1857.] Notes on the Isthmus of Panama. smile remains, the love is not gone neck. There is a simple gravestone in Millby churchyard, telling that in this spot lie the remains of Edgar Tryan, for two years officiating curate at the Paddiford Chapel-ofEase, in this parish. It is a meagre memorial, and tells you simply that But there is another memorial of NOTES ON THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. AT no former period of the history of our country has the penalty attached to its greatness been more seriously felt than at the close of the long peace to which we owe the rapid progress of our material prosperity during late years, and which was so rudely interrupted by the Russian War. As the first of maritime nations, with interests involved in every quarter of the globe, we can scarcely venture to expect peace except when that blessing is universally shared by the rest of the world. No sooner have we combined, at a vast expenditure of blood and treasure, to restore tranquillity to Europe, than our sinews of war are again strained, and the skill of our diplomatists again called forth in other continents. The state of our Indian Empire, tottering to its foundations, menaces our very existence as a first-class power, and has concentrated upon itself that universal attention which had until then been accorded to the important interests which our rupture with the southern capital and mercantile emporium of But China had imperilled there. while generals and diplomatists are hurrying to Asia, political events of no little significance are occurring in the West, from which our regards should not be altogether averted by the critical condition of affairs in the East. As our commercial relations with other countries become extended, and new markets are created in re- It so happened that in the early part of this year I had occasion to make the traject of the Isthmus, and viewing the present aspect of affairs there, and the recent policy of the United States in New Grenada, some account of its present condition may not be uninteresting. I came from Greytown to Colon in a West India mail-steamer; had she been an American, I should have said from San Juan del Nicaragua to Aspinwall, for we have Anglicised the Nicaraguan name, and they have Americanised the New Grenadan; so that with laudable patriotism we each cling to our nomenclature, and ignore that of the other, thereby creating considerable confusion. As, however, there can be little doubt that Greytown and Aspinwall are the names destined to be used by posterity, I shall make a compromise, and adopt both the Angio-Saxon appellations. So far, indeed, as the population is concerned, the latter has a much better right to it than the former. The population of Greytown, which is not half the size of its neighbour, is almost wholly black; while in Aspinwall the number of whites gives an air of progress and activity to it quite in keeping with its baptism. Still its aspect is anything but inviting. Two rows of substantiallooking houses appear wedged in between a mangrove swamp and the sea. Any extension of the town must either be into one or the other; and the preference of the inhabitants seems to be in favour of the sea. Anything reclaimed in that direction will improve the port, and secure for the inhabitants greater health and coolness. At present the railway passes along the beach in front of the town, and when it is not employed taking passengers across the Isthmus, it carries stones into the sea, with the object of adding to the town in that direction. Meantime a large pond of salt water, full of rotting mangrove roots, has been left in the middle of the town, which is slowly becoming dry land, and will ultimately form valuable building-lots. Near it, and in the principal street, are half-a-dozen hotels upon the American principle, the lounge of sallow Spaniards and unhealthy - looking Americans, gaunt and lantern-jawed, who live in a perpetual state of fever and ague, and imbibe genuine cocktails, sarsaparilla, cobblers, and other drinks curiously devised to minister to an insatiable appetite, and correct the effects of malaria. We know these places of public entertainment, as we swelter down the glaring street, by the incessant crack of billiard balls and the pops of bottles containing effervescing drinks, accompanied by languid oaths, which issue from them. The influence of the climate is so depressing that it almost deprives the energetic Anglo-Saxon of the power of anathematising the nature of things. In the middle of the day, Aspinwall is very hot inMartin Chuzzlewit's Eden transferred to the tropics. The only people who seem really to enjoy themselves are the negroes; they swarm in the balconies of the high two-story houses, grinning, chattering, quarrelling, or snoring; towards evening they become drunk and uproarious. Negresses, very de colleté, and whose light garments, like nightgowns, are so loose that it is a miracle how they maintain their position at all, collect in groups, and, disposing their fat persons in attitudes more natural than graceful, show their white teeth, and grin applaudingly at their intoxicated swains, who cut fantastic capers in the streets for their edification, or expand their capacious lungs in song. Sounds of merriment, proceeding from this sable race, extend far into the night, and do not tend to lull to sleep the unfortunate victim who has more than sufficient music in the buzz of myriads of mosquitoes, which flock in through his ragged curtains, combined with the croakings of gigantic frogs in the neighbouring mangrove swamp, and who is vainly panting for the air which the rank vegetation choking up his window effectually excludes The present population of Aspinwall barely reaches 2000. Though occupying an important geographical position, it has not increased so rapidly as might have been expected. This, no doubt, mainly arises from the fact that it owes its existence entirely to the transit traffic, and does not draw anything from the resources of the district in which it is situated, and which are totally undeveloped. The town itself can never be of any great extent, as the area of the island of Manzanilla, in which it is situated, and which has been ceded to the Transit Company in perpetuity, does not exceed 650 acres. The channel which separates this island from the mainland is about 700 feet wide, but a marsh extending on each side renders the distance, which is impracti cable for all transit purposes, much greater. It was in constructing the railway across this channel and swamp that the frightful loss of life occurred, both of Irish and Chinese labourers, which has given rise to the calculation, that every sleeper that was laid down cost the life of a man. In 1857.] Notes on the Isthmus of Panama. driving the piles into the soft mud, it was impossible to find a bottom; sometimes three piles were driven in one above the other, when the bottom one, slipping out from under its fellows, would gradually rise to the surface of the ooze, to the discomfiture of the engineers. The indefatigable energy and perseverance of these latter, however, at last triumphed over all obstacles, and although the causeway now shakes as the train passes over it, the grand object of a safe and rapid transit has been achieved. The harbour at Aspinwall is not so good as might be wished, as it is open to the swell from the north and east, but it is susceptible of great improvement, and where the ingenuity of man has already done so much, we may fairly expect that the inconveniences arising from this source will, in process of Through the time, be removed. liberality of the Company, I was furnished with a free ticket to Panama, and took my place with three or four other passengers for the shores of the Pacific. Did the Company depend for its profit on the daily traffic, it would very soon become bankrupt, but it was originally formed for the conveyance of Californian gold and passengers, and the revenue it derives from this source twice a-inonth fully justifies the enterprise. Two of our passengers were adherents of Walker's, who had been turned back from Greytown by the Costa Ricans, and who were on their way to join him by the Pacific coast; the others were Panamanians, or people of the country. When once the deadly swamp is passed, nothing can exceed the beauty of the vegetation through which the line passes. Palm trees of many varieties weave their broad leaves into thick screens to shut out the sungraceful cocoa- nuts and cassavas wave overhead-tufts of bamboo are interspersed with heavy trees, whose branches support gigantic orchids, and whose stems are concealed amid a mass of purple convolvulus and divers brilliant parasites. To one only accustomed to see a thickly populated and highly cultivated country traversed by railways, and familiar with tropical jungles only where they are penetrated by the devious little paths of the woodcutter Formerly the traject of the Isthmus involved a laborious journey of two days, the first of which was spent upon the Chagres river; now it is usually crossed in as many hours, without the slightest trouble or fatigue. The line impinges upon the Chagres river at a distance of about seven miles from Aspinwall, and more or less follows the right bank to Barbacoas, about half-way across the Isthmus. Here it crosses the river by a bridge 625 feet long, and then follows the left bank of the Ovispo (a tributary) to its head. This is the summit, distant 37 miles from the Atlantic, and 10 from the Pacific. The deepest cutting is only 24 feet. The maximum grade on its descent is 60 feet per mile; the summit grade There is, in fact, is 258 feet above the assumed grade at the Atlantic. no difference between the mean level of the Pacific and Atlantic; only the tide in the former rises 18 feet, in the latter 2. The importance of this route in the trade of Western America is evident from the fact that the total amount of export and import trade across the Isthmus and round the Horn, is estimated at a hundred and forty-five millions of dollars; of that, a hundred million of dollars go by this railway annually in specie. In 1855, the railway paid a clear 12 per cent on its capital. I have not, however, had an opportunity of seeing any very recent report. We did not make the traject very rapidly, as we did a little engineering on the way, and loaded some trucks with stones to take to a bridge in the course of construction. general, the country was neither inhabited nor cultivated; on the banks of the Chagres river I observed a miserable village or two, the houses built of split bamboo, and thatched with palm leaves, and some villages had sprung up on the line at some of the stations; they were inhabited almost entirely by negroes. Our descent into Panama was very rapid, except at one spot, famed for one of In the most terrible railway accidents on record, and which has never been looked on as a safe part of the line, as it is a cutting on the steep side of a hill, and subject to the action of water. When we passed, the rails were palpably depressed at this point. Near Panama, a glimpse or two of savannah indicate that magnificent rolling open country which the traveller would never suspect to exist if he merely crossed the Isthmus by rail. In four hours and a half from our bidding adieu to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, we notified our arrival on the opposite coast with a scream, and pulled up at the foot of a jetty built into the Pacific. Here we were surrounded by a crowd of importunate negroes, who, with the utmost effrontery and insolence, squabbled for our baggage, in spite of our remonstrances, and, dividing it between them, walked off into the town, distant upwards of a mile, whither we followed them on foot, in the blazing sun-for cabs have not yet been introduced-in no very amiable humour; this was not improved on our arrival at the hotel by their exorbitant charges for porterage. Upon my demurring to these, a large muscular negro waxed violent, and ended by threatening me and drawing his knife. Fortunately I was a step above him on the stairs, and enabled to kick him to the bottom before he had time to carry out his intention. The innkeeper and servants then managed to pacify and dispose of him; but I did not at that time know the thraldom in which the European part of the population were held by the blacks. Panama is not a lively place; but the dullness is agreeable when it is united with sufficient novelty to amuse the mind; and the repose and tranquillity incidental to it may be enjoyable when contrasted with the turmoil of a recent tour in the United States. There, a town which is not progressing is called a finished town," and it is looked upon as an unnatural phenomenon; but here, in the New World, was a decaying town." There was something soothing in its air of antiquity and dilapidation in its grass-grown plaza, and fine old Spanish cathedral, and - ruined monastery, and massive archways leading out through the crumbling fortifications. I liked to saunter about mid-day along its narrow streets, where the high houses shut out the sun, and the balconies almost met overhead, and ragged children and mangy curs slept in shady corners, and women drowsily presided over fruit-stalls, where innumerable flies loved to hive; and grass hammocks, swinging in the open shops, each contained its sleeping occupant; and even the gamecocks, tethered by one leg, tucked the other under their wings, and ceased to defy each other with shrill challenges; and knots of individuals lounged at tobacco-shops waiting for the Poco Tiempo cigars which the vendors were lazily rolling from the pure leaf by their sides. Only where a European store, with its varied assortment of goods ostentatiously displayed, or an hotel with barrooms and billiard-tables, collected the stray Americans or foreigners that happened to be staying in the town, were there any signs of life. In the afternoon most of the inhabitants wake, and negroes and mestizoes people the streets. They swagger insolently about, holding whites in extreme contempt, and take the law into their own hands, whenever it suits them, with the utmost impunity. At periods of political excitement, they plot massacres of those who are not of their own colour; but fortunately they then generally keep one another in check by internal brawls: still, it has been found necessary to land the marines from English men-of-war to protect our own subjects, who are at no time safe from insult. The judge and most of the principal authorities are black, and they mete out less justice to a white man than the worst specimen of a slave-owner would to one of their own brethren. Perhaps the retaliation is to be expected; but the sensation of feeling oneself "a white nigger" is not agreeable. Political parties in Panama-and, indeed, the same may be said of the whole Stateare divided into whites and blacks; the present governor of the town is a nominee of the latter. The remains of the old Spanish aristocracy, the 1857.] only respectable party in the country, If, on the other hand, this terri- States, which would then become Un |