Jan.] ISTHMUS OF DARIEN — VIEW OF THE PACIFIC, 237 



" Pursuing our journey my attention was called by the captain to an 

 enormous serpent which was crossing our path, a few rods ahead of 

 us. His length must have been from twelve to fifteen feet. The feel- 

 ings he excited were those of a man on a precipice, infatuated to plunge 

 into the abyss. I could scarcely retain my seat on the mule. A sen- 

 sation new and collapsed pervaded me. It was but for a moment, and 

 then St. George himself would perhaps have been less apprehensive. 



" I cannot offer any thing worth your perusal relating to the topog- 

 raphy, &c. of the isthmus. Here and there was a clearing, with a 

 cane or log edifice, and some few acres cleared around it. But for 

 miles you could hardly trace a mark of civilization. An occasional 

 cross on the roadside indicated that a Christian murder had been per- 

 petrated there ; the sight of which, maugre the natural associations it 

 called forth, was in a degree refreshing. The serpent, the leopard, and 

 the monkey abound here ; and how the negroes who traverse the isth- 

 mus so innocuously, manage it, I cannot divine. I was informed that 

 they would transport a barrel of flour the whole distance on their back ; 

 and I thought it * a traveller's story,' particularly when I was passing 

 some of the defiles, which it appeared to me, the sure foot of a mule 

 alone could thread. But we overtook one with three five-gallon demi- 

 johns of liquor strapped on his back, picking his way as unconcernedly 

 and vigorously as if he bore no burthen. My skepticism vanished. 



" The road has never undergone repair, although each traveller and 

 package transported pays a good round tax for its improvement. One 

 thing perfectly astonished me : — in the centre of a savanna, where the 

 road branches, * we came to an anchor,' — in other words, there lay, 

 firmly imbedded, an anchor fit for a line-of-battle ship ! How it came 

 there was to me inexplicable. I learned, however, that one of the Pa- 

 cific squadron had lost her anchor, and that this was transported thus 

 far to her relief, when the frame of the car which supported it gave 

 way, killing some dozen or fifteen men in the crush. All subsequent 

 attempts to remove it proved ineffectual. 



" Young and enthusiastic as I am, never did my bosom experience a 

 more bounding emotion than when, on turning an angle of the road, 

 Panama, with its spires and turrets, its extensive savannas, and the 

 broad sweep of the mighty Pacific, met my gaze. 4 Panama !' I ex- 

 claimed, ' thou hast redeemed the isthmus !' What could be more 

 grateful to the novitiate traveller than the view of an apparently popu- 

 lous and well-regulated city, after traversing the dreary and dangerous 

 wild of the isthmus, and encountering the canoe-difficulties of the mo- 

 notonous Chagres. The veteran traveller must needs have partici- 

 pated in the feelings which possessed me. With what pleased alacrity, 

 in which indeed my mule participated, did I thread the extended sa- 

 vanna ! With what a glow did I contemplate those spires, perspec- 

 tively beaming in the last rays of a tropical and dazzling sun ! — And, 

 ah ! with what feelings of awe — of reverence — nay, of sublimity, did 

 I look upon the waters, and felt that they presented in their expanse 

 a ' bourne from which no traveller might return.' 



" If an argument at this day were necessary to establish the Christian 

 faith, let the skeptic who needs it travel. Let him visit foreign climes ; 



