

70 THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 



A few days' work will enable them to erect a 

 house that will last many years, and one that they 

 prefer to any other. A few dollars w T ill supply wear- 

 ing apparel for each person a year ; as it consists, at 

 the best, of little more than a pair of light trowsers, 

 a calico or flannel shirt, and a palm-leaf hat. To 

 obtain food, they have but to set their nets in the 

 rivers to catch excellent fish, or kill an ox and im- 

 mediately cut it into strings that it may dry and be- 

 come "jerked beef," which will last months ; or pick 

 bananas and plantains, which are usually found grow- 

 ing about their habitations, and these, with a few 

 others, will suffice for all their wants in this respect. 

 If they wish to travel, they have but to fall a tree 

 upon the bank of a stream, and hew it out, and they 

 have a vessel with which they can not only traverse 

 numerous rivers, but may go from port to port upon 

 the coast. With a grass mat for a bed, an extra 

 shirt, a net satchel for their pipe, tobacco, tinder box, 

 and a few other articles, but more than all else a 

 machete, and they are prepared to journey for any 

 time. Such is then, briefly, the present condition and 

 habits of the provincial population of the Isthmus 

 of Panama. 



The aboriginal inhabitants were Indians, and 

 there are distinct tribes of them who maintain their 

 independence to this day ; but in all those places 

 where the Spanish made settlements, they were sub- 

 dued, and finally, with, the remnant of their con- 

 querors, they have become so intermingled, that they 

 now constitute a distinct class, called Mestizoes. 



