260 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



to Spanish ways, could scarcely stand it. We spent yes- 

 terday making official calls to the Governor of the 

 Province and the Captain of the Port. The former is a 

 very fine specimen of a Spaniard. He was with Diaz in 

 the defense of Puebla, made prisoner, escaped from the 

 French, and is in every way a very interesting man, 

 well educated, speaks French and English, and has a 

 very good-looking and pleasant daughter educated in 

 San Francisco. 



" I see you have also the common idea that Panama 

 is deadly and the climate frightful. The whole thing is 

 a mistake and if people who go there will observe the 

 ordinary precautions, there is not the least danger." 



TO MRS. C. L. PEIRSON * 



Acapulco, Apl. 13, 1891. 

 We arrived here last night, and among other letters 

 I was pleased to find two from you. I expect from 

 your many dissipations to find you and Charlie quite 

 poorly — it seems funny to think of anybody's going to 

 dine! I hear a good deal about grub on board, but 

 nothing of the kind that could be called a dinner by 

 our friend Ward McAllister. I think I shall quite enjoy 

 a good dinner served with some style, but it does not 

 look as if I should get one very soon, for I shall have 

 to trot to Calumet soon after reaching Cambridge and 

 see if there is anything left to pay for the coal bills of the 

 Albatross. We are just laying in two hundred tons, at 

 twenty dollars, and have had that pleasure twice before 

 at Panama, so I feel quite poor. This is quite a quaint 

 mediaeval place, has not changed an atom from the time 

 it used to be the great rendezvous of the Spanish gal- 



1 His sister-in-law. 



