Tnsaluhritf/ of Colon — Leave for St. Thomas. 439 



In Aspinwall the climate has within the last few years be- 

 come more salubrious than at the period of the first coloniza- 

 tion, Avlien " Chagres fever" acquired a gruesome reputation, 

 and no resident who stayed above two months in the place 

 escaped the attack of the fever. Even mules and dogs could 

 not escape the universal malaria. However, to this day a 

 lengthened residence on this marshy soil is not unattended 

 with danger, although the miasmatic poison has undoubtedly 

 lost much of its virulence. The negroes longest resist its 

 dangerous effect, after whom come the coolies, then the 

 Em'opeans, while the Chinese are invariably the earliest at- 

 tacked.* 



On 23rd June, about midnight, I left Limon Bay in the 

 steamer Mediomj. Having been committed to the charge of 

 her captain by the kind attention of Mr. B. Cowan, the 

 English Consul in Aspinwall, I found myself more comfort- 

 able and better attended to on board this small filthy old tub 

 than I could possibly have expected. The Company avowed- 

 ly employ in the Intercolonial lines the worst and most un- 

 comfortable of their vessels, and the traveller who has to 

 make any short passage, for instance, among the West India 



* The statistics of mortality among the various races on the Isthmus for the year 

 1858 give the following results. 



Of the natives, there die annually . . • . 1 in 50 



„ immigrant negroes . . . . . . 1 in 40 



„ CooUes . . , . . . . . , , 1 in 40 



„ Europeans . . . . . . . . 1 in 30 



,, Chinese.. .. .. .. ,. I in 10 



