Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1902 — BIG NAVAL BATTLE. [ARTICLE]

BIG NAVAL BATTLE.

TERRIBLE RESULTS OF FIGHT IN PANAMA HARBOR. * ;»■■■■>>• ■ 7 ■*' .. Five Vessels Reported Sunk—Three Rebel Boat*'Lost—Two Government Ships Also Go to the Bottom—Governor of Panama Killed. " ' - Advices were received in New York Monday from Col. J. R. Shaler, general superintendent at Colon for the Panama. Railway Company, saying that three insurgent and two government vessels.had been sunk in the naval engagement in Panama harbor. The naval battle began at. 6 o'clock in the morning in the harbor of Panama. The revolutionary fleet consisted of the steamers Padilla, Darien anil Gaitan. They attempted to farce a landing off Saoana. The Government ships were the Chilean Line steamer Lautaro, the I’jieific Steam Navigation Company’s steamer Chicuito and the Panama Canal Company’s steamer Boyaca. The first named was seized by Gen. Alban and the other two had been chartered by the Columbinn Governments States _ cruiser Philadelphia is dose to the scene of the fighting. The State Department “received the following cablegram from Consul Gudger, dated Panama: “Fighting in bay. Governor killed. Excitement great.’’ Panama is the capital of the £tate of Panama, and one of the finest seacoast cities in the United States of Colombia. It is on the Gulf of Panama and south of the Isthmus of Panama. It is the starting point of the Panama canal and is a favorite name in that locality. Thu city contains a population of 40,000, and its more important part stands on a peninsular tongue of land, across which its streets extend from sea to sea. It is a bishop’s see, and has a handsome cathedral and five other Catholic churches. It has a normal and several primary schools, all sustained by the government. Various convents which formerly existed have been disposed of for secular uses. Panama supports a daily newspaper that is published part in EnglisJh anti part in Spanish. The rise and fall of the tide at Panama is from sixteen to twenty-one feet, owing to which ships lie at anchor at some distance from the shore. The harbor is protected by numerous* islets and affords secure anchorage. X The city has but little trade, although the country round about is fertile. It is a station for the malts between countries of the Atlantic and those on the South and Central American coast on the Pacific, and is the Pacific terminus of the Panama Railroad, which connects this place with Aspinwall on the Atlantic side of the isthmus.