18 THE PANAMA FEVER. ; Book I. 
CHAPTER II. 
Journey into the Interior — Scenery on the River — Old Castle of San Juan 
— San Carlos — Aspect of the Lake of Nicaragua — Adventures of a young 
German amongst the Indians of the Rio Frio — Science held in high 
Esteem in Spanish America — Canoe Navigation on the Lake — Arrival at 
Granada. 
The few days of my stay at Chagres had been sufficient to 
produce a severe attack of that peculiar form of remittent 
fever which is known and dreaded under the name of the 
Chagres or Panama fever. I think I knew the very moment 
when the fetid miasmata, rising from the neighbouring swamp 
and mixing with the air at the fall of night, took effect 
upon my constitution. A sickening sensation instantane- 
ously pervaded my system; sea-sickness prevented me 
during the next four days from having a very distinct feel- 
ing of the state of my health ; but, when I arrived at San 
Juan, I found that all my energy was gone. For a few 
days I still kept up, but at last I was subdued by a vio- 
lent paroxysm. My landlord, an old Frenchman, a poli- 
tical refugee from the time of Charles X., who had passed 
many years on the island of Hayti, and there had acquired 
practice in the treatment of this kind of disease, prepared 
a large bottle of medicine for me, which, trusting more to 
the experience of this man than to the doubtful science of 
some questionable member of the profession who may have 
existed at San Juan at that time, I swallowed without 
hesitation, and, after having taken a strong dose of quinine 
on the next morning, I followed his advice to continue my 
journey into the interior, whatever the state of my health 
