YELLOW-FEVER WORK AT THE ISTHMUS
At the same time that yellow-fever work was commenced, an attack was
also made upon malaria. Mr. Joseph L. Le Prince, who was in charge of
similar work in Havana, was placed in charge of this work.
The anti-malarial work in the towns of Colon and Panama was exactly
similar to that in the city of Havana. But the country along the line
of the Canal between the two termini, Colon and Panama, was entirely
different, and the problem was much more extensive than it had been
in Havana.
The anopheles, the malarial mosquito, is peculiarly a country
mosquito. In general, he likes clear, fresh water in which grass and
algæ are plentiful, such as is found along the banks of the small
mountain streams of Panama, or the fresh water ponds and pools. The
grass and algæ give protection to the larvæ from the fish. Wherever
the small fish can easily gain access, there mosquitoes cannot breed.
For the purpose of looking after malaria along this fifty miles of
country district, the region was divided into twenty-four sanitary
districts, known as Panama, La Boca, Ancon, Corozal, Miraflores,
Pedro Miguel, Paraiso, Culebra, Empire, Las Cascadas, Bohio,
Matachin, Gorgona, Juan Grande, San Pablo, Tabernilla, Frijoles,
Largarto, Lion Hill, Gatun, Mount Hope, Colon, Nombre de Dios and
Toro Point. Some years after, when the railroad was being relocated,
we had an additional sanitary district, embracing the town of Lirio
and a working force in that neighborhood for several miles up and
down the road. Later, a quarry was established at the old city of
Porto Bello, for the purpose of getting stone for the Gatun locks,
and here we had another sanitary district.
Porto Bello is about twenty miles north of Colon, on the Caribbean
Sea, and in our time was accessible to Canal employees only by water.
It was the northern terminus of the old royal highway, built by the
Spaniards in the sixteenth century, and a good road at that time.
This road had become entirely overgrown and was impassable even to a
man on foot. It was originally well paved and well graded. I spent a
great deal of time in trying to cross the Isthmus on this road, and
succeeded in getting as far north from Panama as San Juan, a town
of about one thousand inhabitants, on the Pequini River, and on the
royal road about half-way across the Isthmus. There had been some
travel between this town and Panama which had kept the royal highway
sufficiently open to be traversed by pack animals. The Alcalde, a man
of about seventy years of age, told me that no one in his memory had
crossed on the road from San Juan to Porto Bello.
Porto Bello has a beautiful landlocked harbor, decidedly the best for
hundreds of miles up and down the Caribbean coast. This coast is not
subject to hurricanes and severe storms of that kind, but during the
winter months the north wind, locally known as a “norther,” blows
sharply for several days at a time, and makes it very uncomfortable
for vessels lying in the open roadsteads which characterize all the
other harbors. Two or three times every winter all the vessels lying
at the docks in the harbor of Colon have to get up steam and go to
sea on account of the severity of these northers. The harbor of Porto
Bello is entirely protected from these northers by a mountain which
runs out into the sea. Behind this mountain is a spacious and deep
harbor.
About the beginning of the seventeenth century Porto Bello enjoyed
one of the largest export trades in the then commercial world, though
it was never a very populous town in its halcyon days, probably not
having more than fourteen or fifteen thousand inhabitants, and this
only during the period when the great fair was going on. As soon as
the fair was over, the population dropped to a couple of thousands.
Professor William R. Shepherd, of Columbia University, estimates that
the bullion shipped from Porto Bello amounted to about forty-two
million dollars ($42,000,000) per year. If we take into account the
value of gold then as compared with the present time, we can see that
the export commerce of Porto Bello during the sixteenth century and
early seventeenth was very little under two hundred million dollars
($200,000,000) per year.
Porto Bello had such a reputation for bad health that merchants,
shipmasters, sailors and everybody got away as soon as possible
after the fair was over. Indeed, I have seen it stated that it was
the health conditions that limited the length of the fair; that the
shipmasters would stay as long as they had crew enough to work their
ships. When sickness had reduced the crew to the minimum which was
able to work the ship, the shipmaster sailed away and thus broke up
the fair.
Porto Bello was established by royal decree when the Spaniards
abandoned Nombre de Dios, a town on the Caribbean coast about twenty
miles east of Porto Bello. Porto Bello was strongly fortified by
the Spaniards. Four different large and extensive stone forts were
erected at various points about the harbor. These masonry structures
were considered very strong for their day, and were well armed and
well manned. One of the largest was built well up the side of the
mountain which formed the protection for the harbor on the north, and
where we afterwards established our quarry, above referred to.
Drake in his last expedition attempted to capture Porto Bello. He
was repulsed in his attempt to storm the forts, but succeeded in
capturing the Spanish fleet in the harbor. He died in the harbor
of Porto Bello a few days after the fight, January 28, 1596. His
followers placed his body in the flagship of the Spanish fleet, took
the ship to the mouth of the harbor and there scuttled her. The
island at the mouth of the harbor is still known locally as Drake’s
Island. I cannot imagine a more appropriate burial place for Drake
than this spot, nor a more fitting tomb than the Spanish flagship.
For this was the scene of some of his greatest triumphs over the
Spaniards.
Morgan, about seventy years later, succeeded in storming the forts
and capturing the town, and Admiral Vernon again captured it in 1730.
In its prosperous days Porto Bello was every fall the scene of
the great fair. This was one of the great fairs of the world. The
merchants from Spain and Europe, Cuba and Santo Domingo brought
their goods to Porto Bello, and at the same time the Spanish treasure
fleet collected here for the purpose of starting on its trip to
Spain. The merchants from Peru and all the western coast of South
America, the western coast of Mexico and the Philippine Islands
collected here for the purpose of purchasing from and exchanging
with their confrères from the east. All the bullion, gold, silver
and precious stones which had been collected at Panama during the
year from these same places was now brought on pack mules across the
Isthmus on the royal highway, and placed aboard the treasure fleet.
The royal highway was not much used at other times; the ordinary
route of travel across the Isthmus was north from Panama to Cruces
on the Chagres River, and from the mouth of the river by sea to
Porto Bello. But this thirty miles of sea trip exposed the traveler
to possible capture by the buccaneers who infested these waters.
The ordinary merchant, in ordinary times, was willing to take these
chances, but when it came to the Imperial treasure collected for
a whole year, and to the whole year’s supply of merchandise, they
would not risk the attack of the buccaneers, but came across the old
highway.
Porto Bello rapidly lost its importance after the revolt of the
Spanish colonies in the early part of the nineteenth century. There
was no longer any treasure tribute to be shipped to Spain. The
building of the railroad in 1855 entirely deprived Porto Bello of the
little importance left it by the Spanish colonial revolution, and
when we first occupied it, we found nothing but a fishing village
of a couple of hundred natives, who lived by fishing and some
agriculture. There was a very marked contrast between the squalid
native and the carved stone building which made his residence. The
walls of many of the public buildings and some of the more opulent
private buildings are still standing, and are used by the natives.
And the frowning old forts are in an excellent state of preservation.
We placed a large force here which worked the quarry. At first our
malarial rate was excessively high, but in a very few months malaria
was controlled and the force here got along about as well as at the
other places of employment. It was always the case that when our
forces occupied a locality, for the first three or four months the
malarial rate was high. Of course we could have avoided this if we
had been notified two or three weeks beforehand and had sent up a
sanitary force to do preliminary work, but such notification was not
always possible in the exigencies of construction work.
Porto Bello at first gave us considerable anxiety; we knew its
ancient history, and feared that we might not be able to control
disease there. But the difficulties appeared no greater there than at
several other points occupied by us.
Our laborers and working forces occupied the side of the mountain on
the north side of the bay opposite the old town of Porto Bello, and
the quarry was worked first where the old fort stood. We soon found
that our employees were so much in the town of Porto Bello that they
contracted malaria there, and that though we were able to control
it in our own village on the mountain side, we could not prevent
our people from contracting malaria from the natives in the town of
Porto Bello. The town was located outside the Canal Zone, in the
jurisdiction of the Republic of Panama. We therefore requested the
Panaman Government to appoint the chief sanitary officer the health
officer of the town of Porto Bello. It had been generally agreed that
wherever it was necessary for the protection of the health of the
Canal employees the Panaman Government would surrender this authority
to the chief sanitary officer of the Isthmian Canal Commission.
We introduced the same health measures as in the other sanitary
districts, which we expect soon to describe, and in a few months had
malaria here completely under control. Porto Bello was located well
within the San Blas country. Though the inhabitants of the town were
Panamanians and recognized the authority of the Republic of Panama,
all of the Republic east of this point, in area about one-half of the
state of Panama, was entirely uninhabited, except by a few San Blas
Indians, not more than thirty thousand all told.
The largest product of these Indians was cocoanuts, and this cocoanut
trade employed a considerable number of light draft schooners and
canoes. These fleets rendezvoused in the harbor of Porto Bello. They
carried on their trade as far east as the Gulf of Atrato, and the
city of Cartagena, in Colombia. There was, therefore, a probability
of the introduction of infectious disease to the Canal Zone by this
route.
To protect ourselves against this disease we had to establish a
quarantine station at Porto Bello. The Panaman Government was asked
to appoint the chief sanitary officer of the Canal Zone quarantine
officer for the port of Porto Bello. This they promptly did.
The San Blas Indians who inhabited this country east of Porto Bello,
are a peculiar and interesting people. This was the region first
occupied by Balboa and his Spanish companions. They found here a
pretty dense population of Indians, Carib in language and probably
in descent. Their habits were agricultural and their character
rather warlike. They were thoroughly subjugated and were worked by
the Spaniards under their apartamiento system. Las Casas states that
the governor, Pedro Arias, during his governorship of some twenty
years, caused the death of three million Indians in the present
state of Panama. I have no doubt that such a figure is a very great
exaggeration, but it shows what a very good old Spanish priest
thought of the destruction of Indian life due to the cruelties of the
conquistador.
Fifty years later when Sir Francis Drake appeared upon the scene,
this Indian population had almost disappeared. Sir Francis Drake,
in 1572, secreted his three ships in one of the sheltered and well
concealed bays among the San Blas Islands, and marched his one
hundred Englishmen through all parts of the present San Blas country.
His narrative shows that the Indian population was very much less
than that described sixty years before by Balboa, marching through
the same country. They had been treated so cruelly by the Spaniards
that they thoroughly hated them. As they knew that the English were
fighting the Spaniards, they were always ready to help the English
and give information.
The governor of Panama, all through the colonial period, was
constantly trying to overrun this country, and though at various
times forts were built in many localities, and these forts
garrisoned for a considerable length of time, the country was never
conquered, and the Indians after their original conquest by Balboa
never recognized the authority of the Spaniards. They early adopted
the policy of not allowing, under any pretext whatever, a white man
to come into their country. This law they have enforced up to the
present time, and still enforce it. Many white men have lost their
lives in trying to explore the interior of the San Blas country.
For generations there has been a good deal of commerce in light-draft
schooners along the northern coast of the San Blas country. The
San Blas Indian himself, like all the other Carib tribes, is a
natural-born sailor. You see him miles from shore in his frail
dugout, in the roughest sort of weather. It has been his custom for
generations to ship aboard sailing-vessels visiting his country,
occasionally for very long voyages, as far even as London or New
York, so that when you meet him, he is very likely to speak English,
and on occasions of state, wear European clothes. In the ten years
that we have been at work on the Isthmus the San Blas Indians have
acquired considerable confidence in us, and have become quite
friendly. They come to the hospitals very freely for treatment and
surgical operations, and the men can now be seen almost any day in
Colon trading. Whenever they come up to Colon, they wear European
clothing. This is of every variety and style, but the hat is always
the same, a derby!
The present government of the Republic of Panama has induced the old
Chief to recognize formally the authority of the Republic. This has
not been brought about by force, but principally by freeing the trade
with the Indians of all duties, and by flattering the old Chief.
As an official of the Panaman Government, the Chief is authorized
to wear a most splendid gold-laced uniform coat, furnished by the
Panaman Government. This will not, however, always retain the
allegiance of the old man.
Not very long ago the Panaman Government established a small police
station at the extreme end of the northern coast of the Republic. The
President of the Republic took occasion to inspect this post, and
went down on the only war vessel the Republic possessed, a twenty-ton
steam launch. As they passed the island in San Blas Bay on which was
located the principal town of the Indians, the old Chief ran up the
Colombian flag, and notified the President that he had changed his
allegiance from Panama to Colombia. As the old fellow controlled a
full quarter of the territory of Panama, this meant a good deal to
the Republic, but the President very wisely made no attempt at force.
He granted the few unimportant requests of the Indians; increased
the old Chief in his rank; gave him a new coat with more lace than
the former, and the flag of Panama now floats serenely where the
Colombian flag then floated.
While the Indians recognize the overlordship of the Republic of
Panama, I doubt if the President, or any other white official, would
be allowed to spend a night in the San Blas country, nor would they
during our whole stay on the Isthmus allow any official of the Canal
Commission to spend a night in this domain.
Some years ago the Indians reported to me that they had yellow
fever among their people, and requested my help. As their territory
came directly up to the Canal Zone, it was important for us to know
whether or not this was really true. A party of sanitary officials,
consisting of Dr. Carter, Major Lyster, myself and others, went down
on a steamer to investigate. We went by appointment to the principal
town. The Indians were very glad to see us, and received us most
hospitably. It was a very picturesque scene as we approached the
landing. The whole population was drawn up on the beach in their gala
attire, to do us honor. The women, who had probably never before
seen a white man, were dressed very much as described by the earlier
explorers in the middle of the seventeenth century; a skirt of some
bright material and a scarf of brilliant red around the shoulders;
gold ornaments in great profusion; nose rings, ear-rings, heavy
bracelets on the upper arm and around the ankles. A most peculiar
custom among the young women was that of binding very tightly around
the calves of both legs a band of beadwork, from four to six inches
broad. Some had the same band on the upper arm. This band had been
worn so long and was so tight that it had made a deep, permanent
depression in the muscular tissue; enough I should have thought to
cause some lameness, but in no case could I see that it interfered
with locomotion. The early explorers also refer to this custom.
Another custom which I have seen referred to and which attracted our
attention among these Indians, is the manner in which the women smoke
their cigars. I saw many of them putting the lighted end in their
mouths and smoking the cigar by drawing the air through it that way.
After seeing the display of gold ornaments I could well understand
how Balboa collected such large quantities of gold as he describes,
in his expeditions through the country. I estimate that the women I
saw on this occasion averaged in their rings and bracelets ten or
fifteen ounces of gold apiece. The conquistadors, no doubt, when they
entered a town seized all this gold.
The Indians, as I have said, received us very cordially, and brought
to us all their sick, and apparently wanted us to give some medicine
to everyone in the village. This we cheerfully did, giving them the
best advice we could, but when evening came, they politely notified
us of their national custom with regard to white men spending a night
on shore. We took the hint and returned aboard our steamer.
This disease from which they were suffering we found to be not yellow
fever, but pneumonia. While ashore, we had noticed a Jamaican negro
paddling around in a dugout. Upon inquiry, we were told that he was
our professional rival prescribing various patent medicines for the
Indians. A short time after our return to Colon I was told that the
custom among the San Blas Indians was to execute the doctor whenever
his patient died, and that our unfortunate rival, the Jamaican negro,
had been executed for this cause a few days after we left. We had
prescribed for one or two patients in the last stages of consumption
who evidently had not many days to live. We have, therefore, been
very chary about returning to the San Blas country, and strongly
suspect that we are marked in the national archives for execution
under the San Blas law for the practice of medicine.
The San Blas Indian was very independent in all his ideas, and
considered his government as the political equal of the Canal
Government, the United States, or any other government.
In looking about for a place in which to get sand to make concrete
for the Gatun locks, Colonel Sibert, with a party of engineers,
visited this same Chief. They found here what they considered
suitable sand, and tried to purchase from the old Chief the right to
use it. He was, however, very short with them; told them that the San
Blas Indians had need of all the sand the Almighty had given them and
hinted very broadly that it would be healthy for Colonel Sibert and
his party to return to their boats and leave the country.