22 THE VOYAGF. 



metal roofing of the terminus, and the quiet 

 waters of the Pacific. 



Captain Harvey, R.N., then in command of 

 Pier Majesty's ship ' Havannah,' met us at the 

 terminus ; the ship's boats were in waiting to 

 take both men and baggage on board, so that I 

 saw but little of Panama. My old foes (that 

 waged war against me at Colon), the gold- 

 seekers, were assembled on the wharf, awaiting 

 the small tugboat to take them off to the larger 

 steamer anchored in the offing. To judge from 

 appearances, there were amongst them a goodly 

 sprinkling that would have deemed lynching or 

 riddling a Britisher, a capital joke. 



.V tropical sun soon makes one thirsty. I 

 wanted ' a drink,' and for the first time tasted 

 iced cocoanut-milk ; never in my life have I 

 ever drunk anything half as delicious. Don't 

 imagine that, in the least degree, it resembles 

 the small teacupful of sweet insipid stuff drib- 

 bled out from the cocoanut as we l>uy it here in 

 England. What we eat as kernel is liquid in 

 the young nut, and the outer husk soft enough 

 to push your thumb through. Surely the cocoa- 

 nut palm must have been specially designed for 

 the dwellers in the tropical world ! It supplies 

 everything uncivilised man can possibly need, to 





