Chapter XIX: Appendix: Vol. iii 494 (13)

The gentlemen of Lima, by which term I allude chiefly to the white Creoles or pure descendants of the Spaniards, who constitute about one-third of the population,[139] do not leave that impression of a splendid future resulting from a prosperous development of the resources of the country, which might be reasonably expected if there were more intellectual movement, and more industrial and commercial activity apparent among their number. The state of affairs in Peru since its separation from Spain in 1822, the constant squabbles and civil wars, as also the fact that a mere mestizo, like Ramon Castilla, devoid of intellectual or moral pre-eminence, should have succeeded in getting himself declared President for life of the Republic,[140] are the best proofs of the political and moral degradation of the Republic of Peru. All the splendid territories from Peru to Mexico have, after three centuries of Spanish rule, sunk into a state of demoralization and degeneracy, owing to the listless, labour-hating, sluggish mestizo races that inhabit it, such as only the immigration of one of the hardy northern races can ever adequately remedy. In a previous visit to Central America, I have wandered through its rich scenery, clad in the hues of perpetual summer, and smiling in exuberance of fertility, and everywhere the same impression was made upon me. Almost the only effect this wealth of nature seems to exercise upon the Indian or negro mestizo is to incapacitate him from mastering by any effort of his own the lethargy that preys upon him. Where a few rare exceptions occur, as, for instance, in Costa Rica, in which a sounder policy is preserved, it is invariably found that they are of purer Spanish descent than their sister republics in tropical South America.[141]

Owing to their political organization, these various states can scarcely fail to be powerfully affected by the impulses of our time. They have no other prospect than that of becoming either an integral portion of the immense North American Federation, or of once more being consolidated into a monarchy under the sceptre of some scion of a European royal family. In all probability, whether they be North Americans, or English, or Germans, they will always be children of some of a more powerful race, who must ultimately subvert the races of the Southern type, awaken a new spirit of energy, and so carry out that which the lazy mixed races of the present time have neither the power nor the inclination to effect. An immigration of stilled Northerners can alone raise these countries politically and commercially, develope their natural resources, and restore them to the grade of civilized states.

One of the most important as well as useful plants of Peru, and with samples of which I provided myself on leaving Peru, for the purpose of future analysis, is the Coca (_Erythroxylon Coca_), the leaves of which mixed with chalk or ashes of plants, form so important an article of diet as well as a masticatory among some Indian races of Peru and Bolivia. Before I left Europe one of our most celebrated German pharmacologists, M. Woehler of Goettingen, expressed to me his wish to procure a considerable quantity of coca leaves, to enable him to analyze more completely than had as yet been done the chemical constituents of this remarkable plant, and I therefore made it a duty to take measures for procuring the requisite supply. Although the wonderful stimulant properties of the coca had for more than half a century been known to European travellers, the leaves of the plant, which flourishes best on the eastern slopes of the Cordilleras of Peru and Bolivia, at an elevation of about 8000 feet, and a temperature of from 64 deg.4 to 68 deg. Fahr., have hitherto only reached Europe in very small quantities, having in fact been carried home simply as curiosities. It was reserved for one of the _Novara_ expedition to bring over as much as 60 lbs. weight for the purpose of investigation of its properties by German men of science. Half of this quantity I took to Europe among my own effects; the remainder was forwarded somewhat later, through the kindness of two German gentlemen resident in Lima, Messrs. C. Eggert and N. Linnich.

So many, and in the main correct, accounts[142] have been published by travellers of the coca plant, its culture, its effect upon the system, and the marvels that have been achieved by its use, that I may well be excused from dwelling at length upon the habit which prevails among the Indians of chewing coca, or on its importance as a chief article of subsistence for several millions of our fellow-creatures. I may, however, mention certain instances which came within my own personal knowledge, as also a few statistical data relating to the annual consumption of coca in Peru and Bolivia, and the economical importance of this cultivation.

A Scotchman named Campbell, who was settled as a merchant at Tacna in Bolivia, and with whom I travelled to Europe from Lima, informed me that a few years before, being engaged upon matters of urgent business, he had performed in one day a distance of 90 English miles on mule-back, and throughout that long distance had been accompanied by an Aymara Indian, who kept up easily with the mule, without other refreshment than a few grains of roasted maize and coca leaves, which, mingled with undissolved chalk, he chewed incessantly. On reaching the station where he was to pass the night, Mr. Campbell, though mounted on an excellent animal, found himself greatly fatigued; the guide, on the other hand, _after he had stood on his head for a few minutes_,[143] and had drank a glass of brandy, set off without further delay on his homeward journey!!

In April, 1859, Mr. Campbell despatched a native from La Paz to Tacna, a distance of 249 English miles, which the Indian accomplished in four days. He rested one day at Tacna, and set off the following morning on his return journey, in the course of which he had to cross a pass 13,000 feet in height. It would seem that throughout the whole of this immense journey on foot, he followed the Indian custom of taking no other sustenance than a little roasted maize and coca leaves, which he carried in a little pouch at his side, and chewed from time to time.[144]

Like other experienced travellers, Mr. Campbell, who has lived over 14 years in Bolivia, is of opinion that a moderate use of coca exercises no prejudicial influence upon the general health, but simply tends to make the Indian races of the higher regions of the Andes more capable of continued laborious work. Many coca-chewers attain a great age, and Mr. Campbell knew one such, who had taken part in the insurrection of Tupac-Amaru in 1781, and at the time of my visit, 1859, was still in full possession of all his faculties. In short, as in the case of opium and wine, it would seem that it is only the abuse of coca that is followed by evil consequences.

The coca is less cultivated in Peru than in Bolivia, and the leaves are not in such request among the Quichua as among the Aymara Indians.[145] As the Government of Bolivia draws a very handsome revenue from coca cultivation, a tax of five reals, about one shilling, being levied on every _cesto_, or about 25 lbs. English, there is a better opportunity of getting at the correct amount of the entire production than in Peru, where the plant is grown free of duty. The coca tax realizes in all in Bolivia 300,000 _pesos_ or dollars (about L75,000), so that the entire annual product is about 480,000 _cestos_ or 1,200,000 lbs. The _cesto_ is worth at La Paz from 7 to 9 _pesos_, but when employed in large quantities for export, it cost about 10 dollars, placed on board ship. Altogether the coca crop of Bolivia may reasonably be estimated at rather less than 700,000 _cestos_, equal to about 78,000 tons.

The analysis to which the coca leaves I brought home with me were subjected at Goettingen, was attended by most important results, though the experiments are far from being completed. It was reserved for one of the assistants of the chemical laboratory, named Albert Niemann, to discover in the leaves a peculiar crystallized organic base, to which, following the usual custom in such cases, the name Cocain has been given.[146]

The lamented death of Dr. Albert Niemann in the flower of his youth, and in the midst of his promising labours, necessarily interrupted for a time the investigations into the nature and properties of cocain. M. Woehler, however, in his capacity of Director of the Chemical Laboratory of the University, was so good as to assign to another able assistant, Mr. W. Lossen, the task of taking up the analysis at the point where its gifted discoverer had left it, when it was found that, when heated in chlorine, the cocain underwent a singular and astonishing metamorphosis, being in fact resolved into Benzoic acid and a new organic base, for which M. Woehler proposes the name of Ecgonin (from [Greek: Echgonos] an off-shoot). Further researches with the coca leaves lead to the discovery of a second organic base, which, it would appear, is contained in its primitive form in the coca, the composition of which will be treated of in a forthcoming paper by Mr. Lossen. This base is in a liquid form, for which the provisional name hygrin (from [Greek:hugros], fluid) has been adopted.[147]

Hitherto the experiments made to determine the physiological properties of cocain have been less important in their results, as it is only found in small quantities in the coca leaf, and an adequate quantity can only be obtained with great trouble and difficulty.[148] Consequently it is as yet impossible to decide the questions, whether one of these bases is stronger than the other, as also to which of the two are to be ascribed the peculiar properties of the plant. Singular enough, the various experiments with an effusion of the coca leaves had not the least result, while it is well known that the use of this kind of tea in the Cordilleras wonderfully stimulates the breathing powers of the traveller, besides satisfying his appetite.[149] It would also appear that the coca leaves lose part of their virtue in transit, and that their most intense activity is only developed in their native regions. If, however, the ultimate results of the experiments of Mr. Lossen, instituted with as much sagacity as zeal, should incontestably prove the value and utility of the plant for pharmaceutical purposes, as well as in all cases where the human strength is exposed to unwonted strains upon its energies, the means will surely and easily be found for extracting _on the spot_ the active principles of coca, as is being at present done by industrious Yankees in Ecuador, with the Cinchona or China bark.

When the _Novara_ was leaving Batavia, I cherished the hope that our stay in South America would be sufficiently prolonged to admit of my making an excursion to the Cinchona forests, so as to enable me to speak authoritatively and from personal knowledge upon certain questions discussed at Lembang with Dr. Junghuhn,[150] which had hitherto been left unsettled or altogether unexamined, and which were of such deep import to the attempts being made in Java to cultivate the Cinchona. Circumstances, however, had conspired to render this impracticable. Instead of the entire expedition, as originally projected, visiting that classic region, it was reserved to myself, a solitary individual, to tread the scenes, where Humboldt once collected the first valuable contributions to science, and even then my time was so limited that my attention had to be confined to the capital of Peru, and the neighbouring country. Under these circumstances such a project as a regular scientific excursion deep into the heart of the Cinchona forests was entirely out of the question. I did not fail, however, to translate into Spanish and English, the disputed points which Dr. Junghuhn had requested me to ascertain for him, so that I might obtain such information upon these interesting questions from such of the friends I made in Peru or Chile as seemed likely, either in their own persons or by the opportunities for natural studies that might happen to characterize their place of residence, to advance our knowledge of the Cinchona tree and its cultivation. My different efforts to obtain reliable information on the cultivation of the China bark tree in its mother country were especially promoted by my having met, while at Lima, with Mr. Campbell, who, during the many years he has been settled at Tacna, has paid especial attention to the China bark trade. For the chief export of this important medicament is in the hands of the Bolivians, and not of the Peruvians, as the uninitiated might imagine from the name it is usually known by in commerce, viz. Peruvian bark.[151]

The most important facts which I am here enabled to dwell upon relate to the correction of a widespread misconception, that owing to the thirst for plunder and the wilful neglect of the China tree in its own native regions, the supply of the valuable drug obtained from its bark, the well-known Countess'[152] or Jesuit bark, which to the practical physician is of scarcely less importance than the potato to the labouring man, is daily diminishing. The Calisaya region (i. e. the limits within which the C. Calisaya, the species that furnishes the most valuable bark, is found in its finest and most abundant state) extends from about one degree north of Lake Titicaca, or from 14 deg. 30' to 20 deg. S. In the forests of Cochabamba, between which place and La Paz is the principal district of the China tree, the tree is more frequently found than in those running parallel on either side with La Paz, in which it is usually met with at such a distance from the capital that it becomes valueless, owing to the cost of transport, which is as high as 17 dollars per 100 lbs. The more southerly forests are still quite virgin, and have never re-echoed the blows of the Cascarilleros' axe. The largest quantity is exported from Tacna through the port of Arica, only a small portion being smuggled northwards from Lake Titicaca, for shipment _via_ Port d'Islay. According to statistics, from 8000 to 10,000 cwt. of bark may be thus exported for any lapse of time, without the slightest danger of the tree getting exterminated. Since 1845 the exportation of bark from Bolivia has been a Government monopoly, which has farmed out the privilege to a private company, that used to pay a certain annual premium based on an export of 4000 cwt. The company paid the Cascarilleros or other persons who collected the bark, 25 dollars to 30 dollars for every hundredweight of Calisaya delivered in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. The enterprise, however, proved only partially successful, since speculation, avarice and the continual political troubles and alterations of the Government, have each and all proved sore enemies to the peaceful development of the industry of the country. Each new President had only one thought, viz. how to make the largest profit by seizing on the natural wealth of the country, and only sought to increase the export of the bark for the sake of the monopoly. In 1850 a native commercial house in La Paz paid the bark-gatherers 60 pesos for every 100 lbs., besides a duty to Government of 25 pesos additional, at the same time paying on an estimated export of 7000 cwt. The exorbitant wage thus granted to the Cascarilleros resulted in an enormous quantity of Calisaya being brought to La Paz from all parts of Bolivia, In order to preserve the public tranquillity, and not glut the market, the Bolivian Government now prohibited entirely the cutting or collecting of bark. Within eighteen months about 1400 tons of bark were brought in, and this gave the monopolists a perfect dread lest they should have to declare themselves bankrupt, and it was indeed only through the intervention of Government that they escaped. The latter took the entire stock on their own hands, paid the speculators with Treasury bonds, redeemable within a given number of years, and made a fresh contract with a native firm, which stipulated that the price at La Paz should be 65 dollars per 100 lbs., without further export duty.

As soon as the stock in hand was exhausted, the prohibition against cutting Calisaya had of course to be rescinded, and in the interim the most decided steps were taken to check the superfluous, indeed dangerous, zeal of the Cascarilleros in the collection of the bark.

While I was in Java chemical experiments had begun to be made with the bark of the young China trees, and from the fact that the valuable alkaloid was not found in these, it was hastily inferred that the bark of the trees grown in their adopted country had, owing to the change effected in climatic and other conditions, been deprived of the principle that made them most valuable in their native land. But researches made in South America have satisfied me, that even in the indigenous forests of Cinchona, the active principle quinine is only found in the bark of older trees, and that its quantity is perceptibly affected by the age of the tree, the finest quinine being obtained in largest quantities from trees upwards of fifty years old. To ignorance of this peculiarity must also be attributed in all probability the fact that, at the period of the Spanish rule, the China collectors or hunters (_Cazadores de Quina_) used to fell annually 800 or 900 young trees of from four to seven years old, to get at the 110 cwts. of fever-bark, which, intended exclusively for the use of the royal house, were shipped every year from Paita, and thence round the Horn to Cadiz.[153]

So, too, with respect to the quantities annually exported at present from Bolivia and Peru, and used in European stores, there remain serious errors to correct, prevalent even among scientific circles. According to the latest estimates (which take cognizance of seven inferior sorts), there have been exported, between 1830 and 1860, not more than 10,000 tons, while of Calisaya, the specially valuable red bark (_Cascarilla roja_), not above 120,000 cwt. have been exported in all during the same period. While the annual export thus dwindles in dimensions from what had generally been supposed, there has lately been discovered in large quantities, in the forests between Tarija, Cochabamba, and La Paz, a species of Cinchona, whose bark is said to possess very much the same properties as the Calisaya. The curate of Tarija has offered for sale 3000 cwt. of this valuable bark (called by the Indians Sucupira). The position of the forests in which this species of Cinchona is found is so favourable for exportation, that the cost of transport from Tarija to Iquique, the nearest port, would only amount to from 8 to 10 dollars per quintal.

The departure of the mail steamer from Callao de Lima was fixed for the afternoon of 12th June, when several of my friends were so kind as to accompany me on board. In Callao I paid a short visit to H.M.S. _Ganges_, and then the U.S. frigate _Merrimac_ (destined in less than three years to acquire a mournful renown in the horrors of civil war, as also imperishable celebrity as the pioneer of iron navies), one of the finest and most powerful screw-ships of the North American navy, armed at that time with 32 cannon, and of 960-horse power. I had had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with the officers of both ships, partly in Valparaiso, partly in Lima. On board the _Ganges_ I experienced a not less cordial and kind reception, and Admiral Baines, as commander-in-chief of the British fleet in the Pacific, did me the honour of granting me an official pass to all captains of British ships, setting forth my scientific pursuits, and recommending me to their particular attention.

On the morning of the 14th June, the good steamer _Valparaiso_, commanded by that courteous model of a British sailor, Captain Bloomfield, reached Huanchaco, the principal harbour of Truxillo, which is only six miles distant, and was once the capital of the northern portion of the empire of the Incas. The export of silver, wool, and cochineal from this port is pretty considerable. Here came on board a Scotchman named Blackwood, who for some years past had been cultivating cochineal in Truxillo, but was now, as he confessed, unable any longer to compete in its production with other countries, in consequence of the price of labour being so high, and the uncertain state of labour-supply. Mr. Blackwood intended proceeding _via_ California to the East Indies, where he hoped to light upon a more suitable field for cochineal-growing, the cost of labour there being still low, and there existing a constantly-increasing demand for that substance[154].

On the 15th June we anchored in the roads of San Jose de Lambajeque in the department of Chola. The position of this village is so unsuitable, that it is only possible to effect a landing by means of what are called _Balsas_(rafts with sails), consisting of huge thick trunks of trees bound together. One of these curious contrivances conveyed on shore in safety 76 passengers at once, together with all their miscellaneous effects!

Fifteen miles north of Lambajeque lies the Indian village of Iting (Repose), with 5000 inhabitants, whose language is totally different from the Quichua dialect, usually spoken in the province. One Peruvian on his return from his travels even went so far as to say that the idiom of the Iting Indians strongly resembled that of the Chinese! In Monsefu, not quite two miles from Iting, lives an Indian population which speaks nothing but Spanish, and consequently can neither understand nor be understood by its neighbours! This singular state of things almost entitles us to conjecture that the Spanish conquerors have adopted here the same tactics as those they put in practice in Central America, where they repeatedly were at the pains to introduce among the subjugated tribes, colonies of another race frequently hostile to the aborigines, in order by difference of customs and language to render any united action against the common enemy almost impossible. I have myself frequently observed in the Central-American State of San Salvador, that, for instance, the Tlascaltecas, who speak the language of Montezuma, had been settled in the midst of foreign races. Such colonizations have almost invariably been effected for political purposes, and were compulsory, instead of being undertaken voluntarily.

On 16th June we anchored in the beautiful and sheltered harbour of Payta. The little town itself has about 4000 inhabitants, who carry on a pretty brisk trade with the interior and along the coast. The principal article of export is hides, especially goat-skins, chinchilla fur (_Eriomys Chinchilla_), cotton, fruit, oil, herb-archel (_Roccella tinctoria_--used occasionally as a medicine, but more commonly as a dye,--the well-known litmus, used for chemical test papers, being prepared from it), and straw hats. Forty-five miles distant from Payta, in a beautiful and fertile neighbourhood, lies the town of Piura with 10,000 inhabitants, which carries on an extensive trade in fruit and vegetables along the coast, and indeed supplies Lima with its excellent produce.

Payta harbour is visited annually by from fifty to sixty whalers, who take in fresh provisions here, do their repairs, and give their crews a little repose after long and heavy labours. The climate is very healthy and exceedingly dry. At the same time there is no lack of good water, which the Indians bring to the city from the river Chirar, 18 miles distant, in casks on mule-back. This mode of transport is so cheap, that the erection of a distilling apparatus in Payta would not pay. The cargo of one mule, about 12 gallons, would sell for about 2 reals (about 1_s._ 5-1/2_d._). Ships take in their supplies of water at Tumbez, a little further north.

When I was at Payta, there were some twenty merchant ships in the harbour. The trade of the place was evidently increasing. This was indicated not alone by the energy of the inhabitants, but by a general well-to-do air. Large, round, broad-brimmed straw hats are annually exported to the value of 400,000 dollars. Of goat-skins, the annual stock is about 1200 cwt.; of herb-archel from 1500 to 2000 cwt. There are also at Payta some very remunerative manufactures of castor oil (from the _Ricinus communis_), and its cognate from the pinon bean (_Jatropha curcas_), both of which are found in large quantities in the interior. By an iron machine worked by steam some 85 gallons of the oil are made daily, part of which is used in the country for lamps and in the preparation of soap; but by far the largest portion is exported to the United States.

A few weeks before I reached Payta, there had been accidentally found in a cave among the bare sand-hills which form the naked desolate environs of the town, a quantity of maize, which was supposed to have formed part of a stock which had been placed here by the Incas. It was of a smaller kind than that grown at the present day. The grains, notwithstanding the centuries they had lain interred, were in very tolerable preservation. All along the coast nothing was spoken of but this incident, as though some great treasure had been discovered, whereas it was but some 60 lbs. of maize that were found. Moreover, the interest felt by the Indians in this _trouvaille_ had nothing to do with its historic suggestiveness, but because their readily-inflamed imagination prefigured boundless stores of maize yet to be lighted upon and made available, without their having to labour for them!

In the course of the afternoon we left Payta, and next day sighted the island of La Plata, distant about 10 miles from the mainland. A tradition, constantly in the mouth of the people, to the effect that the ancient Incas buried here a large amount of treasure, has led to many formal expeditions having been dispatched to this island at various times, every one of which, however, proved abortive. We now began to find the temperature perceptibly rising; for a few hours it rose from 65 deg. to 76 deg. Fahr.

At 6 P.M. of the 20th, we reached the Taboga Islands, a group of lovely islets, about 11 miles from Panama, where are the warehouses and wharves of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. Taboga Island, the most important of the group, is only one mile and a half long by half a mile broad, but with the adjacent islet of Taboquilla, forms a very convenient crescent-shaped harbour, which unites to a secure haven a tolerably healthy climate, so that during the unhealthy season, when the yellow fever sometimes commits fearful ravages in Panama, many of the inhabitants resort to this island, which, up to the year 1858, had remained entirely free of the scourge.

Late in the evening the English and American papers came on board, from which we got the first intelligence of the march of events at the seat of war in Italy, as also of another world-wide calamity,--the death of Alexander von Humboldt. Even here on the shores of the far Pacific, the intelligence of the greatest naturalist of our age having departed from among us, made a deep and powerful impression, which not even the tempests which impended over the political horizon, and threatened to envelope the entire world, could allay. Although the outbreak of hostilities between two such powers as France and Austria must inevitably react severely upon the condition of the inhabitants of North and South America, yet little was discussed respecting events in Italy; while the obituary notice of Humboldt was read aloud in the cabin, and many a fellow-traveller inscribed on a slip of paper for preservation those beautiful words which the noble and venerable old savant is said to have spoken, when on a lovely sunny May-day his spirit winged its flight from our planet, whose physical constitution his mighty mind had more closely investigated and comprehended than any other mortal of our day. "How gloriously those sunbeams dart forth; they seem as though inviting the earth to the heavens!"

Thus it was forbidden to the members of the Expedition to find the great naturalist yet alive on their return to their common native land! How full of meaning did those touching words now prove, and how fall of mournful memories, with which Humboldt concluded his scientific suggestions to the _Novara_ voyagers, when he prayed to Almighty God, "That His Holy Spirit would be with this great and splendid undertaking to the honour of the common Fatherland!" The _Novara_ staff above all must doubly regret the death of the "Nestor of Science." The warm and active interest he took in their expedition contributed in no small degree to advance its scientific efficiency, and if it be the privilege of the _Novara_ to live in the memory of the scientific world, it will, as the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian himself expressed it in a letter to the venerable philosopher, "redound in its honour to the latest ages, that it was permitted to associate its name with that of Humboldt, who for three generations of men has been associated with every triumph that has been achieved in the domain of science."

On the 21st, at 7 A.M., we anchored in the roads of Panama. Large ships are obliged to lie to from two to three miles off shore, as the beach is nothing but "slike," and at ebb-tide presents an immense unsightly expanse.

The town of Panama (many fish), built on low green hills amid the most magnificent forms of tropical vegetation, presents when viewed from seaward a most lovely, enchanting aspect, especially to the traveller coming from the sterile sandy shores of the west coast of South America. As soon, however, as he sets foot on the shore, and has entered the precincts of the city, his first pleasing impressions are rudely dispelled. The streets are everywhere narrow and filthy, the houses low and poverty-stricken in appearance; even upon their roofs the luxuriance of tropical vegetation bursts forth! Moreover the chief square with its cathedral leaves an impression of decay. Only a few of the houses situate near the beach, the property of strangers, and a few of the hotels, have anything of a respectable appearance. The whole population does not exceed 8000 to 9000 inhabitants, of whom about 500 are whites, the rest being negroes and mestizoes. At the time when the railroad was being made across the Isthmus, in the construction of which thousands of Irish and Chinese fell victims to the climate and the severity of the work, the experiment was made of introducing negroes from Jamaica, whose cosmopolitan nature asserted itself by their having increased and multiplied even here. At present there are upwards of 100,000 negroes on and near the Isthmus.

The expense of living in Panama is no longer so exorbitant as it was ten years ago, at the period of the first emigration to the newly-discovered gold-fields of California, when there was no railroad, and the journey across the Isthmus was made partly on mules, partly in small canoes. For from three to four dollars a day, one gets very fair board and lodging at the best hotels. The most expensive item is washing, the charge being 2 dollars (8_s._) a dozen!! In a climate where European cleanliness necessitates frequent change of apparel, this item alone amounts to some 25 dollars to 30 dollars per month for a single person! Accordingly, it is found to be more economical to fling away several articles of the toilette as soon as they have been soiled, and purchase a fresh supply, rather than pay this heavy tax on the purification of the old garments.

The North American Company, which maintains direct communication between California and New York, has made such excellent arrangements, that the passengers on their arrival in Panama by the train are conveyed in a small steamer from the station, which is close to the shore, out to the large steamer lying in the roads, which is to convey them to California. The entire time occupied in convoying 700 or 800 passengers with their usually rather heavy baggage from Colon across the Isthmus, and thence to their re-embarkation in the steamer upon the West Coast, does not exceed ten hours. The hotel-keepers of Panama, on the other hand, complain sorely of this arrangement, for whereas formerly no passenger ever crossed the Isthmus without spending one dollar at least, hundreds now pass through without ever setting a foot in the city.

When I was in Panama there existed an "Opposition Line" of steamers, a genuine American institution, of which we have occasional examples in Europe, but which is only to be seen in its fall bloom in the United States. Formerly, the fare for a deck-passage from New York to San Francisco was 160 dollars (L33 10_s._). The "Opposition Line" lowered the fare to 35 dollars, and as out of this sum 25 dollars had to be paid to the railway, there remained only 10 dollars (L2 2_s._) for the cost of transport and maintenance of passengers on board large handsome steamers from New York to San Francisco! For the public at large this was undoubtedly a vast benefit, and in consequence of the unexampled lowness of fares, an immense number of persons had gone to California during the last preceding few months. Whereas formerly only adventurers, speculators, or persons of means, could turn their eyes on the land of gold, a poor but industrious labouring population now pressed eagerly thither. Of course, however, it was too good to last:--no enterprise could continue upon such ruinous principles. It was the war of large capital against small; whichever could longest stand the incessant drain, remained in possession of the field. Occasionally, however, a "compromise" is effected between the two parties, but in that case the public is usually the sufferer, since in order to make up for past extravagance, the two quondam foes combine to keep up exorbitant rates.

The salubrity of Panama, though still unhealthy enough during the wet season (May to September), is undoubtedly better than it ever was in former years. The doses of quinine pills with which people used to be presented in society, very much the same way as a pinch of snuff, have become infrequent, neither is it now the custom to drink sherry or brandy and water with quinine in it. Indeed, were foreign settlers to abstain from the practice of frequent meals, which even in more temperate climes cannot be continued in with impunity, the health of the inhabitants would benefit greatly. I repeatedly heard it maintained that the use of ice, which at present can be got in large quantities and at very low rates upon the whole Isthmus, and forms an ingredient of every beverage, and many dishes even, has materially improved the hygienic conditions of Panama. About 360 tons of ice are imported into Panama annually, or about one ton per diem. The whole quantity is supplied from the North American lakes, chiefly from Boston, and is sold in gross at 7 dollars 50 cents (about L1 25_s._) per 100 lbs., the retail price being a trifle over a shilling per pound. In order to avoid a glut which might make ice importation unremunerative, and endanger the steadiness of the supply, the Government has kept in its own hands the monopoly of the ice-trade.

By Dr. Lebreton, a French physician long settled in Panama, who, together with an Austrian gentleman, Dr. Kratochwil from Saaz in Bohemia, placed me under the deepest obligation for their cordial hospitality, I was furnished with a variety of most interesting details of the sanitary statistics of the Isthmus, and some curious and valuable particulars respecting the poison with which the Indians arm their arrow-tips. In Panama is published a most ably-edited daily paper in English, the "_Panama Star and Herald_," conducted by two Americans, Messrs. Power and Boyd, which so fully and impartially treats of the political, social, and commercial condition of the Isthmus and the South American Republics, as makes it indispensable for every one to subscribe to it who takes any interest in the development of this remarkable country. It is chiefly due to these two large-minded, far-seeing gentlemen that we possess a statistical detail of the very important commerce of the Isthmus, as well as along the west coast of South America. These figures now lie before me, and give better than anything else a fair and complete estimate of its present activity, which, it may be remarked _en passant_, has owed nothing to the natives, but is entirely due to the energy of foreigners.

No fewer than 64 powerful mail steamers, of the united burthen of 96,000 tons, and representing a money value of at least L4,000,000, ply, part on the Atlantic side (Southampton _via_ St. Thomas, and New York to Aspinwall), part on the Pacific side to the various harbours on the west coast of America, and keep up regular communication between Europe and that series of States, consisting of not less than 11,000,000 human beings. The value of the products and merchandise annually passing to and fro across the Isthmus amounts to about L15,000,000, while the amount of precious metals is not very much less.

The pearl-fishery in the Gulf of Panama has of late years notably fallen off from its former importance. At present it lags far behind that of the Persian Gulf, from which there are annually about L300,000 worth brought up, whereas here, notwithstanding the enormous extent of the pearl-oyster-banks, the yearly take of pearls does not exceed L24,000. Indeed the fishery is carried on less for its costly contents than for the sake of the mother-of-pearl itself, of which some 800 or 900 tons are shipped annually.

On 23rd June I went by rail from Panama to Aspinwall, on the Atlantic side. Except on the days when the steamers on either side bring their fortnightly quota of passengers, the traffic of the line is very small. When, however, the passenger steamer at either end has disembarked her living freight, the Isthmus is all alive, and the coffers of the Company are amply replenished. The number of passengers both ways annually has been estimated at from 36,000 to 40,000, and the gross receipts of the Company at from L200,000 to L300,000.[155]

The fare for the somewhat short distance, 47 miles, is high. There is but one class of carriage, and the charge is L5 5_s._, besides 10 cents (5_d._) for every pound of baggage above 30 lbs. But it must always be borne in mind that enormous difficulties had to be overcome in the construction of the line, and that the cost of maintaining the permanent way in anything like order is very great, in consequence of the climate and the rich tropical vegetation. Whoever has struggled through the almost impenetrable forests of the Isthmus, before the rail passed through it, and bears in mind the immense physical difficulties of that laborious operation, would thankfully pay double the sum now charged for performing within a few hours a journey which often occupied a whole week.

The construction of the Panama Railroad was commenced in 1850, the first sod being cut on the Atlantic side. On 27th January, 1855, the locomotive first performed the journey from ocean to ocean. The cost of construction amounted to about L1,100,000.[156] This capital was speedily subscribed by the eager speculative Yankees, and, as the result proved, insured from the very first to the shareholders a handsome constantly-increasing dividend.

The concession enjoyed by the Company from the Government of New Granada only lasts for twenty years, from the day on which the entire line is opened; on the expiry of that period the New Granada Government must either pay down 5,000,000 dollars (the entire cost of construction), or extend the concession for ten years more. At the expiration of this second term, the Government may purchase for 4,000,000 dollars, or grant a third term of equal length, after which they are to be at liberty to purchase it for 2,000,000 dollars.

The traffic managers of the line, Messrs. Lewine and Dorsay, showed me the most polite attention. The resident director, Mr. Center, whose office is in Aspinwall, and to whom I had letters of introduction, invited me by telegraph to make free use of the line, as nothing would give him greater pleasure than to become of some service to a scientific traveller. I took with me fourteen goodly packages, chiefly collections of natural history. Most of these required great care and attention, some on account of their fragile texture, others in consequence of being of a perishable nature. All these were transported with as much care as though they had been charged the very highest rate of freight. The treatment of scientific travellers is to some extent a measure of the degree of civilization of a people. Hence it is that the North American States and the British colonies are the points of the globe where the efforts of scientific travellers elicit the heartiest sympathy, where he may count upon the most friendly reception, and the most cordial co-operation in carrying out the objects he has in view. And speaking now after ten years of the most varied experiences of travel, I look back thankfully to the conspicuous evidences of good-will which I have universally received from all Americans, from the banks of the St. Lawrence to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and recall with gratitude how every class of the community bestirred itself to promote and facilitate the scientific researches of a solitary traveller,--how, more particularly, the press, that great power of the intellect, lent the utmost assistance of its influential position to forward my wishes, and how its columns, thanks to the interest its conductors themselves felt, were always open in the most remote districts to welcome the stranger. And now, when for a second time I received from the sons of that same mighty republic the same cordiality of welcome, I recalled with redoubled vivacity the happiness of those long-vanished but most pleasant days, as I record this tribute with so much the more satisfaction, that I felt it was not the individual but his profession that was thus honoured, as is abundantly proved by the experience of many another scientific traveller.

The journey across the Isthmus, right through the heart of the primeval forest, which was decked out in its gayest attire, is one of the most exciting, soul-stirring scenes that the eye of the lover of nature ever rested upon. In no part of the world have I seen more luxuriant and abundant vegetation than is presented by the forests of Central America, and more especially upon the Isthmus. And, as if to heighten still further the sense of marvel and enchantment, one traverses this magnificent forest landscape behind a locomotive running on its iron track. What a contrast! The wild ravel of creepers and the green feathery branches of the palms almost penetrate into the waggons, and tell with unmistakeable emphasis that the traveller is indeed surrounded by all the beauties of Nature in her tropic garb. Trees of the most varied description and of colossal dimensions flourish in the foreign garment of a borrowed adornment. Between each solitary giant of a forest tree, parasites and _Lianae_ spread their delicate green coils, while many a gigantic stem, enveloped in thousands of beautiful shoots, or dead trunk choked in the embrace of a parasitic creeper, attracts the eye as the train speeds past. So quick and so strong is the process of vegetation here, that every section of this line has twice in each year to be freed from the encroachments of the forest-children; nay, were the line to be left unused but for one twelvemonth, it would be difficult to discover any trace of its existence, so completely within that time would the whole district become once more a wilderness!

The physico-geographical conditions of the Isthmus have only latterly been made the subject of profound and exhaustive study by a German naturalist, who has published the result of his researches. The justly-dreaded climate was the main cause of its having been so long left unexamined. To that keen indefatigable _savant_, Dr. Moritz Wagner, my whilom faithful travelling companion through Northern and Central America, is due the praise of having first accurately and analytically investigated the territory of the Isthmus,--that dam which separates two ocean worlds as it may be considered from one point of view,--that bridge which unites two immense continents as it may be regarded from another,--and who, in so doing, has contributed many new and important facts to our previous stock of statistics respecting the hypsometrical and geognostic features of the Isthmus, as well as to the geographical distribution of the forms of organic life which are found there.

In the course of constructing the railroad, the geological profile of the country was laid open through a length of 47 miles. This fortunate circumstance the German naturalist availed himself of as an excellent opportunity for carrying out his design, but his labours were none the less beset with difficulties, and only his indomitable perseverance could have carried him through the tropical intermittent fevers and mental anxiety, which at one time threatened to prostrate his physical strength, or even to lay him in his grave. Wagner had been first struck by the very remarkable evidence of an entire alteration in the form of the hills between Veragua and Obispo. This change in the vertical configuration, the decided depression of the Cordilleras, which is most apparent between Limon Bay (at the mouth of the Chagres river) and the Gulf of Panama, is just as much an important geological fact for physical geography, and for solving the important questions of the present and future commerce so intimately connected with the artificially cutting through of this neck of land, as the change in the horizontal configuration or the sudden compression of this part of the world in the north-west of the province of Choco, or the rugged steepness that characterizes the range of hills which forms the contour of the coast-line. The geological and botanical specimens, those most reliable of all data for physical generalization, with which Wagner illustrates his interesting exposition of the natural character, the prevailing formations, and the most prominent representations of the vegetation of the Isthmus, form at present a valuable part of the collections of natural history in the Museum of Munich.

The journey across is not made at the speed one would expect on a line where the locomotive is in charge of a Yankee. It takes four hours to do the 47-1/2 English miles. The stations are very numerous, often situate in the heart of the forest, where there are only a few labourers' huts. Moreover, halts are frequent at spots where there are no passengers visible, either to take up or set down. One of the most beautiful of the stations is that at the little village of Paraiso, about nine miles distant from Panama, which lies in a kettle-shaped glade. At this point large clearings have been made, and the eye ranges over a rather more extended landscape, only bounded in fact by the contour of the neighbouring hills. The only inhabitants are negroes, mulattoes, and mestizoes, who for the most part are employed as labourers on the line. A few miles after leaving Paraiso, the train reaches the station of Culebra, or, as it is more generally called by the inhabitants, "the Summit," the narrow steep rise of which marks the water-shed between the Rio Grande, falling into the Pacific, and the Rio Chagres, which debouches into the Caribbean Sea. This is the highest point of the line. The actual height of the pass is 287 English feet, but it has been lowered by about 25 feet, so that Summit station is only 262 feet above the mean level of the ocean.

The most important village along the line is Matachin, a large straggling village, which, however, seems to be inhabited exclusively by negroes, mulattoes, and Zamboes. As I have previously remarked, the majority of the labourers on the line emigrated hither from the West Indies, especially Jamaica, attracted by the high wages of labour, and after it was completed, settled along its course in neat, clean, but small cottages. And whereas the baleful tropical climate decimated every other class of labourer employed during the construction of the lines, these latter have flourished here better than any other description of settler. They seem to be universally healthy and well fed, and their oceans of children, who impart life to the landscape, attest that the women have not lost their fertility. They all seemed to be well and were neatly clothed. However, when I crossed, it happened to be a holiday, and consequently every one wore his Sunday dress, clean white trowsers, white shirt, and a narrow-brimmed hat of fine straw.

Near Barbacoa station the eye of the traveller, that has hitherto revelled in the voluptuous beauties of nature, rests with pleasure on a splendid trophy of human industry, an iron bridge, 600 feet long, which spans the River Chagres at this point. It was on one of the Cerros, a little west of Barbacoa, that Vasco Nunez de Balboa first beheld both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans at once, and, regarding his stand-point in the Isthmus as a mere handful of earth, may have imagined himself a conqueror, whose glance comprehended both worlds.

The last portion of the line, as we near the Atlantic side, passes over vast swamps, which rendered the construction of this portion of the road exceedingly difficult and very expensive. Aspinwall itself moreover, the terminus of the Inter-oceanic Railway, lies on a small island, two-thirds of the surface of which is morass, and covered with tropical marsh vegetation. This station was selected, notwithstanding its very unwholesome climate, chiefly because the roadstead of Limon Bay furnishes a safe anchorage in all weathers for vessels of even the largest size.

This small island, only 7000 feet long by 5800 wide, which was first named from the immense quantity of _Hippomane mancinella_, a tree with a very powerful poison, that is found on it, and is now called "Isla de Manzanilla," was formally made over by the New Granada Government to the American Company at the beginning of the works in the year 1852, and was used by it for the new city, as also for the erection of warehouses, &c.

Aspinwall, or Colon, as it is sometimes called, numbers at present some 1500 inhabitants, of whom 150 are North Americans and English, the rest negroes and mulattoes. The little town, with its neat frame-houses and clean cottages, involuntarily reminds one of the new settlements in the North American States. Here, besides the residences of the officials, are the warehouses and workshops of the Company. In the latter about 700 workmen are employed, while four schooners maintain uninterrupted communication between Aspinwall and New York, for the purpose of providing for the various wants of the crowded establishment. Even the very provisions are imported from North America. The resident director, Mr. A. J. Center, received me with the most hearty welcome, and during my entire stay continued to display the same kindness and interest, which he manifested from the moment he received my letter of introduction.

In Aspinwall the climate has within the last few years become more salubrious than at the period of the first colonization, when "Chagres fever" acquired a gruesome reputation, and no resident who stayed above two months in the place escaped the attack of the fever. Even mules and dogs could not escape the universal malaria. However, to this day a lengthened residence on this marshy soil is not unattended with danger, although the miasmatic poison has undoubtedly lost much of its virulence. The negroes longest resist its dangerous effect, after whom come the coolies, then the Europeans, while the Chinese are invariably the earliest attacked.[157]

On 23rd June, about midnight, I left Limon Bay in the steamer _Medway_. Having been committed to the charge of her captain by the kind attention of Mr. B. Cowan, the English Consul in Aspinwall, I found myself more comfortable and better attended to on board this small filthy old tub than I could possibly have expected. The Company avowedly employ in the Intercolonial lines the worst and most uncomfortable of their vessels, and the traveller who has to make any short passage, for instance, among the West India islands, is exposed to the doubly disagreeable feeling of paying a very much higher rate of fare, for very inferior accommodation. The _Medway_ was an old acquaintance of mine in my previous West Indian rambles, as in former years she performed the mail service between Belize, Jamaica, Hayti, Porto Rico, St. Thomas, and Havanna, and this opportunity of renewing my acquaintance with her I hailed with anything but a sentiment of satisfaction.