292 EIvDORADO 



of being capsized, she recovered herself with admirable 

 presence of mind and seemed to enjoy the risk ex- 

 ceedingly. 



As to myself, i tioundered on as well as I could with 

 a mule tottering beneath me from sheer exhaustion 

 and sinking every minute up to his knees in mud. It 

 seemed to me that we were making little or no 

 progress ; and I became thoroughly tired and disheart- 

 ened. I do not know any temptation, however power- 

 ful, that would again induce me to encounter the never- 

 ending series of difficulties and annoyances that lay 

 in wait for me at every step ; and I must candidly aver 

 that even the force of female example, of which I had 

 so merry a specimen before me, did not at all shame 

 me into a less impatient endurance of them. Continu- 

 ing on, we passed two or three Hacala (or hutsj by 

 the way, and after several brief but pleasant stoppages - 

 at the various brooks and mountain rills, we at length 

 came on a beautiful undulating meadow, where pic- 

 turesque villas and shadowy trees decked the verdant 

 plain, and soon thereafter the towers of Panama were 

 in view. The sun was just setting as we entered the 

 suburbs, and a flood of purple glory rested on the sky, 

 reflected back by the sparkling waters of the Pacific, 

 which brought the distant mountains into bolder relief, 

 and cast a deeper shadow through the twilight groves. 

 Half an hour's ride over the paved streets, brought us 

 to the city, which we entered at the Gorgona gate; 

 passing through a heavy stone archway supporting a 

 cupola, in which hangs the alarm bell, surmounted by 

 a cross. Such is the character of the "Gorgona road" 

 from Chagres to Panama, the first fifty miles in dug- 

 out bungoes, or boats propelled by nude natives, the 



