after, we were in tribulation about our baggage,
which the packers failed to deliver as they had prom-
ised. Gradually the truth dawned upon us that this
was one of the tricks of the trade ; and when after
waitino; a week, and considerino; the distance from
Gorgona was only twenty-five miles, which could be
easily made in a day and a night, when we and many
others were obliged to go forward without our bag-
gage, we were satisfied, as we afterward learned to be
the truth, that Ave had been systematically swindled.
The fact was that civilization, under the impulse of the
gold-fever, had so tinctured this Isthmian wilderness
as to have overturned the influence of the simple-
minded savage, thus giving up travellers to men
more rapacious than beasts, which will not prey
upon their kind. At Chagres and on the river,
transportation had been left mainly to Creoles and
natives, as the occupation was too hazardous to health
for the shrewd northerners to undertake it ; but Gor-
gona a,nd Panamd, were comparatively healthy, and
here sharpers might take their stand and levy toll.
The native and mongrel races were not bad enough
nor bold enough for the situation. These could prac-
tise extortion on a small scale, but the cocking of a
pistol or the flash of a knife-blade usually brought
reparation. Here indeed was a field for nobler talent.
Hitherto, and for the last three centuries, dark-
skinned carriers had been content to appropriate only
a part of the effects committed to their care, and col-
lect freight on the portion delivered ; but for the double-
edged son of a higfher order of culture and broader
views such dealintrs were too tame. So he instituted
a reform, weighed baggage at Gorgona or Cruces,
and collected the freight in advance, ten or fifteen
cents a pound to Panama, then he could deliver such
portions as policy dictated, and keep the remainder
having secured the freight on it in advance in case it
should prove not worth the transportation. This
system I afterward learned from sources unquestiona-
