Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-11-30
SUNDAY MAGAZINE FOR NOVEMBER 50. 1913
ROMANCE OF PANAMA

along young mariner named Francis Drake,
who came to hate the Spaniards with
whitening hatred. In 1872 Drake was him
self skipper, and he descended upon Pana-
ma and played havoc with the Spaniards.
Then happened the great event that put the
Drake family into who's Who in Naviga-
tion." In company with some friendly In
dams, he climbed lofty peak and assembled
@that good and great high Tree which they
pointed OUT and here an Englishman saw
Balboa's ocean for the first time. RESULT:
3He besought Almighty God, of His good
ness, to give him life and leave to Sale once
in an English Shippe in that Sea- The
prayer was answered, and Drake took the
first British flag round the world.
For another century the stream of gold
and silver flowed on, and then another Eng
lishman came upon the scene and made an
end to all these beginnings of isthmian his
tory. His name was Henry Morgan, and
his deeds of infamy were blacker than those
of any Spaniard that ever lived. His crown
ing piece of villainy was the utter destruc-
ton of the thriving city of Panama in 1871,
with wholesale looting and tortures more
diabolical than those of any Indian uprising
in American history. This exploit made him,
Sir Henry, and Lieutenant Governor of ia
maica. He died in bed as a British noble
man, when he should have been skinned alive.
As the clock slowly licked off the years,
no other great events happened on the
isthmus until the year 1921 was struck.
Panama then fell in line with other Spanish
American dependencies, threw off the yoke
of Spain, and became part of the new Re-
public of Colombia. 1t SO remained until
1908, in spite of more than twenty revolu-
tons, and during the entire period the Pana-
ma Canal was a subject that popped up
with regularity every few years.
American interest began in 1925, when
Henry Clay was Secretary of State; but the
Nicaragua route then being considered did
not arouse any enthusiasm. In 1888 con-
cession was granted to a French company;
but when it was found that canal would
cost at least twenty five million dollars the
concession was forfeited. Finally, in 1S4S,
the United States and Colombia entered
into treaty giving us the right to build
canal wherever we pleased, and the Clayton
Bulwer treaty of 1850 duly recorded the
fact that we were to build waterway across
the isthmus for the benefit of mankind, on
equal terms to all. But we didn't!
Two things had happened in the mean
time. On February 2, 1S4S, the treaty with
Mexico was signed, and California came into
the United States About one week before
this gold was discovered In California, and
the news started the wild rush to the Edo
RADIO of the West. The overland trail across
the plains was so perilous and the voyage
round Cape Horn was SO long that the
Forty miners preferred the jungle route
across the isthmus. This led to the building
of the Panama Railroad, the first real Ameri-
can work on the future Panama Canal.
1t was heroic task, costing eight million
dollars and at least eight hundred and thirty
FIVE lives. The charter had been secured in
1S4S; but it was midnight of January %,
1855, when the last rail was laid in darkness
and rain. The next day locomotive passed
from ocean to ocean, and on it was Colonel
George NJ. Totten, the chief engineer, who
refused to quit until the work was done.
There was now highway across the 18TH
mus; but canal talk went on just as before.
A new stumbling block had been set up in
1850 by the Clayton-Bulwer treaty with
England, which provided for joint control
of the proposed waterway, in the face of un-
mistakable sentiment for canal built by
Americans and under American control.
Not until the Hay auncefote treaty of 1901
was this stumbling block removed; else the
canal might have been built years ago.
Meanwhile, enter the French.
COUNT DE LESSEPS, having dug the