PANAMA. 



195 



that can well be imagined brings them, on 

 mules^ backs^ to Panama, The population 

 is chiefly mulatto^ though there are some white 

 Spanish Creoles. The women^ particularly the 

 brown ladies, are very handsome, and they 

 wear a pretty costume. The fashionable and 

 richer class, dress with great taste Avhen they 

 go to mass, and are to be seen early in the 

 morning in all the pride of embroidered silk 

 stockings aijd satin shoes, moving gently along 

 the shady side of the street towards the cathe- 

 dral, followed by black female servants in white 

 dresses and turbans, who carry carpets for them 

 to kneel on. 



Panama does not contain half the population 

 now which flourished within its walls in its days 

 of dependance and prosperity. The rank grass 

 which grows in the streets, its ruined convents, 

 and neglected walls, impress at once upon the 



