CHAPTER VII. THE VOYAGE TO CALIFORNIA,—ISTHMUS OF PANAMÁ. What deem'd they of the future or the past? -Byron. to THE isthmus of Panamá, or, as it was anciently called, Darien, must ever command the interest of the civilized world. Aside from the charm which history throws over this region, as the bar which baffled the last attempt of the great admiral to find a passage India, as the point where were planted the first permanent Spanish settlements on the North American continent, as the window of the bi-continental cordilleras which, opened by the hand of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, let in from the great South Sea a flood of light illuminating well nigh to blindness all Europe, as the initial point to many a marauding expedition, as the scene of divers piratical attacks, and local revolutions,-I say aside from historic associations, this narrow strip of earth must ever be regarded with attention by all the nations of the world, presenting, as it does, the smallest impediment to inter-oceanic communication and an uninterrupted pathway from Europe to Asia, sailing to the westward. Said Walter Raleigh to Elizabeth, "Seize the isthmus of Darien, and you will wrest the keys of the world from Spain." Here the continent was first spanned by iron, and here is being dug the first inter-oceanic canal. At the beginning of the new traffic arising from the discovery of gold in California, the natives of the Isthmus were civil, inoffensive, and obliging. This ( 155 ) state of things was quickly changed, however. It was a new experience for them, this contact with Anglo-Americans of the ruder sort, strong, shrewd, and overbearing, too often impudent and insulting, too many of them unprincipled, with a sprinkling of unmitigated rascality. The mild and ignorant tropical man shrank from them at first, then grew sullen and suspicious, and finally fell to cheating in return, though never able in this last accomplishment to equal his bright exemplar. Two pilgrims landing at Chagres from the steamship Isthmus, in January 1849, the Quaker City then lying in the harbor, hired bongos for themselves and baggage, proceeded up the river to the head of navigation, then transferred their belongings to the backs of mules, riding one between them, alternately, and so proceeded to Panamá. This was then the usual way. The steamer California was there, having just come round Cape Horn, and having on board some sixty passengers from Valparaiso. There was quite a panic among the travellers, several thousands of whom were collected there, waiting for an opportunity to proceed to San Francisco by any conveyance whatever. There was much imprudence among them. The excessive use of intoxicating liquors, eating tropical fruits to which they were unaccustomed, and heavy rainfalls, contributed to develop sickness among them. It was difficult to obtain accommodations; people were crowded, and many died from cholera and fever. Many of the persons on the Isthmus at the time had tickets only to that point, and tickets from there to San Francisco, for deck passage, were sold as high as six hundred dollars. The steamers could not furnish accommodations for so many persons. The steamship company allowed a certain number of tickets to be drawn, but there was much trickery in this. In order that there might be fair play, some of the outsiders were called in; but gamblers and other improper persons having been selected, their friends were the favored ones. During all this time the cholera was playing havoc among the emigrants as well as among the residents of Panamá. It is a fact that hundreds of the former were victims of that scourge, and of malignant fevers, and that nearly the whole black population of the Isthmus was also swept away by the epidemic, which lasted until 1851. In the course of time, ample facilities for the transportation of passengers from the Isthmus were provided; but the above data, and those given further on, convey an idea of what the first seekers after California gold by way of the Isthmus had to undergo, until the railway, commenced in 1850, was completed, in January 1855, Seven miles of that great undertaking-great considering the time and the place—the Panamá railway, was accomplished when, on the first of March, 1852, we dropped anchor off Chagres; and to afford the company due encouragement, those seven miles must be travelled over, and contribution levied for the same, at the rate of nearly one dollar a mile, on every passenger crossing the Isthmus thereafter. So orders were given to weigh anchor, and proceed thence two or three leagues easterly to Colon, or Navy bay, then called Aspinwall, the name and glory of the first admiral being thrust aside for those of a New York money magnate. However, the old name of Colon was a few years after restored. There we disembarked, and rode over the seven miles of completed work, paying for the same quite liberally, when we were permitted to engage boats and ascend the Chagres river, which we could as easily and as cheaply have done before as afterward. Crossing the Isthmus in early times, for an untravelled, provincial people, was a feat altogether individual and unique; a feat very different from a three or four hours' ride in comfortable rail-cars, through ever changing scenery which affords the observer constant delight, as the journey is now made. Chagres at this time was a town of about seven hundred native inhabitants, dwelling in some fifty windowless, bamboo huts, with thatched, palm-leaf roofs, and having open entrances, and the bare ground for a floor. The town was surrounded by heaps of filthy offal, and greasy, stagnant pools bordered with blue mud. It is situated on a small but exceedingly picturesque and almost land-locked bay, well nigh buried by the foliage that skirts its banks and rolls off in billowy emerald toward the hills beyond. Between the shore and mountains stretch away for miles in every direction broad, open savannahs, cut into farms, covered with chaparral, and stocked with cattle. Where the river and ocean meet rises a bold bluff, crowned by the castle of San Lorenzo, whose ruined fortress and battlements, gnawed to a skeleton by the teeth of time, gaze mournfully out upon the sea which lashes its waves against its steep foundations, as if determined to uproot in all these inhospitable parts the last vestige of the olden time. Fallen to the bottom of the cliff were parapet and guns; screaming sea-birds occupied the crumbling, moss-covered watchtower; while within the dismounted cannon, bearing, with the royal arms of Spain, the date of 1745, were slowly changing into rust. Remnants of the old paved road which ascends the hill were there, and the drawbridge over the moat-once wide and deep, but now rank with vegetation-leading to the main gateway; likewise the drawbridge to the citadel on the verge of the cliff, whence a charming view of sea and land may be had. At Chagres, passengers were accustomed to stay no longer than sufficed to engage boats and start on their journey. This region is specially noted for the insalubrity of its climate. Aspinwall, or Navy bay, where the first blow upon the railway was struck, occupies a small swampy mudreef called Manzanilla island, fringed with mangrove trees, and originally covered with interlacing vines and thorny shrubs, and inhabited only by reptiles, beasts and poisonous insects. It has been stated that Columbus entered Navy bay, and called the place after himself, Colon. This seems to me hardly probable. In the first place, none of the early voyagers make any mention of such an event; and in the next place the great admiral could have found many spots more interesting and important than this to bear his name. Whether Rodrigo de Bastidas or Columbus touched at Chagres, their records do not state. The first mention history makes of that famous place, it will be remembered, is in the adventures of Diego de Nicuesa along these shores in 1508. A relative of this cavalier, Cueto by name, having command of another ship than that in which Nicuesa sailed, and becoming separated from his commander in a storm, was forced, while seeking him, to harbor his worm-eaten ship at the mouth of the river Chagres, so called by the natives, but to which, from the multitudes of alligators that swarmed in its little bay, he gave the name of Lagartos. Probably there was not in all the world where man dwells a more loathsome spot than this town of Aspinwall, with its hybrid population and streets of intersecting stagnant pools. A bed of slime and decaying vegetation reeking pestilence, alive with crawling reptiles, given over of nature to the vilest of her creations, man for money makes a place of to live in, or rather to die in, for premature death is plainly written on the face of every European inhabitant. Travel the world over and in every place you may find something better than is found in any other place. Searching for the specialty in which Aspinwall excelled, we found it in her carrion birds, which cannot be anywhere surpassed in size or smell. Manzanilla island may boast the finest vultures on the planet. Originally a swamp, the foundations of the buildings were below the level of the ocean, and dry |