motion of the train, and armed with a pitcher or pail
of iced water, the ride is indeed charming. But at
the time of which I write crossing the Isthmus was a
very different affair, as I shall show.
Placed ashore at Aspinwall by the ship's boats the passengers by the Georgia were conveyed on open platform cars to Gatun, seven miles distant, situated on a small stream of the same name, near its conflu- ence with the Chagres river. There an uproarious scene presented itself The occasion was the hiring of bongos or canoes in which to ascend the river. The boating was done by negroes and natives ; the patrones, skippers, or owners of the boats were mostly Creoles, the least tinge of whiteness in their blood being suffi- cient to warrant them in asserting supremacy. The gold-seekers were here first thrown upon their own resources ; here the real battle began. On shipboard they were only so much steamship pabulum ; the goddess of liberty had shrunk to the dimensions of a, captain of a water craft. Once more on shore, and American manhood mio;ht aoain assert itself Of course attempts w^ould be made at cheating, and such attempts should be resisted to the death. Nothhig quicker marks the narrow-minded and inexperienced traveller than a morbid fear of being overreached. Shall the American eao-le be brow-beaten bv the turkey -buzzards of a nonderscrij^t No-land ? Hence _any attempt at fancied imposition was blustered down, and knives and pistols freely used, if necessary, to en- force fair dealiiio;.
Seldom did a steamer load of passengers get started up the river without much wrangling. Boat-owners were not slow to take advantao-e of their necessities, and charge exorbitant fares ; or having made a con- tract they flew from it and demanded more. Rascal- ity was rampant ; and so keen were the adventurers to scent a swindle that they sometimes found a mare's nest. Many a pilgrim here first shed the crust of conventionality ; and many another on glancing into
