Produced by Steven Gibbs, Barbara Kosker and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net THE PANAMA CANAL [Illustration: _Clinedinst--Washington, D.C._ COL. GEORGE W. GOETHALS, U.S.A., Chairman and Chief Engineer Isthmian Canal Commission.] THE PANAMA CANAL A HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE ENTERPRISE BY J. SAXON MILLS, M.A. BARRISTER-AT-LAW WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS THOMAS NELSON AND SONS LONDON, EDINBURGH, DUBLIN, MANCHESTER, LEEDS PARIS, LEIPZIG, MELBOURNE, AND NEW YORK PREFACE. The literature on the subject of the Panama Canal is rather dispersed. A full and entertaining history of the project will be found in Mr. W. F. Johnson's "Four Centuries of the Panama Canal" (Cassell and Co., 1907), a work to which I am greatly indebted. Dr. Vaughan Cornish has given the results of much research and several visits to the canal in "The Panama Canal and its Makers" (T. Fisher Unwin, 1909), and in several lectures, especially one before the Royal Colonial Institute, June 11, 1912. An inexhaustible mine of information will be found in Mr. Emory R. Johnson's Official Report on Panama Canal Traffic and Tolls (Washington, 1912). The Report on the Trade and Commerce of the Republic of Panama for the year 1911, by Mr. H. O. Chalkley, Acting British Consul at Colon, contains useful information. A valuable series of articles on the Panama Canal appeared in _The Times_ of 1912. The _National Geographic Magazine_ of February 1911 contains an authoritative article by Colonel G. W. Goethals, Chief Engineer of the Canal, and the number for February 1912 an interesting appreciation by Mr. W. J. Showalter. In _Scribner's Magazine_ for February 1913, Mr. J. B. Bishop, Secretary of the Isthmian Canal Commission, writes a very useful paper on the Sanitation of the Isthmus. In his recent work on South America Mr. Bryce devotes one of his delightful chapters to the Isthmus of Panama. A chapter on the Panama Canal will be found in Mr. A. E. Aspinall's "The British West Indies," and many references in Mr. C. G. Murray's "A United West Indies." I must thank Mr. G. E. Lewin, the Librarian of the Royal Colonial Institute, for his unfailing help and courtesy. BUSHEY, 1913. CONTENTS. PREFACE 5 DATE HISTORY OF THE CANAL 11 I. THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT 15 II. CANAL PROJECTS 23 III. THE CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY AND THE SUEZ CANAL 42 IV. THE FRENCH FAILURE 52 V. THE HAY-PAUNCEFOTE TREATY 64 VI. THE UNITED STATES AND COLOMBIA 77 VII. A MINIATURE REVOLUTION 88 VIII. THE BATTLE OF THE LEVELS 112