PANAMA. THE PANAMA RAILROAD. - The Terms of the Concession - The Great Difficulties of the Undertaking Some Features of the Construction - The Course of the Line From Coast to Coast Extraordinary Labor Difficulties - The Canal Company Secures the Railroad A Monopolistic Agreement - The Assets of the Railroad and Their Value Suggested Railroad and Steamship Traffic Reforms - A New Application of Our Protective Policy. The great migration to the Pacific coast following the discovery of gold in " Forty-nine" acted as a strong incentive to the immediate establishment of an isthmian route by which the long and hazardous journey across the western territories of the United States might be avoided. In the last chapter a brief account was given of the enterprise conducted by the American, Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Company, which, although it never effected its original purpose of opening a waterway, afforded valuable service to the gold-seekers in the early fifties by maintaining a transportation line across Nicaragua. At the outset of the gold movement thousands made their way to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Steamships carried them from New York to the mouth of the Chagres. The journey thence to the Pacific coast, although no more than fifty miles by the trail, occupied from five to ten days and was accompanied by almost as much hardship and danger as in the days of Balboa. The emigrants were rowed or towed up the river by natives to a point near Cruces. The rest of the way to Panama was covered on foot or on mules. Women, when means would permit, were carried by selleros. These were native Indian porters, with a kind of chair strapped to their backs. There was, at that time, no regular steamship line between California and Panama. The travelers were often subjected to long and wearisome waits in the city. The old battery and the adjacent ramparts were favorite resorts of impatient watchers for a vessel from San Francisco, and their names and initials are cut in the stones by hundreds. On more than one occasion epidemic made serious inroads among them. General Grant, in his memoirs, tells us that he was with the Seventh United States Infantry at Panama in 1852, en route to California, when cholera broke out. Fifteen per cent of the regiment succumbed to the disease and more than five hundred emigrants died of it. Cholera is not one of the prevalent diseases of the Isthmus. An influx of foreigners to Panama has always been accompanied by an outbreak of yellow fever, to which the natives are immune. TERMS OF THE CONCESSION. 391 This transflux of travelers determined certain American capitalists to undertake the construction of a railroad across the Isthmus. A grant for the purpose had been made by the Government of New Granada to Mateo Kline, on behalf of a French syndicate, in 1847, but it had expired by default in 1848. In the following year, William Henry Aspinwall, John Lloyd Stephens, Henry Chauncy, of New York, and their associates incorporated under the name of the Panama Railroad Company. THE TERMS OF THE CONCESSION. Having declared all former similar concessions null and void, the Government of New Granada extended to this company the exclusive privilege of building a road and of operating it for a period of forty-nine years from the date of completion, which was to be not later than six years after the signing of the contract. Subsequently this agreement was modified in important particulars, and in its present form entitles the company to "the use and possession of the railroad, the telegraph between Colon and Panama, the buildings, warehouses, and wharves belonging to the road, and in general all the dependencies and other works now in its possession necessary to the service and development of the enterprise for a period of ninety-nine years from the 16th day of August, 1867. At the expiration of this term the Government is to be substituted in all the rights of the company and is entitled to the immediate possession of the entire property. The Republic is bound to grant no privilege during this term to any other company or person to open any other railroad on the isthmus, nor without the consent of the company to open or work any maritime canal there to the west of a line drawn from Cape Tiburon, on the Atlantic, to Point Garachine, on the Pacific; nor to establish any such communication itself. But the company can not oppose the construction of a canal except directly along the route of its road, and the consent required is only to enable it to exact an equitable price for the privilege and as indemnification for the damages it may suffer by the competition of the canal. It is also stipulated that the company shall forfeit its privilege should it cede or transfer its rights to any foreign government." THE GREAT DIFFICULTIES OF THE UNDERTAKING. When the Republic of Colombia superseded the Government of New Granada (1867), new requirements were imposed upon the Railroad Company. It was compelled to pay to Colombia a quarter of a million dollars annually and to "transport free of charge the troops, chiefs, and officers, and their. equipage, ammunition, armament, clothing, and all DIFFICULTIES OF THE UNDERTAKING. 393 similar effects that may belong to, are or may be destined for the immediate service of the Government of the Republic or the State of Panama, as also their officials in service or in commission, and those individuals who, with their families and baggage, may come to the country in the character of emigrants, and of new settlers with the permanent character of such, for account of the Government up to the number of 2,000 annually." This agreement was worked by the Colombian Government to the utmost, and the tremendous amount of "deadheading " with which the company was forced to put up cut into its profits seriously. Some idea of the extent to which this abuse was carried may be inferred from the fact that during the year 1903 the Company carried 4,663 first-class passengers who paid their fares and 11,098 passengers and 6,601 troops free. In addition a considerable amount of freight was transported gratis under the agreement. The Panama Railroad Company, with characteristic American energy, attacked the difficult undertaking without delay. The engineering staff was on the ground in the autumn of 1849. "Their quarters were on board a sailing ship. They worked by day, waist deep in mud and slime, making surveys and cutting a trail, and slept at night on their floating home. Nothing but the indomitable will and push for which Americans are justly praised could have overcome the terrible difficulties that met them at every |