the streets from one bedizened altar to another, while
the shaven priest with his peculiar hat, long black
robe with brijj^ht satin lining^, small clothes fastened
at the knee with golden buckles, white silk stockings,
slippered feet, and cigar, surveyed with zealous inter-
est the effect of his enli<xhtened teachintrs.
But on all days were seen stealthy coffee-colored men with thin shiewy limbs; stealthy half-naked women with twinkling jet eyes and bronze bust glis- tening in the palpitating light; girls and boys sur- rounded with cocoanuts, oranges, and limes, bananas, eggs, and flowers of shell work. There were avenues of fruit and vegetable stalls ; while through the open doors under the veranda the more aristocratic traf- fickers displayed their dry goods, groceries, and liquors.
The main streets in the central part of the city were lined with hotels, shops, and gambling saloons, newly whitewashed and adorned with flaming sign- boards in English vocables, while on nearly every other house waved the stars and stripes. This busy renovated centre was flanked by crumbling vine-clad walls and mouldering ruins. In its palmy days the two sides of the town facing the sea were protected by batteries, and the sides toward the land by a high wall with watch-towers and moat. The bastions were constructed at different times as necessity de- manded, and presented an irregular appearance ; and though the walls were high the fortifications were not strong. Panama was divided into two parishes, one, the city proper, lying within the wall, and called San Felipe, the other, that portion without the wall called Santa Ana. Two large gates opened toward the sea and two toward the land; the latter once strongly fortified were entered by drawbridges. The popular promenade was the rampart, round whose tottering walls and ragged turrets were scattered the dismantled guns of brass, so richly wrought and so carefully embossed by the great foundries of Barcelona.
The private houses of San Felipe were mostly of
