THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 151 



cots, with the best mosquitoe bars, and arrange them 

 in the largest room up stairs, we sat down to wait 

 the arrival of our visitors. It was a period of great 

 interest, and to render the prospect as fair as possi- 

 ble, some one had taken the responsibility of increas- 

 ing the expense of the occasion, in the way of an 

 extra number of lights. Presently we heard their 

 footsteps, and then in they came, but O, Jupiter ! 

 w r hat a set ; instead of four " ladies," they were but 

 four women and four babies ! ! Their wet garments 

 hung about them in a manner perfectly shocking to 

 behold, or even contemplate, and they looked forlorn 

 and WTetched, although they may not have felt so. 

 They were evidently natives of the green isle, and 

 the eldest, a very sensible woman, about forty-five, 

 and the mother of the four children, was on her 

 way to join her husband in California, with no other 

 protector than a boy about fifteen years of age. We 

 made them comfortable, and for the time, apparently 

 happy, for which they were very thankful, and w r e 

 were very glad in having been able to do so. 



A little distance from the station were situated 

 two native huts, one occupied by a man and his wife, 

 with almost any number of children, and the other 

 by a solitary old man named Sipreon, who was es- 

 teemed wealthy, owning lands very indefinitely de- 

 fined, on which he cultivated a rosa, or plantation, 

 back from the river, and kept a great number of 

 cattle. My first interview with the old man was on 

 being called to see a friend who had come to visit 

 him, and fallen sick with inflammation of the lungs. 



