About the beginning of the seventeenth century Panama was the chief port for the Spanish trade of the Pacific. This large travel and large business was fortunate for her from a commercial point of view, but it was the cause of her evil reputation as to health. Her location was in the tropics, where the stegomyia mosquito could breed freely all the year round. Yellow fever was early introduced by the Spanish conquistador. Then the constant stream of unacclimated Europeans passing for four hundred years through her borders made conditions ideal for the development and maintenance of yellow fever. And for four hundred years this region has been known as the most unhealthy in America. As Panama grew in wealth and importance, and it became known what great amounts of treasure were passing through her borders, she became attractive to the English soldiers of fortune. Drake was one of the earliest of these, and his name and fame are intimately associated with the early history of Panama. He first came to the north coast in 1572, and remained in the country nearly two years. He secreted his ships in remote places among the beautiful San Blas Islands, and it was not discovered by the Spaniards just where he was. From this point he made frequent expeditions against the various Spanish possessions. From Drake’s accounts there was still a considerable Indian population in the country, though not by any means as numerous as in Balboa’s day. This Indian population was bitterly hostile to the Spaniards, who, whenever they could get hold of them, were their harsh and cruel taskmasters. Consequently, the Indians were friendly to the English whom they knew to be the enemies of Spain. CHAPTER X APPOINTED CHIEF SANITARY OFFICER FOR THE ISTHMUS Early in the year 1902, while still stationed at Havana, I wrote to Surgeon-General Sternberg concerning the discoveries made by the Reed Board, and the application made of these discoveries to the eradication of yellow fever in Havana, and invited attention to the fact that they would have a most important bearing upon the work of the construction of the Panama Canal. I invited General Sternberg’s attention to the enormous loss of life that had been caused among the French working at Panama, due to tropical diseases; that by far the most important of the diseases were yellow fever and malaria; that if we could protect our laborers on the Canal as we had the people of Havana, we should be able to build the Canal without anything like such losses as had occurred to the French. I also invited his attention to the fact that while there was a considerable difference in the conditions and environment at Havana, still I believed that the methods worked out at Havana could be so modified as to be applied successfully at the Isthmus. General Sternberg approved the idea, and recommended that, on account of my experience in similar work at Havana, I be placed in charge of the sanitary work on the Isthmus.