Is a Ship Canal Practicable‪?‬

CHAPTER I.

Columbus discovers Darien—Opinions of Berghaus, Humboldt, Garella, Hughes—Expectation of finding a Strait—Influence of Oriental Trade—Names identified with the Project of a Canal—Defeat of Miranda’s Scheme—Object—Opinion of Admiral Davis—Sketch of Oriental Trade—Contest for its Possession—Four different Solutions—United States—Russia—France—England—English Diplomacy and the Suez Canal—History of its Difficulties—Empress Eugenie Inaugurates—Dimensions of Canal—Capital of Company—Expenditures—Effects on Commerce—Circumstances affecting the Permanence of the Suez Canal—Teaching of History—Sand Dunes—Inferences from Geology—Sediment of the Nile—Deltas—Silting up of Port Said, and rate of advance of the Shore Line.

Upon the 14th of September, in the year of our Lord 1502, three caravels, bearing Columbus and the destinies of the New World, long baffled by opposing storms and currents, at last doubled Cape Gracias a Dios.

To appreciate the courage of the daring Navigator, it is necessary to call to mind the fact that the largest vessel of this little fleet did not exceed seventy tons burden. With seams opened by the stress of the gales, sails tattered by the winds, hulls eaten to a honey-comb by the teredo, distrust at home, dissension around, and danger everywhere, this great man abated not a jot of his high hopes, but repairing his shattered ships as he was able, continued his adventurous voyage.

The air came to the toil-worn mariners freighted with spicy fragrance, gentle winds wafted them in sight of lofty mountains and of verdant slopes, clothed with the majestic palm and the pink and golden blossoming flor de Robles.

The simple-minded natives of Honduras and Costa Rica welcomed them with supernatural devotion, bringing gifts of fruits, gold, gems, and tenders of hospitality.

Strange rumors reached them of a people living in houses of sculptured stone, and occupied in the arts of peace. Columbus could not be diverted from his purpose.

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The season was that of gales, and the little fleet was shut in the beautiful harbor of Porto Bello.

The Norther ceasing, the voyage continued as far as the little, craggy Bay of El Retreate; here, near the present Puerto de Mosquitoes, Columbus reached the westward limit of his last voyage of discovery.

Sixty-six years of sorrow and disappointment, of disinterested purposes maliciously opposed, of bold designs ignorantly thwarted, of a pure and illustrious character misjudged and traduced, had humbled the pride and subdued the enthusiasm of that aspiring intellect; and now, at the close of a career of vast and useful discoveries, he was called on to face a trial which Goëthe has affirmed to be the severest and most inexorable of life.

Welcomed with the approving plaudits of his king and countrymen, or loaded with ignominious chains, he had ever kept one object constantly in view. This object, pursued with unexampled courage, self-abnegation, and constancy, he was now called on to renounce. Who will venture to depict the thoughts of this remarkable man as he turned to retrace his path, leaving behind him the prospect of discoveries far greater than those which had cast the hallow of immortal fame around his name?

“Here ended,” says Irving, in a strain of tender eloquence, “the lofty aspirations which had elevated him above all mercenary views in his struggle along this perilous coast”——“it is true, he had been in pursuit of a chimera, but it was the chimera of a splendid imagination and a penetrating judgment. If he was disappointed in finding a strait through the Isthmus of Darien, it was because Nature herself was disappointed.”

This sagacious conjecture has its foundation in nature, and is supported by the opinions of savans and the facts of recent geological explorations.

The Prussian geographer, Berghaus, as early as 1823, and Prof. Hopkins, contested the accepted opinion as to the unbroken continuity of the Isthmus and the contiguous continents.

The French engineer, Garella, after making a geological reconnoissance, declares that the Isthmus is of more recent origin than the continents which it unites. Col. Hughes and Garella concur in a belief in the existence, at an early period, of a strait uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The identity of the species of fish inhabiting the waters on both sides of the Isthmus is an additional argument in confirmation of this view.

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It is without surprise that we find the discoveries of another science confirming this inference. Prof. Huxley, in a recent address on the progress of palæontology, is unable to explain the distribution of mammals at the close of the miocene period, except upon the supposition of a barrier which prevented the migration of the apes, rodents, and edentata from the southern to the northern continent. He cites the opinions of Carrick Moore and Prof. Duncan in support of the same conclusion. Further investigation will, no doubt, add to the number of facts which indicate the separation of the two continents by the ancient sea, and may even establish the fact that portions of Central America once formed parts of the Antilles group of the equatorial belt of islands.

General Michler, in his interesting report of the survey of the Atrato, observes: “All the stratified rocks on the Isthmus, exhibiting strong marks of disturbance and even dislocation since they were originally deposited, clearly prove that the upheaval which brought this narrow neck of land above the level of the ocean must have taken place at a comparatively late era. This period was undoubtedly accompanied by the protrusion of certain metamorphosed shistose (?) rocks, the doubtful nature of which has induced us to mark them as belonging to a trappean series. If Darwin had good reason to believe that the granite of South America, now rising into central peaks 14,000 feet in elevation, must have been in a fluid state since the deposition of the tertiary group, we may also do so in pronouncing the formation of the Isthmus, now linking together South and Central America, as decidedly post-tertiary.”

The deductions of Columbus were, however, based on the direction of the coast of Cuba, which he supposed to be a continent, and the parallel coast of South America; and was further confirmed by the westerly current flowing between them, which must, he thought, find an outlet near Darien.

These bold generalizations, drawn from stores of profound observation and varied reading, although we now know them to be erroneous, evince the sagacity of the man, and place him far ahead of the intelligence of his age. With heartfelt sorrow he reluctantly renounced a chimera so plausible, which he expected would lead him to the fabulous kingdom of Prester John, or, perhaps, to the marvelous splendors of the imperial dominions of Kublai Khan, and which would, he believed, open new fields for the peaceful conquests of the banner of the Redeemer.

The delusive representations of travelers was the chief impulse to some of the greatest achievements of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

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The coveted wealth of “Ormus and of Ind” was a siren who had lured adventurous navigators to dare the dangers of unknown seas.

The same diversity of motive may be found in the men of that period which now exists and animates the westward course of civilization. Love of money and fame are found contending by the side of the desire to extend the domain of knowledge and zeal for the spread of religion.

The result of these combined passions was to open new avenues to wealth, industry, and science.

Four hundred years have elapsed since the wondering eyes of Spanish discoverers first gazed on the strange beauty of the New World. In this interval a nation of forty millions of people have been planted in the country of Columbus, its wildernesses are traversed by steam, its products supply food and clothing to a large part of the world; but, with all this progress, the visionary strait of the great navigator is yet an unrealized dream.

Impossibilities have been accomplished, poetical fictions have become facts, visionary theories of the past are the industrial arts of the present. In wealth, comfort, health, longevity, art, science, organized labor and charities, the human race of the present have out-stripped the Arcadian felicity of the golden eras of Hesiod and Cervantes.

Possessing every facility, occupying a preëminent coigne of vantage, we have left one thing unachieved. This ought we to have done, and not to have left the others undone.

Many minds, speculative and practical, have closely scrutinized the feasibility of making the American Isthmus a highway for the commerce of the world.

Its importance grows in dimensions in proportion to the study bestowed on it. It ranks among its friends some of the most able men of the race.

Columbus, Cortes, Charles V, Alverado, Gonzales de Avila, De Solis, Gomaro, Bautista Antonella, and, in more recent times, Paterson, Pitt, Jefferson, Humboldt, Guizot, Napoleon III, Wheaton, Dallas, Biddle, and a long and honorable list of statesmen and publicists have contributed to the project.

According to the scheme of General Miranda, sanctioned by Wm. Pitt, it was proposed that Great Britain should supply the money and ships, and the United States should send 10,000 men.

The failure of this plan is attributed to delay on the part of President Adams.

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The tonnage of the trade which would annually seek this route has been estimated at 3,094,000 tons, equal in value to $152,475,750. The value of the exports and imports of all the nations which would annually pass the Isthmus would amount to $451,029,132.

With such enormous commercial interests, backed by advocates so able, it is not a little curious that the question of feasibility should be yet unsolved.

Political vicissitudes have often postponed its consideration. Conflicting interest and rivalries have prevented the coöperation long deemed essential to its successful execution.

The hereditary policy of the United States has always been anti-social and insular. Schooled in this policy, it is difficult to enlist the sympathies of our people in questions which are to be answered in regions beyond their jurisdiction.

The utility and practicability of the work must first be made clearly manifest.

Passing in review the present state of our knowledge of Isthmean routes, one of the objects of this paper is to attempt to appreciate the probable advantages which would result from the completion of an intermarine ship canal.

In selecting from material, much of which bears little relation to the questions at issue, many objects may be omitted which deserve notice, and some may be noticed which might have been omitted.

If serious attention is attracted to this important project, the writer will have attained his object.

“There does not exist in the libraries of the world,” observes Admiral Davis, “the means of determining, even approximately, the most practicable route for a ship canal across the Isthmus.” This deficiency in our geographical knowledge will shortly be supplied. An exploration is now in progress, under the auspices of Government.

If a practicable route is found, there is reason to believe that execution will follow as certainly as the settlement of America followed its discovery.

We may not unreasonably expect the progress of the future to keep pace with the past, and that the absolute increase of the commercial marine, and an enlarged area for its operations, will lead to a proportionate extension of the beneficent influences of religion and civilization. The speculation opens a prospect of the future destiny of intertropical America; destined, perhaps, to produce as great a revolution on our globe as the colonization of America.

“The completion of this work,” observes an earnest advocate, “will be the same as if, by some great revolution of the globe, the eastern continent were brought nearer to us.”

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The produce of the Indies has always been a coveted prize; wealth has followed in its path; commercial supremacy has been the property of its possessor. As changes in the route brought about new political relations, and raised up a more successful competitor for the trade of the Orient, a reconstruction of the map of the world has become necessary.

Its importance may be gathered from the fact that the annual exports and imports of the United States to the East Indies, China, Australia, and the South Pacific Islands amount to $39,380,000, and the aggregate exports and imports of Great Britain to the same points amount to $378,857,000.

If this trade has ceased to be a monopoly, and has lost some of its importance since the colonization of the Americas, it is yet sufficient to hold the guerdon of commercial supremacy. A history of its course and influence is beyond the scope of this paper. A passing notice will show how important a part it has played in the destinies of nations.

It is probable that the wars of ancient Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon were waged for the control of the trade of the East. The expedition of Alexander was not the result of an unreasoning lust for dominion and military glory. The apple of discord then, as now, was the beautiful land of the East. The descendants of the great Aryan and Semitic families, constantly moving westward, never forgot the land of their birth.

At an early period, caravans brought the rich products of India across the desert. Under the influence of this traffic, the palaces of Palmyra sprang up amid the sands. The Saracens drove the course of trade to the Caspian and the Euxine. The Mediterranean felt its beneficent effects, and Venice, Trieste, Marseilles, Cadiz, Barcelona became the marts of its rich and varied commodities.

After the discovery of de Gama, the busy hum of industry began to cease in these once populous emporiums. When Shylock drew up his bloody bond, the trade of the Indies had set around the cape. While commerce was suspended and industry prostrated by wars and civil dissensions, Holland bore off the prize. The devastating armies of Alva threw the Indian trade into the strong hands of Elizabeth.

England now began to lay carefully the foundation of her empire. The policy she now adopted, whether through instinct or forethought, was one which looked beyond the temporary advantages of position and possession. She attempted to make these advantages permanent by the conquest of the territory from whence all these bounties seemed perennially to flow.

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The British Empire in India, in its extent, power, wealth, and future possibilities, stands an enduring monument of the courage, energy, and wisdom of the British people. Whether actual possession has secured the reversionary benefit, time alone can show.

That wealth, power, and dominion follow oriental traffic, is now patent to the world. It is no longer the object of secret diplomatic intrigue; it has become an open question, to be solved by the general competition of commercial nations.

In the pursuit of this object, the leader in the Pansclavonic movement is pushing her outposts past India to the wall of China. The United States, conscious of her natural advantage, is awakening to the importance of a systematic policy.

The French Emperor seems at present, by the aid of the Suez Canal, likely to appropriate the lion’s share. While American commerce is disappearing from the seas—fifty per cent. of her exports and imports being carried in foreign ships—the flag of France may be seen by the side of England in every sea. The hereditary policy and commercial instinct of the British may prove to be more than a match for the astuteness of one man. Who will ultimately bear off the prize, is a question admitting three possible solutions.

Russia, as has been said, rapidly extending her frontier eastward, stretches out her hand to grasp the trade of the East. The Suez and Darien Canals—the one an unsolved problem, the other an accomplished fact—represent the two other contestants. One of the most constant objects of war and diplomacy has been for the possession of the highway through Egypt for the trade of the East.

It was designated by the Portuguese conqueror, Albuquerque, as one of the three important points essential to the “command and monopoly” of this trade. England, anticipating the day when it might be important for her to have the military control of this highway, has persistently established military ports, beginning at Gibraltar and ending at Aiden. She has secured strong posts at Malta and Beb el Mandeb. The Great Leibnitz called the attention of Louis XIV to the commercial and political advantages of a conquest and colonization of this country. Napoleon, flushed with the conquest of Italy, took the initiative in this bold design. By his order, M. Lepere, “a distinguished engineer,” completed an examination in 1801. The results of this examination have been published by the Imperial Government.

M. Lepere asserted the practicability of a ship canal along the line of the ancient canal from Suez to the Nile, as far as the Bitter Lakes. From thence its course has to proceed to the Pelusiac branch of the 

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Nile. Here, on the sea, it encounters the accumulating banks and bars of the Nile, one of the two very serious obstacles to the execution and permanent value of a ship canal between the two seas.

The project of a canal uniting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean appears to have been suggested by M. de Lesseps to Said Pacha, the Viceroy of Egypt, in 1854. The company was definitely formed in 1869.

It is not very easy to estimate the important effects of opening this route to the maritime States of Europe.

Lord Palmerston, acting in the interest of England, constantly opposed the design. He at once perceived that the restoration of trade to the Levantine ports would seriously disturb the commercial equilibrium. All the ingenious devices of a clever lawyer in conducting a bad case were employed by English diplomacy in order to arrest the operations of M. de Lesseps.

The first and most valid objections alleged by Lord Palmerston were based on the practical difficulties in the way of execution, and were stated with great force and acuteness. The shifting sands of the Desert would, it was affirmed, soon fill up the canal; and the sand and silt, which from time immemorial had been brought down by the great father of waters, and which swept to the westward by the prevailing winds, would soon fill up any artificial harbor which might be constructed.

That these difficulties were resolutely encountered and overcome, is one of the marvels of this truly marvelous work.

To these objections M. de Lesseps cautiously replied that all questions would be referred to a commission of engineers.

After an examination of all the plans, the commission reported favorably on that which has just been successfully executed. The work found a few friends among the English people and in Parliament.

Lord Palmerston, being interrogated, declared that the scheme was hostile to the interest of the country. His real objection was obscurely hinted. “It is founded,” he remarked, “in remote speculations in regard to easier access to our Indian possessions, which I need not more distinctly shadow forth, because they will be obvious to any body who pays attention to the subject.” He further characterized it as one of those plans “so often brought out to make dupes of the English people,” and he expressed his preference for the communication by railroad between Suez and Cairo. As this railroad can never be more than a passenger route, it is evident that its influence on commerce must always be insignificant.

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The work had barely commenced when, through the instigation of the English Embassador, the Sultan issued an order arresting the operations. The plea assigned for this interference was that the authority of the Viceroy was insufficient without the sanction of the Sultan. De Lesseps invoked the interposition of the Emperor, who, with apparent indifference, was watching the proceedings from his retreat at Biarritz.

Within a month after the presentation of the memorial the misunderstanding between the two cabinets had been explained, and Lord Palmerston was for a time silenced by the consent of Egypt to receive a Turkish garrison. This acquiescence was in appearance only, as the real object of these repeated assaults was to arrest the work. The Viceroy, desirous of silencing all opposition, consulted French jurisconsults in regard to the rights of the company, and definitely settled the powers of the contracting parties.

For a moderate sum he ceded to the company the belt of country bordering the fresh water canal. Immediately the cry was raised by the opponents of the canal, that it was intended to colonize this region with Europeans.

While this matter was in controversy, and the work was steadily proceeding, Said Pacha suddenly died, and Ismail, his nephew, reigned in his stead, with the title of Khédivé. He confirmed the concessions of his predecessor and entered into new conventions. His confidence in the work, which had appeared uncertain, was established by the able report of Sir John Hawkshaw, the President of the Society of Civil Engineers. This report, however, which was confirmed by the personal inspection of Sir Henry Bulwer, aroused all the fears of the English Government. The success of the work, at first problematical, now seemed more than probable. A decisive blow must be struck; one that should be fatal to the undertaking.

Throughout Egypt, according to an ancient and still prevailing custom, private and public work is executed by a system of forced labor, termed Corvē. The conscription is limited to the period of one month, at a fixed rate of wages. The company engaged to pay higher rates than usual, and to supply food, lodging, medical attendance, and half pay when sick. No sooner had twenty thousand men been collected on the excavations, than a “howl went up from Exeter Hall.” Lord Stratford de Redcliffe demanded of the Sultan “to stop the scandal.”

The British Government were instantly seized with one of those sudden spasms of morality, or humanity, which Lord Macaulay affirms has been observed periodically to afflict the British people.

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The Sultan, who appears to have been a pliable tool in the hands of English Envoys, issued an order abolishing the system of compulsory labor, and disbanding all the fellahs employed by the company.

This arbitrary and unjust interference had but one meaning, and seemed likely to have but one result. The plea of humanity, advanced by a Government which had overlooked the sacrifice of 1000 men in one day, when that sacrifice had been made by their own injudicious advice, and for their own benefit, could be nothing more than a manifest subterfuge.

This vigorous handling of the political puppets on the diplomatic chess-board proved how serious were Lord Palmerston’s apprehensions. It was the old question which every age revives. In the past, the issue had again and again been brought to the arbitrament of the sword. With such antagonists as Palmerston on one side and de Lesseps and the Silent Emperor upon the other, the duel was necessarily ā l’outrance.

It was now evident that war alone could arrest the completion of the maritime highway between the two seas. Was it the death of Palmerston or the progress of peaceful arts that kept this question confined to the field of diplomacy?

Opposition only stimulated the energy and confirmed the determination of de Lesseps. The controversy was referred to the decision of the French Emperor. A smile, half machiavellian, must have flitted over the face of his reticent Majesty when the question was submitted to his Imperial arbitration. By his decision the Egyptian Government were called on to pay, not unwillingly, an indemnity to the company for a release from the obligation to furnish compulsory labor, and for the retrocession of certain land grants and privileges of navigation.

“The indomitable Lesseps did not despair.” After months of delay, he collected laborers from all parts of Europe, and the work was resumed.

The vigilance of the English opposition soon found another vulnerable point. The Sultan was again persuaded to issue a firman denying the right of the Viceroy to cede the land through which the canal was to be excavated. This well-aimed blow caused a suspension of operations for two years. Any man less able, self-reliant, or resolute than M. de Lesseps would have succumbed.[1]

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The Emperor was induced to intervene. M. Thouvener, the French Minister at Constantinople, was requested “to enlighten the mind of the Sublime Porte as to the views and wishes of France.”

The introduction of machinery now became a matter of necessity. Ten millions of dollars were expended for this object, and forty enormous dredges were soon at work upon the excavations. One of the novelties in the construction of these machines was a provision for carrying off the excavated material by means of a stream of water. One of the workmen, it is said, noticed that when removed in this way the slimy earth spread over a wide surface and became soon indurated, instead of flowing back into the place of excavation. It also possessed the further advantage of fixing the mobile sand.

The total amount of earth removed amounted to about four hundred million cubic yards. By working day and night, the machines of M. Borel and Lavelley were able to remove 78,056 to 108,000 cubic meters per month.

Although the completion of the canal now seemed assured, the opposition of the English Government continued up to the last moment. Every effort was made to prejudice the Sultan and the Khédivé against the work, and, by exciting the jealousy of the Sultan, to induce him to arrest the excavations.

After ten years of labor, this great work was completed. Upon the 17th of November, 1869, the opening of the canal was inaugurated in the presence of the Empress Eugenie and the Emperor of Austria, and of princes, embassadors, and men of science from Europe and America.

The Empress, leading the van of the fleet in her steam yacht, l’Aigle, entered the canal amid salvos of artillery. The yards of the ships were manned with sailors, every mast-head was decked with a flag, and the bands played the martial airs of the assembled nations. The transit between the two seas was safely made by the fleet. But the requisite depth had not been attained. Seventeen and a half feet could be carried through the canal. Since then the depth has been increased to twenty-two feet, and ultimately will be twenty-six feet.

The length of the canal is one hundred miles. The established surface-width is about 328 feet, except in difficult cuttings, where it is 190 feet. The least bottom width is 72 feet. The highest ground cut through is at El Gúisr, where it is 85 feet; at Serapeum it is 62 feet; and at Chalouf, near Suez, it is 56 feet.

The excavation of the canal, although of considerable difficulty, was exceeded by the necessity for creating artificial harbors at the extremities. The harbor at Port Said, upon the Mediterranean, has the 

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general form of a triangle, the base resting on the shore and the longer side on the west, protecting the entrance from the moving sand. The longer arm, or mole, is 8,200 feet, extending to the 26 feet curve of sounding. It is proposed to extend this mole 2,300 feet farther. As this harbor is exposed to N. E. winds, an inside basin has been constructed. The area of the outer harbor is equal to 400 acres, and will permit twenty line-of-battle ships to swing freely at anchor.

At the other extremity of the canal, a mole 2,550 feet in length protects the channel, which has been dredged to the depth of 27 feet. The mole at Suez differs from that at Port Said in construction; the latter being formed of concrete blocks of 13 cubic feet, the former of stone quarried from the neighboring mountain.

The organization, equipment, sanitary regulations, and division of labor among twenty thousand men, employed at one time, is full of interest and instruction, but must be omitted in this place.[2]