10 THE VOYAGE. 



men, of small stature, are lithe, sinewy, and ex- 

 tremely active ; the women have a decided ten- 

 dency to become fat ; one or two of them had 

 attained to such a state of obesity, that walking- 

 was next to an impossibility. The children are 

 the most singular little frights imaginable ; 

 guiltless of garments, they seemed all eyes and 

 stomach, arms and legs being merely trifling 

 unessential appendages ; a singularity of form 

 that may, I presume, be traced to the habit of 

 consuming such vast quantities of innutritious 

 vegetable food. 



We reached Colon (or Aspinwall, as the 

 Americans have named it) in due course, and 

 landed about midday. The outfit being enor- 

 mously heavy, some time had necessarily to 

 be occupied in landing ; and as the afternoon 

 tram was about to start, it was deemed the 

 wiser course to send the men and officers 

 at once to Panama, where Her Majesty's ship 

 'Havannah' was waiting to take us to Vancouver 

 Island the Commissioner and myself remain- 

 ing at Colon, with a sergeant and small working- 

 party, to bring on the baggage. All the 

 attendant miseries of unshipping such a hetero- 

 geneous medley of packages as we had on board 

 was finished at last, and our equipment safely 



