THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 75 



a year, it became evident to those in charge of the operations 

 on the isthmus that the difficulties to be overcome had been 

 greatly underestimated. The soft, yielding character of the 

 soil, the heavy rains and floods, the miasmic climate, all added 

 new complications which vastly increased the labor and ex- 

 pense of the undertaking. To attain success it became neces- 

 sary greatly to enlarge the capital of the company, and to 

 accomplish this object it became equally necessary to encour- 

 age public enthusiasm by frequent and glowing reports of the 

 company's successful progress. 



When an utterly hopeless future confronted the officers of 

 the company, when but a breath was needed to burst the 

 expanding bubble, the promoters still maintained their strug- 

 gle to suppress the truth. At last the expense became too 

 great. The^crash_came, carrying down many thousands of 

 French investors who had staked all upon the reputation and 

 promises of De Lesseps. Even to-day the great dredges l 

 and massive machinery employed in this gigantic undertak- 

 ing, and representing many millions of cost, lie half buried in 

 earth, corroded with rust, and draped in nature's veil of 

 tropical foliage. They lie at Colon like fallen monuments 

 to the greatest failure of the century. This is, of all, the 

 most melancholy event in the somewhat tragic history of 

 isthmian canal projects. 



For a brief time financial success marked the operation of 

 the American Canal Company, in so far only as it undertook 

 to maintain a trans-isthmian overland route. In actual prog- 

 ress toward the building of the canal, the records of this, as 

 of all other canal companies, tell the old story of failure. 



Just after the conclusion of the Frelinghuysen-Zavalla 

 treaty with Nicaragua (1884), a number of prominent busi- 

 ness men, encouraged by the liberal concessions promised to 

 the United States in that treaty, met in New York and 

 organized the " Provisional Canal Association." It was the 

 object of the energetic promoters of this association to form 

 a company whose distinguished personnel, whose financial 

 guarantees, whose advantages in the way of concessions, and 

 whose command of engineering talent would make failure 



