Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-12-29
PAST HEROES FORGOTTEN
STRAIN AND TRUXTON CROSSED
IsTHMUS OF DARIEN FIFTY
YEARS AGO.
WAS DARING JOURNEY
Explorers Cut Way from atlantic to Pa
cific Through Dense Forests and
Treacherous Swamps.


the story of the first survey for an
isthmian canal maze by the American
expedition under Strain and Truxton
half century ago and told to the
Washington Star by a naval historian.
Strain set out from Caledonian har-
Dor. on the Gulf of Darien, on Janual.
70, 1884. The party, all told, numbered
twenty-seven officers and men, and in
cluded two Colombian commissioners.
The late Admiral Truxton, then Il mid
shlpman, was second in command, The
party took only ten days provisions
with them and anticipated a compare
lively easy job.
1t was March 20 before the remnants
of the party, a band of emaciated skel-
etons, clothed only il few rags,
reached the British man-of-war virago,
lying IN Darien harbor on the Pacific
side. OF those who started out five be-
came separated from the main party
and turned back to the ship on the third
day out, four died in the wilderness,
one died after reaching Yavisa, a settle
above ITS mouth, and one, Civil Engineer
Boggs, died after reaching Panama.
Lost Way in Forests.
At first they occasionally saw an In
dian, but finally the explorers were en-
VOWED in labyrinth of mountains, for
ests and dense tropical jungles, thus
losing all idea of their whereabouts. The
FOOD gave out and suffering began. They
tried to support life upon the young
shoots of palm trees, on an acid nut
which they found growing and on what
game they could shoot. They marched
with incredible labor having to cut
thelr way in many places through the
dehse jungle There proved to be prac
ucaHy no game in the region.
Finally Reach River.
Through days which heightened into
weeks the men dragged themselves on,
emaclated, dying of starvation, their
bodies infested by an insect which bur-
roWed beneath the skin, their clothing
torn to shredS, pricked and torn by
thorns and brambes, suffering all that
human endurance could suffer, but there
was no thought of returning. Finally,
ON the other side of the divide, they
struck river. Strain did not forget,
ever in his greatest agony, the object
for which he had undertaken the expedi-
ton. and made surveys and reconnois-
sances. They built Il raft and tried to
hoat down the river, but the snags and
sand bars made that impracticable
Hear Falling Trees.
AZ HlSl lutS uSlIeu III lLe stream, InuS
adding to their scanty fare of plain
shoots, nuts and monkey pepper-rod, a
strange fruit something like a canta-
ioupe, which they sometimes were for
tunate enough to find. There was only
one tishhook in the party and that was
taken by Strain, who ordered that no
one except himself and Truxton should
use it. One day one of the Colombian
commissioners became importunate and
was allowed to take the hook. He
broke it and all attempts to make an
other failed. They shot and ate turkey
buzzards and even greedily devoured the
body of a dead and half decomposed
iguano which they found. When a bird
was shot the officers would suck the
blood and give the flesh to the men.
Sometimes they would hear, through
the awful stiffness of the forests, a dis
tant booming. 1t was the sound of trees
falling from their own weight in old age
and decrepitude. A horror as of some
thing supernatural seized them. 1t
seemed as if they had entered some laby-
rinth in which they were condemned to
wander on and on until death released
them from their sufferings. Yet all this
time discipline was preserved as if they
had still been on board the Cayane.
Even Ate Toad.
Truxton one day seeing a toad in the
road grabbed it up, cut off the head,
threw it away and ate the body. Maury,
one of the civil engineers, cried out,
You are getting mighty particular,
TruX,'' and picked up and ate the dis
carded head.
Starvation and hardships had their eff
feet upon the minds as well as upon the
bodies of the men, and they seemed to
grow more or less Eighty and peevish.
Sometimes an exhausted man would sink
TO the ground. unable to proceed farther.
and the whole party would wait until he
had recovered sufficient strength to go
on. On such occasions the stricken man
would wander in his mind and be quite
crazy for the time being.
Strain determined to take with him
three of the strongest men and by forced
marches to try TO reach the coast,
whence he could send back help up the
river to the rest of the party. On Feb
ruary 13 Strain officially placed Truxton
in command OF the main body and, giving
him instructors TO follow down the river
as fast as the condition of the men
would permit, he himself, with his three
chosen men, started on his forced march.
The first day of Strains dash for the
coast was a most discouraging one. for
after a day of great toll he was obliged,
on account of the swamps and jungles,
TO make again for the rivers banks.
That night he camp"S . yards below
the place he had left in the morning.
At that rate the party would perish be-
fore it could get through to the sea.
Cut Logs with Knife.
Strain determined to build raft and
try to float down the river. They had
nothing to cut the logs with except a
machete and it was slow work. When
the logs finally had been cut they were
dashed together with strips of canvas
torn from Strains haversack. Two days
had elapsed when they finally completed
the rude floating platform, and in all
that time Strain and his party had not
tasted food. When they had finished
the raft they looked about for some
thing to eat, and found a few nuts. with
which they filed their stomachs. Then.
two men floating on the raft and the
other two walking along the rivers
bank. they journeyed on toward the Pa
citic. Once they shot and ate a mon