ASPINWALL. 



views in regard to the interests of the whole 

 country. The notable acts of his Administra- 

 tion are recorded under their appropriate heads 

 in the " Annual Cyclopedia " for 1881-'85. 



At the expiration of his term of office he re- 

 turned to his home in New York city. About 

 a year afterward he suffered a serious attack 

 of illness, and although from that time he had 

 been compelled to use precautions in regard to 

 his health, his death was finally a surprise to 

 the community. The funeral services, both in 

 New York and in Albany, where the interment 

 took place, were marked by extreme simplici- 

 ty, and were at the same time notable for the 

 number of eminent men that were present. 

 Mr. Arthur was a widower at the time of his 

 election to the vice-presidency, his wife hav- 

 ing died about a year before that event. She 

 was a daughter of Commander Herndon, a 

 naval officer, who explored and wrote of the 

 valley of the Amazon, and who perished with 

 the steamer " Central America," which went 

 down in the Gulf of Mexico with 426 souls on 

 board. The ex-President left a son and daugh- 

 ter. (For portrait, see "Annual Cyclopasdia" 

 for 1881.) 



ASPINWALL. It was estimated that the num- 

 ber of inhabitants in the city called by Amer- 

 icans Aspinwall, and by the natives Colon, had 

 reached 10,000 when the calamitous events 

 of the spring of 1885 occurred. The manner 

 in which Aspinwall became a mass of ruins, 

 and the events as they took place in chrono- 

 logical order, are here presented, with a brief 

 review of the circumstances leading up to the 

 termination that embarrassed the operations of 

 five great business enterprises at an expense to 

 them of millions of dollars. On March 26, 1885, 

 Capt. John M. Dow, representing the Pacific 

 Mail Steamship Company in Aspinwall, re- 

 ceived a letter dated the previous day from the 

 sub-Secretary of the State of Panama, by di- 

 rection of the citizen-President, informing him 

 that the delivery of war materials to consign- 

 ees at either Colon or Panama was absolutely 

 prohibited, and that if such articles should come 

 by the steamers of the Pacific Mail Steamship 

 Line they must be held in deposit and the Gov- 

 ernment advised of such arrival. In these pre- 

 liminary arrangements Capt. Dow acquiesced ; 

 but in the mean time the citizen-President, Dr. 

 Arosemena, had resigned his office, and on the 

 27th Capt. Dow received a letter from the Sec- 

 retary-General of the Citizen Commander-in- 

 Chief of the Third Division, Gen. Gonima, ac- 

 quainting him with the fact that he, the com- 

 mander-m-chief, by decree of the 26th instant, 

 had assumed the position of civil and military 

 chief of the State, and informing him that, in 

 case the rebels should attempt to remove arms 

 and munitions of war from the steamers, the 

 agent might ask protection from the American 

 or French vessels of war on the part of Colon. 

 On the 30th the steamer " Colon " arrived from 

 New York. She belonged to the Pacific Mail 

 Line, and Capt. Dow found a shipment of fifty- 



two packages marked "M" (in a diamond), "Co- 

 lon," consigned to order. His instructions were 

 not to deliver these or any other arms and mu- 

 nitions of war from the ship without orders 

 from the U. S. consul or Commander Kane, of 

 the U. S. steamer " Galena." On the way to 

 Panama, for which place he set out on the 

 same day, he was overtaken by a telegram from 

 George A. Burt, General Superintendent of the 

 Panama Railroad, saying that the Pacific Mail 

 wharf was in the possession of an armed force 

 under Prestan ; that Mr. Connor, agent of the 

 Pacific Mail Steamship Company, was under 

 arrest; that the United States ensign hung 

 union down at the fore of the " Colon " ; that 

 the U. S. consul, Mr. Wright, was on board 

 the ship ; and Commander Kane, of the " Ga- 

 lena," in company with the commander of the 

 British war-vessel "Lily," had just left his 

 office to go on board ship and take an armed 

 force to the "Colon" by boat. Capt. Dow 

 took the next train back, and arrived at Colon 

 at 2.30 P. M. Before three o'clock he received 

 a call at his office from Prestan, who asked that 

 the arms and ammunition should be delivered, 

 presenting an indorsed bill of lading. Capt. 

 Dow told Prestan. he had no authority to de- 

 liver the shipment without an order from the 

 U. S. consul or Commander Kane, of the " Ga- 

 lena," as he had been directed by the U. S. 

 consul, Mr. Wright, under instructions from the 

 U. S. consul-general at Panama, Mr. Adam- 

 son, not to deliver the goods under any circum- 

 stances. Mr. Burt went to the wharf to ascer- 

 tain where the packages were stowed, and 

 Prestan called a squad of men, and, arresting 

 Capt. Dow and the rest of the party, marched 

 them into the street, and, looking in the direc- 

 tion of the " Galena," said to the guard in 

 Spanish, "At the first gun you hear fired 

 from the vessel, shoot these men." Permis- 

 sion was given, however, to Ensign Richard- 

 son to report the arrest to Commander Kane, 

 and he went out to the ship, while the others 

 were taken to the guard-house, .vhere they 

 found Mr. Connor, who had been under arrest 

 since noon. After an hour's confinement, Con- 

 sul Wright consented to allow the packages to 

 be delivered, as the only means of releasing the 

 party, and they repaired under escort to the 

 wharf, and Lieut. Judd was permitted to go 

 on board the " Galena." Capt. Dow returned 

 to his office and Mr. Connor superintended the 

 work of delivering the goods, the steamship's 

 wharves being in the possession of Prestan's 

 officers and men, numbering 100. At 6.30 P. M. 

 Prestan sent an officer and two men to Capt. 

 Dow's office, saying that a movement was go- 

 ing on at the " Galena " as if manning boats, 

 and he was wanted at the wharf. In about 

 half an hour some boats' crews from the " Ga- 

 lena " boarded the " Colon " on her off-shore 

 side, on seeing which Prestan retired from the 

 wharf, taking Capt. Dow and Mr. Connor with 

 him, and confined them in their former quar- 

 ters a few hours, March 31, when they were 



