PART II. NARRATIVE.

CHAPTER I.

NEW YORK TO PANAMA.

EMBARK ON BOARD THE EMPIRE CITY WITH 200 PASSENGERS BOUND TO CALIFORNIA.-GRAND MASS MEETING.---CHAGRES.—CANOES.—THE RIVER.—SCENERY ASCENDING THE STREAM.—RAIN.—SAN PABLO.—THE CHAGRES AND ITS BOATMEN.-CRUCES.-FROM CRUCES TO PANAMA.

At 3 P. M. of the 16th of August, 1849, the steamer Empire City left New York with more than two hundred passengers bound for California via Panama. Her agents promised, and I hoped to reach the latter city in time for the British mail steamship appointed to leave for Valparaiso at noon of the 27th. At so late a date the daily detail of a voyage since performed by so many would scarcely interest any one; but a general outline of our associates, their habits and occupations, may give the reader an insight into the sea-life of outward-bound Californians.

At starting, much was "couleur de rose." “couleur de rose." Both the ship and passengers were in holiday attire; even nature, though somewhat ardent, put on a smiling face, and, save the heat, a more lovely night one could not desire. As the ocean was quite tranquil, the greenest of the embryo gold hunters boldly promenaded the deck. Groups of singers had collected in all directions, and the glories of the "Sacramento," and "Uncle Ned," with an occasional stave about "sweet home," resounded from every quarter. However, "California," more than any other subject, proved the burthen of the song. Morning brought no change of weather; but the fine dresses had partially disappeared, and the men began to appear in their true characters; a majority of the two hundred and twelve being adventurers whom the eastern portion of the United States could well spare! True, there were gentlemen among them—that is, men whose consciences control their physical acts; but the larger number either were, or pretended to be, uncleanly as well as unmannerly. Luckily, at that era of California travelling, at table one was not forced into intimacy with them.

Fine weather and smooth water continued up to bed-time of Saturday night; but on Sunday old Neptune seemed purposely to come to aid the steward, and prevent desecration of his turtle by such a gang. An old-fashioned smoky southeaster brought a heavy sea, the number at the dinner-table was suddenly reduced below forty, and until the 24th the decks were crowded by those from whom the sea-god mercilessly exacted the penalties of initiation. Whether or not there be similarity in constitutions subject to the most violent attacks, has probably not been a subject of investigation by physiological inquirers; but we know that love and sea-sickness find no commiserators, and therefore the gold hunters received little sympathy. The sea had become "very ugly," as sailors term it; and it was as much as one could do to hold on to his plate. With the air-ports of the vessel closed in, and the thermometer never under 83° for five days and nights, the atmosphere below was quite equal to that of a steam-bath. On deck woe-begone faces were predominant; and cheerfulness remained only with the "old salts," whose ingenuity was taxed to find new tortures for their despondent messmates.

The Spaniards have a proverb, "Viento y ventura poco dura" (wind and good luck never last Its conlong); and as we drew into the Caribbean sea, fair skies and smooth water awaited us. tinuance brought out many writers, and the world seemed threatened with a deluge of "First Voyage of a Gold-hunter," "Notes from a Californian," or perhaps "Letters from our Special Correspondent." Such a variety of note-books and journals was scarcely ever before displayed in one apartment, and our steward soon found it difficult to obtain accommodations for the patients to whom he had been administering gruel and weak tea during the preceding week. Revolvers and bowie-knives also came in for a large share of attention and comparison; the owner of each doffing the habiliments of city life, to make his appearance in the garb of a hunter (of gold), fully prepared to defend the treasure he expected to extract from the earth.

By this time it had become evident that we could not arrive at Chagres in time to reach Panama for the Valparaiso steamer. In the estimation of us heretics-the passengers-the boat was a "slow coach," positively a failure, if speed was to be any criterion; though the captain and others of the household found reasons "plenty as blackberries" why she did not go faster. The coal was bad, boat too deep, engines too new, boilers leaked last time, &c., &c. On the evening of the 25th, immediately after supper, the steward gave notice that the passengers were desirous to hold a meeting on deck, for the purpose of expressing to the captain and officers their sense of his high qualities as a seaman, gratitude for kind attentions, &c. Supposing my name unknown to all but the captain, I was no little surprised to hear it read out as one of the vice-presidents, and to receive escort to one of the seats provided for us dignitaries of the convention. Everything appeared to have been "cut and dried," as is usual; and the meeting was going on famously, with a probability of speedily transacting all its business. But some one, perhaps disappointed that his merits had been overlooked, and convinced that his name ought to appear in the papers to which our proceedings might be sent, had the ill will to suggest a committee to draught proper resolutions instead of those our president extracted from his pocket. This was a poser to the getters up; but the majority were so unreasonable as to desire additional trouble, and of course they could not object. Thus, as the mal-contents managed to have most of their own party on the committee, the resolutions brought back had very little semblance to those read at first. When their report was made, a new faction sprang up. The steerage passengers-the real democracy-declared that they had had no voice in the committee; a claim which brought out representatives from the "sunny south," who insisted that each State should have had its delegate. A hot discussion ensued; and as many had been keeping their "spirits up" all day, from the want of proper restraining centrifugal power in our chief, we presiding officers were likely to be smashed up. Perceiving that one of the tropical showers to which we had been subject for two or three days was rapidly approaching, my post was incontinently deserted without warning to my neighbors, and I had scarcely reached the saloon when the drops were pattering thick and fast. Before the mass of our companions could descend the ladders in the dark, most of them were drenched to the skin, the ardor for discussion extinguished as suddenly as the shower had come upon them, and the tumult quenched at a dash. But it had the effect to restore good humor, and set all hands laughing; an object of greater consequence than all the resolutions they could have draughted between New York and Chagres, for another half hour would probably have made us witnesses to bloodshed by some of the rougher

ones.

One of the resolutions originally prepared declared that we had found the ship "unsurpassed for speed by any steamer on the ocean," and ended by a disinterested though "earnest recommendation of it to government for the transmission of the mails!" Luckily the question was not taken. Owing to the incorrect information given about this very quality, before me was the prospect, amounting almost to a certainty, of a month's detention on the Isthmus; and every moment of that month was needed at a point more than three thousand miles distant. If the rain-squall did not cool my ire, it saved me from proving traitor to the party that placed me in power.

August 27.-About 9 P. M. we dropped anchor off the bar at the mouth of the river Chagres, indicated to us by lights displayed on board the British mail-steamer then lying there. Soon afterwards the captain of the Orus, a small steamer brought out for navigating of the river, came off to us; and, as is usual when people are about landing in a strange country, much anxiety was evinced by the passengers to learn all that was possible respecting the route they were to travel, its conveniences, privations, dangers, and costs. Nor did they forget to inquire whether the latest intelligence from the golden region of their aspirations was favorable, or themselves likely to be detained at Panama, because of the number of persons already there awaiting passage. Had the skipper charged for each question propounded him, his fortune would soon have been greater than that of most of those he will probably greet on their return. But there were business matters to be attended to, and our captain suddenly abducted their prize, leaving the multitude to digest the few grains of knowledge precociously obtained.

Hoping that something might have occurred to detain the Valparaiso steamer, and in accordance with previous arrangements, Mr. R. and myself went on shore, for the purpose of proceeding up the river immediately. Landing, as we did, in the night, it was scarcely possible to distinguish more than an outline of the river landscape, or to perceive either the structure of the houses or the costumes of the people of Chagres. The town lies on the southeastern bank of the river, and consists of about 150 huts or cabins, made of canes, thatched with leaves of the palm-tree. The canes stand from 15 to 20 feet in height, and are wattled together with cords of cocoa-nut bark, forming houses 30 or 40 feet long. They have steep pyramidal roofs, that project five or six feet beyond the walls, and protect the doors and windows from driving rains. Very few are plastered, even on the outside, the free air of Heaven penetrating where it lists; and I greatly doubt whether there is a pane of glass in all the town. Partitions are made with canes or bamboos, wattled, in the same manner as the outer walls, and the doors are of cotton cloth, or perhaps some heavier vegetable material. Of course, there can be no great privacy in a town so constructed. But this lattice-work structure is quite necessary; for a high bluff cuts off most of the northeast trade winds that reach so near to the equator.

The streets of the old town were paved, and when Carthagena and Porto Bello flourished, Chagres was probably a place of comparative comfort; but its. thorougfares are now little better than quagmires, which only the hogs seem to enjoy. The canoemen told me that a few of the houses are built with plank floors; though most of them, and all that we saw, had only the bare earth raised a few inches above the level of the street outside. Quadrupeds as well as bipeds of the family occupied them. One who had never visited a hot climate would have found much to wonder at in the toilet and manners of the people. A white shirt and cotton pantaloons, or a chemise, at most, composed their costume. Some sat near a little table, with a tallow candle and greasy pack of cards, playing at monte. Others lolled in grass hammocks, perhaps half their persons exposed. Few seemed to have sufficient energy for locomotion. All chattered in a musical tongue, men, women, and children smoking cigars. The Spaniards are musical, and their full-blooded descendants of the new world inherit the taste; but the national instrument here was that squeaking thing called "harmonicon" or "aolino," an ear-mark, I fear, of their recent associations. The tramp of boots as we passed along startled them from apathetic drowsiness, and even momentarily from their passion as gamblers; and whilst some simply muttered "Americanos," others, more full of fun, displayed their acquisition of English since January, by a full stave from

“O Susannah, don't you cry for me;

I'm bound for California,

The gold mines for to see."

Though necessarily brief, our stay in a town with a reputation so fearful was quite as long as either of us cared for. In half an hour we had concluded a bargain with the owner of a canoe, and were on board the Orus, on the opposite side of the river. Our stipulations were, that he should come to the Orus for us by midnight, the canoe to have four young men for

hours.

its propulsion, besides himself; and that he should land us at Cruces, 49 miles above, in 28 We were to travel all of both nights, and to pay $80 if we arrived at the time agreed upon; $5 per hour less for every hour that he exceeded twenty-eight. Punctual to the time, the "dug-out" came alongside. It was 35 feet long, nearly 4 feet wide, and made from a single log, resembling mahogany in texture, though scarcely of half its weight. About twelve feet of it was covered with an arched thatch roof, barely high enough to crawl under, yet affording good protection from the sun and rain. Under this our luggage, provisions, and bed, were arranged. Having crossed the Isthmus twice before, my companion was provided with a pallet, made by sewing a "comfortable" together, and a pair of blankets, as well as several minor articles experience had taught him the utility of. Spread on strips of bark overlying a ballast of cocoanuts in the bottom of the canoe, the comfortable and blankets made us a very excellent bed, its only objection being the proximity of the canopy to our nasal extremities.

Lighting the lantern, and bidding good-bye to the captain of the Orus, we crept to our restingplace, and with carpet-bags as pillows, disposed for sleep-our light-hearted boatmen starting cheerily with their paddles. These canoes afforded the only means of travel between Chagres and the hamlets on the upper waters of the river, until the arrival of the Orus and General Herran (another small steamer), sent out by the Pacific Mail Company since January. Some of them are nearly 50 feet in length, and as much as five feet wide. The bow and stern are curved upwards, so that a section in the direction of the length somewhat resembles a crescent. They are light, flexible, and strong, and are managed with incomparable skill. Of course, the boatmen look with jealousy on the intruding steamers, foreseeing the loss of their own occupation at no distant day; and when one of them ran aground only a little while before, they positively refused to convey coal to her on any terms. No doubt they hoped the heavy freshets of the river would soon break her in pieces.

Sleep was out of the question. The novel mode of locomotion; the shrill songs of our boatmen as they dashed their paddles into the stream, or their gay salutations as we passed descending canoes; the rush of waters within an inch of my ear; and a knowledge that a capsize would prove inevitable death, long prevented even drowsiness. Memory had just parted with consciousness when we stopped at Gatun, a little hamlet some seven miles above Chagres; the crew reminding us that we had promised to obtain a bottle of "strong waters" here wherewith to keep their spirits up. This was a famous stopping-place with all boatmen; and some of our countrymen whom we found there seemed to think it quite funny that we should expect ours to return before daylight. They had come from New Orleans in a schooner, and had left Chagres ten hours before us; stopped here at sunset on the same plea as ourselves; and once landed, their crew told them it was not customary to travel at night. Ours did not deceive us, and in a few minutes we were again en route.

The earliest beams of the morning caught us both napping; and it was not until his solar majesty had attained an elevation of some 15° that we looked abroad on the new creation, or critically examined the arrangements of our bark. At home, but little additional information was obtainable. Before us stood four dusky-hued, small, but athletic men-their only garments a hat and narrow cloth about the loins-wielding, with quick and regular strokes, broad-bladed paddles of moderate length. The patron sat at the stern occasionally plying a similar paddle, but more frequently using it as a rudder. He had a whole shirt. But abroad! one could scarcely imagine scenery more picturesque or beautiful; indeed, so extraordinary had been the changes of twenty-four hours, that little more was required to impress at least momentary belief that the whole was a curious dream. We were dashing through the waters of a stream not more than 80 yards wide at the rate of nearly nine miles per hour. More tortuous in its course than a serpent, each instant brought new objects into view; and before they had been fully seen, an intervening point obstructed the vision. Where we first saw them, the river banks generally were rolling-varying from 10 to 30 feet above its surface, and carpeted to the very edge of the waters with dense verdure. Here and there a pebbly beach bounded an evergreen

savannah, and farther back the elevation gradually increased to heights of several hundred feet. And their productions!-towering cocoas, with tufts of leaves and clusters of nuts; palms, with graceful leaf-stalks and brilliant masses of pendent flowers; palmettos-emblem of our chivalric State; broad-leaved plantains and bananas, with massive bunches of fruit in every stage from green to gold; wide-spreading caobas, with intensely dark green foliage; tall canes and bamboos, and multitudes of other unknown varieties-some matted over by vines of different hues-others solitary monarchs of little knolls,-all telling of a vertical sun and copious rains-of the almost cotemporaneous birth and decay of vegetable productions. From the mutilated extremities of many vines, evidently cut away to facilitate navigation, long crimson fibres stole earthward in search of foothold again-the mass of the plant sustained meanwhile through the tendrils about the tree to which it clung. No colors could be more exquisite than the shades reflected in the morning sunlight from stout waving masses of these fibres contrasted with a verdant back-ground. What a scene! Rank tropical vegetation found its way into the bubbling stream, and the forests-a tangled and matted mass, which man had never penetrated- charmed the sight with their gigantic, graceful, or gorgeous productions. Both of us remarked the absence of flowers: a few varieties of the convolvulus tribe, and one or two of a scarlet color, at some distance from the river bank, were all that we saw; nor could an infinite variety of parasitic plants made up for the deficiency. Parrots and parroquets in flocks, numberless swallows, an occasional heron, a few iguanas, lizards everywhere, and some not very attractive butterflies, were all the specimens of animated nature within our changing panorama. Smaller species of the feathered tribe often darted across the stream or among the trees, but we were not sufficiently versed in ornithology to recognise them at a passing glance.

August 28.-At 9 A. M. stopped at a settlement on the north bank of the river called Dos Hermanos. It is perhaps fifteen miles from Chagres, and is ordinarily a place for breathing the crew, and obtaining something to eat. There are three reed-houses here whose proprietors have an abundant supply of fowls, rice, and tropical fruits in their season, and know how to brew very tolerable coffee. Whilst our men refreshed themselves in the running-stream fearless of alligators, we were contented with spring-water and a big calabash as a substitute for a basin. All hands having done ample justice to the provisions brought from the Empire City, as well as to the old lady's coffee, ten o'clock found us under way again, our people paddling against a current running from three to four miles the hour.

As we ascended, the country gradually became more elevated, sometimes rising into alluvial knolls of considerable height, some of them perhaps of very recent origin; in fact, there are many places on the immediate banks of the river where a stratum of earth from ten to fifteen feet in thickness overlies another of still undecayed leaves. In one or two places there are distinct traces of where the river-bed had previously been; but we saw neither boulders nor outcropping rock strata during this day.

Winding along with nearly uniform width above Gatun, the Chagres rarely proceeds in a straight line for more than half a mile; and as the current gradually increases from the mouth towards its source, every advantage is taken of eddies by the boatmen, and with every new reach you cross the stream. Though so narrow, it must be very deep in the middle; for poles ten feet long would barely touch bottom within a few feet of the shore, and most of the time one side or the other of our canoe was brushing the bamboos or vines on its banks. You are rarely in mid-stream, or beyond the shade of overhanging trees; indeed, branches stretch far towards the centre, forming a perfect fairy scene.

The morning passed without notable incident. Two or three parties with their treasures from California were met descending; to whom, if we could judge by their hurrahs and cheers long after they had turned the reach below, the tidings that the Empire City awaited them below was not less welcome than was the first lump of glittering metal to their sight. Not far from two o'clock we had got well among the highlands, when the gathering of cumuli and