HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 197 



" The negroes whom I met on their way to and 

 from Panama excited my astonishment, from the 

 amount of physical exertion which they seemed 

 capable of undergoing. With their legs and feet bare, 

 and nothing but a cloth around their loins, they car- 

 ried enormous burdens on their backs, stepping from 

 stone to stone with wonderful strength and dexterity. 

 These poor creatures must lead the most wretched 

 and laborious of all the painful modes of existence to 

 which their race is condemned ; and not even long 

 habit, or their peculiar physical construction, can di- 

 vest it of its distressing character in the eyes of a 

 stranger. They all bear, on their hard and wrinkled 

 faces, the stamp of overtaxed strength ; but they 

 seemed content with their lot, and will, doubtless, 

 regret the formation of a better route, as tending to 

 depreciate the value of their services. Notwithstand- 

 ing the toilsome and laborious nature of their occupa- 

 tions, however, the carriers of Panama are the hardi- 

 est and most muscular race to be seen here ; for the 

 rest of the population, both white and black, are of 

 comparatively sickly and diminutive appearance. 



" Moving somewhat like a ship in a storm, rising 

 and sinking alternately at stern and bow, surmounting 

 first one huge stone, then a deep mud hole, then 

 another stone, and then a small lake, my mule and my- 

 self at last reached Crucis in the evening, the whole 

 distance traversed not being above twenty miles."* 



The town of Crucis is a place very similar to Gor- 

 gona, but not so large. The houses are built of cane 

 and plastered with mud. No attention is given to 

 arrangement, and but a small portion is so constructed 



* Personal Adventures in California, by W. Redmond Ryan. 

 15 



