THE VOYAGE OF THE HASSLER 163 
by our attentive host, who would superintend every- 
thing himself, though there were plenty of servants, 
and who talked politics and science and literature 
between all the dishes. 
TO MRS. QUINCY A. SHAW 
Panama, July 13 
WE have had a quiet fortnight in Panama, for the 
most part staying on board the ship in harbor, though 
we went once for a day or two to a station house be- 
longing to the railroad about half across the isthmus. 
It was lovely to be again in the midst of a tropical 
vegetation, — the last time I shall ever see it, I sup- 
pose, and indeed I hope, for I’ve no desire to roam 
any more. Still it was a pleasure to see the same bril- 
liant flowers, and to see the same rich vines and 
massive forest, and even to hear the same woodland 
sounds that used to surround us at Esperanga’s cot- 
tage on the Amazons. Ask Louis if he remembers that 
he had a peculiar whistle and that I used to make him 
repeat it for me, because it reminded me of a bird 
that had a wailing note, which I used often to hear 
deep in the forest when I was staying in the Indians’ 
houses on the Amazons. I heard it the other evening 
here in the same way, as if it came from some deep 
recess of the woods, — a long falling note with a cer- 
tain sadness in it. It carried me strangely back to the 
life we led there with all its wild picturesqueness. 
Good-bye, may God bless you and yours, and keep 
us all in His love together. 
