Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-01
COLON, OR sSPINVALL.
AN INSIDE VIEW OF AFFAIRS IN GEN.
ERAL ON THE IsTHMUS.
The Death Rate on This Narrow Strip of
Land is Simply Appalling-The
Panama Canal.
Asp1NwAL1. November. 1889.

whose attractions distance lends enchant-
ment. Viewed from shipboard, one sees
nothing but foreground of immense sheds
belonging 10 the Isthmian railway, backed
by towering cocoa trees and feathery
palms, and in the distance a dim waste of
tropical vegetation This is the harbor
which Columbus is supposed to have dis
covered on his third voyage and hence the
ancient name, Cristoyal Colon, which is
Spanish for the same. It was not very
much of discovery after all, for the water
among these dangerous coral reefs is ex-
tremely shallow and subject to all the
storms that blow.
By the way, though the Isthmus is only
forty-two miles wide. strange to say the
sea-level here is six and half feet higher
than low-water mark in Panama bay on the
other side; and while at Panama the differ
enee between the extreme levels of the
tides is twenty-seven feet, here it is scarcely
one foot.
Getting up to the dock is a slow and
serious matter, vessels being brought
thereto by gang of barefooted negroes,
running around and around big wooden
wheel, whose revolutions shorten the
cable, inch by inch. The wharf is more
than 900 feet long, with a solid founda.
ton of coral reef, and all its piles that
touch the water are covered with copper,
to resist the ravages of the Ship worm
here known as el tersdo. The industrious
little creature is precisely like an animated
auger, with boring head, and whether
he is born in the wood or enters it in in
fancy, nobody knows; but certain it is
that he goes right on boring all the days
of his life, closely following the grain and
never farming aside unless he encounters a
fellow workman who has the right of way.
The teredo can work better, or rather
worse below salt water than above 1t, and
seems to have an especial fondness for
steamers lying in tropical harbors.
Through his insiduous agency thousands
of human lives and millions of dollars
have been lost in ships whose timbers he
has riddled, the injury not being suspected
till far out at sea, when the first gale blew
them in pieces.
The ship-worm, like adversitv, has not
been without its uses, however, since from
it Brunei borrowed his idea for tunneling
under the Thames. As the teredo's head
is furnished with series Of disks that
rapidly cut away the wood, Brunei con-
structed gigantic iron worn, with win
dows in its head and in each window he
placed man, who removed the earth be-
fore him and thus made way for the ma
chine to be pushed forward. And now
most tunneling machines are made on the
same principle.
Passing over the coral reef, through the
long wharf with its chaos of bales and
boxes, you find yourself suddenly over-shoe
in the mud (if at this time in the year,
beseiged by crowd of darkies, with rick
ETY. carriages and decrepit horses, each
clamoring to "show you round, sah." Hav-
ing selected the vehicle that looks least
likely to fall in pieces, like the deacon's
historic chaise, drawn by the horse or
mule that harrows your feelings least by
displaying the fewest gaping and fostering
sores, you proceed to haggle with the Jehu
about the price. At first he will probably
demand not less than s. per hour but
when he discovers that you are not so YER
dant as perhaps appearances may indicate,
he will come down with graceful CELEBRITY
to 81, which is the recognized tariff.
But before setting out to "do" the town,
let US stop moment at the office Of the
Pacific Mail S. n. Company and interview
Captain j. NJ Dow, the genial Superintend-
ent, who has resided many years on the
Isthmus and is still very much alive, re-
ports on the headlines" of the climate to
the contrary notwithstanding. About the
brightest spot in all this section is the
company's garden adjoining the Office,
wherein maybe found wonderful collec-
ton of tropical fruits and strange flowers,
among them the celebrated Flor del Esperitu
iSanto Flower of the Holy Spirit, known
to botany as Peristera ellta, member of
the orchid family. Its waxy-white BIOS
som resembles tulip and inside the flower
is the perfect figure of dove, with droop-
ing wings and head bent SO that the bill
nearly touches the breast. The body of
the dove is white as snow, the bill is tipped
with crimson and a rich perfume is ex-
hailed, like that of the magnolia. 1t is
said that the earliest Spanish explorers,
those cruel yet superstitious crusaders,
knelt before this flower and worshiped it,
andrto this day so much of religious reyer-
ence clings to it that a native, however
generous he may be with the rest of his
possessions, never presents one to person
whom he does not know to be true Cath
olic. The sable custodian of the company's
garden will cut you gorgeous bouquet
(but never a esperitL sdnto) using for the
purpose great, rusty mechdto, the universal
implement of the native serving class,
which is as long and heavy as a Roman
sword and answers all uses, from that of
tooth-pick to hewing paths in the primeyal
forest
As all the world is aware, Colon, or As
pinwall, occupies the small island of Man
zanillo, whose northeastern side is washed
by Lemon or Navy bay. The island is
only three miles long by mile wide and
Chagres-the former town famous in the
days of the buccaneers as the grand empo-
rum of American trade, and the latter, at
the mouth of the river of the same name,
as the place of Decentralization before the
rise of Aspinwall Both are now nearly
deserted, wretched beyond description, the
lairs Of leprosy and feyers.
Until leased by the Colombian Govern
ment to the Panama Railway Company, in
1876, Manzanillo island was nothing
but series of mud fats and salt marshes.
The railroad managers forthwith con-
structed an isthmus, connecting it to the
main land in the region of Fox river, es-
tablished their headquarters on the north
ern and western shores, after having filed |
up considerable portion of the mud flats,
and subleased the rest of the island to |
capitalists for building purposes. A mush-
room town at once sprang up, but being |
constructed with total disregard for all |
sanitary regulations, disease of malignant
nature soon gave it most unenviable |
reputation. Commerce hourished, not
withstanding Deaths haryests, and Colon |
became popular resort for fortune-seek- |
ers especially when the opening of the |
canal work in 1880 put millions Of dollars
into circulation and gave proportionate