The Waterway to San Lorenzo--Approach to San Lorenzo Castle--A Rip Van Winkle of a Fortress--The Assault of the Buccaneers--The End of Porto Bello and San Lorenzo. CHAPTER V. THE SACK OF OLD PANAMA 87 The Advance of the Buccaneers--The Banquet before Panama--The Buccaneers Triumphant in Battle--The Pirates’ Orgy of Plunder--How Morgan Plundered His Pirates--The Scene of Morgan’s Great Exploit. CHAPTER VI. REVOLUTIONS AND THE FRENCH RÉGIME 101 The Scottish Settlement in Panama--Disasters Beset the Scotch Colonists--The Repeated Revolutions of Panama--Early Projectors of a Panama Canal--Sea Level or Lock Canal--A Relic of the French Days--Some of the Finished Work of the French--The Financial Aberrations of De Lesseps--Yellow Fever’s Toll of French Lives--The Value of the French Work. CHAPTER VII. THE UNITED STATES BEGINS WORK 123 Why Panama Wanted Independence--Our Share in the Revolution--A Revolution Without a Single Battle--Treaty Rights of the United States--Illustrations of the Magnitude of the Canal Work--The Passage of the Canal Locks--Spectacular Features of Gatun Lake--The Abandonment of Canal Towns--The Pacific Terminus of the Canal--The Forts at the Pacific Entrance. CHAPTER VIII. THE FORMATIVE PERIOD 147 The Beginning of Work under Wallace--The Absentee Commissioners and the Red Tape--The Successful War with Yellow Fever--The Change from Wallace to Stevens--The Varying Estimates of the Canal Cost--The Resignation of Engineer Stevens. CHAPTER IX. COL. GOETHALS AT THE THROTTLE 161 What the Colonel Meant by Orders--The Colonel’s Sunday Morning Court--The Autocratic Power of Col. Goethals--The Panama Work Shows Governmental Efficiency. CHAPTER X. GATUN DAM AND LOCKS 171 Atlantic Beginning of the Canal--The Plan of the Gatun Dam--How the Chagres Current was Blocked--The Spillway, The Nerve Center of Gatun Lake--The Uses of the Electric Power of Gatun--The Colossal Concrete Work at Gatun--The Motive Power of the Lock Gates. CHAPTER XI. GATUN LAKE AND THE CHAGRES RIVER 187 The Native Affection for the Chagres--The Indispensable Native Cayuca--Keeping the Record of the Chagres--Cruces in Its Day of Greatness--Animal Life on the Chagres River--A Typical Foreign Laborer on The Zone. CHAPTER XII. THE CULEBRA CUT 201