The French tried to build a canal here before the Americans. At the height of their effort, 500 workers were dying every week from malaria and yellow fever. They couldn't come up with cemetery space fast enough not to mention the morale problem all those crosses would have made. So they bought shiploads of vinegar in Cuba and in each barrel, they sealed one corpse. And then they sold them as medical cadavers all over Europe. And for a while, that was their principal source of profit. You see, this place has
always had a special way of dealing… with both profit and death.