FOUR CENTURIES OF THE RANAMA CANAL WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON H«< ^<J Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/fourcenturiesofpOOjohnrich //^;> FOUR CENTURIES OF THE PANAMA CANAL Vaughan & Keith, Photo. WILLIAM H. TAFT, United States Secretary of War. FOUR CENTURIES OF THE PANAMA CANAL BY WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON, A.M., L.H.D. AUTHOR OF • A CENTURY OF EXPANSION," ETC. WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1906 6" • Copyright, 1906 BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY Published November, iqob aukcroft UbaQf TO WILLIAM H. TAFT, SECRETARY OF WAR, JURIST, ADMINISTRATOR, DIPLOMAT, AND, UNDER THE PRESIDENT, CHIEF BUILDER OF THE PANAMA CANAL; IN SINCERE THOUGH IN- ADEQUATE COMMEMORATION OF ESTEEMED FRIENDSHIP AND INVALUABLE AID; THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDI- CATED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE I SHALL try in this book to tell the story of the Panama Canal, and incidentally that of Panama itself so far as the latter is necessary to the completeness of the former. It will be impossible for me to do so with any great elaboration of detail. The vastness of the topic forbids it; unless in- deed this single volume were to be multiplied into many. The story is more than four centuries long, and it impli- cates, literally, mankind from China to Peru. Any one of half a dozen of its phases might well monopolise a volume. But I shall hope to give in these pages some account of all the really salient and essential features of the story, and especially to make clear the relationships of cause and effect among them, and to show how, by virtue of a somewhat devious train of incidents and circumstances leading from Christopher Columbus to Theodore Koosevelt, this country, in opportunity and privilege, in authority and responsi- bility, has become at Panama the ^'heir of all the ages." It will also be impossible for me to give much detailed descrip- tion of the Isthmian country, of its conditions of resources, soil, and climate, of its people, or of the technical features of the canal and its auxiliary works. To each of half a dozen such topics, also, a volume might well be given. If I touch upon these more lightly and briefly than upon his- torical matters, that will be because this is to be a history rather than a descriptive treatise. It is now more than a quarter of a century since I be- came, as a student of affairs and as a writer upon them, interested in the chief proposals and problems of Isthmian transit. Ferdinand de Lesseps had then achieved his splen- did success at Suez, and was beginning his grandiose but fatuous undertaking at Panama ; an American company was vii ; viii PEEFACE planning the final and fruitless essay at Nicaragua; and James B. Eads was elaborating for Tehuantepec the most ambitious scheme of his engineering genius. In those proj- ects, applied to routes which had been selected by Cortez, I became absorbed, and in all the years since that time I have striven to keep myself in touch with them, as long as two of them lasted, and with the one triumphant survivor down to the present. It was also my privilege, through the courtesy of the Government of the United States, and espe- cially of its Secretary of War, the Hon. William H. Taft, to spend some time at Panama and there to study historical data, political and social conditions, and the various prob- lems of the canal enterprise, under exceptionally favourable conditions of authority and intimacy, at what was probably the most important formative period thus far in the career of the Isthmian Kepublic and of our relations to it. The result will be found in this volume, in which I shall embody information acquired through personal investigation at Panama as well as in Washington and New York, and through inquiry of authoritative sources at Paris and Bogota—the five cities, in four lands and three continents, in which the modern history of Panama and the Panama Canal has been chiefly made. Much more might be said, not only than I shall have space to say, but also than it would be fitting for me to say. Much has been imparted to me which is of indispensable value to me in preparing this work, in directing me to other data, and in enabling me .to judge correctly among diverse opinions and reports, but which confidence forbids me to reveal. I am deeply indebted, for information, opportunity, and aid, to Dr. Amador, the President of Panama, and to his son. Dr. R. A. Amador, the Panaman Consul-General in New York ; to Dr. Arosemena, then First Designate of Pan- ama ; to Seiior Obaldia, the Panaman Minister, and to Senor C. C. Arosemena, the Secretary of Legation, at Washington to Senors J. A. Arango, Tomas Arias, Ramon M. Valdes, and other gentlemen at Panama ; to the lamented John Hay, PKEFACE ix then Secretary of State; to Mr. William H. Taft, Secretary of War; to Mr. F. B. Loomis, then Assistant Secretary of State; to Mr. John Barrett, then American Minister, and to Mr. Joseph Lee, then Secretary of Legation, at Panama; to Mr. Charles E. Magoon, then counsel to the Canal Commis- sion and since Governor of the Canal Zone ; to Rear-Admiral John A. Walker, then Chairman of the Canal Commission; to Mr. John F. Wallace, then Chief Engineer of the Canal; to Colonel William C. Gorgas, Chief of the Sanitary Staff of the Canal Zone; to Mr. William Nelson Cromwell, Coun- sel to the French Panama Canal Company; and to many others. I desire also to make grateful acknowledgments to the Editors of The Forum magazine and of The Tribune newspaper, of New York, for permission to use in this volume portions of various articles contributed by me to the pages of those publications. With all its shortcomings,—which I sincerely trust no reader will realise as keenly as the writer,—this book will be offered to the public with a hope that it will in some measure, by suggesting inquiry and stimulating study as well as by imparting information, increase appreciation and right knowledge of an undertaking which is not only the greatest in our history but also the greatest of its kind in the history of the world, and which is to be completed not only for the immeasurable advantage of the American nation but also for the promotion of the welfare of all mankind. Willis Fletcher Johnson. New Yobk, Octob&r, 1906. — CONTENTS Chapter I THE QUEST OF COLUMBUS PAGE Columbus's Aim not to Find a New Continent but to Find a "Water Highway from Europe to Asia—Theories of the World from Aristotle to Toscanelli—Some Ante-Columbian Adventures The Alleged Letter and Map of Toscanelli—The Reports of Marco Polo and Mandeville—Thinae—Columbus in Quest of the Land of the Great Khan—His Identification of America with Asia—The "Garden of Eden"—Origin of the Legend of the Strait—Isth- mian Explorations of His Fourth Voyage—The Map of Wald- seemiiller—Persistence of Columbus's Delusion ... 1 Chapter II THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT The Quests of Ojeda and Bastidas—La Cosa and Vespucci—First Colonies on the Gulf of Darien—Pizarro and Enciso—The Ad- vent of Balboa—Rivalry with Enciso—Discovery of the Pacific Ocean—Pedrarias Davila and His Deviltries—The First Ships in the South Sea—Judicial Murder of Balboa—Founding of Panama—The Pearl Islands—Explorations at Nicaragua and Tehuantepec—Work of De Soto and His Colleagues—The Voy- age of Magellan—Cortez and the Mythical Strait—First Pro- posal of a Canal—Alvaro de Saavedra Ceron—Four Rival Canal Routes in the Time of Cortez—Decree of Charles V—Reversed by Philip II—Advent of the English Freebooters—Morgan the Buccaneer—Sharpe and Wafer—William Paterson's Colonial Enterprise—Explorations of Condamine and Ulloa . .18 Chapter III EARLY PLANS AND RIVALRIES Humboldt's Observations and Recommendations—Nine Canal Routes across the Americas—Discussions of Panama and Darien—The "Secret of the Strait" again—Goethe's Remarkable Prophecies xi ——A xii CONTENTS PAGE Rise of American Interest in the Canal Scheme—The First Pan- American Congress—The First Nicaragua Canal Company— French Franchise at Panama—Question of the Level of the Two Seas—Various American Expeditions to Nicaragua—Interest of the French Government—Humboldt's Renewed Suggestions Louis Napoleon's Schemes at Nicaragua 39 Chapter IV THE CLAYTON-BULWER EPISODE Origin of the British Claims in Central America—The Mosquito Indians and Their Kings—Planting of British Colonies—Con- troversies with Spain—Rapid Expansion of Belize and Mosquitia —The Bay Islands—Aggressions upon Nicaragua—The Ameri- can Migration to California—Treaty with New Granada—Enter- prises at Nicaragua—Hise's Treaty—Squier's Treaty—Seizure of Tigre Island—The Recommendations of Abbott Lawrence Negotiation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty—Its Provisions—Dis- satisfaction with Its Terms—Walker the Filibuster—The British Treaty with Nicaragua 51 Chapter V SOME FUTILE SCHEMES Felix Belly and His Concessions—Effective Protest of the United States—End of Louis Napoleon's Schemes—The Tehuantepec Route—Rival Explorations at Panama—Persistent Efforts of Frederick Kelly to Find a Route—A Sea-Level Canal Considered —Renewal of French Enterprises—The Proposed Chiriqui Colony—Surveys of Lull and Menocal—Gradual Development of American Policy—The Dickinson-Ayon Treaty with Nicaragua —Seward's Proposal of a "Canal Zone"—Grant's First Enuncia- tion of the Policy of "an American Canal"—The First Inter- oceanic Canal Commission and Its Surveys—The Nicaragua Route Selected—The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in the Way—More French Schemes at Panama—Wyse's Survey and De Lesseps's Scheme—Call for an International Engineering Congress .