AX DACOLLO — LIMA — PANAMA JAMAICA. 153 



The Cameleon was iu tlie harbour at the time of my 

 visit, and I had the pleasure of enjoying the hospitality 

 of Captain Mainwaring and the wardroom officers on 

 frequent occasions. To the chief surgeon and Dr. 

 Mullen my thanks are especially due. I was slightly 

 unwell, and these gentlemen kindly paid me every 

 attention. I don't know that there is anything more 

 to be said about Panama, except perhaps that the natives 

 are the greatest scoundrels that ever stepped a gaol. 



The Panama railroad I consider a gigantic ^'do.-** 

 The first thing you are invariably asked when you 

 return home is — " Isn't the Panama railroad a wonder V 

 I have crossed it five times, and I never saw anything 

 particularly extraordinary in it yet, and I am sure Mr. 

 Meiggs would think it quite a trifle compared to some 

 of his hundred and one undertakings. It is popularly 

 said to have cost an Irishman's life for every sleeper 

 laid down, and I can quite believe it ; besides this not very 

 remarkable fact, it is about thirty -five miles long, passes 

 through a dense tropical forest, and the fare is 5/. 55., and 

 when I have said that, I have said more than I could with 

 pages of description. If I were to describe the country 

 through which the line passes as a mass of trees tangled 

 with hurdles, and mixed up, as it were, with a gigantic 

 pitchfork, I might be laughed at; but, for all that, I 

 should not be so far wrong. Aspinwall, the terminus, 

 is a horrible place. 



I had to stay in Aspinwall three days, unfortunately, 

 waiting for the Californian to sail for Jamaica. I was 

 introduced to a young Englishman here, who had been 

 a clerk in the place for two years. ^' Yes," he observed to 

 me, " I got through last yearns attack of fever very well, 

 and I hope to weather this year's." He spoke as a man 



