Books with title Panama: A Personal Record of Forty-six Years, 1861-1907

"Robinson started with the Panama Railroad and saw the Canal from start to finish." -Lincoln Review (1982)"A charming chronicler of the events of a lifetime on the Isthmus." - Panama and the canal in picture and prose (1913)"Wonderfully interesting book." - The Instructor (1913)"Probably no man knows more about Panama from personal experience than Tracy Robinson." - The Independent (1908)"After you have read Robinson's book you will all the more appreciate the results of the work on the canal." – On the Canal Zone (1908)"An iconic figure in the Panama Canal Zone and was a sought-after source for many authors and historians working on the subject." -Panama Canal Bibliography"Robinson ... must have seen a good deal of life during his years on the Isthmus." -The Path Between the Seas (2001)"His account of the Panama Railroad is especially interesting." -The Alienist and Neurologist (1905)Living for half a century in Colon, Panama, Tracy Robinson (1833-1915) knew more about Panama from personal experience than any other man of his time. Acquainted with all the people of importance crossing the Isthmus in the days of the California gold fever, of the era of graft and extravagance under the French Canal Company, of revolutions and shipwrecks and robberies, and the American purchase of the Canal project, as well all the strange life of the great tropical thoroughfare, Robinson was an iconic figure in the Panama Canal Zone.When Robinson first came to Panama in 1861, life on the Isthmus had some interesting and peculiar features. The geographical isolation being practically complete, except by sea, only a narrow strip of country along the Panama Railroad was all that modern civilization could boast of having captured. The jungle still held sway and defied the schoolmaster.Among those who have from time to time held official positions in different companies, or who have engaged in other business pursuits, in this important outpost of civilization there had seldom been one such as Robinson who caught the spirit of the place and had the surprising energy to write interestingly of his surroundings as he did in his 1907 book "Panama: A Personal Record of Forty Six Years."His book gives as good a general notion of the course of things at Panama up to the beginning of the canal enterprise as it existed in 1907. The book derives its chief value from the fact that it is the only authentic record of the work of the building and running the Panama Railroad that exists and as history it is incontrovertible, being the writing of an eyewitness. The historian shows a keen knowledge of human nature. He had “inside information,” to borrow from sporting parlance, of everything that happened on the Isthmus; thus he was in the best position to judge the deeds and motives of those who made up the population, floating and resident, of this pioneer settlement.In describing one revolution that broke out, Robinson writes: "I was then in charge of the Panama Railroad, as acting superintendent. The morning after the news came that a revolution had broken out, an American war vessel that had arrived in the night, was seen at anchor in Colon harbor. I sent off an early note, addressed to the commanding officer, informing him of what had occurred, and requesting him to stand by. He would most certainly obey his instructions, and would land a Gatling gun, with a force of marines, at once, if necessary...."Later, Robinson notes that "warnings without number had been given the Bogota Government that Panama would withdraw from the Colombian Union, unless the construction of a canal should be provided for. These warnings were unheeded. Then on November 3, 1903, the Department of Panama declared itself independent of Colombia. Events followed in rapid succession, and within a week the Republic of Panama, with a wellorganized de facto government under the protection of the United States, had been securely established..."

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

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Excerpt from Panama: A Personal Record of Forty-Six Years, 1861 1907Then why, it will be asked, was this Beau tiful Port, as its name indicates, not selected for the Atlantic terminus?About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.