necessary instructions about my luggage,
led the way at once to his house, which was situated at the upper end
of the street. A capital site, he said, when the rest of the town was
under water--which agreeable variety occurred twice or thrice a year
unexpectedly. On our way, he rather damped my hopes by expressing his
fears that he should be unable to provide his sister with the
accommodation he could wish. For you see, he said, the crowd from
Panama has just come in, meeting your crowd from Navy Bay; and I
shouldn't be at all surprised if very many of them have no better bed
than the store floors. But, despite this warning, I was miserably
unprepared for the reception that awaited me. To be sure, I found
Cruces as like Gorgona, in its dampness, dirt, and confusion, as it
well could be; but the crowd from the gold-fields of California had
just arrived, having made the journey from Panama on mules, and the
street was filled with motley groups in picturesque variety of attire.
The hotels were also full of them, while many lounged in the verandahs
after their day's journey. Rude, coarse gold-diggers, in gay-coloured
shirts, and long, serviceable boots, elbowed, in perfect equality,
keen Yankee speculators, as close shaven, neat, and clean on the
Isthmus of Panama as in the streets of New York or New Orleans. The
women alone kept aloof from each other, and well they might; for,
while a very few seemed not ashamed of their sex, it was somewhat
difficult to distinguish the majority from their male companions, save
by their bolder and more reckless voice and manner. I must say,
however, that many of them adopted male attire for the journey across
the Isthmus only, as it spared them many compliments which their
husbands were often disposed to resent, however flattering they might
be to their choice.

Through all these I pressed on, stiff, cold, and hungry, to the
Independent Hotel, eagerly anticipating the comforts which awaited me
there. At length we reached it. But, rest! warmth! comfort!--miserable
delusions! Picture to yourself, sympathising reader, a long, low hut,
built of rough, unhewn, unplaned logs, filled up with mud and split
bamboo; a long, sloping roof and a large verandah, already full of
visitors. And the interior: a long room, gaily hung with dirty
calico, in stripes of red and white; above it another room, in which
the guests slept, having the benefit of sharing in any orgies which
might be going on below them