THE VOYAGE. ; 17 
from the French and English markets, beef, 
pork, hard bread, cheese from the States, and 
silks from China. 
The town of Colon, as ever tee perhaps does 
not know, stands on a small island called Man- 
zanilla, cut off from the mainland by a nar- 
row frith; the entire island being about one 
square mile in extent, composed of coral reefs, 
and only raised a few feet above highwater- 
level. It has no supply of fresh water but 
what is obtained during the heavy rains; this, 
collected in immense iron tanks, that hold over 
four thousand gallons, supplies the inhabitants 
during the dry seasons. 
The most conspicuous objects one meets with 
in this dismal place are flocks of turkey-buz- 
zards (useful inspectors or nuisances, as they 
do their own work of removal), pigs, naked dirty 
little children in legions, blear-eyed mangy curs 
that do nothing but growl and sleep; together 
with peddling darkies, bummers, and loafers 
(I know no other names so expressive of this 
species of idler as these Transatlantic ones), that 
employ their time much in the same fashion as 
the curs. A line of shops faces the sea, and at 
a little distance is the ‘ mingillo,’ or native mar- 
VOL, I. Cc 
