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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Vol. XI JUNE, 1900 ■ No. 6 



THE ROAD TO BOLIVIA 

 By William E. Curtis 



It takes seven days to make the voyage from New York to the 

 Isthmus ; three days from New Orleans, and two from Tampa ; but the 

 latter routes are impracticable on account of the quarantine regula- 

 tions. There is always more or less fever at the Isthmus. It is dif- 

 ficult to keep it away, because Colon and Panama are filled with human 

 driftwood and are asylums for refugees from plagues, politics, and 

 criminal courts. The last yellow fever was brought to Panama, cu- 

 riously enough, by seven friars from the Philippine Islands. They 

 are all dead but one. Panama is the home of political exiles, unsuc- 

 cessful revolutionists, and banished presidents of the Central and South 

 American republics. It has a fine hotel, a number of handsome res- 

 idences, and no end of ruins, which have been accumulating since 

 the time when the governor of the first colony on the American Con- 

 tinent began a history that has no parallel for conspiracy and intrigue 

 on the American Continent. 



Usually the voyage from New York is delightful. People always 

 expect a little weather off Cape Hatteras, but when you pass that un- 

 lucky coast and cross the Gulf Stream you put on lighter clothing and 

 rejoice in the trade winds which temper the heat of the tropics. The 

 days and nights are of equal length. The sunsets are as gorgeous as 

 you see on the Mediterranean, and there is no twilight. The sun rises 

 promptly at the time appointed in the almanac, and when his day's 

 work is done he droj)S below the horizon as a tired sailor tumbles into 

 his bunk. 



As an Irishman would say, the first land you see is a liglithouse, 



striped like a stick of candy, that marks Watlings Island, where Co- 



luml>us stumbled upon a new world. There is a little settlement of 



negroes and a white magistrate to represent the sovereignty of Queen 



ic 



