NOTES

Abbreviations

FO Public Record Office, Kew, London, Foreign Office Records.

RG Record Group, National Archives, Suitland, Maryland.

MCCZ Manuscript Collection of the Canal Zone Library-Museum, Library of Congress,

Washington, DC.

Preface: The Battle to Build the Canal

xxi    Bahamas-born Albert Peters Isthmian Historical Society, “Competition for the Best True Stories of Life and Work on the Isthmus of Panama During the Construction of the Panama Canal,” Balboa, 1963, Box 25 MCCZ.

xxi   Alfred Dottin, in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

xxi   Constantine Parkinson Ibid.

xxii   ”Some of the costs of the canal are here” Franck, Zone Policeman 88, p. 85.

xxii   ”some sort of semi-slavery” Harrigan Austin, in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

xxii   ”Many times I met death at the door” J. T Hughes, in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

xxii   ”We worked in rain, sun, fire” Prince Green, in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

xxiii   ”greatest liberty ever taken with nature” James Bryce, quoted in LaFeber, The Panama Canal: The Crisis in Historical Perspective, p. 4.

Chapter One: “The Keys to the Universe”

1   ”Do but open these doors” National Library of Scotland, Adv MS83.7.3, f 44v.

5    ”shewing them the great maine sea” Peter Martyr, De orbe novo. In Hakluyt, Collection of the Early Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries, vol. 5, p. 253.

6    ”If there are mountains there are also hands” Enrique de Vedia, ed., Historiadores primitivos de Indias, vol. 1, p. 222.

7    ”would open the door to the Portuguese” Quoted in Anguizola, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, pp. 3–4.

8    ”no mountain range at all” Lionel Wafer, quoted in Duval, From Cadiz to Cathay, p. 10.

8    ”talks too much and raises people's expectations” National Archives of Scotland, GD26/13/43/27.

9    ”Being starved and abandoned by the world” Letter from Robert Drummond, August 11, 1699, National Library of Scotland: Adv Ms S3.7.3, f.22.

Chapter Two: Rivalry and Stalemate

12    ”I am assured … a canal appeared very practicable” Jefferson, Writings, vol. 1, p. 518.

13    ”The American continents” Quoted in Siegfreid, Suez and Panama, p. 224.

13     “would immortalise a government occupied with the interests of humanity” Humboldt, Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, p. 77.

13    Goethe, who Quoted in Collin, Theodore Roosevelt's Caribbean, p. 129.

15    ”veritable capital of the world” Quoted in Siegfreid, Suez and Panama, p. 223.

16    ”present a human barrier of such formidable power” John A. Lloyd, “On the Facilities for a Ship Canal Communication … through the Isthmus of Panama,” Institute of Civil Engineers, Minutes of Proceedings, vol. 9, 1850, p. 242.

16    ”superstitious … Billiards, cockpits, gambling and smoking” Ibid., p. 59.

16    A visitor from Bogotá in the 1830s Castillero, Historia de Panama, p. 87.

17    ”an absurdity” Quoted in Mack, The Land Divided, p. 128.

Chapter Three: Gold Rush

22    ”low, miserable town, of thirty thatched huts” Hotchkiss, On the Ebb, p. 84.

22    22 “The houses are only hovels” “Across the Isthmus in 1850: The Journey of Daniel A. Horn,” quoted in Perez-Penero, Before the Five Frontiers, p. 82.

22    ”Half are full-blooded negroes” Quoted in Ibid., p. 84.

22    ”one of the filthiest places we ever saw” Richards, ed., California Gold Rush Merchant, p. 7.

22    ”the birthplace of a malignant fever” Marryat, Mountains and Molehills, pp. 1–3.

22    ”as disconcerting as hell” John Easter Minter, The Chagres: River of Westward Passage, p. 238, quoted in Perez-Penero, Before the Five Frontiers, p. 85.

22    23    ”The eye does not become wearied” Marryat, Mountains and Molehills, pp. 1–3.

23    23    Some of the men carried as much as three hundred pounds J. D. Borthwick,Three Years in California, p. 34, quoted in Brands, The Age of Gold, p. 81. 23 “so like a nightmare” Frémont, A Year of American Travel, p. 34.

23    ”the main street is composed almost entirely of hotels” Marryat, Mountains and Molehills, p. 5.

24    ”I knew nothing of the great risk in traveling alone” Julius H. Pratt, “To California by Panama in ‘49,” Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine 41, no. 6, April 1891, pp. 915–17.

24    ”weak sway of the New Granada Republic” Seacole, Wondeful Adventures, p. xx.

25    ”Terribly bullied” Ibid., p. xx.

26    ”No imposing ceremony inaugurated” Otis, History of the Panama Railroad.

26    ”It was a virgin swamp” Ibid., p. 26.

27    ”carried his noonday luncheon in his hat” Otis, History of the Panama Railroad, p. 12.

27    27 “wore the pale hue of ghosts.” Seacole, Wondeful Adventures, p. 64.

Chapter Four: “A Natural Culminating Point”

28    ”intended to be, to a certain extent prohibitory” Otis, History of the Panama Railroad, p. 24.

29    ”British consul's precarious corrugated iron dwelling” Ibid., p. 58.

29    ”I thought I had never seen a more luckless, dreary spot” Seacole, Wondeful Adventures, p. 64.

30    ”as filthy and odorous as any slavers” Schott, Rails across Panama, p. 177.

30    ”We could name many persons” Quoted in Senior, “The Panama Railway,” Jamaica Journal, June 1980, p. 68.

31    all but two of the fifty American technicians … McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 38.

31    31 One railroad historian … Schott, Rails across Panama, pp. 192–93.

31    ”workers who toppled over in the jungle” Ibid., p. 139.

32    ”a bare-footed, coatless, harum-scarum looking set” Tomes, Panama in 1885, p. 123.

32    in the process publicly flogging the Panamanian official… Conniff, Panama and the United States, p. 28.

33    A forty-foot-deep cut was dug near Paraíso … Nelson, Five Years at Panama, p. 148.

33    ”no one work … has accomplished so much” Otis, History of the Panama Railroad, p. 15.

34    estimates are as high as $7 to 9 million, or $170,000 per mile … New York Tribune, March. 13, 1855.

36    36 “better class of shop-keepers are Mulattoes” Panama Star and Herald, December 27, 1856.

Chapter Five: The Competing Routes

41    41 “It is proved beyond all doubt that Dr. Cullen never was in the interior” Mack, The Land Divided, p. 255.

41    ”mystical and imaginative” Ripley, The Capitalists and Colombia, p. 45.

42    ”The Department has entrusted to you a duty” McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 20.

43    ”it [would] one day be covered with sails from every clime” H. Misc. Doc., 42d Cong., 3rd Sess., p. 41, quoted in Mack, The Land Divided, p. 243.

44    ”the deep cut would probably be subject to land-slides” Sen. Ex. Doc. IJ, 46th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 5.

Chapter Six: “Le Grand Français”

47     “We are, gentlemen, soldiers under fire” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 52.

49    ”astonish[ing] the world by the great deeds” Quoted in Siegfreid, Suez andPanama, p. 236.

51”man eminent for originality” The Times, July 2, 1870.

51    ”You exercise a charm” Lesseps, Recollections of Forty Years, vol. 2, p. 294.

52    ”will help to wed the whole universe” Quoted in Siegfreid, Suez and Panama, p. 60.

52     “Is it not a glorious thing” Lesseps, Recollections of Forty Years, p. 172.

54    ”Our hope is to fill these waters with all the ships” Ibid., p. 184.

55    ”You should start preparations immediately” Wyse to Reclus, February 2, 1878, quoted in Fauconnier, Panama: Armand Reclus, p. 105.

56    Four were in Darién … Wyse, Reclus, et Sosa, Rapport sur les Etudes de la Commission Internationale d'exploration de L'Isthme Americain, p. 48.

Chapter Seven: The Fatal Decision

60     “Tragic scenes” New York Tribune, May 5, 1879.

60     “Business has been paralysed” Hugh Mallet to Foreign Office, June 17, 1879, FO 55/269.

63     “involved so much uncertainty” Menocal, “Intrigues at the Paris Canal Conference,” North American Review, September 1879, p. 16.

63     “provide for the whole drainage” Instructions to Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen …, p. 11.

63    ”threw off the mantle of indifference” Quoted in McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 78.

64    De Lépinay himself, although favoring Panama Congrès International D’études du Canal Interocéanique, Compte Rendu Des Séances, pp. 293–99, 35 5.

65     he claimed that he had investigated its potential Wyse, Le Canal de Panama, p. 191.

65     He also argued that the new lake Instructions to Rear Admiral Daniel‘Ammen …, p. 19.

67    ”May that illustrious man” Le Matin, May 30, 1879, quoted in Anguizola, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, p. 38.

68    ”A careful examination of the names of the French delegates” Menocal, “Intrigues at the Paris Canal Conference.”

68     “relative consideration of natural advantages” Instructions to Rear Admiral DanielAmmen …, p. 10.

68     “a comedy of the most deplorable kind” Johnston, “Interoceanic Ship CanalDiscussion,” Journal of the American Geographical Society 11 (1879): 172–80.Menocal, for his part, was sure Instructions to Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen …, p. 21.

69    ”prefigures for us an era of complications and difficulties” New York World, January 1, 1880.

70    ”The financial organs were hostile” Quoted in McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 102.

Chapter Eight The Riches of France

73    ”Mr. Lesseps’ enterprise” Star and Herald, January 1, 1880.

74    ”wearing the diplomatic smile” Robinson, Fifty Years at Panama, p. 139.

74    ”The Canal will be made” Ibid., p. 140.

75    ”every one of the [city's] 14,000 inhabitants” New York World, January 22, 1880.

75    75 “Such an air of neatness” New York Tribune, January 22, 1880.

75    ”gave éclat to the occasion” Robinson, Fifty Years at Panama, p. 143.

76    ”unanimous in their expressions of gratification” Star and Herald, January 8, 1880.

76    76 “His mind is unalterably made up” New York Tribune, January 22, 1880.

76    ”Mr. Lesseps is an accomplished horseman” Star and Herald, January 5, 1880.

77    ”as dark as Arabs” Robinson, Fifty Years at Panama, p. 144.

77     “bright with myriad lights” Star and Herald, February 7, 1880.

77     dance “all night like a boy” Robinson, Fifty Years at Panama, p. 146.

77     “The engineering difficulties” Star and Herald, January 16, 1880.

79    ”vastly to the regret of the people” Star and Herald, February 14, 1880.

80    ”Blanchet does nothing” Wyse to Reclus, January 24, 1880, quoted in Faucon-nier, Panama: Armand Reclus et le Canal des Deuz Océans, p. 170.

80     “proper predominance over the seas” New York World, January 2, 1880. 80 The New York Times thought that the sea-level canal New York Times, January 25, 1880.

80    ”All this looks like business” New York Tribune, January 23, 1880.

81    ”Now is the time for the Government to make up its mind” New York Tribune, February 10, 1880.

81    ”where one is used to working for the civilization of the world” Fauconnier, Panama, p. 167.

82    ”the enterprise of M. Lesseps” Star and Herald, February 17, 1880.

82    ”I have offered America 300,000 of the shares” Star and Herald, April 21, 1880.

83    ”The policy of this country is a canal under American control” Sen. Exec. Doc. No. 112, 46th Cong., 2d Sess., pp. 1–2.

83     “When M. de Lesseps gets ready to leave Washington to-morrow” New York Tribune, March 9, 1880.

83    ”President's message assured the political stability of the canal” Bulletin du Canal Interocéanique, March 15, 1880.

84    ”In these provincial tours” Johnston, “Interoceanic Ship Canal Discussion,”Jour-nal of the American Geographical Society 11 (1879): 172–80.

84    ”few miles of oozy quagmire and jungle” The Times, May 3, 1880.

85    ”It is a region” London Standard, December 8, 1880.

85    500-franc shares in Suez were now worth McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 125.

86    ”Capital and science have never had such an opportunity” Quoted in Bulletin du Canal Interocéanique, December 1, 1880.

86     “At that time they realized the poetry of capitalism” Quoted in Siegfreid, Suez and Panama, p. 240.

88     “The company now has a legal existence and a name” Star and Herald, March 12, 1881.

88     “The worry is that it will weaken the United States” New York Tribune, December 16, 1880.

88    ”insist on acquiring from Colombia the territory” Ibid., January 6, 1881.

Chapter Nine: “Travail Commencé”

89    ”Travail Commencé” Quoted in Bulletin du Canal Interocéanique, February 15, 1881.

90    ”Mais, bah!” Cermoise, Deux Ans à Panama, pp. 1–107.

96     The first criticism that Reclus made was leveled at the choice of men Reclus to Charles de Lesseps, April 30, 1881, quoted in Fauconnier, Panama, pp.186-88.

98     Ernst Dichman, did everything in his power Bennett to Foreign Office, May 11, 1880, FO 55/274; also Star and Herald, May 8, 1880.

98     “all alliances with the United States” Arthur O'Leary in Bogotá to Granville, April 5, 1881, FO420/36.

98    considered denouncing the 1846 Treaty Letter from Carlos Holguin, July 9, 1881, FO420/36.

99    ”an alliance against the United States” Secretary of State Blaine to James P. Lowell, June 24, 1881, “Correspondence respecting the Projected Panama Canal Presented to both houses of Parliament 1882.” British Library microfilm, Mic. A. 19266, FO420/36.

99     “would be glad to see England and France take joint measures” Letter from Mr. Langley in Madrid to Granville, September 23, 1881, FO420/37.

100     “enable the United States to keep military possession of the canal” Sackville-West to Granville, January 12, 1882, FO420/37.

100     “manifestly unjust” Blaine to Mr. Lowell, November 19, 1881, FO420/37.

100    ”Mr. Blaine had overshot the mark” New York Herald, January 20, 1882.

101    ”Everyone had his own room!” Cermoise, Deux Ans à Panama, p. 109.

101     “We said goodbye with a certain sadness” Ibid., p. 128.

103     Only one in ten newly arrived laborers McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 133.

103    ”Mr. de Lesseps contemplates making up what is short” Star and Herald, March 12, 1881.

104    ”learn a foreign language” or “seek adventure” Quoted in Newton, The Silver Men, p. 7.

105    ”A trip to Colón?” Barbados Herald, August 6, 1885.

105    ”pretentious, and always complaining” Quoted in Siegfreid, Suez and Panama, p. 252.

106    ”They were excellent workers” Cermoise, Deux Ans à Panama, p. 247.

106     “are left when ill to die in the streets of Colón” “Governor's Report on the blue book 1881– 2,” p. 32, quoted in Petras, Jamaican Labor Migration, p. 112.

Chapter Ten: Fever

108     “evidently in a state of delirium” Bulletin du Canal Interocéanique, September 1, 1881.

111     “There was a dismal period for the administration” Cermoise, Deux Ans à Panama, p. 129.

111     “At the moment, the state of health conditions” Verbrugghe to Reclus, October 5, 1881, quoted in Fauconnier, Panama, pp. 208–9.

111    ”No epidemic of maladie had manifested itself” Star and Herald, October 1, 1881.

112    ”Mr. Blanchet's death is an irreparable loss” Bennett to Granville, November 10, 1881, FO420/36.

112     The best estimate is that about fifty men died Star and Herald, February 22, 1882; and Newton, The Silver Men, p. 126.

112    ”the hospital rooms are so vast” Jos, Guadeloupéens et Martiniquais au Canal de Panama, p. 46.

113    ”She is one of those rare women” New York Herald, August 22, 1881.

113     “There's only one certain way to diagnose fever” Cermoise, Deux Ans àPanama, p. 148.

115     “la section de la grande tranchée”

     Chamberlaine report, May 18, 1882, FO420/37.

115     “invaded by a persistent tiredness” Cermoise, Deux Ans à Panama, p. 230.

117     “all but produced an earthquake” Nelson, Five Years at Panama, p. 178.

118     “I have spent two of the best years of my youth” Cermoise, Deux Ans à Panama, p. 301.

118     “After two years’ work … we are much farther advanced” Bulletin du Canal In-terocéanique, December 8, 1882.

118    ”applications for shares showering him from all quarters of France” New York Tribune, September 28, 1882.

119    ”The truth is that during the trial period” Chambre des Députés, je Législature, Session de 1893, Rapport Général… vol. 1, p. 451.

119     “aged a good deal” New York Tribune, quoted in the Star and Herald, June 23, 1883.

Chapter Eleven: Jules Dingler

121     “busy … and bright with hope” Nelson, Five Years at Panama, p. 230.

121    ”The work moves steadily on” Star and Herald, November 21,1884.

122    ”I intend to show the world that only the drunk and the dissipated” Haskin, The Panama Canal, p. 194.

122    ”This result has surprised all” Star and Herald, November 9, 1883.

123    ”determined to have a finger in the canal pie” Robinson, Fifty Years at Panama, p. 151.

124    an American naval officer Rodgers, Progress of Work on Panama Ship-Canal, January 27, 1884 (Sen. Doc. 123, 48th Cong., 1st Sess.)

124    ”So the visitor to Gatún” Star and Herald, October 14, 1884.

125    ”From morning till night” Rodgers, Progress of Work on Panama Ship-Canal, January 27, 1884.

126    ”A stampede took place which is hardly possible to describe” Quoted in Star and Herald, January 26, 1884.

126    ”Now and again you see a great swell” Senior, “The Colon People,” J amaica Journal, March 1978, p. 70.

126    ”The infatuation to go seems to have taken hold” Daily Gleaner, May 7, 1883, quoted in Senior, “The Colon People,” p. 64.

127     “a flag of liberation” Senior, “West Indian Participation in the Construction of the Panama Canal,” p. 40.

127     “We are not of those who think it a calamity” Quoted in Star and Herald, February 14, 1884.

127    ”the great outflow from the Colony of labourers” Star and Herald, May 18, 1883.

128    Kill my partner / Kill my partner “West Indian Work Songs,” MCCZ, Box 33.

128    ”They have a way of shifting for themselves” Star and Herald, January 29, 1884, p. 79.

129    ”I perceive that these men are partial in their protection” Letter of March 29, 1883, FO55/297.

129    ”a ruinously expensive method” New York World, February 8, 1885.

130    ”Damage amounting to thousands of dollars” Montreal Gazette, August 24, 1884.

130     “of a character and complexity to defy description” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 79.

130     the Company lost some 10 percent of the work it paid for J. Bigelow private diary, March 2, 1886.

130    ”There was no system or organisation” Jeremiah Waisome, “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

131    ”The rainy season, at last set in” Star and Herald, May 25, 1883.

131    ”The heavy downpours of late” Star and Herald, May 26, 1884.

132    ”the water will have to be hung up on the sides of the mountains” Paper read before the Franklin Institute, October 22, 1884, by Charles Colné.

132    ”Fresh engineering difficulties present themselves” Admiral Lyon to Foreign Office, November 29, 1883, FO420/50.

133    ”A day of reckoning is coming” Montreal Gazette, August 24, 1884.

133    ”It is probable the present company will go into bankruptcy” New York Herald, November 1, 1884.

134    ”It is generally believed here that the present Company” Mallet to Foreign Office, July 5, 1884, FO55/304.

134     “It would be a pity that a work such as this should be left partially completed” Star and Herald, July 5, 1884.

134    ”Under such circumstances, there is something amounting to heroism” New York Herald, December 2, 1883.

135    ”Death becomes a grim joke, burial a travesty” New York Tribune, August 8, 1886.

135    ”Probably if the French had been trying to propagate Yellow Fever” Gorgas, Sanitation, p. 232.

136    ”thousand dying with yellow fever” Charles Wilson, unpublished memoir, p. 74, Box 11, MCCZ.

136     “As for the men” Montreal Gazette, August 24, 1884.

136    ”burials averaged from thirty to forty per day” Nelson, Five Years at Panama, p. 7.

137    ”My poor husband is in a despair that is painful to see” Edgar-Bonnet, Ferdinand de Lesseps, p. 184.

137    ”Mr. Dingler was but 20 years of age” Star and Herald, February 25, 1884.

138    ”exalted the energy of those who were filled with a sincere love” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 44.

139    ”abominable neglect of all sanitary measures” Star and Herald, January 28, 1884.

139     “host of idle loafers, who infect the town” Star and Herald, October 25, 1884.

139     “thanks to abstemious habits.” Nelson, Five Years at Panama, p. 17.

139     “Woe to the feeble person who doesn't know how to quench his thirst!” Reclus, Panama & Darien, p. 130.

139    ”designed for nothing but hasty drinking,” Cermoise, Deux Ans à Panama, pp. 52–53.

140    ”a veritable sink of iniquity,” Bishop, The Panama Gateway, p. 88.

140     “the hardest drinking and the most immoral place I have ever known” Mallet, Pioneer Diplomat.

140     “spirit of venality and corruption” Robinson, Fifty Years at Panama, p. 61.

140    ”There is a general belief held by many intelligent people” Nelson, Five Years at Panama, p. 18.

141    ”assembly rooms, provided with books, periodicals, and various indoor games” Bulletin du Canal Interocéanique, July 18, 1883.

141     “A great enormous hall with a stone floor was the bar-room” Cermoise, DeuxAns à Panama, pp. 52–53.

141     “passions run high owing to the constant proximity of death” Dansette, LesAffaires de Panama, pp. 24–25.

141     “the Sword of Damocles hangs over everyone” Mimande, Souvenirs d'un Echappede Panama, pp. 60–61.

141    ”death and la fête are perpetually hand in hand” Cermoise, Deux Ans à Panama, p. 145.

142    ”foreign men of dubious reputation” Perez-Penero, Before the Five Frontiers, p. 113.

142     “which as usual was occasioned by the vile rum” Star and Herald, May 22, 1883.

142    ”an agglomeration of all nations” Star and Herald, September 18, 1883.

143    billed as a hole of 33 meters Zévaès, Le Scandale du Panama, p. 24.

Chapter Twelve: Annus Horribilis

144    ”not unlikely” New York Times, quoted in Panama Star and Herald, February 3, 1882.

145    ”the British recently took possession of Egypt and the Suez canal” New York Sun, November 6, 1884.

145    ”be so fortified as to become a second Gibraltar” Lord Lyons in Paris to Granville, December 22, 1884, FO420/50.

146    muttering darkly to the British ambassador Sackville-West to Granville, December 26, 1884, FO420/50.

147    Britain should also have one, built at Tehuantepec. Sackville-West to Granville, December 28, 1884. FO420/50

148    ”described every Canal functionary” FR. St. John, British Minister in Bogotá to Granville, March 2, 1885, FO420/51.

149    the Colombian minister shared his grave concerns with the British ambassador Sackville-West to Granville, January 27, 1885, FO420/51.

150    ”At 2 a.m. on the 16th” Star and Herald, March 19, 1885.

151    ”rebel bullets and cannon balls” Leay note to Mallet, April 3, 1885, FO55/313.

152    ”The firing was hot and reckless in the extreme” Mallet to Foreign Office, April 4, 1885, FO55/313.

153    ”The entry of the American marines into the city” Mallet to Foreign Officer, April27, 1885, FO55/313.

153     “the presence [of the U.S. force] is only temporary” U.S. Navy Department,Report of Commander Bowman H. McCalla upon the Naval Expedition to the Isthmus of Panama, April 1885.

155    ”The State will never be free from such revolutionary nonsense” Star and Herald, March 20, 1885.

156    ”were ignorant of Isthmian affairs” Mallet to Foreign Office, August 10, 1885, FO55/313.

156    Arthur Webb, a Jamaican Eyewitness reports submitted to vice-consul Leay, sent to London by Mallet, August 10, 1885, FO55/313.

157    ”I have never before witnessed anything so horribly sickening” Statement to Leay by C. H. Burns, May 10, 1885.

158    ”In all these fights between Jamaicans and Colombians” Star and Herald, May 9, 1885.

158    ”It must also be borne in mind,” Mallet to governor of Jamaica, July 6, 1885, FO55/313.

159    ”that the enterprise will be ready for the world's commerce” Mallet to Foreign Office, March 4, 1885, FO55/313.

159    ”The Panama canal is in such a state that its ultimate completion is beyond question” New York Tribune, May 8, 1885.

160    ”Mr. Varilla's tremendous mental capacity” Letter from Wulsin, May 28, 1906, in Bigelow Papers, New York Public Library, Box 24.

160    ”His versatility was fantastic” Quoted in Anguizola, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, p. 68.

161    Menocal visited in August New York Times, August 18, 1885.

161     “Is Monsieur de Lesseps a Canal Digger, or a Grave Digger?” Harper's Weekly, September 3, 1881.

163     “like a human bunch of grapes” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 54.

163     “Rain poured in torrents” Star and Herald, December 4, 1885.

163     “I saw they were covered with the most enormous and deadly spiders” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 55.

163     Lieutenant William Kimball, who toured the works soon after Kimball, SpecialIntelligence Report on the Progress of the Work during the Year 1885.

166     “The contagion of my confidence in our success” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 53.

166     “It is an impressive fact that there is money value in the prestige of M. de Lesseps” New York Tribune, August 16, 1885.

166    ”As for human life, that is always cheap.” Kimball, Special Intelligence Report on the Progress of the Work during the Year 1885, p. 32.

167    ”under no circumstances would negroes be admitted” J. B. Poylo to Mallet, August 8, 1885.

167    ”Many a man of them had been happy to enlist” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 44.

168    ”I had reached a state of semi-coma” Mallet, Pioneer Diplomat.

168     “should the works cease” Consul Sadler to Marquis of Salisbury, January 27, 1886, FO 55/325.

Chapter Thirteen: Collapse and Scandal

170     “that it was probably a scheme to use my name as an ex-Minister to France” Bigelow private diary, January 31, 1886.

170    ”The success of the Panama business” Molinari, A. Panama, p. 25.

171    ”I was pleased to find that Grace and the old Baron got on admirably together” Bigelow diary, February 18, 1886.

171    ”When we left they gave us repeated cheers” Bigelow diary, February 19, 1886.

172    ”take a share in its management” Bigelow diary, February 22, 1886.

172    ”His stay is one continued fête” Sadler to Foreign Office, February 26, 1886, FO55/325.

173    ”Even if the piercing of the Isthmus presents enormous difficulties” Molinari,A Panama p. 68.

173     “often conflicting and rarely more than approximative” Bigelow, The PanamaCanal. Report of the Hon. John Bigelow, p. 4.

173     “insalubrity” Ibid., p. 12.

173    ”people of small means” Ibid., p. 22.

174    ”secure to the United States” Ibid., p. 24.

176     “a violent vibration of my bed” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 61.

176    ”They are trying to shelve me” The Times, July 13, 1886.

177    Of thirty Italians who had arrived together twelve months earlier New York Tribune, August 22, 1886.

177     “Every month or two I would lose a man, perhaps two men” Hearings no, Sen. Doc. 253, 57th Cong, 1st Sess., p. 100.

177    ”insane recklessness” New York Tribune, August 29, 1886.

178    ”a dismal failure” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 68.

179    ”creditable” Rogers, Intelligence Report of the Panama Canal, p. 34.

181    ”During my stay in Colón” Sweetman, Paul Gaugin, p. 169.

182    ”the perfect, the final, project” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 80.

185     “All France is joined in the completion of the Panama Canal” Chambredes Députés, je Législature, Session de 1893, Rapport Général…, pp. 101–2.

186    ”I appeal to all Frenchmen” Bulletin du Canal Interocéanique, December 2, 1888.

186     journalist Emily Crawford New York Tribune, December 13 and 14, 1888.

188     “like a stroke of paralysis” Robinson, Fifty Years at Panama, p. 147.

188    ”There are hundreds [of destitute Jamaicans] absolutely starving” Star and Herald, April 6, 1889.

189    But stern warnings from the new U.S. president Benjamin Harrison President Harrison's inauguration speech, March 4, 1889.

189     “What have you done with the money?” Drumont, La Dernière Battaille, p. 362.

189     “He had apparently recovered all his strength” Smith, The Life and Enterprises of Ferdinand De Lesseps, p. 310.

189     “dissipating” funds “in a manner … more consistent with the personal views and interests of the administrators” Chambres des Députés,;e Législature, Session de, No. 2921, vol. 3, pp. 217–18.

191    ”excessive optimism” Cour d'Appel de Paris, Première Chambre: Plaidoirie de Me. Henri Barboux pour MM. Ferdinand et Charles de Lesseps, p. 185.

192    ”face was drawn and his skin yellowed” Courau, Ferdinand de Lesseps, p. 237.

194    ”one of the enterprises which made some of the most scandalously excessive profits” Quoted in Skinner, France and Panama, p. 75.

195    ”It would never have come to anything” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 156.

Chapter Fourteen: Heroes and Villains—the “Battle of the Routes”

200    ”The construction of a such a maritime highway” Annual Message, December 5, 1898.

201    ”The Nicaragua canal is a purely national affair” New York Herald, January 30, 1902.

202    ”He is one of the readiest talkers in town” New York World, October 4, 1908.

202    ”involved almost every branch of professional activity” Quoted in Harding, The Untold Story of Panama, p. 3.

203    ”There was a hole in Panama into which a lot of French money had been sunk” United States Congress House of Representatives, The Story of Panama, p. 6.

204    ”the lawyer Cromwell” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 10.

204     “Once you have touched Panama, you never lose the infection” Harding, The Untold Story of Panama, p. 88.

204    ”the revolutionist who promoted and made possible the revolution” United States Congress House of Representatives, The Story of Panama, p. 61.

205    ”masterful mind, whetted on the grindstone of corporation cunning” Quoted in Ibid., p. 94.

205     “no one in the United States doubted that the Panama Canal in itself was an

205    impossibility” Harding, The Untold Story of Panama, p. 5.

205     “We must make our plans with Napoleonic strategy” Ibid., p. 5.

205    ”ubiquitous and ever present” McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 273.

206    ”mysterious influences” Harding, The Untold Story of Panama, p. 2.

206     “under the control, management and ownership of the United States” Quoted in Skinner, France and Panama, p. 138.

206    ”for hours on the most profound study of the technical sides of the question” United States Congress House of Representatives, The Story of Panama, p. 224.

207    ”the scales had fallen from their eyes” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 166.

208    ”all the difficulties of obtaining the necessary rights … on the Panama route” Sen. Doc. 5, 56th Cong., 2d Sess., pp. 43–44, quoted in Mack, The Land Divided, p. 425.

209    ”Towards midnight as I was about to go out for a breath of fresh air” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 184ff.

212     “No single great material work which remains to be undertaken” Quoted in McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 249.

212    ”If that canal is open to the warships of an enemy” Thayer, Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography, vol. 2, p. 339.

213    ”strengthen our position enormously” Beale, Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of American Power, pp. 147–48.

213     “ruptured the dikes placed against so-called American imperialism” Miner,The Fight for the Panama Route, p. 232.

215     “legitimate means” United States Congress House of Representatives, The Storyof Panama, p. 169.

215    ”The Colombians … have negro blood enough to make them lazy” Harper's Weekly, August 23, 1902.

216    ”Talk about buying a lawsuit” New York World, quoted in Star and Herald, February 22, 1902.

217    ”poison the minds of people” Senate debate, 57th Cong, 1st Sess.

217     “It is the certainty of moral defilement” Anguizola, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, p. 215.

217     “If the vote were to be taken under this impression” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 247.

Chapter Fifteen: “I Took the Isthmus”

220     “a crowd of French jail-birds” Collin, Theodore Roosevelt's Caribbean, p. 218.

220    ”Few of the members who will assemble in Bogotá” Star and Herald, March 14, 1903.

221    ”a great deal of illness” Mallet private letter, June 1, 1903.

221    ”give rise to unpatriotic feelings” Miner, The Fight for the Panama Route, p. 292.

222    ”Not an atom of our sovereignty nor a stone of our territory” El Correo Naçional, February 3, 1903.

222    ”our nation has insisted” John Bigelow Papers, New York Public Library, Box 24.

223    ”It is the conviction of his irresistible superiority and vigor that makes the Yankee” Quoted in Miner, The Fight for the Panama Route, p. 265.

223     “from approbation to suspicion and from suspicion to decided opposition” Skinner, France and Panama, p. 208.

223    ”History will say of me” Miner, The Fight for the Panama Route, p. 233.

224    ”We pointed out” United States Congress House of Representatives, The Story of Panama, pp. 278–79.

224     “greedy little anthropoids” Anguizola, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, p. 226.

224    ”If Colombia should now reject the treaty” Miner, The Fight for the Panama Route, p. 285.

225    ”The only party” Anguizola, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, p. 223.

225    ”President Roosevelt is determined” New York World, June 13, 1903.

226    ”Any amendment whatever or unnecessary delay” Miner, The Fight for the Panama Route, p. 308.

226     “Make it as strong as you can” Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt: A. Biography, p. 311.

227     “the foolish and homicidal corruptionists in Bogota” Bishop, Theodore Roosevelt, vol. 1, p. 278.

227    ”I know, for having heard him say so, how intensely he wants it” Jusserand, What Me Befell, p. 252.

228    ”We might make another treaty, not with Colombia, but with Panama” New York Herald, August 15, 1903.

228    ”It is altogether likely there will be an insurrection on the Isthmus” Bemis, ed., The American Secretaries of State and their Diplomacy, vol. 9, pp. 163–64.

229    ”a thousand offers in the direction of assisting the revolution” United States Congress House of Representatives, The Story of Panama, p. 362.

229    ”The United States would build the Panama Canal” Ibid., pp. 359–60.

230    ”Revolutionary agents of Panama [are] here” Collin, Theodore Roosevelt's Caribbean, p. 249.

230    ”All is lost” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 291.

231    ”I have no doubt that he was able to make a very accurate guess” Miner, The Fight for the Panama Route, p. 359.

231     “I held all the threads of a revolution on the Isthmus” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 297.

233     “If I succeeded in this task the Canal was saved” Ibid., pp. 329–30.

235     “If you will aid us” United States Congress House of Representatives, The Storyof Panama, p. 390.

235     “There was nothing that did not show the greatest cordiality” Espino, How Wall Street Created a Nation, p. 106.

237     “resumed their independence” Mack, The Land Divided, p. 463.

237     “Viva La Republica de Panama!” Star and Herald, November 11, 1903.

238    ”a second Boer War” New York Tribune, November 24, 1903.

238    ”it is preferable to see the Colombian race exterminated” Anguizola, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, p. 276.

239    ”revolution of the canal, by the canal, for the canal” Birmingham Age-Herald, November 7, 1903.

239     “It is another step in the imperial policy” Pittsburgh Post, November 7, 1903.

239     “hot-headed and immature” Little Rock (Arkansas) Gazette, November 7, 1903, quoted in Graham, The “Interests of Civilization”?, p. 49.

239     “It begins to look as if nobody can touch that Panama ditch” Salt Lake Herald, quoted in Literary Digest, November 27, 1903.

239     “stolen property” New York Times, December 29, 1903.

239     “The thing is done, there is no way of undoing it” Houston Post, November 12, 1903.

239    ”The world must move on” San Francisco Chronicle, November 18, 1903.

240    ”The country ought to be ringing with the protests” Graham, The “Interests of Civilization”?, pp. 127-28.

240     “Mr. President, I am glad you did not start the rabbit to running” Quoted in New York Commercial Advertiser, November 12, 1903.

240     “I did not lift a finger to incite the revolutionists” Collin, Theodore Roosevelt's Caribbean, p. 267.

241    ”It is reported that we have made the revolution” Jusserand, What Me Befell, p. 253.

242    ”Mr. Secretary of State, the situation harbors the same fatal germs” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 358.

244     “What do you think, Mr. Minister” Ibid., p. 366.

244    ”Remember that ten days ago the Panamanians were still Colombians” Weisberger, “The Strange Affair of the Taking of the Panama Canal Zone,” American Heritage 27, p. 75.

245    ”As for your poor old dad” McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 392.

246    ”inflammatory, unnecessary and offensive” Collin, Theodore Roosevelt's Caribbean, p. 281.

246     “very satisfactory, vastly advantageous to the United States” McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 392.

246     the new treaty was many times worse for Panama, as Hay later admitted Cullom, Fifty Years of Public Service, p. 383.

246     “We separated not without emotion” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 377.

246    ”I greeted the travelers with the happy news!” Ibid., pp. 377–78.

247    ”What do you think of the canal treaty?” Mallet private letter, November 25, 1903.

248    ”it sounds very much like we wrote it ourselves” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 427.

248     “stolen in the most bare-faced manner from Colombia” 58th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 871, January 19, 1904.

248     “rising as one man,” “but the one man was in the White House” 58th Cong, 2d Sess., p. 706, January 13, 1904.

248    ”but the beginning of systematic policy of aggression” Ibid., p. 709.

249    ”I fear that we have got too large to be just” Ibid., p. 401, December 19, 1903.

249     “You might whip the dog, but would you throw away the rabbit?” New York Times, January 8, 1904.

249     “to our future political, commercial, and naval expansion” Quoted in Graham, The “Interests of Civilization”?, p. 126.

249    ”From the point of view of world politics” Charles Henry Huberich, The Trans-Isthmian Canal: A. Study in American Diplomatic History (Austin, Texas, 1904), p. 31, quoted in Graham, The “Interests of Civilization”?, p. 126.

250    ”the great Frenchman, whose genius has consecrated the Isthmus” Quoted in Anguizola, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, p. 289.

250     “somebody unexpectedly seized my hands” Bunau-Varilla, Panama, p. 428.

250     “great uneasiness caused among my friends by my action” Roosevelt to Spooner, January 20, 1904, quoted in Collin, Theodore Roosevelt's Caribbean, p. 306.

250    ”The one thing for which I deserved most credit in my entire administration” Major, Prize Possession, p. 63.

251    ”more to an empire than a Republic” Graham, The “Interests of Civilization”?, p. 144.

251     “Tell our speakers to dwell more on the Panama Canal” Collin, Theodore Roosevelt's Caribbean, p. 306.

251     “We stand today, apparently in the shadow of a great defeat” Graham, The “Interests of Civilization”?, p. 150.

Chapter Sixteen: “Make the Dirt Fly”

253    ”In America, anything is possible,” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, p. 5.

253    George Martin “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

254    ”is nothing in the nature of the work” New York Tribune, January 23, 1904.

254    ”solid inevitability” Skinner, France and Panama, p. 2.

254     “the results be achieved” McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 408.

254    ”Old Man of the Sea” Gorgas and Hendrick, William Crawford Gorgas, p. 170.

255    ”I feel that the sanitary and hygiene problems” Roosevelt to Morison, February 24, 1904, quoted in McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 406.

256    some 70 percent had the enlarged spleen of the malaria carrier Gorgas, Engineering Record, May 1904.

256    ”he was sure every member of the Commission hoped that a sea-level canal would be built” Mallet to Lord Landsdowne, April 27, 1904, FO881/8429.

257    ”They have taken all the meat and left the bone” Mallet private letter, June 16, 1904.

257     “The Isthmus is swarming with Yankees already” Mallet private letter, June 10, 1904.

257     “Panama without mosquitoes?” Mallet private letter, June 2, 1904.

257    ”such a God forsaken place where the French have so finally failed!” Hibbard account, MCCZ, Box 22.

258    ”The rainy season had just commenced” Karner, More Recollections, p. 11.

259    ”There was, I realized, a stupendous piece of work before us” Quoted in Dock, ed.,A History of Nursing, p. 300.

259     “A more prolific source would be hard to imagine.” Le Prince and Orenstein, Mosquito Control in Panama, p. 20ff.

259    ”only jungle and chaos from one end of the Isthmus to the other” McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 439.

260    Joseph Le Prince found several trees Le Prince and Orenstein, Mosquito Control in Panama, p. 17.

260     “excellently recorded [which] proved to be of great use” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 11.

260     “a fairly good condition, and were systematically stored” Wallace, “Preliminary Work on the Panama Canal,” Engineering Magazine, October 1905.

260     “Splendid workmanship was shown on these machines” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 13.

260    ”considerable work had been done on the channel from La Boca to Miraflo-res” Ibid., p. 11.

261    ”vastly more than the popular impression” McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 441.

261     The idea of a plan that would render much of the French digging James Thomas Ford, “The Present Condition and Prospects of the Panama Canal Work,” Institute of Civil Engineers, Minutes of Proceedings, February 5, 1901.

262    ”afford convenient passage for vessels of the largest tonnage” Quoted in Miner, The Fight for the Panama Route, pp. 408–9.

263    ”Lizards and gaudy snakes crawled and scuttled” Waldo, “The Panama Canal Work, and the Workers,” Engineering Magazine, p. 327.

263     “indescribably filthy” Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,” Civil Engineering, August 1945, p. 324.

263    ”As the use of cheap steel had not become the practice” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, pp. 86–87.

264    Soon after his arrival, Maltby tried to organize Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,” Civil Engineering, June 1945, p. 262.

264    ”I intend that those fellows on the hill” Quoted in Gorgas and Hendrick, William Crawford Gorgas, p. 161.

265    240,000 perfectly made hinges Bates, Retrieval at Panama, p. 30.

265    ”Suitable quarters and accommodations could not be provided” Wallace, “Preliminary Work on the Panama Canal,” Engineering Magazine, October 1905.

266    ”before there was any way to care for them properly” Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,” Civil Engineering, June 1945, p. 262.

266    ”A heavy suitcase in each hand, no light anywhere” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, pp. 8–9.

267    ”apprehension,” “homesickness” Jessie Murdoch account, Chagres Yearbook, 1913, p. 43ff.

267     “the wreck of the French companies” James Williams unpublished account, MCCZ, Box 35.

267    ”We were supposed to have furniture issued to us” “The Early Days” by John J. Meehan, Chagres Yearbook, 1913, p. 137ff.

268    ”I am thoroughly sick of this country and everything to do with the canal” Quoted in Pepperman, Who Built the Panama Canal?, p. 61.

268     “There have been many errors and much wastage and pilfering of money” Boni, Panamá, Italia y los Italianos, p. 129.

268    ”supplies taking for ever to arrive” Wallace, “Preliminary Work on the Panama Canal,” Engineering Magazine, October 1905.

269    A request was posted for twenty-five track foremen Lewis, The West Indian in Panama, p. 97.

269     “were not examined at all” Karner, More Recollections, p. 25.

269     “I have two sons who wish to go to Panama to work on the Canal” Letter of February 17, 1905, Charles M. Swinehart file, RG 185.

269     “railroad men who were blacklisted on the American railroads” McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 444.

269    ”Americans will put their coats on for meals” Sands, Our Jungle Diplomacy, p. 14.

270    ”the people of Panama look upon Americans as noisy, grabbing bullies” Fraser, Panama and What It Means, p. 185.

270     “The average American has the utmost contempt for a Panaman” Bishop, The Panama Gateway, p. 121.

270    ”Panama must conduct itself as a civilized nation” Mallet private letter, January 10, 1904.

271    ”revolutionary firebrand” and “notorious hater of foreigners” U.S. consul Barrett to Hay, August 9, 1904, Hay Papers, Library of Congress.

271    ”any Latin American nation who fused her destiny with that of the United States” Mellander, The United States in Panamanian Politics, p. 71.

272    ”I look upon the Republic of Panama as doomed” Mallet private letter, June 29, 1904.

272     “Opinion here amongst the natives is spreading” Mallet private letter, July 25, 1904.

272     “very loud spoken,” “vulgar” and “full of self-assurance” Mallet private letters, July 25,1904 and March 9, 1905.

272    Soon after, an anonymous flyer was distributed Mallet private letter, August 28, 1904.

273    ”festering with intrigue” Sands, Our Jungle Diplomacy, p. 14.

274    ”whither Theodore Roosevelt and his ‘Yankee imperialism’ might be tending” Ibid., p. 44.

274     “Don Santiago was aware” Ibid., p. 62.

274    started appearing in New York newspapers For example, New York Herald, October 4, 1904.

275    ”a kind of Opera Bouffe republic and nation” LaFeber, The Panama Canal: The Crisis in Historical Perspective, p. 40.

275    ”Though the heaviest man, in weight, in the room” Karner, More Recollections, p. 78.

276    One shipment of laborers was met by agents of the Municipal Engineering Division Lindsay-Poland, Emperors in the Jungle, p. 135.

276     “there was no surplus throughout Central or South America” Wood in Goethals, ed. The Panama Canal: A.n Engineering Treatise, vol. 1, p. 191.

276    estimated that some eight to ten thousand workers Hains, “The Labor Problem on the Panama Canal,” North American Review, July 1906.

277    ”useless to discuss the question of utilizing the white race” 1906 Hearings quoted in Major, Prize Possession, p. 81.

277     “The native population is wholly unavailable” Hains, “The Labor Problem on the Panama Canal.”

277    ”fairly industrious; not addicted to drink” Ibid., p. 50.

278    ”He does loaf about a good deal” Major, Prize Possession, p. 82.

278    ”natural markets for unskilled labor” Wood in Goethals, ed., The Panama Canal: An Engineering Treatise, vol. 1, p. 194.

279    ”The island has always been and still is run for the whites” Edwards, Panama, the Canal, the Country, the People, p. 21.

280    ”I shipped only sixteen laborers” Karner, More Recollections, pp. 106–7.

282     “which nearly buried the shovel from sight” Ibid., p. 40.

282     “there is little probability of finding a satisfactory location” Report of the Chief Engineer Isthmian Canal Commission, June. 1, 1904–February 1, 1905, Washington, DC, 1905.

283     “remove the principal elements of uncertainty now existing in regard to the project as a whole” Ibid.

283    ”I want you to build up an organization so complete and efficient” Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,” Civil Engineering, June 1945, p. 260.

Chapter Seventeen: Yellow Jack

284    ”for in a year or so there will be no mosquitoes there!” Le Prince and Orenstein, Mosquito Control in Panama, p. iv.

287     “yellow fever's first encounter with one who became its implacable foe” Gor-gas and Hendrick, William Crawford Gorgas, p. 4.

287     “we were rather inclined to make light of his ideas” Gorgas, Sanitation in Panama, pp. 14–16.

287     “chlorinated lime” Gorgas and Hendrick, William Crawford Gorgas, p. 86.

289     “Of all the silly and nonsensical rigmarole about yellow fever” Washington Post, November 2, 1900.

291     “When I think of the absence of yellow fever from Havana” Gorgas and Hendrick, William Crawford Gorgas, “p. 133.

291    ”I fear an epidemic is inevitable” Ibid., p. 170.

292    ”our work in Cuba and Panama will be looked upon as the earliest demonstration” 292Journal of the American Medical Association, June 19, 1909.

292     “the veriest balderdash” Gorgas and Hendrick, William Crawford Gorgas, p. 162.

292     “I'm your friend, Gorgas, and I'm trying to set you right” Ibid., p. 164.

292    ”The world requires at least ten years to understand a new idea” McCul-lough, The Path between the Seas, p. 405.

293    ”clean, healthy, moral Americans” Ibid., p. 451.

293     “Consequently,” Joseph Le Prince complains Le Prince, Mosquito Control in Panama, p. 299.

293     “without having to wipe the mosquitoes off every second” Mallet private letter, August 3, 1904.

293     “a convert to the mosquito theory” Mallet private letter, January 19, 1905.

293    ”existed at practically every house in town” Le Prince, Mosquito Control in Panama, p. 272.

294    ”To attempt it is a dream, an illusion” Quoted in Rink, The Land Divided, the World United, p. 102.

294    ”Le Prince,” Johnson said, “you're off on the upper story!” Gorgas and Hendrick, William Crawford Gorgas, p. 172.

295    ”Some yellow fever cases exist in the San Tomas hospital” Mallet private letter, January 14, 1905.

295     “If you should be unwell here or if anything should happen to you” Barrett Papers, Library of Congress.

295     “revealed a dishpan of water standing outside the cook's headquarters” Gorgas and Hendrick, William Crawford Gorgas, pp. 178–79.

295    ”the saddest incident in the history of the American colony” Davis to Wallace, January 17, 1905, General Correspondence, RG 185.

296    ”one of the saddest graveyards in the world” Sullivan, Our Times, vol. 1, p. 455.

296     “darkened the whole Isthmus” Gorgas and Hendrick, William Crawford Gorgas, p.174.

296     “The rush to get away” Ibid., p. 173.

296     “the place where the ‘ghost walks’ “ Galveston Daily Gleaner, quoted in Star and Herald, January 13, 1905.

296     “Unless something is done and done quickly” Star and Herald, February 20, 1905.

298     It was … like “the ending of many a bright young man I have seen on the battlefield” Davis to Wallace, May 2, 1905, quoted in Duval, And the Mountains Will Move, p. 176.

298     “Everybody here seems to be sitting on a tack” Pepperman, Who Built the Panama Canal?, p. 59.

298     a young stenographer “rose from his chair and shrieked” Carr, “The Panama Canal,” The Outlook, May 5, 1906.

298     “yellow fever … completely filled the atmosphere” Gorgas and Hendrick, William Crawford Gorgas, p. 168.

298     One returning nurse New York Tribune, July 6, 1905.

298    about three-quarters of the white workforce Pepperman, Who Built the Panama Canal? p. 58.

299    ”The military regime in Panama” Waldo, “The Panama Canal Work, and the Workers,” Engineering Magazine, January 5, 1907, p. 323.

300    ”gruff, domineering” Gorgas and Hendrick, William Crawford Gorgas, p. 194.

301    ”Smells and filth, Mr. President” Ibid., pp. 198–202.

301     “huge in all three dimensions” Sands, Our Jungle Diplomacy, p. 62.

301     “It would perhaps be difficult to find any spot on earth” Star and Herald, May 8, 1905.

301     “ill-paid, over-worked, ill-housed, ill-fed” Magoon to Shonts, June 3, 1905, quoted in Duval, Mountains, p. 178.

303     “For mere lucre you change your position overnight” Pepperman, Who Built the Panama Canal?, p. 121.

303     “We felt like an army deserted by its general” Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,” Civil Engineering, July 1945, p. 322.

303     “the effect [of Wallace's resignation] upon the workers at the Isthmus” Gorgas and Hendrick, William Crawford Gorgas, p. 174.

Chapter Eighteen: Restart

304    ”Then I was asked to meet … Cromwell” Stevens, “An Engineer's Recollections,” Engineering News-Record, September 5, 1935, p. 332.

305    shocked at discovering that there were more canal employees Pepperman, Who Built the Panama Canal?, p. 130.

305     “The condition of affairs on the Isthmus” Stevens, “A Momentous Hour at Panama,” Journal of the Franklin Institute, July 1930.

305     “scared out of their boots” Stevens’ statement, January 16, 1906, Hearings No. 18, 59th Cong., 2d Sess., vol. 1, p. 38.

305     “no organization worthy of the name” Stevens, “An Engineer's Recollections,” Engineering News-Record, September 5, 1935, p. 256.

305     “the idiotic howl” Stevens, “The Truth of History,” in Bennett, History of the Panama Canal, p. 218.

305    ”I believe I faced about as discouraging a proposition” Stevens, “The Truth of History,” in Bennett, History of the Panama Canal, p. 210.

306    ”keep his eye on the ball” Pepperman, Who Built the Panama Canal?, p. 135.

306     “There are three diseases in Panama” Bishop, Goethals: Genius of the Panama Canal, p. 133.

306    ”I have had as much or more actual personal experience in manual labor” Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,” Civil Engineering, July 1945, p. 324.

307    ”Come to Panama on the first train, Stevens.” Ibid., p. 322

307     “I cannot conceive how they did the work they did” Stevens's statement, January 16, 1906, Hearings No. 18, 59th Cong., 2d Sess., vol. 1.

307    ”I determined from the start” Stevens, “The Truth of History,” in Bennett, History of the Panama Canal, p. 212.

308    ”a machine in every way superior to any in existence” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 88.

308     “The problem was simply one of transportation.” Ibid., p. 76.

308     “two streaks of rust and a right of way” Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama, Civil Engineering, July 1945, p. 324.

308     “thirty years behind the times” Mallet to Foreign Office, August 30, 1905, FO881/8765.

308     no sidings Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 41.

308    ”A collision has its good points as well as its bad ones” Stevens, “The Truth of History,” in Bennett, History of the Panama Canal, p. 121.

309    ”crank” for Chinese labour Karner, More Recollections, p. 131.

309     “two colored men stepped from a rowboat to the landing” Ibid., p. 114.

309     Arthur Bullard Edwards, Panama, the Canal, the Country, the People, p. 29ff.

309    Benjamin Jordan Diggers, documentary produced and directed by Roman Foster.

310    ”one of the greatest engineering feats the world has ever undertaken” John Bowen in Diggers documentary.

310    ”Why you don't hit de manager in de head” Richardson, Panama Money in Barbados, p. 106.

311    ”Everything looked so strange, so different to home” Egbert Leslie, in Diggers documentary.

312    Harrigan Austin “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

313    John Butcher Ibid.

314    ”One could scarcely breathe God's free air” Colón Independent, April 20, 1906.

315    the “serious disturbance” Mallet to Foreign Office, May 6, 1905, FO881/8765.

315     “In Jamaica a constable is a peacemaker” Slosson and Richardson, “An Isthmian Carpenter's Story: A Jamaican Negro,” The Independent, April 19, 1906.

315    ”Instead of the canal bringing with it those good old times” Colón Independent, December 6, 1904.

316    On a wage of seldom more than a dollar a day Major, Prize Possession, p. 101.

316     Coffee and bread brought to the works by West Indian women Amos Clarke in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

316     “Things were very different in those days” Slosson and Richardson, “An Isthmian Carpenter's Story: A Jamaican Negro,” The Independent, April 19, 1906.

316    ”In their anxiety to save money” Karner, More Recollections, p. 142.

317    ”I have looked into hundreds of their pots” John Foster Carr, “The Silver Men,” The Outlook, May 19, 1906.

317     in October 1905, there were twenty-six, all West Indians United States Isthmian Canal Commission, Population and Deaths from Various Diseases, 1907.

317    In November 1905, journalist Poultney Bigelow Bigelow, “Our Mismanagement at Panama,” The Independent, January 4, 1906.

318    ”Notwithstanding nearly six thousand new laborers were brought in” Stevens to Shonts, December 14, 1905, RG 185 2-B-1.

319    frail “disposition to labor” United States Isthmian Canal Commission, Annual Report, 1906.

319     “The West Indian's every movement is slow and bungling” Carr, “The Silver Men,” The Outlook, May 19, 1906.

319    ”They were not getting proper food in sufficient and regular amounts” Sib-ert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 133.

320    By February 1906, there were over fifty in operation Stevens to Shonts, February 16, 1906, RG 185 2-E-1.

320     “the leavings from the hotels” Chatfield, Light on Dark Places, p. 148.

320    LeCurrieux's family “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

321    Henry de Lisser visited one of the barracks Lisser, Jamaicans in Colon and the Canal Zone, quoted in Newton, The Silver Men, p. 149.

322    ”The discipline maintained in the labour camps is severe” Mallet letter to Governor of Jamaica, November 30, 1906, FO 371/300.

322    ”This rule worked well” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 97.

322    ”At midnight when everyone is asleep” Colón Independent, September 12, 1906.

323    ”deep foreboding” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, p. 18ff.

327     “Special inducements were added” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 119.

Chapter Nineteen: The Railroad Era

328     “the great waste of money” Stevens, “A Momentous Hour at Panama,” Journal of the Franklin Institute, July 1930.

329    ”that there was a big, thick white cloud of smoke” Alfonso Suazo in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

330    ”We became so clean, orderly, and ‘dried out’ “ Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,” Civil Engineering, August 1945, p. 360.

331    ”the strong smell of decomposed fish has gone” Mallet private letter, September 5, 1906.

332    ”the day of the good-for-nothing tropical tramp” Carr, “The Panama Canal,” The Outlook, May 5, 1906.

332     “weeding out the faint-hearted and incompetent” Pepperman, Who Built the Panama Canal? pp. 11–12.

332    ”The men themselves, have distinctive virtues” Carr, “The Panama Canal,” The Outlook, May 5, 1906.

333    ”Normal family life is becoming established” Slosson and Richardson, “Life on the Canal Zone,” The Independent, March 22, 1906.

333    ”Most of the young men on the Isthmus have absolutely no places of amusement” John Barrett in Star and Herald, February 27, 1905.

334    ”positive forces for evil” Quoted in Mack, The Land Divided, p. 549.

334    ”use money appropriated for the construction of the Canal” Karner, More Recollections, p. 22.

335    ”Stevens lives on the line” Mallet private letter, September 5, 1905.

335    ”Stevens’ sturdy, competent presence” Sands, Our Jungle Diplomacy, p. 40.

336    ”I am not running things” Chatfield, Light on Dark Places, p. 64.

336     “So many men sent down here drink to excess” Ibid., p. 51.

336    ”Like many other people here in positions of authority” Ibid., p. 67.

337    clerk starting work on a salary of $2500 Carr, “The Panama Canal,” The Outlook, May 5, 1906.

337     could now report more regular wages Mallet to Sir Edward Grey, January 31, 1906. FO881/8892

337     “have returned [from Panama] with money” Barbados Agricultural Reporter, March 3, 1906, quoted in Richardson, Panama Money in Barbados, p. 116.

337     “innate respect for authority” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 125.

337    described conditions as “unsatisfactory” Mallet to Foreign Office, August 14, 1905, FO881/8765

338    “a capacity to develop into subforemen” Stevens to Shonts, December 14, 1905, RG185 2-B-1.

338    ”No one will ever know, no one can realize” Stevens, “The Truth of History,” in Bennett, History of the Panama Canal, p. 211.

339    ”Stock Gambler's Plan to Make Millions!” New York World, January 17, 1904.

339    ”a group of canal promoters and speculators and lobbyists” New York Times, December 29, 1903.

340    ”I do not think there is a place on the face of the globe” Pepperman, Who Built the Panama Canal?, p. 279.

340     “I have heard all those things and many more” Chatfield, Light on Dark Places, p. 189.

341    ”Many of the prominent American newspapers” Townley Report, May 3, 1906, FO881/8892.

342    ”I had been told to build a house” McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 481.

Chapter Twenty: The Digging Machine

343    ”Such a canal would undoubtedly be the best in the end if feasible” Engineering Record, February 24, 1906.

344    ”One genius proposed to wash the entire cut” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 76.

344     “discovered an unknown way through this mysterious labyrinth” Bigelow, The Panama Canal and the Daughters of Danaus, p. 40.

344    ”Mr. Randolph … advises M. P. Buneau Varilla” Note of November 7, 1905, Bigelow Papers, New York Public Library, Box 24.

345    ”the most important document in the engineering history” Engineering Record, January 10,1906, p. 211.

346    ”narrow gorge” would be “tortuous” Shonts quoted in Pepperman, Who Built the Panama Canal?, p. 208.

346     “Such a waterway is far from meeting the conception” Abbot, “The Panama Canal: Projects of The Board of Consulting Engineers,” Engineering Magazine, July 1906, p. 483.

348     “personal study of the conditions” Stevens, “An Engineer's Recollections,” Engineering News-Record, September 5, 1935, p. 40.

348     “the difficulties and dangers of navigation” Washington Post, February 20, 1906.

350     “simply preposterous piece of work” Quoted in Bigelow, The Panama Canal and the Daughters of Danaus, p. 35.

350    ”the greatest engineering conflict of the canal” Bates, Crisis at Panama, pp. 32–34.

351    ”Hard rains had set in by this time” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, p. 47.

351    ”came bounding up the steps three at a time” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, p. 44.

352    ”The rule marked the first definite break” “The Early Days,” by John J. Mee-han, Chagres Yearbook, 1913, p. 142.

353    ”Distinctive social lines were drawn on the Isthmus” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 98.

353     “sounded as though some one was throwing boulders” Chatfield, Light on Dark Places, p. 118.

353     “The meat served is almost always beef, and such beef!” Ibid., p. 127.

353    ”was worse than usual, which was only just possible” Ibid., p. 155.

354    ”severely manhandled” Taft to Magoon, June 4, 1906, quoted in Major, Prize Possession, p. 121.

355    ”guarantee public order and constitutional succession” Mellander, Charles Edward Magoon, p. 78.

355     “in that territory [in] which [disorder] can be prevented” Ibid., p. 80.

356    ”party feeling is very bitter” Magoon annual report, 1905, RG185.

356     the Diario de Panama, described the choice for the voters El Diario de Panama, April 21, 1906.

356     “a senior Conservative declared” De La Guardia quoted in Mellander, The United-States in Panamanian Politics, p. 88.

356     “suppress any insurrection in any part of the Republic” Taft to Magoon, April 26, 1906, General Correspondence (ICC) 1905–14, RG185.

356     “customary” for government candidates to win elections Mallet to Foreign Office, May 21, 1906, FO371/101.

356    ”explicit directions have been given to the police” Star and Herald, May 18, 1906.

357    Mallet put this down Mallet to Foreign Office, May 30, 1906, FO371/101.

357     “Negro influence” Quoted in Major, Prize Possession, p. 118.

357    ”The police [who owed their jobs to the ruling government] voted the first time in uniform” Sands, Our Jungle Diplomacy, p. 65.

358    ”prevailing clannishness” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 115.

358     “There is no sense in putting so many different races together” Slosson and Richardson, “An Isthmian Carpenter's Story: A Jamaican Negro,” The Independent, April 19, 1906.

358     “some sort of hazy idea had gotten into their heads” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 115.

358    ”three separate nationalities of laborers” Stevens to Shonts, May 4, 1906, Panama Canal Commission File (PCC) 2-E-1.

359    ”The American is too proud to work with his hands!” Lewis, The West Indian in Panama, p. 35.

359    ”Everybody in his area was so scared of disease” Interview with Mr. William Donadío, Panama City, August 17, 2004.

360    ”The Spaniard is certainly the more intelligent and better worker” Thompson, “The Labour Problems of the Panama Canal,” Engineering (London) May 3, 1907.

360    ”It did exactly what was expected in changing the self-confidence of the negroes” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 118.

361    ”practically all with malaria” Carr, “The Work of the Sanitary Force,” The Outlook, May 12, 1906.

361     During the headline-grabbing yellow fever epidemic of May to August Bishop, The Panama Gateway, p. 243.

361     seventy-five people a day with the disease Chatfield, Light on Dark Places, p. 142.

361    ”This rainy season has been a heavy trial on the canal builders” New York Herald, August 1, 1906.

362    the cases that came to the attention of the medical system Newton, The Silver Men, pp. 152–54.

362     an astonishing 80 percent of the overall workforce Le Prince and Orenstein, Mosquito Control in Panama, p. 228.

362     West Indian Rufus Forde “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

362    Jamaican James Williams Ibid.

363    St. Lucian Charles Thomas Ibid.

363    Barbadian Clifford Hunt Ibid.

364    ”The question of controlling malaria” Le Prince and Orenstein, Mosquito Control in Panama, p. 24.

365    ”like fighting all the beasts of the jungle” Gorgas and Hendrick, William Crawford Gorgas, p. 226.

365    ”Very patient negroes were necessary” Le Prince and Orenstein, Mosquito Control in Panama, p. 113.

366    ”larvae of dragon flies and water beetles” Ibid., p. 185.

367    ”the cause of many break downs in the constitution” Mallet private letter, June 10, 1906.

367     John Prescod “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

367     “The prevailing illness is malaria” Chatfield, Light on Dark Places, p. 103.

367     “I went to the Cristóbal dispensary this morning” Ibid., p. 150.

367     Albert Peters “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

367    Barbadian Amos Parks Ibid.

368    ”the horrible and unfamiliar noise at night” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, p. 49 ff.

369    Therefore the excavation was planned to proceed Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 77.

370    The U.S. locomotives could haul four or five times the volume Pepperman, Who Built the Panama Canal?, p. 38.

370     a single rock weighing some thirty-four tons Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 89.

373     “ran over a colored man” Chatfield, Light on Dark Places, p. 198.

Chapter Twenty-one: Segregation

376     “There is much talk about the anticipated visit of the president” Chatfield, Light on Dark Places, p. 150.

376     “seemed obsessed with the idea that someone was trying to hide something from him” Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,” Civil Engineering, September 1945, p. 422.

376     “when the president was at Cristóbal” Chatfield, Light on Dark Places, p. 210.

376    ”A Strenuous Exhibition on the Isthmus” McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 496.

377    ”He was intensely energetic” Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,” p. 421.

378    ”Every man seems animated with the idea that he is doing a necessary part of the canal” Thompson, “The Labour Problems of the Panama Canal,” Engineering (London), May 3, 1907.

378     At Gatún over a hundred new borings had been made on the dam site Mallet to Grey, January 31, 1907, FO881/8897.

378    ”something which will redound immeasurably to the credit of America” Pepperman, Who Built the Panama Canal?, pp. 13–14.

379    ”the heartiest contempt and indignation” Ibid., p. 292.

379     “Those cooking sheds with their muddy floors” McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 502–3.

379    ”The higher death rate is, in our opinion, due to circumstances” Colón Independent, August 24, 1906.

380    ”Wretched little houses rest on stilts” Chatfield, Light on Dark Places, p. 137.

381    ”a striking lack of appreciation” Lindsay-Poland, Emperors in the Jungle, p. 35.

381     “racial and ethnic discrimination by the U.S. Government” Conniff in Publication of the Proceedings of Symposium held at the University of the West Indies, p. 43.

381     “Panama is below the Mason and Dixon Line” Franck, Zone Policeman 88, p. 65.

381    ”If the stronger and cleverer race is free to impose its will” Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, p. 72.

382    In 1896 Louisiana had contained 130,000 black voters Ibid., p. 85.

383    These included foremen, office clerks, and teachers. Petras, Jamaican Labor Migration, p. 150.

383     “solution to troubles growing out of the intermingling of the races” Haskin, The Panama Canal, p. 160.

383     “It would, I think, be very impolitic to separate” Commissary manager to Stevens, February 15, 1907, RG185 2-C-55.

385     “Any northerner can say ‘nigger’ as glibly as a Carolinian” Franck, Zone Policeman 88, p. 225.

385     “was made to feel the prejudice against her color” New YorkAge, quoted by the Colón Independent, December 29, 1905.

385    ”My father read of Panama and thought it a wonderful place” Mrs. Taylor, interviewed by Eunice Mason.

386    Jeremiah Waisome “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

386     “often seen the threat of the slave-driver in the foreman's eye” Carr, “The Silver Men,” The Outlook, May 19, 1906, p. 118.

386    ”Among the white employees on the ‘gold roll’ some times an employee would use his hands” Letter of Ralph B. Irwin, MCCZ, Box 35.

387    ”the he-man type” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, p. 114ff.

387     “it cost twenty-five dollars to lick a Jamaican negro” Grier, On the Canal Zone, p. 71.

387    ”straighten himself up and say to the foreman” Karner, More Recollections, p. 40.

388    ”developed an excessive regard for the English” Publication of the Proceedings of Symposium held at the University of the West Indies, p. 64.

388     “‘Pay me,’ I says, ‘or I'll stick de British bulldog on all yo’ Omericans!’ “ Walrond, Tropic Death, p. 42.

388     “You couldn't talk back” Constantine Parkinson, in Diggers documentary.

389     “little better than the West Indian negro” Gaillard to Goethals, July 12, 1907, RG 185.

389     “the efficiency of the Spaniards did not hold up” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 118.

389    nearly half of those recruited during 1906 were gone by the beginning of the following year Mallet to Grey, January 31, 1907, FO881/8897.

390    But clashes between Spaniards and police continued Navas, El movimiento obrero en Panamâ, pp. 143–44.

390     “People are falling ill the whole time” El Socialista, December 21, 1906, quoted in Marco, Los Obreros espanoles, p. 18.

390     “The labourers’ lives are not highly valued” El Socialista, May 14, 1909, quoted in Marco, Los Obreros espanoles, p. 32

390     A Naples paper claimed that most of the workers had died Boni, Panamá, Italia y los Italianos, p. 144.

390    ”My own private opinion” Stevens to Shonts, January 18, 1907, RG 185 2-E-1.

391    the deployment of no less than sixty-three Bucyrus shovels Waldo, “The Present Status of the Panama Canal, Engineering, March 15, 1907.

392    ”Stevens must get out at once” Roosevelt to Taft, February 12, 1907, Taft Papers, Taft-Roosevelt, Box 3, quoted in Duval, And the Mountains Will Move, p. 259.

392     “blow up the Republican Party” McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 506.

392     “an immoderate amount of adulation” Mallet to Foreign Office, April 9, 1907, FO 881/9201.

392    ”well-planned and well-built machine” Stevens, “An Engineer's Recollections,” Engineering News-Record, September 5, 1935, p. 52.

393    ”I know you pretty well now” Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,” Civil Engineering, September 1945, p. 423.

393    ”Don't talk, dig” Star and Herald, March 1, 1907.

394    ”in the charge of men who will stay on the job” Mack, The Land Divided, p. 501.

Chapter Twenty-two: “The Army of Panama”

396     “Colonel Goethals here is to be chairman” Sullivan, Our Times, vol. 1, p. 466.

396     “most absolute despot in the world” Bishop, Goethals: Genius of the Panama Canal, p. 239.

396     “It was asserted that the Department of Government” Goethals, ed., The Panama Canal: A.n Engineering Treatise, vol. 1, p. 46.

396    ”a case of just plain straight duty” Bishop, Goethals: Genius of the Panama Canal, p. 149.

397    ”I expect to be chief of the division of engineers” Star and Herald, March 19, 1907.

397    ”The magnitude of the work grows and grows on me” Goethals to his son, March 17, 1907, Goethals Papers, Library of Congress.

398    ”Yellow Peril” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, p. 99.

399    ”the President, in his talks” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 268.

400    ”was not necessary to the work of building the canal” Petras, Jamaican Labor Migration, p. 180.

400    ”I have no complaint of any kind” Panama Police Department Report, May 14, 1907, RG185 2-E-1.

401    ”Supposed ill treatment” U.S. Senate, Report of Special Commission Appointed to Investigate Conditions of Labor and Housing of Government Employees of the Isthmus of Panama, December 8, 1908, p. 51.

401     “professional agitators” Canal Record, March 25, 1908.

401     “At the present time all of our superintendents and foremen are unanimously of the opinion” Goethals to Spanish chargé d'affairs at the legation in Panama, April 17, 1909, RG85.

403    ”The biggest boss is King Yardage” Blythe, “Life in Spigotty Land,” Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post, March 21, 1908.

404    ”the last vestige of fear and uncertainty seemed to have left” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, p. 131.

405    ”we were surrounded” Jessie Murdoch account, Chagres Yearbook, 1913, p. 58.

405     By May 1908 there were well over a thousand families in the Zone Report of Special Commission Appointed to Investigate Conditions of Labor and Housing of Government Employees of the Isthmus of Panama, December 8, 1908, p. 7.

405     “It is doubtful, to be sure, whether one-fourth of the ‘Zoners’ “ Franck, Zone Policeman 88, p. 220.

405    ”one of the brand new cottages over the hill” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, p. 11 off.

406    ”not until the business depression” Report of Special Commission Appointed to Investigate Conditions of Labor and Housing of Government Employees of the Isthmus of Panama, December 8, 1908, pp. 11–12.

406     the turnover of skilled workers was nearly 60 percent Haskin, The Panama Canal, p. 529.

406    ”Anyone who stays here through a year of it becomes depressed” Ghent, “Work and Welfare on the Canal,” Independent, April 29, 1909, p. 910.

407    ”They fill a necessary place in the somewhat artificial life on the canal zone” Report of Special Commission Appointed to Investigate Conditions of Labor and Housing of Government Employees of the Isthmus of Panama, December 8, 1908, p. 19.

408    ”to be furnished by Sidney Landon, character delineator” Canal Record, September 11, 1907.

408    ”a really active American community” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, p. 130.

409    ”He says it is not home, but on the order of a boarding school,” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, May 8, 1907, MCCZ, Boxes 9 and 10.

409     “Every day I am better pleased that I came” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, June 12, 1907.

409     “things are not always very clean” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, July 6, 1907.

409     “I have adapted myself pretty well” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, July 27, 1907.

409     “The Tivoli is giving a reception and dance tonight” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, July 6, 1907.

409    Pineapples are only 15 cents Letter of Courtney Lindsay, July 17, 1907.

410    ”things have already begun to slack up” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, June 27, 1907.

410     “Now what can they tell about it?” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, November 12, 1907.

410     “the novelty has worn off” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, December 1, 1907.

410    ”Empire Lady Minstrels” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, March 22, 1908.

411    ”Nothing ever happens here” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, November 6, 1908.

411     “Am beginning to like Culebra better” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, December 7, 1908.

411     “broke into Culebra society” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, January, 10, 1909. 411 “that a dry season night down here, with a moon” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, October 28, 1910.

411    ”She's just about the nicest thing in the girl line there is” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, November 17, 1911.

412    ”The commissary is an assured success” Ghent, “Work and Welfare on the Canal,” Independent, April 29, 1909, p. 914.

412    412 “First of all, there ain't any democracy down here” Edwards, Panama, p. 572.

412     “the establishment of an autocratic form of government” Thompson, “The Labour Problems of the Panama Canal,” Engineering (London), May 3, 1907.

412     “enlightened despotism” Franck, Zone Policeman 88, p. 205.

412     “omnipresent” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, pp. 99–100.

412    ”Goethals dominates over everybody and everything” Mallet's Annual Report 1910, FO881/9841.

413    ”You can't realize what the Chief Engineer is” Letter of Courtney Lindsay, April 3, 1908.

413     “The system is one that would be very repugnant to Englishmen” Thompson, “The Labour Problems of the Panama Canal,” Engineering (London), May 3, 1907.

413     “judicial terrorism” Ghent, “Work and Welfare on the Canal,” Independent, April 29, 1909, p. 913.

413    ”there has grown up in Panama circles somewhat of a tendency to monopolize patriotism” Waldo, “The Panama Canal Work, and the Workers,” Engineering Magazine, January 1907, p. 15.

414    ”Caste lines are as sharply drawn as in India” Franck, Zone Policeman 88, p. 219.

414     a “drearily efficient state” Sands, Our Jungle Diplomacy, p. 25.

414     “a chestless youth” Franck, Zone Policeman 88, p. ioff.

416     “We have such control in Panama” Major, Prize Possession, p. 126.

416     “extremely tactful and friendly towards everybody” Mallet's Annual Report 1910, FO881/9841.

416     “a racial inability to refrain long from abuse of power” George Weitzel quoted in Major, Prize Possession, p. 125.

416    ”It is really farcical to talk of Panama as an independent state” Mallet to Grey, August 22, 1910, FO371/944.

417    ”docile to American wishes” Mallet to Foreign Office, May 8, 1913, FO881/10293.

417    a story that accused Taft's influential brother Charles New York World, October 3 and 6, 1908.

418    ”I have never known in my lengthy experience in company matters” Harding, The Untold Story of Panama, p. 35.

418     “There are many peculiar circumstances about the Panama canal business” Niemeier, The Story of Panama, p. 124.

Chapter Twenty-three: “Hell's Gorge”

420     “a tropical glacier—of mud instead of ice” Smithsonian online exhibition, http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Make-the-Dirt-Fly.

420    ”it required night and day work to save our equipment” Mallet to Foreign Office, January 31, 1908, FO 881/9201.

421    ”most formidable of the canal enterprise” Goethals, ed., The Panama Canal: A.n Engineering Treatise, vol. 1, p. 337.

421     “like snow off a roof” McCullough, The Path between the Seas, p. 551.

421    Spaniard Antonio Sanchez Interview “with Mr. William Donadío, Panama City, August 17, 2004.

422    ”the old hill politely slid back again” Smithsonian online exhibition, http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Make-the-Dirt-Fly.

422     “Today you dig and tomorrow it slides” Albert Bannister in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

422     “was a land of the fantastic and the unexpected” Bishop, The Panama Gateway, pp. 193–94.

422     “The difficulties we are liable to encounter are unknown” Mallet to Foreign Office, January 31, 1908, FO 881/9201.

422     “this material has or will ultimately make its own design” Sibert and Stevens,The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 166.

422    ”found themselves handling hard rock one hour” Goethals, ed., The Panama Canal, vol. 1, p. 346.

423    seventy-six miles of construction track Ibid., p. 346.

424    ”The Cut is a tremendous demonstration” Archer, Through Afro-America, p. 287.

424     “heroic human endeavour” James, A. Woman in the Wilderness, p. 96.

425    ”They are generally comfortable men and women of 50 or more” William Baxter account, Chagres Yearbook, 1913, p. 59ff.

425    Arnold Small Diggers documentary.

425     “John Prescod” “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

425     “I had never saw so much rain in all my life” Rufus Forde, in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

425     “The different levels varied from ten to twenty feet” Franck, Zone Policeman 88, p. 115.

427     Jamaican Z. McKenzie “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

427    Amos Clarke Ibid.

428    ”Two days later, all of us who had become such close friends” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, pp. 136–37.

429    ”at the end of long years of patient, exacting work” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 10.

429    George Martin “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

430    netted 1,800 specimens in a week Le Prince and Orenstein, Mosquito Control in Panama, p. 210.

431    ”fine body of disciplined and skilled workmen” Mallet to Foreign Office, May 8, 1913, FO881/10293.

432    the West Indian laborer had lived down his bad reputation Haskin, The Panama Canal, pp. 154, 162.

432     “the negroes from the British West Indies” Franck, Zone Policeman 88, p. 123.

432    ”What was the black culture” Victor Smythe in Russell, The Last Buffalo, p. 15.

433    ”They lived chiefly in windowless, six-by-eight rooms” Franck, Zone Policeman 88, p. 40.

433     “On Sunday morning every religious community is busy” Carr, “The Panama Canal,” The Outlook, May 5, 1906.

433     “a forum for expression on many issues” Westerman, Los immigrantes antillanos en Panamá, p. 23.

433    ”tame them and provide a relief valve” Luis Navas, El movimiento obrero enPanamá, p. 250.

434    ”were the unquestioned leaders of glamour and glitter” Russell, The Last Buffalo, p. 34.

434     “To see people at night” Benjamin Jordan in Diggers documentary.

434    ”the elegant quadrille dances” Russell, The Last Buffalo, p. 37.

435    ”the vortex of trouble on the Isthmus” Frank, Zone Policeman 88, p. 79.

435    ”The majority of them were employed as team drivers” Enrique Plummer, in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

436    ”although no such requirement is made of white employees” Goethals to Henry A. Hart, John Thomas, March 18, 1910, 2-C-55, pt. 1, General Correspondence, 1904-14, RG 185.

436     no more U.S. blacks were given Gold Roll contracts Gaillard (acting chairman and chief engineer) to Jackson Smith, February 11, 1908.

436     by February 1909 only one such employee remained, a Henry Williams Letters of February 8 and May 22, 1909.

436    ”he was colored and not eligible for employment on the Gold Roll” Letter to Goethals, January 10, 1910.

437    In July 1912 there were only sixty-nine Letter to Goethals, July 9, 1912.

437     The following year, only fifteen remained Letter to Goethals, March 5, 1913.

437    ”the knowledge that there are ten hungry applicants” Star and Herald, September 7, 1907.

438    a resident of Colón, Mr. Foster Burns Interview “with Mr. Foster Burns, Colón, August 19, 2004.

Chapter Twenty-four: “Lord How Piercing!”

442    ”an ugly denuded waste of land” Lee, The Strength to Move Mountains, p. 172.

442    Barbadian Edgar Simmons “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

443    ”Chagres River plunges” Lee, The Strength to Move Mountains, p. 183.

444    ”the outbreak of yellow fever journalism” Ibid., p. 185.

444    ”fire in the rear” Ibid., p. 189.

446     “It is not hard to realize” Franck, Zone Policeman 88, p. 307.

446     “No one expected on returning to work in the morning” Sibert and Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, p. 205.

446     American Harry Cole “Some Episodes in Connection “with the Construction of the Pacific Division of the Panama Canal,” 1908–1914 by Harry O. Cole, unpublished memoir 1947, Box 1, MCCZ.

448     “They did not look with favour” Cameron, The Impossible Dream, p. 189.

450     “These locks are more than just tons of concrete” Lee, The Strength to Move Mountains, p. 263.

452     “Yuh gets more money for that job than working in the cut” “West Indian Work Songs,” Box 33, MCCZ.

452    ”I found myself racing across the narrow plank bridges” Franck, Zone Policeman 88, p. 181.

453    Eustace Tabois Diggers documentary.

453     “hurting many and sometimes killing men instantly” James Ashby, in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

453     “The family of those men working on those locks” T. H. Riley in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

453    Jamaican Nehemiah Douglas “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

454    ”poured like sand” Rufus Forde in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

Chapter Twenty-five: The Land Divided, The World United

457     “There was a reverent silence” Hardeveld, Make the Dirt Fly, p. 142.

459    ”Gentlemen, the two consuming ambitions of my life” Cameron, The Impossible Dream, p. 254.

460    ”On board were all the foremost Panamanian citizens and politicians” James, A. Woman in the Wilderness, p. 94ff.

460     “Unostentatious dedicatory act [was] a more appropriate celebration” Lee, The Strength to Move Mountains, p. 283.

Postscript Whose Canal Is It, Anyway?

464     “This I can say absolutely was my own work” Roosevelt, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, vol. 6, p. 1444.

464    ”I am interested in the Panama Canal because I started it” New York Times, March 24, 1911.

465    ”somebody [namely, himself] was prepared to act with decision” Roosevelt, An Autobiography, p. 553.

465     argued a contributor to the North American Review

465     Leander T. Chamberlain, “A Chapter of National Dishonor,” North American Review, February 1912.

465     “an affront to international decency” Elmer Ellis quoted in Graham, The “Interests of Civilization”?, p. 178.

465    ”The summary ejectment of Colombia” Mahan, “Was Panama ‘A Chapter of National Dishonor?,” North American Review 196, 1912.

466    dubbed “canalimony” Graham, The “Interests of Civilization”?‘p. 158.

466     “a most sordid and shameless conspiracy” New York World, April 24, 1921.

469     “The returned Panama Canal labourer” Richardson, Panama Money in Barbados, p. 149.

469     Jamaican Z. Mackenzie “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

471     One man who had worked for thirty-eight years for the canal Petras, Jamaican Labor Migration, pp. 227–28.

471     A doctor who treated a lot of the old-timers Interview with Dr. Hedley C Lennon, Panama City, August 18, 2004.

471     “I am glad to see that all my sweat” Alfred E. Dottin in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

471     “It is a job well done” S. Smith in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

471     “I got to be a man” Diggers documentary.