VOYAGE TO PANAMA. IjS 



shines brightly, exhibits a whiteness like frost, 

 for which it might well be mistaken if the sen- 

 sible heat corresponded with the appearance of 

 the surface. 



l^thy on hoard the Crawford^ lat, 3^ iV.— At 

 last I am off again. Captain Mott half re- 

 pented at first having offered to take me to the 

 Pearl Islands, even for the large sum of two 

 hundred and forty dollars ; and if it had not 

 been for the persuasions of the fair Mariquita, 

 whom I enlisted in my cause, I might still be 

 burning my skin, and wasting my time and 

 substance in the Indian oven of Payta. We 

 are now becalmed, and in the worst part of the 

 world, three degrees north of the line. A heavy 

 oily swell, a gloomy sky, spongy clouds, the 

 ship creaking, sails flapping, and all hands long- 

 ing for a change. Then the drowsiness caused 

 by this temperature is quite overpowering. I 

 am sure a week of probation like this would 



