there ahead of the other passengers and secure tickets for the
five, and try and be the first to land at Chagres. We came to anchor in
the bay. The captain announced that no passengers would be permitted to
go ashore until the government officials had inspected the vessel. A
boat came from shore with the officials. After a short stay the
officials went down the side of the steamer to their boat to return to
the shore. There was a guard to keep all but the proper persons from
getting into the boat. I had a small carpet bag in my hand, passed the
guard, slipped a $5 gold piece in his hands, and took my seat in the
boat, and, of course, passed as one of the officials, and was the first
passenger to land from the steamer. The first point to be made was to
secure a boat for passage up the Chagres river. I was recommended to
Colonel P., who was the head man in that business there. He was a
colonel in the Granadian army. I found him a full-blooded African, but
an active business man in his way. I got his price for a boat and two of
his best men, and then offered double the price if they would row night
and day, and an extra present to the men if they made good time, for
every thing seemed to depend on securing those tickets on the Pacific
side. By the time I had all my arrangements made, Lieutenant M. made his
appearance. He said he was the second passenger that landed from the
steamer. Then behold us in what they called a dug-out, a boat somewhat
similar to a canoe, with a little canopy over the center that you could
crawl under to lay down with the two naked natives, with the exception
of a cloth around their loins, neither understanding each other's
language, to whom we could only communicate by signs. At 4 P.M.,
starting for Gorgona, fifty-five miles up the river, where we were to
land and take mules for Panama. Eight miles was the first stopping
place. We felt elated that we had got so good a start of all the other
passengers. The denseness of the vegetation first attracted our
attention on the banks of the river. The trees, the vines, the
shrubbery, the vines clinging to the trees, hanging in all fantastic
shapes, it seemed to be impenetrable, an ocean of green, unlike any
thing we had ever seen before.

Early in the evening we arrived at the first stopping place, eight miles
on our way up the river, where we both made ourselves at home, excited
at the strangeness of the scene, surrounded by the thatched huts of the
nati