File:Panama - a personal record of forty-six years, 1861-1907 (1907) (14572384248).jpg

Identifier: panamapersonalre00robi (find matches)
Title: Panama : a personal record of forty-six years, 1861-1907
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Robinson, Tracy, 1833-1915
Subjects: Panama Railroad Co
Publisher: New York Panama : Star and Herald Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image:
[Panama

in 1698, among the verdant hills of Veraguas and
Chiriqui, instead of on the low shores of Cale-
donia Bay, in the Darien, his venture might not
have been a dismal and tragic failure, but a great
success. Jamaica, recently wrested from Spain
by Cromwell, was at that time the nearest Eng-
lish settlement to Caledonia Bay; but the Scotch
colonists applied in vain to the government of
that island for help in their distress. Beeston
was governor of Jamaica, and had received or-
ders from King William III of England to ex-
tend no aid. At last, however, after the larger
portion of the colonists had perished at the Da-
rien, as many as could be brought away in a
single small vessel were permitted to land and
seek homes in Jamaica. Other survivors were
carried to the British Colonies, now the United
States.
The geographical features of the Isthmus are
thus found to be of great interest, and its posi-
tion relative to all other countries has not failed
to attract universal attention. It is a pivot—
acentral point toward which a large share of the
commerce of the whole world must gravitate, to
be sent on to its various destinations.

184
Text Appearing After Image:
TOWER OF SAN JEROME AT OLD PANAMA, OVER 300
YEARS OLD.

Chapter XVIII]

CHAPTER XVIII
TN a certain passage of " The Martyrdom of
Man," Winwood Reade speaks of the mo-
notony of eternal change. The expression may
be borrowed and appHed to the pohtical affairs of
the Panama Isthmus, from 1855 to a recent date.
It would have been difficult to keep exact account
of the many changes that have occurred in th
government, nearly all of which have been
brought about by revolutions.
The late Governor Arango favored me with a
record of the names and dates of chief magis-
trates, which shows that thirty-four, including
himself, served in that office from July, 1855 to
the date of his death in 1898. Governor Facundo
Mutis-Duran, who succeeded him, was the thirty-
fifth. The list, which will be found in the ap-
pendix, forms a curious commentary on so-called
republican history. The first name is that of
Justo Arosemena, a native of Panama and one of
her most distinguished sons. He served his coun-
try faithfully in many situations of trust and
responsibility, local and national, and was al-
185

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