44° Voyage of the No vara. 



islands, is exposed to the doubly disagreeable feeling of paying 

 a very much higher rate of fare, for very inferior accommoda- 

 tion. The Medivay was an old acquaintance of mine in my 

 previous West Indian rambles, as in former years she per- 

 formed the mail service between Belize, Jamaica, Hayti, 

 Porto Rico, St. Thomas, and Havanna, and this opportunity 

 of renewing my acquaintance with her I hailed with anything 

 but a sentiment of satisfaction. 



Early on the 25th June we ran into the extensive and 

 beautiful bay of Carthagena, which now-a-days is only 

 accessible on one side, the second entrance having been de- 

 stroyed by the Spaniards during their supremacy, and never 

 reopened. This seaport contains about 11,000 inhabitants, 

 many churches and monasteries, as also large fortifications, 

 but of trade and commerce there is next to nothing. In the 

 roads there lay but three small coasting crafts. For the 

 naturalist, and especially for the zoologist, Carthagena is on 

 the other hand classic soil. 



Our steamer was fairly beleaguered by shoals of small 

 canoes with natives on board, who offered for sale any quan- 

 tity of the most various and beautiful little denizens of the 

 surrounding country. Any naturalist who should spend a 

 short time here, might, with the assistance of the Indians, 

 who seem to be both zealous and apt collectors, get together 

 an extensive and most valuable zoological and botanical col- 

 lection. Carthagena indeed presents in particular great ad- 

 vantages for the shipment to Europe alive of the more inter- 



