A VISIT TO EUROPE 323 



We reached the railroad station, which is outside of the 

 city, and were packed into the cars like sardines. The 

 heat was intense though only eight o'clock in the morn- 

 ing. As no one seemed to know or to care when the train 

 was scheduled to leave, none of us dared to take a walk 

 about the city, though we did not start until eleven 

 o'clock. The car in which we crossed the Isthmus was 

 literally a travelling-tropical sweat-box. 



Fortunately the trip took but three hours to Aspinwall 

 (Colon), where the whole population, men, women and 

 children of all sizes and colors, seemed to have been in 

 wait for us, for the purpose of selling their wares in pot- 

 tery, basketry and handiwork. Two hours after we crowd 

 on board the "Santiago de Cuba," which is to take us to 

 New York. The vessel is dirty and about half the size of 

 the "Nebraska." I wish we had taken the American ves- 

 sel "Ocean Queen," which left an hour later with the pas- 

 sengers of the "Sacramento" over which we now had 

 gained an advance. 



May, 1868. 



Toward evening of the next day we sighted the island 

 of Cuba and at eight o'clock enjoyed the magnificent 

 "turning-fire" of Cape San Antonio. 



Nothing else of interest occurred during our trip. Of 

 course I took note of everything and kept a nautical re- 

 port from day to day. It is thus one can enjoy an other- 

 wise monotonous trip. "Wednesday, the sixth, about nine 

 o'clock the fog had cleared sufficiently to present to our 

 eyes the grand panorama of the Bay of New York, alive 

 with many hundreds of vessels of all sizes, kinds and na- 

 tionalities. Hamburg and San Francisco, in all their mag- 

 nificence, cannot compete with New York in shipping; it 

 is simply immense. We passed Fort Lafayette and an- 

 chored at the quarantine station about noon, after a trip 

 of exactly twenty-one days from San Francisco. The 

 "Ocean Queen" beat us this trip by one hour's time. The 

 Port formalities were soon complied with and by half- 

 past-one we landed at Pier No. 45. An hour later I had 



