Part 1 (2/2)

Later on in my narrative, I shall have occasion to refer to Colonel B

again under other circu the fourth of July, was duly celebrated on the steamer in true American style Our course was to the east of Cuba We passed in sight of the green hills of San Doht, crossing the Caribbean sea, whose grand, gorgeous sunsets I shall never forget I could not buy a ticket in New York for the steamer from Panama to San Francisco, but was informed at the office in New York that sixty tickets were for sale in Panaents for the steamer on the Pacific side I naturally supposed that those who offered their money first for those tickets could buy them The price was 300 for the first cabin, and 150 for the second, froers had a ticket for the Pacific side

The objective point was to get to Panaee of the five, and take it leisurely, and Lieutenant M, of South Carolina, and myself were selected to run an express across the Isthers 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 perovernment 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 steauard to keep all but the proper persons fro in old 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 res river I was recommended to Colonel P, as 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 ot his price for a boat and two of his best ht and day, and an extra present to thesee those tickets on the Pacific side By the tiements made, Lieutenant M er that landed fro-out, a boat somewhat similar to a canoe, with a little canopy over the center that you could crawl under to lay doith the two naked natives, with the exception of a cloth around their loins, neither understanding each other's language, to e could only coona, fifty-five miles up the river, where ere to land and takeplace 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 see 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 eness of the scene, surrounded by the thatched huts of the natives, ere having a dance on the square in the village After we had been there an hour, we thought ourto our contract, to be rowed night and day

In the meantime it seems the natives had taken some offense at Lieutenant M's fa knives projecting back of their necks in a threatening manner We likewise learned that that was the home of one of our ht in violation of the contract So we had a consultation to decide what to do to get away It was pitch dark; we laid our plan Lieutenant M beckoned one of the , and drew his pistol on him and marched him down to the boat, while I, with a pistol, kept him there while he went for the other ot them both in the boat and started About this time there was a stor, as the elements can only perform in that way in the tropics, surrounded by impenetrable darkness, and to us an unknown river, with its serpents and alligators, with our two naked savages, that we only got in the boat by force, and, of course, could not feel very friendly toward us Expecting to be fired on froh the darkness, we took our departure frores river, surrounded by roination in that line Our men kept steadily to work After a while the clouds broke away, the ht We had no trouble with our iven us his best man They found that ere masters of the situation and it was for their interest to submit We treated them kindly after that, and all ell, for we passed every boat we caet the look of despair at two Frenchentleth of ti up the river, and that they could do nothing with their ht of a thatched hut on the banks, evidently a ranch We thought it for our interest to rest We saw ahis back against a post On landing and approaching him he excused hi with the air of a lord of ashi+rt, co down to his knees We arrived the next day at 11 AM, at Gorgona, and took our dinner at the hotel kept by the Alcalde of the place, and bargained with hiuide and three uides and mules were ready, about 1 PM, we started for Pana thrown a number of tie ”Get up and go along,” was Greek to theuide said ” the place where ere to stay all night, we arose in therefreshed, but concluded to leave our mules and make the rest of the way a-foot, as we considered thee but my little satchel previously referred to, in which I had bills of lading of ned to me, the specifications of old chrono to H, a broker in New York, a friend, and a bottle of the best brandy, which he presented toI handed to the guide boy, about seventeen years of age, taking out the brandy bottle The watch I was to sell, for he had two nepheho had gone to California, and if they were in need, to supply their wants I did not ht, one of the owners of the Miners' Bank in San Francisco, and remitted the ain

We alking on at a free pace, our guide boy following behind

Looking back after awhile we could not see him We stopped and waited soo on and he would follow The result e lost our way and craved for a sight of the Pacific ocean with all the ardor that Gilboa could have done, the first Spanish discoverer of it, and on the sas all day, almost without hope, until four in the afternoon, we came to a streaued I threw ive up in that way” ”I aAs we lay there we thought we heard voices In looking back who should we see but one of our countryht to us We felt saved at once

We asked hiht not Then he said one of his coht have a little piece of ham left and some crackers He said there were three of them, and they would soon be there, and when they caave to us The eating of it soon refreshed us As I had some of the brandy left in the bottle, I extended it to thelad to receive Explanations ensued We, by chance, had struck the Crusos road, and were but ten , and had started across frores river, and had been fro so far across the Isthmus, and were perfectly astonished at the rapidity hich we had co Lieutenant M and ers of the _Georgia_ to enter the city The office of the agents of the Pacific stea, to purchase the five tickets for our party Alas for human expectation! I was informed it would be several weeks before the steamer would sail She had not yet returned from the first trip to San Francisco They said there were but sixty tickets for sale, and they would not be offered until a few days before the departure of the steaetting them The city alled around and dyked like those of the Middle Ages Toward the bay the as one hundred feet high by twenty broad

The city had been on the decline for most a hundred years We could see the ruins of what it once had been At one time Spain owned all South America, Mexico, California, Louisiana and Florida Panama was the only port of entry on the Pacific coast, and controlled its coates of the walled city there is a chapel just inside, where the lights are always burning on its altars The first thing on entering all good Catholics enter, kneel andthe protection of the patron saint of the city The head alcalder of the city was a Castilian Spaniard, a venerable-looking gentleman, white as any Northern es back conquered Spain and divided the land up a themselves and became its nobility, from whom the present rulers of Spain are descendants It is said that when conquered, the original inhabitants of Spain, to a great extent, fled to their vessels, put to sea, and found the island of Ireland, from which the present inhabitants are descendants The second alcalder was a negro as black as I have ever seen

In the city of Panaher classes roes their slaves The natives the peons were in a condition si as they owed any thing But the despotisreat that when they struck for freedoroes and the peons, and even the priests of the Catholic church had been so tyrannized over by the mother church in Spain that they joined the revolutionists and all classes are represented in the government I called at a watchmaker's to have a crystal put in my watch Two brothers had furnished roolish I could speak a little French I found they could speak it fluently I asked thee at Granada” Then one, of them, when he learned that I was from the United States, went to the piano and played Hail Columbia as a compliment to my country, which would trouble most of us to do the sa up in the ruins of as once its great cathedral The freebooter Morgan is said to have plundered one of its altars of a old and silver, andon theinal natives It is said that when Pizarro captured Peru and took the Inca, their king, prisoner, he issued a decree that if his subjects would fill a rooold, he would release hi it, he sentenced hi on condition that he confessed the Christian religion Madauillotined in the French revolution, exclaimed, ”O Liberty, what crimes have been committed in thy name” O Christianity, what terrible atrocities have been perpetrated in thy na a beautiful bay, unlike Chagres, on this side of the Isthmus of Darien, which is the most unhealthy spot on this continent Excuse this diversion, I et back to my subject, the days of the forty-niners

I stopped at the American Hotel I was somewhat in a dilapidated condition frores The waiter in my room at the hotel took the best of care of ned a position in Washi+ngton of 2,000 a year to go to the gold Eldorado He had been in Panama several months, and had been taken doith the fever twice, which had exhausted his funds and orking at the hotel for his board, but never thought of turning back He was bound for California He was quite enfeebled froot hold of my sympathies and secured my friendshi+p (More of hi our guide, the boy withof my houses I was in a quandary and anxiety about it, not knohat to do, when one day as I was going to dinner, so around, what should I see to reat joy and satisfaction but the native boy with my satchel, contents there all safe It was an instance of honesty that would do honor to any nation I gave some honest Catholic priest credit for it The boy had evidently been instructed what to do

The great objective point noas, how to get to San Francisco There was no hope for a sailing vessel from this place, forone return for water that had been chartered by a party that had been out three weeks, and scarcely got out of sight of the city There is very little chance for a sailing vessel froet west several hundred miles, and strike the trade winds The chances were better with the sailing vessel to start froo around Cape Horn So the only hope seemed to be the steamer with its sixty tickets and with fro to buy the some influence to bear to secure one I saw in the office of the stea ht his acquaintance I found he was from Hudson, NY, and I, from Albany, both from the banks of the Hudson river It ripened into a warm friendshi+p I explained et off on the steaet ing in full force The accli in every direction I was conversing at 8 AM with a healthy looking ers, from New York At 5 PM, the same day, I inquired for him and was informed that he was dead and buried He had been attacked with the cholera It was a law of the city that they ious disease I was finally myself taken doith the Panama fever, lay unconscious and unnoticed inti fever, had a doctor sent for, and after a time recovered so I could venture out In the meanti for San Francisco announced Zackary, Nelson & Co had issued an order that the sixty tickets would be put up to be drawn for Those having the winning nu theister their names on such a day Probably one thousand names and but sixty tickets The chances were sister, as I was still very weak fro As I entered, there was a great nu When my turn came, and I was about to put down my name, I looked behind the desk and saw my friend, the book-keeper He shook his head forfavorable I backed out I returned at once to the hotel In the evening, about 8 o'clock, my friend came to my room with a second cabin ticket The joys of Paradise centered into my possession of that ticket I asked hin his position, and was going up on the sa he asked Mr Nelson if his services had been satisfactory to him He said they had He then said if he should ask hirant it? He replied certainly

He then said that he wanted one of those sixty tickets for a particular friend Mr Nelson said, ”If I had knohat you was going to ask for, I could not have granted it; but since I have pledged ive you the ticket”

The next day passengers would be received on the steamer, which was anchored out in the bay, some distance froo on the steamer As I was quite enfeebled froht I would make an early start, so as to be sure and be aboard, as they were all to be on board the vessel to sail early the nextI started out for a boat to take s, not so much from the prospect of financial success as the idea that if I could get North again oing North It seeood breath of Northern air As I was going along, soery, with his head almost between his knees, the picture of despair, was ton friend, aited on my rooot hold offor you I ed and passed hiot soo back and speak to hio and see soo up as waiter without pay I asked him if he had done so, and what luck? He said there was no hope They told hi up as waiter I then told hio on board That his case was desperate, and that desperate cases required desperate remedies; that he had been doith the fever, and the next time he would probably die; that he had no friends there nor money; if he would do as I told him I would stand by him and he must have nerve He said to me: ”How can a man have nerve without a dollar in his pocket?” which exclamation has occurred to et hiave hie He said he had none I told hi the hands as if he was one of them; that all were new hands and officers, and they would not know the difference He said that the captain had said if any person was caught on board without a ticket they would be put on shore at the first uninhabited island I told hiot e all in About 11 o'clock I sawfor the vessel There was considerable confusion on board at the ti, and he was not noticed, and he went to work aularly e the e, and said to hi hi he caht so far But in theto examine every person, then they will put et in trouble, coun fired, the anchor was raised, and we sailed down to Bogota, an island similar to Staten Island in the New York Harbor The health officers cament had come to him, but the health officers were on board but a short tiun for departure was fired We passed out of the harbor The bow of our vessel was pointed north, and we felt extremely happy I said to him, ”This vessel is bound for San Francisco, and you are aboard, and will get there as soon as I will” A few days after that thethe employment of the men, and when he came to my friend's turn he said to him, ”Who employed you? You are not an able-bodied seaman” He ence, and his pale look showed he had been sick It may have moved the sympathies of the officer, who said to him, ”This vessel is croith people; it wont do for us to be short of water, and I will put the water in your charge, and you er, or even the steward, have any except according to the regulations, and if you attend to that properly no other services will be required of you”

That took him off of the anxious seat and put hiht of turning back That commanded my esteem His attentions to ood action on his part saved hi on that steamer, and there was room but for sixty on the day of its departure; his chance looked thepenniless, but he was one of the fortunate ones, while those who had plenty of money were left It illustrated the oldof interest occurred until we got to the port of Acupulco, the largest place on the west coast of Mexico We were about to enter the harbor when a government boat with officials came out and ordered us to stop If we proceeded any further there would be ”lish There were Americans on shore who had crossed over fro this steamer It would be a month before there would be another one, and then there would be no certainty of their getting aboard of that The captain held a consultation of the passengers, who all decided to have them come on board They were our countryh the vessel was then crowded, and soers volunteered to row ashore with the s them aboard, which they did When they approached the shore there was a couns, forbidding them to approach any nearer The Americans ere on the bank infor the their fate that they had to be left, so they returned Then the captain received notice to leave in half an hour or the guns of the fort would open fire on us

It was a bright h knoll just above us, and could have blown us out of the water So we thought discretion was the better part of valor, and we had to leave The laws of nations were on their side We were from an infected port, Panama, where cholera prevailed

On board the steamer were some men of prominence WF McCondery, from Boston, a retired East India sea captain, a man of wealth, who had been out of business for three years and craved for a est coned to him about all the shi+pments from Boston, and likewise the _Prince de Joinville_ with lishnments from that city; Rothschild's nepheho had represented that house as a banker in Valparaiso, Chili, was going to establish a branch of those great bankers' house in San Francisco; Judge Terry, fro a dead shot with a pistol, who afterward challenged United States Senator Broderick to fight a duel, from political influences, and killed him, and soreement with parties about a lawsuit We came opposite Mazland at the mouth of the Gulf of California, and took on board soht

The next incident in our voyage e cao, California, and saw the A staff

There was an instantaneous shout went up from every American on board

We were once more to be under its protection in our own country

Love of country, ht our race up to stateliest heights 'tis given

We were entering the Golden Gate It was but four miles to the harbor where we cast anchor, opposite the city of San Francisco, which was the goal of our hopes for so long a time, and which was about to be realized; which was also the objective point fro to get We had come three thousand, five hundred ed a row-boat to take us ashore My friend attended to getting e out of the boat, and ith ned no papers, and entered into no bonds not to desert the vessel at San Francisco, as the other sailors had He was free to do as he pleased

I had the chills and fever all the way up, froet in good quarters, whatever expense, to regain ood hotel kept by a ooers were going to stop there I inquired the terht I would try it for a while My sleeping-room was a mattress laid on the floor, with muslin partitions to separate us froetables, which I required, which we lacked on the shi+p co there a few days one of our passengers asked es were I said yes, 5 per day He said it was ain, which I did I was informed it was 5 for the room and extra for the meals I paid ht in e an Indian rubber mattress and pillohich was folded up in a small space and could be blown up with your breath and filled with air, made a soft bed, a pair of new Mackinaw blankets and other things to provide for any contingency, and tookthe Chinese which we often patronized, and found myself satisfactorily quartered It eneral remarks about the history of California