The idea of constructing an artificial water-way between the Caribbean
Sea and the Gulf of Panama is as old as the discovery of America.
Christopher Columbus, in early life, became converted to the idea that
the world was round, and his studies led him to believe that by sailing
in a direct course and sailing far enough, he could circumnavigate
the globe and come back to the point from which he started, provided
he could keep on that straight course. This belief naturally led him
to the conclusion that by sailing westward from Spain, across the
Atlantic, he could reach the coasts and the islands of Asia, which
about that time were coming into great prominence as a desired market
for the exchange of the wares of the producers and the manufacturers of
Europe.
[Illustration: RUINS OF SANTA DOMINIE CHURCH, PANAMA.]
The only mistake made by Columbus was that he estimated the circumference
of the world at about 8,000 miles, instead of over 24,000. Following his
theory, Columbus embarked on his first and greatest voyage, and was
successful, as we know, in discovering one of the islands of the West
Indies. Columbus made four voyages in all to the newly discovered land,
but it is doubtful as to whether or not he ever reached the mainland of
America. One of his historians claims that on his last voyage he landed
upon the coast of Honduras in Central America, and on the land now known
as Venezuela, farther toward the south. This fact is of little importance
to us at this time. We do know, however, that Columbus died in ignorance
of the fact that he had discovered a great continent instead of some of
the islands of the East Indies.
Immediately following the death of Columbus, his enterprising
lieutenants, men like Vespucci, Ojeda, Balboa, and others of equal
prominence, pushed their explorations farther westward, and Balboa,
the boldest of the Spanish conquistadores, fitted out an expedition in
Hispaniola, which island was then the base of operations of Spanish
exploration and conquest, and sailed across the narrow sea to the coast
of that portion of Central America we now call Panama.
Balboa established a rendezvous and base of supplies and operations
on the coast, and thence continued his journey inland, and on the 23rd
of September, 1513, surmounted the heights of Darien, and from that
eminence beheld the expansive stretches of watery waste known today
as the Pacific Ocean. Balboa, continuing his explorations along the
coasts of Panama, soon discovered that the land was not an island, but
a continent, and becoming acquainted with the Indians who inhabited the
country, he learned that there were two large bodies connected by a
smaller body.
Balboa understood this statement to mean two large bodies of water
connected by a smaller body of water, and therefore, naturally came to
the conclusion that the Indians meant that the Pacific and the Atlantic
Oceans were connected at some point or other along the isthmus by a
natural water-way. What the Indians really meant was that there were
two large bodies of land, to the north and south, and that these large
bodies were connected by a long, narrow strip of land, part of which he
was then exploring.
The Spaniards, naturally eager to extend their explorations into the
great western ocean, began to search for the connecting water-way, and
this quest was continued by them for nearly half a century; but they
finally realized that the two great oceans of the world were separated
by the impassable barrier of a continuous chain of mountainous land.
The conquerer of Mexico, Cortez, after finishing the subjugation of the
Indians of that part of the Spanish possessions, in 1526, was commanded
by the King of Spain to proceed to the Isthmus and to assist in the
search for the secret water-way.
Cortez answered the command of the King by saying that if he could not
find the natural water-way he would proceed to make one. The brave
old soldier, all his life trained in the habit of surmounting great
difficulties, declared that if there were obstacles and mountains,
there were also men with brains and hands, and that if he could not
find the water-way as commanded by the King, he would carry out the
order by constructing a canal to connect the two oceans. And so, the
idea of Columbus being to find a short water-route between Europe and
the East Indies and coasts of Asia, by the completion of the Panama
Canal, the United States is carrying out the original purpose of
efforts of the discoverer of America and the orders of the King of
Spain to Cortez, to make an artificial water-way which will shorten the
lines of trade and commerce around the globe.
Between those early days and the present time every great maritime nation
of the world has been interested in isthmian canal construction--Spain,
Portugal, Holland, Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy have all, at
one time or another in the intervening years, considered the advisability
and feasibility of constructing a canal somewhere across the narrow
territory between the Atlantic and Pacific.