be advertised in sufficient tune to admit of fair com- petition. It is, therefore, necessary to allow for at least a three months' interval between the making of a requisition and the receipt of the supplies, ex- cept hi emergency cases, when the law permits pur- chase in open market. The storehouse system begins at Mount Hope, the storehouse there being known as the Quarter- master's Depot. The accountability for all prop- erty is initiated at Mount Hope, where the United States bills are certified and the supplies become government property. From Mount Hope to the line storehouses the material is handled by a system of invoices and receipts. Each article of govern- ment property is carried on a physical accountability system. Returns are rendered to the Chief Quarter- master every six months ; the audit of these returns QUARTERMASTER'S DEPARTMENT 109 by cross check from the return of one storehouse to that of another storehouse constitutes a debit and credit material account for all officers carrying prop- erty responsibility. The " scrapping" of French material by the Quar- termaster's Department consists of the disposal of some one hundred thousand tons of old French junk. About two thousand tons are sent each month to the United States on the cement ships Ancon and Cristobal, thus giving these boats a ballasting cargo when north bound. The Department has in its service about six hun- dred mules and horses, distributed among the corrals of the different districts. This provides for all team service on the Canal Zone, teams and drivers being furnished to the Construction and other Divisions for $3.50 a day. It may be stated, in conclusion, that the Quar- termaster's Department on the Isthmus is to the Canal Zone work what the Quartermaster's Depart- ment hi the United States is to the Army, both in the United States and in its island possessions, except that the Quartermaster's Department on the Isth- mus has a cost-keeping system, and the provi- sion and maintenance of a construction plant, and the supply of material, which does not pertain to army administration. In a word, the system is a combination of army and railroad practice, 110 THE STOEY OF PANAMA with the best and most applicable features in each retained. Under this system, material matters pertaining to an annual appropriation of more than forty million dollars are successfully taken care of, and more than thirty-nine thousand employees of more than thirty distinct nationalities and races are housed and made contented and comfortable. The work of the Quartermaster's Department is as efficient as it is important and complicated. CHAPTER VIII SANITATION ONE of the chief causes of the failure of the French in their canal project was inadequate sanitation. The chief diseases with which the French had to contend were malaria, yellow fever and smallpox. In those days the cities of Colon and Panama were breeding places for these and for other diseases. The streets and the sidewalks were not paved, and during the " rainy season," which lasts for nine months in the year, they were practically impassable. Add to these conditions the absence of electric lights and of plumbing, and you may have some apprecia- tion of conditions in Panama and Colon as they were before American occupation. The first work of the United States was to clean up these towns. Wisely enough our government had anticipated this necessity in the treaty of 1904, by which we were given sani- tary jurisdiction over the two terminal cities. The Department of Sanitation immediately set to work, with results which seem miraculous. To- day, driving leisurely down Central Avenue, Panama, one almost refuses to believe that a decade ago in place ill 112 THE STORY OF PANAMA of the paved streets there was a mass of mud and filth for nine months of the year, impassable except on foot, and then only at the risk of besmirching one's self with filth thrown from the upper stories of the buildings adjacent to the street. One sees now what would be seen in any up-to-date city in the United States electric lights, clean streets paved with vitrified brick, a water and a sewerage system and every modern urban convenience. These improvements, with the exception of the electric lights, were all made and paid for by the United States at a cost of about $3,000,000, under the agreement that Panama and Colon should refund the original cost by means of water rentals. The water and sewerage systems are maintained and operated by the Division of Public Works, a subor- dinate branch of the Canal Zone Department of Civil Administration. The cities of Panama and Colon have been given fifty years in which to liqui- date this obligation. Without fear one may to-day quench his thirst at any hydrant in either city, for the crystal lakes which furnish the water supply are far away in the mountains, out of the reach of contagion. The Canal Zone Sanitary Department has abso- lute authority in directing sanitary activities in the two cities. A Health Officer is appointed for each of the cities, whose business it is to enforce 114 THE STORY OF PANAMA cleanliness and all sanitary measures which the head of the department may see fit to promulgate. The work of cleaning up the cities was not all that had to be done. Doctor Gorgas, Chief Sanitary Officer, had discovered in Cuba, where he had learned to "sanitate," that cleanliness seemed to have little relationship to malaria and yellow fever, two of the deadliest enemies to the workmen in Panama. Vaccination would rid the country of smallpox ; the destruction of rats minimized the possibilities of an attack of the plague; but clean up Havana as he would, malaria and yellow fever persisted. In fact, as Doctor Gorgas puts it, the cleaner he got the city, the greater the spread of the infection, " until it was discovered by Doctors Finley and Ross that there were two kinds of mosquitoes responsible for the transmission of these maladies" the Stegomyia and the Anopheles, carriers, respectively, of yellow fever and of malaria. Now it happens that the Stegomyia is quite domes- tic in its habits, and is never found far distant from man's habitation. It may be said that the little fellow is perfectly harmless so long as there are no cases of yellow fever in the community. It is merely a carrier, and its bite is as harmless as that of any mosquito until ten or twelve days have elapsed after it has bitten an infected person. By this time it has contracted the disease itself and is capable SANITATION 115 of communicating it. Nor is there danger of con- tagion from yellow fever by contact. One may safely sleep in a room with a yellow fever patient, provided there are no Stegomyias present. The three necessary conditions for infection are: (1) the presence of an infected human being; (2) the pres- ence of the female Stegomyia ; (3) the biting of the infected person, and the biting of a second person by the same mosquito, ten or twelve days later. In the absence of any one of these conditions, the trans- mission of yellow fever is impossible. The work of sanitation on the Isthmus began in the early part of the year 1904. The French had been powerless to cope with the situation, especially as in their day the mode of transmission of yellow fever and malaria had not been discovered. The mosquito invaded the homes of the high and the low alike. The French had unwittingly furnished the Stegomyia with ideal breeding places, construct- ing for it elaborate homes in the way of concrete pools which were intended as reservoirs for decorative plants, but which were appropriated by the enter- prising little insect as a place most fitting for propa- gation. From these aristocratic quarters it went forth at night on its deadly errand, and ere the light of the next day drove it again to its hiding place its homicidal work was accomplished. The swamps, cesspools, and sluggish streams near 116 THE STORY OF PANAMA the quartering places were given no attention by the French, and these furnished natural breeding places for the Anopheles, the carrier of malaria. Obviously, the first work of the Department of Sanitation was to take measures against these formidable foes. So rain barrels, cisterns and all water containers were made mosquito proof with wire screening, cesspools were either drained or oiled, and the jungles near the thickly populated places were cleared to expose the hidden breeding places of the mosquito. All patients suspected of yellow fever infection were removed to the fever wards, which were carefully screened. As a further precaution against infection within the wards them- selves, each patient was in turn screened in, so that the yellow fever ward appeared more like a menagerie of caged human beings than a place of human habita- tion. The homes from which such patients were taken were always fumigated. A little later the plan of screening all Commission houses was carried into effect. The result of all these curative and pre- ventive measures was the extermination of yellow fever, the last case of infection on the Isthmus occur- ring in September, 1905. Fortunately the Stegomyia's travels are very limited. In a lifetime it seldom journeys more than one hundred yards. It breeds in fresh, clear water, rather than in cesspools, and is never found in moving SANITATION 117 streams. But wherever it finds the least bit of water to "its liking, there it takes up its abode. Mr. Le Prince, Chief Sanitary Inspector, says: "We have even found the larvae in water tanks on loco- motives, and in depressions in castings or parts of cars used for the transportation of rock and dirt. The adults are apt to collect where water or damp- ness is present, and have been found in bathrooms." It is easy to see how eternal vigilance is the price for the extermination of so persistent an enemy. In the instructions to sanitary inspectors occurs this paragraph, which describes the Stegomyia: "The lyre-shaped mark on the back is clearly shown, and it must be borne in mind that no other mosquito has these marks nor any resembling them, even though you may find pale marks on a dark ground. A few Stegomyia have the ground color pale, even light brownish, but the lyre is there. White banded legs and transverse bars on the abdo- men have no significance if the lyre-shaped mark is absent." After yellow fever, malaria has been the most dreaded of tropical maladies, not so much for its fatality as for its persistent prevalence, and because of its serious obstruction to work. Much the same preventive measures were adopted in the case of the malaria-carrying Anopheles as in that of the Stegomyia. Drainage, oiling, cutting of grass and 118 THE STOKY OF PANAMA clearing of jungle growth have been the chief pre- ventives. The effectiveness with which the Sani- tary Department did its work along this line is shown by the table on page 121. | But clean up as much as they would, it was found that people were still taken ill. Moreover, in the canal work many people were necessarily injured. So there was need for the splendid hospital service which is maintained under the direction of the Department of Sanitation. There are two hos- pitals, one at Colon, the other at Ancon the latter being one of the largest and best equipped in the world. Here every disease to which man is heir is skillfully treated. There are the operating wards, the insane wards, the fever wards, the maternity ward, the tuberculosis wards, isolation wards and so on. The hospital has fifty buildings in all, and a capacity of fifteen hundred patients. The average number treated annually since American occupa- tion has been 23,600, or a total of more than 188,000 patients. The organization of the Sanitary Department is much like that of an army. The Zone was divided into districts, each with its district inspector and district physician. Through these lieutenants the war against disease has continued for eight years, with such results as the world knows. Every village and city of the Canal Zone has its district physician I. ENTRANCE TO ANCON HOSPITAL GROUNDS (120) II. I. C. C. SANITARIUM AT TABOGA 1 g W Q & H j II THOP t- 00 CO 1-1 O ^ O CM O* t^ 5 5 t^* CO Ci Ct C*l ^t* t^r t ," o" co" of Next to Spain, whose interest dates from the days of Columbus, England has been a factor in Isthmian affairs longer than any other nation. As early as 1650 British freebooters were settling hi desultory fashion hi Honduras and Nicaragua. Spain pro- tested, but twenty years later a treaty between the two countries confirmed the English in their pos- sessions, though Spain two years afterward insisted that this treaty applied only to Jamaica and to the other islands England was occupying. England, however, maintained that the treaty referred to the mainland as well, and began a series of maneuvers in which, diplomatically, she far excelled her rivals. DIPLOMACY OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS 269 During this same century British adventurers, negroes from a Dutch slaver and the native Indians formed a hybrid colony along that part of the Nicara- guan shore known as the Mosquito coast. This settlement in the land of the Mosquito Indian be- came an entering wedge for England, who landed troops and occupied the place in 1740. In 1775 the British colony in Mosquito Land was made into a dependency of Jamaica. Protests of Spain resulted in little, for while England treated with her each time, the Spaniards were outwitted by superior diplomacy. In 1779 England gave up her claim to the land, keeping, however, a strip at Belize (now British Honduras) in which to "cut trees." A few years later Spain was induced to enlarge this tree cutting area. By 1825 England had established a regency at Bluefields, and ten years later the land of the Mosquitoes was organized as a province under the name of British Honduras. Finally, in 1860, by a diplomatic coup in which she induced Nicaragua to acknowledge the validity of English claims to Hon- duras, Great Britain became an established fixture along that part of the Isthmus. Since England had so firm a hold on Nicaragua she naturally became the chief nation with which the American government had to deal when at last it became interested in the Isthmus. The United 270 THE STORY OF PANAMA States had been slow to appreciate the great opportu- nity almost at her door. In 1835 some interest was manifested in the Isthmus, when on the motion of Senator Henry Clay, President Jackson sent Charles Biddle there to investigate the possibility of a canal. This mission had no definite results, but finally the United States, aroused by the need of communica- tion with her new possessions in the northwest and the far west, negotiated a treaty with New Granada which was ratified by the United States Senate on June 10, 1846. By this treaty the United States secured the sole right of transit across the Isthmus on any routes opened by road, railroad or canal from the Atrato River northward to the Chiriqui Lagoon. This embraced the Isthmus of Panama in its limited definition, and was the treaty which made possible the Panama Railroad whose franchise was secured four years later. Other terms of the treaty were that American citizens were to be put on the same basis as citizens of New Granada as to concessions, im- munities, tolls, etc. In return for these concessions, the United States agreed to maintain the neutrality of any lines of transit which might be built and to guarantee the rights of New Granada against aliens. The American government also guaranteed the sovereignty of New Granada. Flushed with the success of this treaty, the United DIPLOMACY OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS 273 States, three years later, sent Elijah Rise to Nicara- gua, and he attempted to create there the conditions we had just established at the Lower Isthmus of Panama. But there were complications, due to the fact that England was interested in Nicaragua, whereas she had not been particularly interested in Panama. The government at Washington re- called Hise and sent down E. G. Squier, who had, however, views similar to those of his predecessor. He made a treaty with Nicaragua, guaranteeing to that Republic the sovereignty over the territory traversed by the proposed canal. But this was a direct slap at England, which was asserting sover- eignty over the Atlantic terminus of such a route. England retaliated by taking steps to seize from Honduras Tiger Island in the Gulf of Fonseca, which would give her control of the Pacific terminus. Her ostensible ground for this was the failure of Honduras to pay an old debt. In return, Mr. Squier hastily made a treaty with Nicaragua by which she ceded Tiger Island to the United States. This created a situation which would mean an open breach with England unless something was speedily done. Something was done which American statesmen had cause to regret for the next fifty years. This something was the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. Since the political situa- tion in the United States at this tune rendered 274 THE STOKY OF PANAMA war with England inexpedient, this treaty was ac- cepted as the only alternative in sight. By this treaty, which was proclaimed in 1850, the neutrality of an Isthmian canal was guaranteed to the extent that neither government was to build or to fortify it, nor ever to enter into an alliance with any Central American country to that end. Any company which cared to undertake the project was to be jointly protected by England and by the United States, and they were to invite other nations to join in this protection. There were to be two free ports, one at each end of the canal. This principle of neutrality was to be applied to all canal routes on the Isthmus. Naturally England did not apply the treaty to British Honduras or to Mosquito Land, and so she successfully kept the United States out of the Isthmus while relinquishing nothing. The difficulty in which the United States had placed herself was not realized for some years. The events leading up to the Civil War and the war itself kept the American govern- ment busy with matters at home. Once her own house was again in order, however, the United States had an opportunity to appreciate the full significance of the treaty. In 1866 Secretary Seward voiced a growing pop- ular sentiment by suggesting that the United States buy Tiger Island and abrogate the Clayton-Bulwer DIPLOMACY OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS 275 treaty.. Under Presidents Buchanan and Lincoln the American government had begun to feel the need of a freer rein on the Isthmus. Lincoln at one time considered a plan to establish colonies of emancipated slaves near the Chiriqui Lagoon, along the Costa Rican shore line. President Grant ad- vocated the bold policy of an " American Canal under American control/ ' but the Senate in 1869 and 1870 refused to ratify treaties with Nicaragua looking toward an Isthmian waterway. The undercurrent of sentiment against our limi- tations on the Isthmus came to the surface again when De Lesseps was said to be trying to influence Colombia to abrogate the treaty of 1846 and to permit him to build a canal under French control. The determined attitude of President Hayes caused De Lesseps to abandon his attempt and to organize a private company, which solicited funds hi America as well as in France. President Hayes applied the Monroe Doctrine to the De Lesseps case. For years the agitation for an American built canal controlled by America recurred with each new canal project, and always it ran against the Clayton- Bulwer treaty. When the United States was at war with Spain, an event occurred which thoroughly aroused the American people. Admiral Cervera's fleet was in Atlantic waters, and it was thought that the Oregon, one of the biggest battleships of the 276 THE STORY OF PANAMA United States, was needed to reenforce the American Atlantic squadron. The Oregon was at San Fran- cisco and had to make the long and perilous trip around the Horn. In suspense the American public watched the daily progress of the ship on her long journey as reported through the newspapers. The fact that she made a superb voyage and was not needed after all, did not alter the firm conviction in American minds that a canal must be built for just such emergencies if for no other purpose. In 1900, two years later, the United States was negotiating the Hay-Pauncefote treaty, which was to make possible the American canal. The Hay-Pauncefote treaty, ratified December 16, 1901, makes the following provisions : First, abro- gates the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. Second, gives the United States power to construct, operate and control a canal. Third, gives the United States a free hand over the canal in time of war. Fourth, forbids the blockading of the canal but does not forbid our fortifying it. Thus ended the years of diplomacy leading up to the construction of the canal. That the United States was the logical builder of such a canal be- came as evident to England as to ourselves. After the French fiasco, this was the only solution of the problem. The matter of fortification was definitely settled I. CATHEDRAL PLAZA, PANAMA II. INSTALLING THE WATER SYSTEM, PANAMA (277) DIPLOMACY OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS 279 in the spring of 1911, when the House of Representa- tives of the United States voted an appropriation of $3,000,000 for that purpose. This action of the American Congress, and the steps since taken to stud the Isthmian ports with forts, settles forever the diplomatic question of whether or not we have actually acquired from England the right to fortify the canal. Even after the Hay-Pauncefote treaty was ratified and as late as the fall of 1910, there were people in the United States who insisted that the American government had bound itself not to fortify this great waterway. However, a careful investi- gation of the diplomatic provisions of the Anglo- American treaty convinced the Administration and the Congress of the United States, that, by omitting all reference to the question of fortification, the makers of the treaty meant to leave the government of the United States free to do just as it chose in the matter. Naturally, it chose to fortify the canal. Such is Panama's story a story of the search for the New Route to India. Columbus came this way in quest of a more direct route to the wealth of the Orient. Cortez believed in the practicability of securing an all-water route by the construction of an Isthmian canal. At various times and by various peoples surveys have been made, but in each case the project has ended where it began, and 280 THE STORY OF PANAMA it was not till 1879, when the French launched upon the undertaking, that any real canal digging was done. To early Spanish enterprise the world owed the first transisthmian highway ; to American enter- prise its transisthmian railway, and to American enterprise it is indebted for the severing of the con- tinents and the joining of the Atlantic ocean with the Pacific. As we have shown, the idea of a transisthmian canal has been contemporaneous with the beginnings and growth of the romantic little country of Panama. And it is a noteworthy coincidence that the cir- cumstance which gave birth to the Republic of Panama was the same which put the canal project in a way to materialize the NEW ROUTE TO INDIA. , INDEX Ahorca Lagarta, 261. Alhajuela, 55, 66, 70. Amador, Dr., 22, 25. America, Discovery of, 159. Americans in Canal Zone, 37, 124, 134, 151. Ancon (city), 90, 118, 137, 141. Ancon, The, 109. Ancon Hill, 222. Antonelli (explorer), 3. AspinwaU (town), 262. Aspinwall, W. H., 259. Atlantic Ocean, 1-2, 44. Atrato River, 171, 258, 270. Auditor of the Canal Zone, 135, 143. Avila, Pedro Arias de, see Pedrarias. Aztecs, 235-236. Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, 1, 93, 168-178, 180, 231, 235. Balboa (city), 47, 90, 178. Balboa Hill, 175. Barbacoas, 217. Bas Obispo, 77, 81, 100. Bastidas, Roderigo de, 165- 166, 168-169, 191. Bastimentos, Isle of, 164. Bayana River, 244. Belize (British Honduras), 269. Beri-beri in Canal Zone, 121. Biddle, Charles, 270. Bishop, Joseph Bucklin, 42. Blackburn, Jo. C. S., 135. Black Swamp, 66, 261. Bluefields, 269. Bocas del Toro, 222. Bocas del Toro, Province of, 27. Bogota, 18, 20, 25, 259. Bohio, 65, 69, 70-71, 76. Bolivar, Simon, 19, 258. Boquete, 245, 250. Breakwaters, 34, 47. British Honduras, 269, 274. Brodley, Captain, 211-215. Brunet, Joseph, 14. Buchanan, President James, 275. Bunau-Varilla, Philippe, 25. Caledonia, 172. Caledonian Route, 175. California, 260. CampSche, 200. CampSche Bay, 179. Canal project, The : French Attempt, The, 7-14. Interest of other nations in, 2-13. Interest of the United States in, 4, 17-19, 268-280. 281 282 INDEX Canal project, The : Possible routes considered, 3-4, 17, 175. Possible types considered, 7, 10, 13, 41, 47. American Canal, The : con- struction of, 42-44, 48- 94; cost of, 8, 14, 19, 29, 43, 47, 100, 107, 112, 132, 136; statistics re- garding, 42-43, 47 ; water supply, 62-66, 70. Canal Zone, The : Acquisition of, 14, 17, 97. Americans in, 110, 133-134, 251-256. Area and natural features of, 19, 28, 69-71, 77, 81-86, 107, 111-112, 149, 250- 251. Jurisdiction in, 19, 28-29, 97-98, 111, 276-279. Occupation of, 134. Other nationalities in, 134, 251, 256-257. Politics in, 146, 252, 255. Schools in, 132-133, 135, 137, 145-149, 151. Statistics regarding, 43, 121, 256-257. Canals, Comparison of, 47. Canal Record, The, 99, 150, 154. Cape Horn, 206, 276. Caribbean Sea, 30, 44, 165. Cartagena, 170, 180, 190, 211. Castilla del Oro Country, 171. Castle Chagre (Fort San Lo- renzo), 211. Castle Gloria, 191. Cathay, 160, 163. Central Avenue, Panama, 111. Central Hotel, 252. Cervera, Admiral Pascual, 275. Chagres (city), 184. Chagres (port), 188. Chagres River, 10, 33, 41, 51- 52, 57, 62, 65-66, 70, 76- 78,151,164,184,188,211, 215-216, 260. Charles V, of Spain, 2, 3. Chauncey, Henry, 259. Chepo, 244. Chibcha Indians, 236. Chicago, 126. Chief Engineer of the Isthmian Canal Commission, 43, 85, 89, 99, 155. China, 160. Chinese, 134, 137, 255-256. Chiriqui, Province of, 27, 236, 243. Chiriqui Lagoon, 163, 258, 270, 275. Chiriqui Volcano, 243. Cimmaroon Indians, 227. Cipango, 160. Civil War (in the United States), 4, 274. Clay, Senator Henry, 270. Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 273- 276. Code, Province of, 27. Colombia, Republic of : Negotiations with France, 9, 17-19, 166. Negotiations with United States, 17-20, 258-259, 262-263. INDEX 283 Colombia, Republic of : Relations with Panama, 19- 26, 268. Relations with Spain, 19. Colon (city), 25-26, 28, 34, 111-112, 118, 134, 142, 166, 228, 245, 250. Colon, Province of, 27. Colon Beach, Statue at, 259. Colon Harbor, 44, 191, 240. Columbus, Christopher, 1-2, 30, 33, 159-168, 178, 191, 235, 279. Comogre (Indian chief), 171. Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique, see Univer- sal Interoceanic Company. Concha (Colombian Minis- ter), 19. Confederacidn Granadina, 20. Constantinople, 233. Contractor's Hill, 82. Cordillera Mountains, 33. Corozal, 104. Corpus Christi Church, 262. Cortez, Hernando, 2, 3, 235, 279. Costa Rica, 163, 275. Coupon Books, 131, 154. Courts of Justice in the Canal Zone, 133, 136, 142-144, 150-151. Cristobal, 34, 71, 77, 104, 131, 137, 141, 167, 259. Cristobal, The, 109. Crocodiles, River of (Chagres River), 164. Cruces, 184, 187, 190-191, 202, 217, 220, 260. Cuba, 163, 207. Cucaracha Slide, 85. Culebra (town), 71, 78, 86, 104, 261. Culebra Cut, 42, 48, 70, 72, 76-89. Culebra Slide, 82, 85, 141. Damage claims against I. C. C., 76, 151. Dampier, William, 196, 222- 226. Darien (town), 227. Darien, Gulf of, 164-165, 169- 172, 234. Darien, Isthmus of, 3, 231. David, 245, 250. Davis, Major General George W., 134. Declaration of Independence of Panama, 21-22, 26. De Cosa (explorer), 235. Do Leon, Ponce, 234. De Lesseps, Count Ferdinand, 7-13, 167, 275. De Lesseps Buildings, 34. Denver, 61. De Soto, Hernando, 234-235. Devol, Colonel C. A., 101. Dikes, 47. Dominican friars, 3. Drake, Sir Francis, 4, 196-207. Dutch pirates, 206, 208. Dutch settlers in Panama, 192. East Indians, 134, 251. Empire (city), 82, 104, 141, 149. 284 INDEX Employees of I. C. C., 34, 72, 110, 125, 138, 141, 146, 154, 251. J'Gold " employees, 101-104. "Silver" employees, 101- 102, 104. Encisco, Martin Fernandez de, 169-171, 176. England : Explorations under, 196- 204, 206-207. Interest in Panama, 4, 134, 210, 231-232, 268-269, 273-276. Relations with the United States, 269, 273-276. Esquemeling (historian), 206, 208-209, 211, 216-217, 219. Eugenie, Empress, of France, 166. Exclusion laws against Chinese and Syrians, 137. Ferdinand, King of Spain, 163. Feuille, Judge Frank, 151. Flamenco Island, 90. Fluviograph stations, 55, 70- 71. Fonseca, Gulf of, 273. Fortification of the Canal, 28, 153, 276, 279. Fort Jeronimo, 191-192. France : Explorations under, 203- 204, 207. Frenchmen in Panama, 115, 199. Interest in Canal project, 4, 233-234, 268 ; attempt to construct, 7-14, 38, 41- 42, 76, 155, 199, 264, 276, 279. Negotiations with Colombia, 9, 17-19 ; with the United States, 17-19, 264, 267. Francisco River, 203. Galvano (Spanish historian), 163. Gamboa, 70. Gatun (city), 37-41, 43-44, 66, 70, 76, 78, 100, 104, 141, 260-261. Gatun Cocktail, 66. Gatun Dam, 42, 48-52. Gatun Lake, 30, 42, 57, 65, 76, 94, 100, 151. Germans, 134, 232. Germany, 234. Goethals, Colonel George W., 43, 85, 89, 99, 155. Gold Hill, 81-82, 86. Gold-seeking Expeditions, 165, 171, 177, 200-204, 240, 260. Gorgas, Dr. W. C., 114. Gorgona, 76-77, 100, 104, 141, 175, 260. Governor of the Canal Zone, 134. Governor of Panama, 209-211, 215, 217. Gracias Dios (town), 163. Gracias a Dios, Cape, 169. Grant, President Ulysses S., 275. INDEX 285 Great Khan of China, 160. Greeks, 134, 251. Guinea town, 192, 195. Haiti, 30, 163-165, 171, 196. Havana, 114. Hawkins (pirate), 222. Hawkins, Sir John, 199-200. Hay, Secretary John, 18. Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty, 28, 97, 111. Hay-Herran treaty, 19. Hay-Pauncefote treaty, 142, 276, 279. Hays, President Rutherford B., 275. Herran, Dr. Thomas, 19. Hise, Elijah, 273. Honduras, 169, 268, 273. Honduras Bay, 163. Hospitals and sanitariums, 118, 121-122. Huertas, General, 25. Hydraulic fill, the, 55. Incas, 93, 171, 177, 236. India, 1. Indians, 33, 149, 164, 17O-172, 179, 187, 202-203, 216- 217, 22&-22S, 236-240, 244-249, 269. Chibcha Indians, 236. Maroon Indians, 202-203, 227. Mosquito Indians, 269. San Bias Indians, 33, 228, 236, 239-240. International Scientific Con- gress, The, 7, 8. Iron Castle, 191, 195, 206. Isthmian Canal Commission : Departments : of Civil Ad- ministration, 99, 112, 132- 149, 153 ; (Divisions : Posts, Customs and Rev- enues, 134-138; of Po- lice and Prisons, 133-135, 138-141 ; of Fire Protec- tion, 133-135, 141-142; of Public Works, 112, 135, 142-143; Steam Vessel Inspection Service, 135, 143; of Schools, 135, 145-149; Treasuier, 135, 143; Auditor, 135, 143; Judicial Branch, 136, 143- 144) ; of Construction and Engineering, 30-90, 99, 107, 109, 153,155; (Divi- sions: Atlantic, 37-38, 66, 99, 155; Central or Cule- bra, 85, 99, 155 ; Pacific, 99, 155 ; River Hydraulics, Meteorology and Surveys, 70-71, 155) ; of Disburse- ments, 99, 150, 154; of Examination of Accounts, 99, 150, 152-154; Gen- eral Purchasing Office, 99, 150, 152; of Investiga- tions, 99, 150, 154; of Law, 99, 150-151 ; Quartermas- ter's, 38, 99, 101-110, 124 ; of Sanitation, 72-75, 99, 101, 111-123, 153; of Sub- sistence, 34, 99, 124r-131 ; (Building and Construc- tion Division, 107). 286 INDEX Isthmian Canal Commission : Organization, 30, 97-100, 135. Relations with Panama, 135, 150. Italians, 134, 251. Jackson, President Andrew, 270. Jamaica, 163, 207, 210, 220- 221, 268-269. Japan, 160. Japanese, 134. Jesuit Missionaries in Panama, 227-228. Jordan, David Starr, 97. Junta, The revolutionary, of Panama, 22, 25. La Boca (Balboa), 77, 178. Las Cascadas, 77. Leper colony, 122-123. Le Prince, Mr., 117. Lidgerwood cars, 86. Limon Bay, 7, 34, 43, 191, 240, 260. Lincoln, President Abraham, 275. Lion Hill, 261. Living arrangements, 37, 102- 107, 116, 133. Lorenzo, Mount, 33, 211. Los Santos, Province of, 27. Louis Philippe, 233. Magellan, Strait of, 206. Malaria in Canal Zone, 111, 114-118, 121, 259, 261. Mansvelt (Dutch pirate), 206- 207, 211. Manzanillo Island, 33, 167, 259-260. Manzanillo Point, 170. Markets, Public, 143. Maroon Indians, 202-203, 227. Matachin, 77-78. Mexico, 2, 179, 235-236, 258. Mindi, 38, 41. Miraflores Lake, 44, 89. Miraflores Locks, 44. Monroe Doctrine, 275. Morales (explorer), 179. Morgan, Henry, 4, 180, 196, 205-222. ."Morgan's Bridge,'! 183. Mosquito Coast, 163, 269, 274. Mosquito Indians, 269. Mosquitoes (campaign against), 75-76, 114-118. Mount Ancon, 90. Mount Hope Cemetery, 38. Mount Hope storehouse, 38, 108. Naos Island, 47. Napoleon III, of France, 233, 234.J National Geographic Maga- zine, 43. Navy Bay (Limon Bay), 260. Negotiations of the United States : With Colombia, 17-20, 258- 259, 262-263 ; with Eng- land, 269, 273-276; with France, 17-19, 264, 267; with Nicaragua, 273 ; with INDEX 287 Panama, 22-26, 28-29, 97, 131, 135-137, 142, 268. Negroes, 251. Nelson, Lord Horatio, 232. New Edinburg, 231. New Granada, 19, 270. New Granada, Treaty with, 258-259, 263, 270, 274. New Orleans, 125, 152. New Panama Canal Company, The, 14, 264. "New Route to India," 159, 160, 166-167, 279-280. New York, 30, 125, 152. Nicaragua, 3, 17-18, 28, 206, 232-233, 268, 273, 275. Night of Horror, 20. Nina, The, 235. Niqueza (explorer), 169-171, 189. Nombre de Dios, 170, 184-195, 200-201, 203-204, 206, 227. Obaldia, Governor Jose", 26. Ojeda, Alfonzo de, 165, 169- 170. Old Panama, 180, 183-184, 190, 195, 201, 206-207, 211-212, 215-221. Oregon, The, 275-276. Pacific Ocean, 2, 44, 77, 93, 222. Discovery of, 1, 168, 172- 178, 235. Palo Seco, 122. Panama, Bay of, 7, 175-176, 225. Panama, Bishop of, 10. Panama City, 20, 25-26, 28, 90, 111-112, 121, 134, 142, 175, 180, 222-225, 245, 250, 252, 260-261. See also Old Panama. Panama, Isthmus of, 1, 4, 18, 160-166, 169-178 ; as pos- sible site of canal, 3, 17, 228, 232, 252. Panama, Province of, 27. Panama Railroad : Commissary Department of, 34, 66, 124. Employees of, 43, 102, 138, 141. History of, 4, 9, 20, 25-26, 28, 98-100, 258-267, 270. Relation to I. C. C., 98, 125, 150. Panama, Republic of : History of, 17-29. Negotiations with the United States, 22-26, 2S-29, 97, 131, 135-137, 142, 268. Relations with Colombia, 19-26. Revolution, 17-29; Dec- laration of Indepen- dence, 21-22, 26, 164; government, 26-27 ; politics, 27, 246; flag, 26,28. Inhabitants of, 134, 234- 239, 244-251, 256-257. Natural and geographical features, 62, 65, 69, 191, 192, 235, 243-244. 288 INDEX Panama, Republic of : Religion of, 27, 246, 249. Paraiso, 89. Paris, 7. Parker (explorer), 196. Patterson, William, 228-232. Pearl Islands, 176, 179. Pedrarias (Pedro Arias de Avila), 176-178, 180, 231. Pedro Miguel (city), 44, 71, 81- 82. Pedro Miguel Locks, 44. Peru, 4, 170, 177, 179, 190, 201, 206, 220-222, 235-236. Philip II, of Spain, 3. Pinzon (explorer), 235. Pizarro, Francisco, 93, 170- 171, 177-179, 235. Polo, Marco, 160. Porto Bello, 104, 164-166, 168, 184, 188, 190-195, 204, 206-210, 219, 221-222, 227, 260. Protocol, Preliminary, with Colombia, 18. Public Buildings, 34, 38, 66, 101,104,107,124,132,138. Public Lands, 136. Puerte del Principe, 207. Puerto Escoces, 231. Quarantine, 34, 90. Rainfall, Statistics regarding, 70-71. Reports, 101, 128, 150, 153. Revenues, 136-137, 142-143, 145. Ringrose (explorer), 196, 225. Roads in Canal Zone, 137-138, 143. Robinson, Tracy, 10, 260. Rolfe, John, 171. Roosevelt, Theodore, 134. Roosevelt Avenue, Cristobal, 34, 166. Rousseau, Commissioner H. H., 14, 61. Royal Road, The, 179-195, 201, 206, 260. Saavedra Ceron, Alvaro de, 3. St. Anastasius, Cathedral of, 183. St. Andrews, 231. St. Michael, 175. San Bias Indians, 33, 228, 236, 239-240. San Bias Islands, 222. San Francisco, 125, 152, 276. San Lorenzo, Fort, 184^188, 211-216, 220-221. San Miguel, Gulf of, 175-177, 226. San Pablo, 76, 82. San Sebastian, 170-171. Santa Katalina, 206-207, 211, 215. Santa Maria, 222. Santa Maria del Antigua, 171- 172, 176-177. Santa Maria, The. 235. Santo Domingo, 30, 169, 196. Scandinavians, 134. Schools in Canal Zone, 132- 133, 135, 137, 145-149, 151. Scotchmen, 134. INDEX 289 Scotland, 231. I 'Scrapping" of French Mate- rial, 76, 101, 109. Secretary of the Isthmian Canal Commission, 42, 99, 154. Seward, Secretary William H., 274. Sharp (explorer), 196, 222, 226. Smallpox, 111, 121. Social Functions, 104, 132, 250-255. Society of Commercial Geog- raphy, 7. Sosa Hill, 90. South America, 184, 225. "South Sea" (Pacific Ocean), 1, 93, 172, 176-178. Spain : Explorations under, 1-4, 159-178, 234-235. Interest in canal project, 2- 3, 268-269, 280. Relations with Colombia, 19. Spanish people in Panama, 134, 151, 179-180, 196- 201, 206, 208-232, 235- 239, 249-251. Spooner Bill, 17, 264. Squier, E. G., 273. Statistics, 16, 42-47, 121, 127- 128, 136, 256-257. Stephens, John L., 259, 263. Strait, Belief in existence of, 1, 2, 160, 165, 234. Suez Canal, 7, 9, 13, 47. Superintendent of Schools, 122. Supplies, 38, 101-102, 107- 109, 124-131. Syrians, 134, 137. Tabernilla, 70. Taboga, 122, 219, 225, 246. Taft, William H., 267. Taft Agreement, The, 136. Tehuantepec, Isthmus of, 3, 179. Tetu, Captain, 203-204. Thatcher, Maurice H., 135. Tides, Ocean, 44. Tiger Island, 273-274. Tivoli Hotel, 90, 93, 250, 252. Toro Point, 33, 47. Tortuga, Isle of, 210. Toscanelli's map, 160. Totten, Colonel G. M., 259. Track-shifting machines, 72. Trafalgar, 232. Treasurer of the Canal Zone, 135, 143. Treaties : Clayton-Bulwer, 273-276. Hay-Bunau-Varilla, 28, 97, 111. Hay-Herran, 19. Hay-Pauncefote, 142, 276, 279. With New Granada, 258- 259, 263, 270, 274. Trinidad, 200. Tuberculosis in Canal Zone, 121. Turin, Italy, 166. Turks, 134. Tuyra River, 228. 290 INDEX Typhoid fever in Canal Zone, 121. Universal Interoceanic Com- pany, The, 8, 9, 13. Vela, Cape de la, 169. Venezuela, 165, 169. Venta Cruz (Cruces), 184. Vera Cruz, 199, 211. Veraguas, Province of, 27, 164. Vespucci, Amerigo, 234. Victuals, Isle of, 164. Von Humboldt, Baron, 232. Wafer, Lionel, 196, 225-226, 228. Washington Hotel, Colon, 262. Watling's Island, 30. West Indians, 78, 134, 138, 149, 151, 196, 251. West Indies, 1, 196, 210. Wilson, Major Eugene T., 125. Wyse, Lieutenant, 175. Yaviza, 228. Yellow Fever in Canal Zone, 111, 114-117, 121. Yucatan, 235-236. Y. M. C. A., 66, 104, 252, 255.