The most difficult problem that has to be faced by undertakers of transit and construction schemes in South America is that of labour. The natives of the tropical latitudes have little inclination or incentive to give their time and strength to the furthering of projects that are introduced into their countries, and it has always been necessary to any enterprise on the isthmus requiring a large labour force to import men from other places. The first experiment was made many years ago by the early Spanish settlers, who found it impossible in many places to subdue the native Indians. Negroes from Africa were imported, but many of them contrived to escape from the tasks set them by their enterprising masters, and found their way into the country districts and gradually mixed with Indians they fell in with, and so introduced new blood into the original stock of the country. An attempt to introduce labour on to the isthmus of Panama was made by the promoters and builders of the railway with disastrous results. The Chinese, who prove so efficient as labourers in nearly every other part of the world, were a great disappointment, and although they are to be found to-day on the isthmus in large numbers, they are not employed in any calling that requires great strength and endurance. The negroes who were imported proved to be the best available labour, and ever since the railway was established the islands in the Caribbean Sea have furnished much of the labour for Panama. When the first French company started its operations, Jamaicans, tempted by the high wages offered, flocked on to the scene, and when the work was brought to a standstill in 1901 many of them were left stranded upon the isthmus, and those unable to obtain other employment were shipped back to their island at its expense. Many, however, remained and settled upon small patches of unclaimed land and lived in a primitive fashion without much difficulty, in a country which furnishes abundant subsistence to the cultivator. [Illustration: A LABOUR CAMP (EVENING), CANAL ZONE.] The demand for labour again arose when the U.S.A. Government restarted operations, and numerous sources were tapped to supply sufficient numbers of efficient pick-and-shovel men. Naturally attention was turned in the negro’s direction, for he is indispensable when such work is forward. Those who urge his expulsion _en masse_ from the Northern States overlook the firm hold which he has got on the plantations of the South. However high racial prejudice may occasionally rise against him, he has made himself absolutely necessary to the Southern planter, who would be ruined if black labour were withdrawn. Besides, it is not a particularly easy task to expel ten millions of people.