410 NEW YORK TO PANAMA. 



as soon as the bridle was loose, the faltering gait ceased, and she pushed along confidently 

 through places in absolute darkness to me, apparently knowing every rock and mud-hole on 

 the route. After that, we got along famously ; and I am quite convinced a mule has vastly 

 more sense in travelling over a bad road than the two-legged animal bestriding her. 



Half way between Cruces and Panama we stopped at a rancho to obtain a glass of water for 

 ourselves, and something more potent for the guide. It was but a thatched roof, supported on 

 a few poles. The family were all asleep on raw hides spread on the floor that nature provided, 

 but got up cheerfully to sell a tortilla (a coarse corn-cake) and some country rum for the old 

 man. Both the proprietor and his son were chatty, good-natured fellows ; and la Senora also 

 occasionally joined in the talk, as we sat enjoying the supper our saddle-bags provided: but 

 being probably in her night-dress, she modestly kept her charms in the obscurity. Greatly 

 refreshed, we started on the second half of our journey at half-past eight, amazingly strength- 

 ened in body and spirits by the repast; Mr. K. cheerily singing " Susannah," and the guide 

 and myself indulging in a bit of scandal between the whiffs of our cigars. And it was well 

 that something had imbued us with fresh valor, for the path during the next mile was the 

 blackest, and most tortuous and abrupt in its descent, of any we had yet passed over. Down ! 

 down ! ! down ! ! ! we went, until I could almost have sworn the kingdom of Pluto was at hand, 

 and have felt little surprise at meeting old Charon on the bank of the stream whose waters 

 could be heard. Multitudes of bats and other night-birds dashed .whizzingly by us ; and 

 myriads of fire-flies, though rendering the "darkness more visible," yet served to connect us 

 with animated creation. Otherwise the stillness of that lonesome glen would have been irk- 

 some. How the mule picked her way round salient points of the rocks remains to me a mys- 

 tery. I knew her nose was close to the ground, because of the small portion of the bridle remain- 

 ing in my hand, and I could feel that the security of each spot was thoroughly explored before 

 the fore foot was suffered to rest firmly on it ; but there surmise of the probable guiding facul- 

 ties ended. 



Emerging from this, we entered a moonlit valley, watered by one of the tributaries to the Rio 

 Grande the first stream on the route whose waters flow to the Pacific. Its depth was not 

 above a foot, nor its width more than a few yards ; but its fall is so rapid that it makes quite a 

 rumbling noise in its progress amid the rocks and pebbles of its shores. The country is more 

 open henceforward. Looking back at the hills we had crossed, as well as to those yet before 

 us, there was a mistiness about the upper foliage of the old forest monarchs rendering it difficult 

 to distinguish them from dark azure clouds ; and indeed it was only after tracing them from 

 their firm buttressed trunks to the broad overhanging foliage, that the mind could properly 

 appreciate the reality and semblance to which night gave birth. Here trees attain great size 

 and height. Some of the older ones, whose bark resembles the beech, have radial laminae at 

 regular intervals, like buttresses to the main stalk. They extend from the ground upwards 

 through fifteen or twenty feet, the height depending on the size (or age) of the tree, the incli- 

 nation of its trunk, and the slope of the ground. Whether a provision of nature against hur- 

 ricanes, little tenacity of the wood, or other peculiarity of the species, I know not; but I did 

 not observe these adjuncts on young trees of the same species, and they were widest on the side 

 that apparently required most support. 



The earliest evidence of approach to the vicinity of civilization is an old though ruined stone 

 church, on the left of the road, two miles distant from Panama. A bridge near by, of similar 

 materials, supports part of the paved highway before alluded to. From thence a macadamized 

 road winds over a gently undulating savannah, in sight of the great southern ocean, both its 

 sides lined with bamboo houses with sharp pyramidal roofs. Massive stone bridges with seats 

 ranged in a semicircular form on each side, and obelisks of masonry with crosses and saintly 

 images, occur at every few hundred yards. The wealthy founders of the city sought to turn 

 the thoughts of the pedestrian heavenward as he rested at these monuments of their opulence. 



