Page 242 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

C H APTER S I X

seasickness, overcrowding, bad fo od, boredom, a hot and steamy jungle
climate, and resentful natives. Although providing a quick passage, the
Panama route presented some of the worst hardships to argonauts and
others who chose it. 119
Even though historians of the isthmus crossing usually insist that
numbers of white women were insignificant, they underestimate
women's hardiness. 120 A fe w may have been prostitutes anxious to reap
lucrative rewards f r om their timely appearance among male travelers and
gold-seekers, but the cost of the trip would have discouraged these
women. 121 In f a ct, single and married women were passengers on vir­
tually every Panama-bound steamship. On the initial voyage of the
California fr om Panama to San Francisco, 14 of the 364 passengers were
women. 122 After a portion of the railroad opened in 18S1 and accom­
modations improved, the number of women making the crossing
increased. By 1867, women accounted f o r a significant proportion of
the 400,000 passengers transported across Panama by the railroad in thir­
teen years. 12 3
Like the women who made the overland crossing along the vari­
ous land routes, these f e male migrants were f u lly, if not accurately,
informed regarding the treatment they might expect fr om the natives.
Guidebooks published fo r Panama travelers emphasized the necessity to
be "liberal to the men who work the canoe," meaning cash gratuities
were expected. White migrants were advised to negotiate written con­
tracts with porters and other native workers. 12 4 These less than encour­
aging bits of advice were supplemented by newspaper stories that
warned of the rampant vice and corruption, especially an addiction to
gambling, among Panamanians. 12 5 Newspapers also carried lurid
accounts of riots and other violent confrontations between natives and
emigrants, introduced by dramatic headlines: "Fearful Riot at Panama!
T w enty-Five Americans Massacred by the Natives." 126 These stories
referred to "excited savages," "a general melee," or "a general massacre."
Their authors reported that when Panamanian troops arrived to quell
the rioters they joined their "fellows" in attacking white travelers. 12 7
After hearing a number of such tales, many women developed
intense fe ar of the land portion of the trip. Sarah Brooks, who migrated
with her three-and-a-half-year-old child in 1 8 52, stated that women

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