26 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



table to superintend the removal of some luggage, and 

 shortly after I v^as called out ; and, fortunately for 

 Colonel M' Donald and the credit of my country, I 

 found Mr. C. quietly rolling up, to send back to New- 

 York, a large blue cloak belonging to the colonel, sup- 

 posing it to be mine. I returned to the table and 

 mentioned to our host his narrow escape, adding that 

 I had some doubt about a large canvass sack for bed- 

 ding which I had found in my room, and, presuming 

 it was one that had been promised me by Captain 

 Hampton, had put on board the steamboat ; but this 

 too, it appeared, belonged to Colonel M'Donald, and 

 for many years had carried his camp bed. The result 

 was, that the colonel insisted upon our taking it, and I 

 am afraid it was pretty well worn out before he receiv- 

 ed it again. The reader will infer from all this that 

 Mr. C. and I, v/ith the help of Augustin, were fit to 

 travel in any country. 



But to return. It was a beautiful day. Our course 

 lay nearly south, directly along the coast of Honduras. 

 In his last voyage Columbus discovered this part of the 

 Continent of America, but its verdant beauties could 

 not win him to the shore. Without landing, he con- 

 tinued on to the Isthmus of Darien, in search of that 

 passage to India which was the aim of all his hopes, 

 but which it was destined he should never see. 



Steamboats have destroyed some of the most pleas- 

 ing illusions of my life. I was hurried up the Helles- 

 pont, past Sestos and Abydos, and the Plain of Troy, 

 under the clatter of a steam-engine ; and it struck at 

 the root of all the romance connected with the adven- 

 tures of Columbus to follow in his track, accompanied 

 by the clamour of the same panting monster. Never- 

 theless, it was very pleasant. We sat down under an 



