158 THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 



kind of salt meat, boiled yams, and sometimes pota- 

 toes and hard bread. Our cook was a native ; his 

 iire was by the side of a green stump near by, and 

 his utensils consisted of a frying pan and a tin coffee- 

 pot. To do justice to such a breakfast, it was abso- 

 lutely necessary to have a good appetite, and a ride 

 of four and a half miles would usually furnish this 

 essential. Our house consisted of a board shanty, 

 built roof shape, and divided into two apartments, 

 the larger one being occupied by the natives, and 

 principally for the women, children, and sick, who 

 were severely afflicted with calentura, or fever, and 

 the other for ourselves and the station stores, 

 such as barrels of beef, pork, yams, hard bread, &c, 

 &c. After prescribing for the sick, I usually amused 

 myself in looking up birds of beautiful plumage, 

 and blossoms of gorgeous hues, for an hour or two, 

 and then return. One day on our return, we went 

 into a little cove and sent the men after cocoanuts, 

 which we could see in great quantities along the 

 beach. They soon brought their arms full, and 

 opening one we drank our fill of the delicious milk, 

 under the protest of one of them, who said that it 

 would give us calentura. We did not experience 

 any thing of the fever predicted, but before we 

 reached home a squall struck us, which made me 

 horribly sea sick, and effectually spoiled the relish 

 of the cocoanut for that night. 



