[California Gold Rush – Panama – Crime - Chagres River Murders of 1851] Douglass, Henry F.

1851 Letter Sent from Panama City, “the wickedest place that I ever saw”, En Route to San Francisco, with a Graphic Description of the Execution of Two Men for Murder: “they was each one tied to the stake while forteen native soldiers shot [them]”.

Panama City, Panama: June 29, 1851. Single three-page letter measuring appx. 8 x 10 inches. Stampless cover marked “STEAMSHIP” and circled rate marking “40”. Folded, with some small tears and fading at folds, some stains, with tear at seal, overall bright and legible; excellent. Item #List3716

A letter from Henry Francis Douglass (1826–1897) while on his way to the California gold mines, sent to his wife Lydia Lillibridge (1828–1904) in Voluntown, Connecticut. The letter is highlighted by Douglass’ description of Panama City, including a brutal execution that he witnessed there:

“of all the wickedest places that I ever saw this is the worst there is robery evry day most and murders I keep myself clost nights last night there was a lady on the other side of the street robed of her watch worth $100 and seventy dollars I saw while seting on the piaser [piazza] to the house[.] about fifteen minets ago t[w]o black men [were] brout out of the prison by the soldiers dresed in white acompaned by a cathalic prest led up to the stakes the pre[i]s[t] sat down on a stool the murders kneeled down to prests throde the cloaks over ther heads and whispered to parden there sins the[n] they was each one tied to the stake while forteen native soldier shot [them] one strugld but they shot him over [again] such site I never saw before but it was two good for them they was two of the five that murderd the ten on shagres [Chagres] river men women and chrilden”.

The murder for which the men were executed had occurred around the end of February 1851. Eleven people, Americans and Europeans transiting the Isthmus, were killed: six men, three women, and two children. Contemporaneous newspaper reporting described the murderers as “Carthagenians, negroes and half-breed Indians who hate the whites.”[1] The gold rush in California had caused a massive influx of people and money to Panama, and with it an increase in crime and racial tension.

Douglass had arrived in Chagres and traveled to Gorgona (which Douglass renders “gorgoney”) via the Chagres River, then overland to Panama City, the typical route before the construction of railroads or the canal. Chagres is “the most sunken place that I ever saw all kinds of bisness carred on that anyon could think of”, and the route is “very Dangers at this time”, “very wet”, and plagued by lice, disease, and seasickness. However, he reports encountering “a lot just returning from the mines with good nuse”, and felt “in couraged to go on”. Douglass mined in California for two years before returning to his family.[2]

Of interest to historians of Panama in the California Gold Rush, and of social conditions there, especially crime and punishment, before the construction of the railroads and canal.

[1] “Murders on the Isthmus,” The Brandon Post, April 3, 1851, 2.
[2] Charles Henry James Douglas, A collection of family records, with biographical sketches, and other memoranda of various families and individuals bearing the name Douglas, or allied to families of that name (E.L. Freeman & Co., 1879).

Price: $1,950.00