414 THE CITY OF PANAMA. 



was terminated by a display of fire-works at the church door, at the close of which men 

 covered with bulls' hides, loaded with pyrotechnics, rushed among the crowd. Formerly 

 bona fide bulls were employed ; but the brutes were often maddened by the burning fuses and 

 explosions, and in their agony destroyed many lives. Human monsters are now decorated in 

 their stead. 



On the Sunday morning following our arrival, we were roused by the approach of vocal and 

 instrumental music. It proved to be a priest followed by flute and violin players, and a crowd 

 of women going to early mass. The priest knocks at the doors of his congregation at three 

 o'clock every Sabbath morning, and the females accompany him ; a custom, I believe, peculiar 

 to Panama. The hymn they sing in their march is sweet and plaintive ; and in the calm silence 

 of the night the multitude of voices should make one think of a better world. But whilst the 

 priest has sufficient influence with certain classes to bring them out at these unseasonable hours, 

 neither do their precepts inculcate nor their examples inspire reverence for the holy day ; and 

 all Sunday morning one may find shops open and women sewing at doors adjoining the cathe- 

 dral itself. They tell me "the day sanctifies the work ;" and thus one's clothes so carefully 

 ironed on Sunday, in their sight should possess especial purity. It is greatly to be regretted 

 that the ministers of the gospel here do not all possess characters without reproach. More than 

 one notoriously frequented the public gambling table, at a restaurant, on Sunday ; and I have 

 seen another enter the cock-pit on the same day, his bird having remained tied by the leg at 

 the church door until the conclusion of morning mass. Moreover, my landlady, who is of 

 good family and well educated, tells me her uncle, a canon, has two children, one of whom is in 

 the house with us, and that the padre at Taboga is reputed to have been instrumental in 

 adding fourteen to its population last year! The number is probably exaggerated; but there is 

 no doubt that he has many "responsibilities" around his church, nor that a sister who lived 

 under the same roof was notoriously immoral. Therefore, so far as its influence over the better 

 class is concerned, priesthood is probably on the decline here ; and the church derives its 

 principal support from the revenues obtained from property accumulated in its earlier and 

 purer days. 



The number of bells to the churches is very great, many having no less than eight, arranged 

 permanently in the arched windows of their two turrets. As few of them possess clappers, 

 and nearly all have been cracked, they are beaten with mallets, and the sounds emitted are far 

 from musical. Such a clatter as is made two or three times a day, probably cannot be equalled 

 in any similar space of Christendom. One or two are yet unbroken, and have mellow tones, 

 that belonging to the burned church being of the number. On one occasion when some of the 

 earlier emigrants were visiting the ruins, they were so rejoiced at finding a musical bell with a 

 clapper, that they rang a good hearty peal to the great amazement and horror of the guardians 

 to the (so regarded) sacred relics ; and now, before a Yankee is permitted to enter, a promise is 

 exacted that the bell will not be touched. 



A custom-house, a court-house, and an adjoining prison, unless I include the convent with its 

 two remaining vestals, and an immense college commenced by the Jesuits, but never completed, 

 are the only other public buildings pointed out to me at Panama. A decree of the central 

 government to abolish all duties in the port from the first of January next, will soon break up 

 the first. The tenants of the second, principally Indians and negroes, may be seen daily at 

 some lazy work about the city, a heavy iron chain fast to the body and leg, and a sentinel with 

 loaded musket near, to prevent escape. The angel of death will soon violate the sanctuary of 

 the sisterhood, and their portals be no more closed to the world. 



The barracks for the soldiers not on post are near the southeast extremity of the peninsula ; 

 and here, above the casemates, there is a promenade overlooking the shores and islands of the 

 great bay. If any breeze be stirring, one is sure to perceive it at this place. In a climate 

 where the thermometer is rarely below 78 , this should be inducement sufficient for frequent 

 visits ; yet, with all the beautiful panorama it commands, few resort to it. The broad waters 



