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The National Geographic Magazine 



what was required. Directors and en- 

 gineers of the construction company 

 changed so rapidly that it became a com- 

 mon saying on the Isthmus that 1 ' it was 

 worth a man's yearly salary to simply 

 come there, and he was a very poor engi- 

 neer who could not make a fortune in 

 six months and go away." 



In October, 1885, four and one-half 

 years after ground was broken, the state 

 of affairs on the Isthmus was given by 

 one good authority as follows: " There 

 have been moved a total of from 16,000,- 

 000 to 17,00,000 cubic meters of earth, 

 12,000,000 only being from the canal 

 proper, and 88,000,000 are still to be 

 excavated ; besides there have been pre- 

 pared buildings and stables on an ex- 

 travagant scale, farms and gardens at 

 great expense around headquarters, rail- 

 road branches, field hospitals, and roads, 

 three of which are of but little use except 

 for pleasure riding of employes." 



It was about this time (1885) that, 

 after several years' absence, it was again 

 my privilege, as commander of theU. S. 

 ship Galena, to return to the Isthmus 

 of Panama and become an enforced but 

 interested spectator of the construction 

 work on the canal, and my recollection 

 of the state of affairs accords with that 

 above given. In fact, an eye-witness 

 could foresee even at this early date 

 that the extravagance which prevailed 

 must lead to the failure of the company. 

 For the next three years, while the 

 progress of the first Panama Canal 

 Company's work was at its height, I 

 spent portions of each winter at Colon 

 and watched with increasing interest 

 the operations of the great undertaking. 

 From that time to the present I have 

 never lost faith in the final success of 

 the Panama Canal. 



In the meantime a rival company was 

 organized to construct the Nicaragua 

 Canal, and having for a number of 

 years been interested in surveying and 

 having had an extensive association 

 with the officers who had been making 



explorations in Central America, I was 

 asked to associate myself with others in 

 support of the Nicaragua Company. 

 To all such suggestions I made answer 

 that I was a Panama Canal man first, 

 last, and all the time, and that I believed 

 when the financial elements of the op- 

 posing canals were finally settled by 

 bringing up the then estimated cost 

 for constructing the Nicaragua Canal, 

 which was placed at about $45,000,000, 

 to a reasonable basis of not less than 

 $100,000,000, and the French company 

 should fail and sell out its assets for a song, 

 as then seemed to me more than likely, 

 that some new Panama Canal Company 

 could and would build a better canal 

 for an amount, including the purchase 

 price of the defunct company's holdings, 

 less than the cost of a poorer canal at 

 Nicaragua. I have been so strong in 

 this conviction that two years before 

 the Isthmian Canal Commission made 

 its report in favor of purchasing the 

 interests of the reconstructed Panama 

 Canal Company for$40, 000, 000, 1 offered, 

 to wager that such a finding would be 

 the result of their deliberations. 



I must say that my feelings in this 

 matter were not altogether freed from 

 a little bias, owing to the fact that while 

 our own officers had done the principal 

 work of exploration of the canal zones, 

 and when, as it seemed to me, the sen- 

 timent of the country was crystallizing 

 in favor of building a canal across the 

 Panama Isthmus, a French naval officer 

 with but little actual exploration to his 

 credit should, by the use of the great 

 name of de Lesseps, come in and steal 

 a march on us. 



While on the Isthmus during the lat- 

 ter part of 1887, I ventured to ask Mr 

 Charles de Lesseps, who was then the 

 company's manager, if he really ex- 

 pected, as was then widely published, 

 that the canal would be completed the 

 following year. He replied that, while 

 he would not like to have it known, he 

 did not mind telling me that, in order 



