orchids and orchidology in central america. 500 ... - lankesteriana.org

ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America
published in 1827. Roberts sailed along the coast from
Panama to Cape Gracias a Dios, in Honduras, and spend
considerable time with the Miskitos in Nicaragua and
with the “Valientes” in Panama. His descriptions of
the natives’ use of cocoa and vanilla are in the chapter
about The History of Vanilla. But Roberts was also
important because he was one of the first travelers to
explore a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
For this, he navigated the San Juan River to the Lake
of Nicaragua, and went then on to the Pacific. In San
Juan del Norte, Roberts was detained by the Spanish
authorities and sentenced to death for being a spy for
the independentists. Roberts escaped narrowly and was
later acquitted of all charges (Fig. 23B).
Immediately after independence, the opening of
commercial relations with the British created a sudden
rise in business. Merchants from Belize, who had been
trading illegally with Guatemala for the preceding
twenty years, gained access and direct contacts to most
of Central America” (Wortman, 1991: 227). Britain had
prevailed in the long-lasting naval war against Spain and
France between 1790 and 1815 and had almost gained
a monopoly on world naval trade. The United States,
whose power increased day by day, responded quickly.
In 1823 president Monroe formulated the ‘Monroe
Doctrine’, that stipulated that the American continent
should not be subject to European colonization and
that the United States would not tolerate European
intervention. This doctrine can be resumed in the classic
expression: ‘America for the Americans’. It was the
beginning of the fight among the powers on Central
American soil, a fight that initially favored Great Britain
and that only in the second half of the century would
turn slowly in favor of the United States.
Burdened by great economic problems, the first
federal president, Manuel José de Arce, embarked on a
bold revolutionary program. The tax reform eliminated
unpopular Spanish levies, but left little revenue to
cover the debt assumed from the colonial and imperial
governments or to pay for expensive new projects. Arce
turned to British capitalists to meet the financial crisis,
but a loan from the London firm of Barclay, Herring &
Richardson produced only a small amount of cash for
the federation. Since the government repaid practically
none of it, the loan did not place an immediate burden
on the federation’s finances, but the indebtedness
remained for decades, providing repeated opportunities
for British diplomats to negotiate favorable concessions
for British economic interests” (Woodward, 1997).
Possible routes for the construction of an interoceanic
canal in Central America began to be explored. “In the
monumental work in which he describes his voyage
to the New World from 1799 to 1804, Alexander
von Humboldt names nine possible routes for an
interoceanic canal and urges scientific studies in order
to decide which was the most advantageous, since
only incomplete studies had been done on some of
them. Among these routes he names that of Nicaragua,
to that he assigns the first place, and the route of
Panama, that he places fourth after those of Atrato and
Tehuantepec. A real comparative study between the
various canal routes was not undertaken until many
years later, but the Panama route was explored in
1827 by Lloyd and Falmare, in 1831 by Peacock and
in 1844 by Garella; and that of Nicaragua in 1837 by
Baily, in 1848 by Oersted and in 1850 by Childs. In
addition to these explorations there were many projects
that used information of prior surveys. Among these
we can cite those of Prince Louis Napoleon in 1846,
Squier in 1849 and Belly in 1858” (Montiel, 1969).
Let us remember that Panama had been discovered by
Christopher Columbus on his 4th trip in 1502. It was
then that a canal was first envisioned by King Carlos V
of Spain who ordered the very first topographic studies
for the construction of a canal through the narrowest
part of the isthmus (80 kilometers). A Royal Order from
February 20, 1534 to the Governor of Panama Pascual
de Andagoya said that “having been informed that the
River Chagres, that enters into the North Sea, can be
navigated with caravels for three or four leagues, and
other three or four in barges, and that from there to
the South Sea there are another four leagues by land...
you shall go to see the land from the River Chagres to
the South Sea and examine what form and order can
be given to open that land so that, once opened, the
South Sea can join said river, so that navigation can
happen, and to explore what difficulties it has, be it
by the tides of the sea or by the height of the land, and
what cost in money and men will be necessary, and in
what time it can be done...” (Ediciones Balboa, 2007:
5). This was a visionary project but unfortunately such
an enterprise was beyond the capabilities of the period.
Andagoya informed his King that, although the canal
could be built, it would demand more resources than
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.
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