ENGINEERING REPORTS. 
59 
their own vessels with great facility, as soon as a regular com- 
munication is established ; besides, the inducements to colonize, 
and the probability of many seeking employment on the road — 
even at the expense of their own passage to the Isthmus, will 
throw an abundance of men into the country. 
On the subject of the employment of native labor, I give an 
extract from a letter of J. C. Trautwine, Esq. 
"Our usual payment to common native laborers on the canal between 
Carthagena and the Magdalena River, in the Republic of New Grenada, was 
three reals per working day — and to native superintendents of gangs, four reals 
per working day ; this was considered good wages. 
" They received indifferently the real of their country, and the ten-cent piece 
of the United States, both having the same current value in New Grenada. 
From these sums they provided their own subsistence, the cost of which varied 
from half a real to a real per day, provisions being abundant. 
" They lived chiefly on plantains, yams, rice, cassava bread, and the jerked 
beef of their country ; but to these they added corn, beans, dried fish, fruit, &e., 
when procurable. 
" Where any large body of workmen was collected for some time, a small 
native village generally grew up at a few weeks' notice. In these many of the 
workmen lodged ^nd purchased their supplies. Generally they breakfasted 
and dined in^gangs, on the work; some of the wives acting as commissaries 
and cooks. The cooking was performed on the line of the work, and the men 
ate in the open air. In some few instances we built huts for them where 
circumstances rendered it necessary to do so. 
' ; They were tasked every week, and generally averaged from three to six 
cubic yards per day (per man) removed, depending on the character of the soil, 
their own degree of training, &c. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the 
peculiarities of your work to advance any- opinion respecting the advisability of 
employing foreign workmen, but from the experience I have had I should 
never think of relying upon any but the natives for forming the great mass of 
laborers. We found a system of light premiums, to those gangs who did more 
than their tasks, was productive of a very good result. It created a rivalry 
among the several parties as to who were the best workmen, and the lazy ones 
of each gang were kept moving by the others in order to secure the premiums, 
" We removed much of the earth in carts, drawn by either horses or mules. 
We also used the small donkeys or 4 burros 1 of the country, for carrying earth 
out of the cuttings, in boxes holding about a cubic foot each : one being slung 
on each side. The bottoms of the boxes were hinged, for letting the earth 
drop out. 
44 This method answered very well, but the carts were better, generally 
speaking. 
