HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

 THE PANAMA CANAL 



BY RUDOLPH J. TAUSSIG 



Secretary, Panama-Pacific International 

 Exposition, San Francisco 



THE water highway westward from Europe 

 which Columbus set out to find over four 

 hundred years ago, but could not because it 

 did not then exist, has now become a reality through 

 the skill, ingenuity and labor of man. For all 

 practical purposes the surmise of the fifteenth cen- 

 tury will become true that the ocean to the west of 

 Europe and to the east of Asia is the same body 

 of water — the interposition of the continents of 

 North and South America being merely an incident 

 en route. 



Columbus died in the belief that he had reached 

 the coast of Asia; and long after Balboa discovered 

 the Pacific Ocean in 1513, the search for the so- 

 called "Secret of the Strait," the short and direct 

 route to Cathay, was continued. The discovery of 

 the Pacific Ocean, the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, 

 De Soto's discovery of the Mississippi River, may all 

 be attributed to this effort. As early as 1523, only 

 thirty-one vears after the discovery of America, 

 Cortez, while still searching for the strait, was con- 

 vinced of the desirability and practicabilitv of cre- 

 ating the strait if it did not exist. In 1529, Alvaro 

 de Saaveda Ceron, a cousin of Cortez, had prepared 

 plans for the construction of a canal where Balboa 

 had crossed the isthmus. It is therefore safe to say 

 that the idea of constructing the Panama Canal is 

 almost as old as the discovery of America itself. 

 It may be of interest to note also that a canal at 

 Nicaragua was spoken of at the same time, and the 

 rivalry has continued to the present day. 



In speaking of the difficulties of its construction, 

 the historian Gomara, writing in 1551, says: "There 

 are mountains, but there are also hands. Give me 

 the resolve, and the task will be accomplished. If 

 determination is not lacking, means will not fail; 

 the Indies, to which the way is to be made, will 

 furnish them. To a king of Spain, seeking the 

 wealth of Indian commerce, that which is possible 

 is also easy." Phillip II, however, decided that it 

 would be contrary to the Divine Will to unite two 

 oceans which the Creator of the world had separ- 



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