The morning call., 1891-03-15
AMERICAS FATAL
ISTHMUS OF DARIEN.
Graphic Description Of a Famous His
tOTiGal Spot.
Panama the Cemetery of Many NatiOns-A
Land Of Strange Pestilence and Decay
The Dream of Columbus and Cortez.
Written for THE SUNDAY CALL Copyrighted
1891.

That narrow, insignificant strip of Central
America comprising the twin States of Da-
rien and Panama is more replete with
romantic history than any other spot
of similar size on the American continent.
Here the first European city on the Western
hemisphere was planted in 1918. Upon this
famous aggregation of swamp and jungle,
of deadly reptiles and deadlier fever, of in
sutferable heat and alarming earthquakes,
such men as Columbus, Cortez, Drake and
De Lesseps have, ea'h in turn, vainy per-
mitted their hopes aud ambitions to rest.
From the hour when the Spanish adyen-
turer Balboa for the first time gazed from
the summit of Sierra Glgantea upon the
fair Pacific and realized that mighty ocean
lay before him. as yet uueXplored and un-
known, down to the moment when the
French visionary De Lasseps projected
from that same height his impossible canal
Darien has been a scene of failure, disease
and death
Explorers, fiuanciers, scientists and men
OF every creed and nationality have endeav-
ored during four centuries 10 develop out
of its natural resources either benefit to
themselves or advantage to mankind. But
this remarkable country has baen no less q
maeIstrom of hope and ambition than of life
and health
1t would seem that some tabled demon of
antiquity, in a moment of intense malevo-
lence toward the human species, had cursed
patch of earth not larger than the Old
Dominion State with amending misfortune
and disease. Nearly every race, tribe and
country has contributed its mournful quota
of victims. The bones of the Hindoo,
Malay and Guinea slave mingle with those
of the Scotch Highlander, the sturdy Swete,
the vain glorious Castlian and the China
man. If those who SuCcumOed to Its nal 3
nant climate, or fell before the proves OF
its temporary p0sSpSSorS, could be recalled
to life, COlOmbia's population would be
doubled. And yet inseparably connected
with its history are the names Of many
famous men. The first IS that of the Cen
oese vOyager Columbus, who, having DEM
onstrated his theory of the earth'S rotundity,
sought to prove the existence of passage
through Daren. Believing the Atlantic
Coast of Central America to be the extreme
eastern boundary Of Asia, he concluded that
a secret strait led through the istAmus and
directly into the Indian Ocean. The search
for this mysterious channel which Columbus
inauguTated was not abandoned for upward
Of a century and half. Spanish reasoning
convinced the Spanish Kings and adyentuT-
ers that it was. impossible that nature could
be so imprOyident as TO omit natural
waterway DelNStu StbS III Il CbhLiutllO LbOuO
miles long and that the Supreme Being in
the interests Of commerce must h We eStab-
lShed a navgable strait somewhere near
Darien.
When all hope of discovering this miracu-
lGus canal had ceased then the idea took a
new turn and explorers sought for pas
sage to Asia through the frozen labyrinths
OF the Arctic Sea. Blu. to the first adyen-
turers who landed on the Darien coast the
possibility Of creating an artificial stream TO
connect the two oceans seems to have com