ain and officers who were so gallant to us and
did all they could for us during the long month on the rough Atlantic,
we climbed into our boat and these natives took charge of it, one at
each end, with a guttural grunt from both. They lightly took their
places and we began our journey up the Chagres river. It was a warm,
bright morning, and a light haze in the atmosphere made it appear
like spring. At first we felt afraid of our boatmen, but soon we were
drinking in all of the panoramic effects of the changing scenes of
trailing vines, tropical flowers and other splendors. The chattering
of monkeys and parrots, the alligators lying upon the opposite shore
like great gray logs, some sleeping, some with their great mouths wide
open to allow the insects to gather on their tongues, were things
never to be forgotten. I observed that when a large number of flies
had gathered the alligators would close their capacious jaws,
satisfied with the sweet morsel, and roll their eyes with apparent
enjoyment. Then they once more slowly opened their ponderous jaws and
quietly waited for another meal. We had gone on our way several hours
without speaking, there was so much to see and it was all so new. The
quaint song of the natives amused us. They never seemed to weary of
the same "Yenze, yenze, _ah_ yenze." At the third "Yenze" the boat
would shoot up the stream twice its length. It was nearing noon and
the sun was getting torrid and the air close and stifling. Without any
warning the rain showered upon us and we were obliged to remain in our
places and let it come down upon us, regardless of results to our
clothing. The rain was of short duration, however, and we rather
enjoyed the cooling effect. Presently the sun shone in all its glory
and in an hour we were once more with dry clothing. This mixed weather
continued the whole ten days of our journey.

At noon of each day we disembarked and prepared our meal, generally
stopping at one of the stations of the railroad. We found quite a
number of white men and Mexicans at each place. They gladly received
us and offered us some of their fare. In exchange we gave them soup,
made in a large kettle, and had several things they were strangers to
in their life in the forest of vines, flowers and fruit of the tropics
where they subsisted on rations of pork, bacon, hardtack, etc. They
gladly accepted our fare and we partook of theirs. Before we started
again the men came to the boat with baskets