What was france's main obstacle in building the panama canal

The first obstacle that France faced when building the Panama canal were the tropical and deadly diseases such as malaria and yellow fever that they were not prepared for. Due the fact that so many of their number had fallen ill, been hospitalised, or ended up dead, the French had to abandon the canal. It continued an abandoned project until the united stated picked up the hatchet again in 1904.

So are you supposed to find out what it means in english?

This is math no spanish