174 



THE AMERICAN MOKTHLY 



[September. 



ted upon the next issue of the Jour- 

 nal. We are oft^ the coast of Lower 

 California, just above the Tropic of 

 Cancer, which was crossed a few hours 

 since. Our last contribution was writ- 

 ten in the Caribbean Sea, and posted 

 at Aspin wall, or Colon. The principal 

 feature of that place, during the one 

 night we remained there, was mosqui- 

 toes. Such an intolerable nuisance and 

 pest never before came into our expe- 

 rience, although we have found it bad 

 enough in passing through Jersey 

 swamps. But it is remarkable that 

 the Colon species is essentially and 

 conspicuously a nocturnal insect. 

 Just as the sun sets he comes, with 

 all his sisters and cousins and aunts 

 and generations of other relatives, in 

 a perfect swarm, and torments peo- 

 ple until broad daylight. 



A trip across the Isthmus of Pan- 

 ama at any season is well worth all 

 the discomfort it involves. We can- 

 not enlarge upon it here. Colon, since 

 the fire, has changed very much. It is 

 more attractive from the outside than 

 when we saw it first, about eight years 

 ago, but just as muddy and unhealth- 

 ful as ever.. M. de Lesseps has a fine 

 residence at the terminus of the pro- 

 jected canal, and an attempt has been 

 made to protect the lives of laborers 

 engaged upon the canal by providing 

 ofood dwell ino--hou8es for them. The 

 first attempt to improve the sanitary 

 condition of the Isthmus has been 

 made by M. de Lesseps. 



The railroad runs through a coun- 

 try teeming with the rank life of the 

 Tropics. Panama is about S'^ 30' 

 north latitude, near enough to the 

 equator to give one a sufficient ex- 

 perience of purely tropical life and 

 heat. Yet we were fortunate in hav- 

 ing a cool day for our journey, and 

 before sunset the steamer ' San Juan,' 

 which had been waiting for us all day, 

 steamed out of the beautiful harbor of 

 Panama, and bore us still nearer the 

 equator, down to about 7° 10' N. lat., 

 and then we began to follow the coast 

 line towards the north en ro7ite for 

 San Francisco. 



Our steamer made four ports on the 

 way, two of which we visited, but the 

 most interesting of all was the old 

 Mexican town, Acapulco. Leaving 

 the ship early in the morning, armed 

 with a large camera, we spent several 

 hours of the greatest interest among 

 the people, heading a motley com- 

 pany of natives, who were much at- 

 tracted by our operations. Our own 

 party consisted of four persons, the 

 writer, his wife, a fellow-passenger, 

 and a fat, good-natured native boy, 

 who was engaged to carry the cam- 

 era box. 



The sun was intensely hot, but in 

 the ^hade the heat was not oppres- 

 sive. The town was full of interest 

 and novelty. First, we came upon 

 the market-place, where a motley 

 gathering of picturesque if not over- 

 clothed natives — men, women, and 

 children — squatted on the ground 

 with ridiculously small stores of 

 merchandise — perhaps two chickens 

 or a dozen eggs, or a few bananas or 

 oranges or cocoanuts — which they 

 desired to sell, but seemed quite as 

 contented if no purchaser came. 

 Mounting camera and ourselves on 

 the same coping near by, we carried 

 away an impression of the scene on 

 a paper plate. Then there was a 

 ruin of an abbey, once dedicated to 

 a saint to us unknown, but no doubt 

 famous in his day. That also we 

 photographed, with some lazy buz- 

 zards perched on its crumbling stone 

 tower. On the hillside above were 

 some stone wells, overshadowed with 

 tall cocoanut palms, which carry one 

 back through the centuries to an ear- 

 lier age, and women bearing water- 

 jugs on their heads. 



But we must leave the scene so 

 full of interest, for we cannot spare 

 the space to tell more of what was 

 there. Our next stop was Manza- 

 nillo. There is little there except 

 alligators, scorpions, lizards, and 

 creatures that squirm and bite. The 

 most picturesque subjects there are 

 the miners who come in with a cu- 

 rious kind of sac which they carry 



