Dottings on the roadside, in Panama, Nicaragua, and Mosquito

Front matter

DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE,

IN

PANAMA, NICARAGUA,

Preface

Since the year 1846 the authors of this work have been practically acquainted with Central America, and have travelled over the greater part of it. They hope, therefore, that a few 'Dottings on the Koadside ' about countries so much talked of, yet so little known as Panama, Nicaragua, and Mosquito, may be acceptable.

Their object has been to place before the public the knowledge they have gleaned in such a form that those who desire information on the subject may be assisted in forming a correct judgment as to the real condition of British relations with the American Continent.

Since the time when Mr. Monroe undertook to lay down a trade doctrine for the New World, and claimed a monopoly of the entire Continent for his countrymen, the difficulty of transacting business there has steadily increased ; nor is it likely to be lessened, so long as the folly is every year perpetuated of allowing 200,000 emigrants and at least £1,000,000 sterling to drift across the Atlantic, to swell the ranks of the gigantic

Vlll PREFACE.

" Trades Union " which the United States have now become.

That the period is not far off when at least the northern part of the Western Hemisphere will be more or less closed to English commercial enterprise, seems clear from the following apparently acceptable counsel just given (April 1869) to the new President, General U. S. Grant :—

" Here are Cuba, St. Domingo, and Mexico, and the Central American States down to Darien. They are the locks and keys of the Gulf and of the American Isthmus passages from ocean to ocean. A decisive American policy on the part of General Grant will absorb all these outlying islands and States, and add so largely to our material revenues as to reduce the national debt to a mere trifle, Then there are the Alabama claims, a proper basis upon which to negotiate the cession to the United States of her Britannic Majesty's North American provinces of the New Dominion, from Halifax to Vancouver Island ; for this thing, too, is in the order of " manifest destiny."

To this subject, of which the u Mosquito Question" forms no inconsiderable part, the undersigned has devoted much time and attention, which he hopes may atone in some degree for the marked contrast between the literary style of his part of the book and that of Dr. Berthold Seemann, who is still absent in Nicaragua, but whose ' Dottings ' have already appeared in the ' Athenaeum.'

The Plates are from sketches taken on the spot by Lieutenant Oliver, E.A., and Mr. George Chambers,

PREFACE. IX

both of whom accompanied the undersigned in some of his jonrneyings.

The Maps, for which he is solely responsible, contain the latest reliable additions and corrections, the result of nearly ten years' experience of the nature of the country.

The Appendix has been carefully arranged, and in it — thanks to a great authority on Mosquitian affairs, Mr. Henry Jacobs, — will be found ample materials for those who desire fuller details.

BEDFOED PIM,

Captain, Royal Navy.

11, Belsize Square, Hampstead, N.W. May, 1860

Chapter I. Page

Attempted Negro Revolt at Panama. — General Olarte. — Petition from a Convict Boy. — Railroad across the Isthmus. — Improvements caused by it. — Foreign Enterprise. — Gold Mines of Barbacoas. — War between Spain and Chili. — Anecdote of Abraham Lincoln 1

Chapter II

Treasure-trove. — The Story of the Cocos Island. — An Old Pirate. — The Divining Eod in the New World. — I awake and find myself famous. — Captain Dow. — M. Zeltner. — Chiriqui Inscriptions. — Their Singular Resemblance to the Ancient British.— A Bold Theory m , . . _. 17

Chapter III

Departure from Panama. — The Railroad Steamers. — Punta Arenas. — Expedition up the Rio Frio. — Modern Sirens. — Corinto. — Captain Cauty. — Leon. — A Disagreeable-smelling Plant. — Mimicry in Nature.— We Start for New Segovia . . 33

CHAPTER IY.

A Deep Well.— A Short Cut.— Farm of Pilon.— Achuapa.— The Schoolmaster Abroad. — Region of Oaks and Pines. — Bonbon. — Jamaili. — Future of Nicaragua. — Arrival at Ocotal . . . 49

Xll CONTENTS.

Chapter V. Page

General Interest of Spanish Americans in Mining. — Excursions to Maquelizo, Limon, and Depilto. — Departure from Ocotal. — Matagalpa. — Ocalca. — Sebaco. — A Royal Present .... 65

Chapter VI

Foreign Enterprise in Nicaragua. — Negative Kesult of our Journey through New Segovia and Matagalpa. — Resolve to try Chontales. — Sketch of the Exploration of that Gold District by Captain Pirn and his Party. — Our Return to Leon . . . . 81

Chapter VII

Departure from Leon for Chontales. — Huge Tree at Nagarote. — Relieving a Thirsty Soul. — Managua. — General Martinez. — Lagoon of Tiscapa. — Arrival at Libertad 95

Chapter VIII

The Story of the Javali Mine. — Gold of Nicaragua. — Earth Eaters. — Vegetation. — Indians. — Antiquities 107

Chapter IX

Visit to the Head- Quarters of the Chontales Company. — Roughing it. — Amusing Narrative of Nicaraguan Travel. — The Purchase of the Javali Mine determined upon. — Religious Service under Difficulties. — San Juan and San Miguel Mines. — Journey to Granada. — Acote. — Granada. — Homeward Journey. — Managua. — Jjeon. — Captain Dow. — Specimen of Popular Scientific Writing 12!

CONTENTS. Xlll

Chapter X. Page

Punta Arenas. — Excursion to the Island of San Lucas. — Arrival in the Bay of Panama. — Note about South- American Pile- Builders. — A Geographical Puzzle about the Cocoa-Nut. — Excursion to the Bayano Eiver. — Reflections on the Ruins of Old Panama 149

Chapter XI

Rise of the Buccaneers. — Henry Morgan. — Invasion of the Isthmus of Panama. — Storming of Cbagres. — Destruction of Old Panama 165

Chapter XII

Departure of Author for Panama. — Return to Nicaragua. — La Merced. — Natural Products of the Country. — The Javali Again. — Opening up Road to the Atlantic. — A Nocturnal Pete. — Two Dying-out Races. — Return to England 193

Chapter XIII

A Geographical Lecture. — Kingston. — Coaling a Steamer.— Leave-taking and Shopping. — Negro Cruelty and Insolence. — Port Royal. — A Dignity. — Departure from Jamaica .... 209

CHAPTER XIY.

Port Royal to Grey town. — A Gloomy Look-out. — Dr. Green and Mr. Cottrell.— Singular Silting.— Rolling. —The First Lieutenant's and Doctor's Yiews. — Homily . . . • . • 225

A Naive Confession. — Queen Dowager and Princesses. — Unsophisticated Nature. — A Fleet of Turtlers. — A Hungry Shark. — His Majesty on Board 291

Chapter XIX

Aborigines. — Manners and Customs. — Births, Deaths, and Marriages.— Mosquito Indians v. Trades Unions. — Early History of Mosquito. — Nelson's Attack on Nicaragua. — Bill of Fare. — An Interesting Comparison. — Bolivar's Prediction. — Yearly Revolutions 305

Chapter XX

The Corn Islands. — Good Feeding-Ground. — A Rainy Fact. — Value of a Slave. — Cheap Philanthropy. — Buccaneer Haunts. — Old Providence. — St. Andrew's. — Mosquito Treaty. — Dog

CONTENTS. XV

PAGE

in the Manger. — Stars and Stripes. — Transit. — Statesmen or Politicians? 321

Chapter XXI

Nicaragua versus Mosquito. — Transit. — The British Interpose. — A. Comparison between '48 and '68. — True Economy. — Diplomacy and Intrigue. — Mr. Squier. — Destruction of Greytown. — Alabama. — Monroe Doctrine. — Use of Transits. — India- Eubber. — Pirn's Bay. — Snakes . 337

Chapter XXII

Popular Errors on Mosquito. — Revulsion of Feeling. — Adieu to the " Shore." — Early Transit Efforts. — Concession. — Journeyings. — Chontales. — Nicaraguan Railway Company, Limited. — Mr. W. H. Webb. — Junction of Atlantic and Pacific. — Nicaraguan idea of Colonization 357

Chapter XXIII

Blewfields Eiver. — The Great Storm of 1865. — Boat Impaled on Cocoa-nut Tree.— New Field for Professor Owen and Dr. Giinther. — Strong and "Weak Dollars. — How to Make a Chowpa. — Laying-in Provisions .369

Chapter XXIV

The Start up River. — Travelling by Night. — An Arctic Negro. — Brackish Water. — A Carib Breakfast. — Mosquitian Villas. — Hieroglyphics. — Woolwa Indians. — Kisilala. — Mush-La. — A Live Candlestick. — Mahogany. — Its Great Value. — Indian Manners. — -Chocolate. — The Spanish Hammock 385

CHAPTER XXV. Up River Notes. — Indian Geographers. — Carka to Javali

XVI CONTENTS.

PAGE

Ophir. — Iguana. — How to Fight "Do Dcbbcl." — Simon. — Arrive tit Blewfielris. — Result of Trip. — Dr. Seemann. — Conclusion 417

Appendix

Terms of Concession concluded in 3 859 between His Majesty the

King and Commander Bedford Pirn, Royal Navy .... 435 Terms of Railway Concession concluded in 18G5 between the Government of Nicaragua and Captain Bedford Pirn, of the English Royal Navy 437

Treaty between Her Majesty and the Republic of Honduras respecting the Bay Islands, the Mosquito Indians, and the Rights

and Claims of British. Subjects ., 446

Proceedings at a Public Meeting held at Blewfields, May 1st, 1867 450

King of Mosquito's Certificate 468

MAPS AND ILLUSTBATIOJSTS.

MAPS.

Nicakagtja and Mosquito to face page 1

Part of Mosquito and Chontales 360

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Javali Mine to face Title

Catching Sardines 100

Ancient Grave and Headstone 126

Crossing the Bar at Greytown 229

Indian Hut 295

Junction of Atlantic and Pacific 365

DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE

Chapter I

ATTEMPTED NEGRO EEVOLT AT PANAMA. GENERAL OLAETE.—

PETITION EEOM A CONVICT BOY. RAILROAD ACEOSS THE

ISTHMUS. IMPEOVEMENTS CAUSED BY IT. — FOEEIGN ENTER- PRISE. GOLD MINES OF BARBACOAS. WAR BETWEEN SPAIN

AND CHILI. ANECDOTE OE ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

The cracked bells of Panama Cathedral had chimed half-past ten, and I was just thinking of transcribing a few dottings made for the ' Athenaeum ' since leaving Southampton, when my musings were suddenly interrupted by the repeated discharge of musketry. Half-past ten is a late hour of night in this part of the world, when all good people are fast asleep ; but the firing seemed to awaken everybody, and I soon learned what had happened. The dark forebodings of the local papers, that the negroes would attempt a rising, had been fulfilled. Their programme to

JB

2 DOTTINCS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Citap. I.— 13. S.

upset the Government, give the city up to pillage, kill all the white men they could, and distribute the prettiest of the white women amongst their ugly ringleaders, was about to be carried out. Though the noise increased every moment, a Chilian merchant, with whom I had to share a room in the overcrowded Aspinwall Hotel, slept so soundly that I was compelled to shake him rudely in order to awaken him. He stared when told that he might have his throat cut before he was aware of it ! The Calle Eeal was full of soldiers, and on the balconies of the different houses were groups of frightened people, awaiting, arms in hand, the attacks of the negro mob. Fortunately for all concerned, General Olarte, commanding the garrison of this place, mostly pure Indians, was equal to the emergency, and spared us the horrors which u our black brothers" had in store for us.

It appears that, if the revolt had been successful, a Venezuelan General, Lavel de Goda, who was a frequent visitor at Aspinwall Hotel, and attracted the attention of every one by his distinguished appearance and tasteful toilet, was to have been the President of this State of the Eepublic. The negro party had also endeavoured to bribe one of Olarte' s officers to admit them into the principal barrack of the town, and supply them with arms and ammunition. The officer, feigning compliance, admitted about 100 negroes and some of their leaders, and then suddenly closed the trap. At this moment General Olarte arrived with more soldiers, and a few rounds of shot dispersed the rabble, eleven

Chap. I.— B. S.] GENERAL OLAETE. d

negroes being killed on the spot, and a good many others mortally wounded.

The next morning, that is, on the 25th of March, 1866, everybody went to inspect the scene of action. The corpses of the negroes had been left as a warning on the ground, and I have seldom seen more brntal faces. Afterwards I passed a mean-looking building, where a crowd was gathering, and there saw a colonel of the rebels, more than two-thirds negro, just in the act of dying. Once before this man had been in arms against the Eepnblic, and he had been banished in consequence ; but recently he had taken the liberty of returning, and was now paying the penalty of his folly. He was dressed in full uniform, and stretched out on the floor, closely surrounded by a crowd of negroes and Californian gold-diggers. His poor old mother was by his side, uttering frantic shrieks ; but the rest of the crowd exhibited no sign of sympathy, and no sooner had he drawn his last breath than four sturdy negroes carried him off as if he had been a mere log of wood, though he had just died in the vain attempt to obtain for them greater liberty, or rather say licence ; for in New Granada, of which the Isthmus of Panama forms a part, all the inhabitants, of whatever colour, have equal privileges.

General Olarte, the saviour of society in this instance, is a fine, soldier-like man, with handsome features, and a splendid jet-black beard. ' ' The moment I looked into his face I knew the negro was doomed." There was something there which plainly told that he knew the cowardly disposition of the blacks, and

B 2

4 DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. I.— B. S.

was not afraid to act upon his own responsibility. The morning after the outbreak he was busy making arrests, and the coolness which he displayed sat well upon him. He wore plain clothes, and carried nothing but a riding-whip. A young officer and a private soldier, a grinning, good-humoured, shoeless Indian, dressed in a dirty -white cotton uniform with red facings, and merely a bayonet by his side, were the General's only companions. Amongst those whom I happened to see arrested was a well-dressed coloured man, who went to prison with a swagger, involuntarily reminding one of Don Ca3sar de Bazan. He smoked his cigarette with the greatest nonchalance and in passing some of his friends made gestures as much as to say, This is the way in which the last of a noble race should die. The grinning Indian had also lit his cigarette, and seemed quite to enjoy the fun of the situation. Two of the negro servants of Aspinwall Hotel were beckoned out and shut up ; whilst another servant, also a darky, had been too severely wounded the night before to allow him to be removed. The latter was to have been minister-of-war ; and, under these circumstances, he had thought it incumbent upon himself to turn out the night before and lead the charge, which resulted in his receiving two shots in the back, almost fatal to him. He had been indiscreet enough to tell the other waiters the grandeur that he was about to assume ; how he was going to have his bedroom papered with bank-notes, and who was the young white lady he had an eye to in case all should go well. What a burlesque the politics of

Chap.L— B.S.] A HUMBLE PETITION. 5

Spanish America are ! When some months afterwards I paid another visit to Panama, he had so far recovered as to be able to wait at table again, and I heard the guests of the Aspinwall banter him occasionally about his lofty aspirations. " Gentlemen," he said, on one of these occasions, " I have relinquished my political career, and resumed my ordinary occupation ; so please don't tease."

In the square before the prison were crowds of coloured women, most of them shouting to the prisoners who had been caught in the trap the night before. They had brought for them quantities of cigars, oranges, pine-apples, and other good things, which the good-natured Indian soldiers carried in to them. The prisoners seemed to be in the very best of spirits, and kept up a continual bantering with their outside friends, little thinking that at that moment it was seriously debated whether all of them should or should not be shot.

"Whilst wondering at the strange scene before me, a negro boy of about seventeen and belonging to the chain-gang, introduced himself as a native of Jamaica and a former pupil of one of the missionary schools there. In a most respectful yet insinuating manner he begged me to receive "a petition," which, he assured me, he had written all himself. The document, wdiich he desired me to keep, ran, spelling and all, as follows : —

"My dear Gentlemen. — I have just take up My Pen in hand to Address you in these few Lines hoping

6 DOTTING S ON THE ROADSIDE. [Cjiap. I.— 13. S.

wlicn it Beaches your hand it may find you as it Leaves me at Present. Sir, and i have just ask you this favour if you could let Me have Something if you Please, for i Am a Poor Stranger and i as got No Person to give Me Nothing at All, Sir, for I Am in the Chain Gang, Sir, not for stealing, for the Holy Bible says in the 15th Chapter of Exydos Honesty is the Best of Policies.

" I Eemain your Obedient Servant, Sir,

" Henry Brown."

I asked the Superintendent of the convicts what was the crime committed by the interesting boy, who wished that his communication might find me where it left him — in the chain-gang, I suppose ; and I learned that he had stolen a pair of shoes, value about two shillings, for which he had been condemned to the rather disproportionate punishment of eleven months of hard labour, in company with confirmed robbers and murderers. The man added, that he had two or three other Jamaica men in the gang, — one of them for murder, — and if I could give them a trifle, it would be conferring a real boon upon them. Under these circumstances I complied with the " petition;" and I believe the publicity which I gave to it procured the boy his freedom, for I afterwards found him carrying on the trade of shoe-black and " shoewhite," — I suppose that is the right term for a person who covers your canvas shoes with pipeclay. He had evidently a fancy for shoes.

The reader, finding himself now in the midst of an abortive negro revolt, need not apprehend my ex-

Ciiap. L— B. S.] THE IRREPRESSIBLE NEGRO. 7

changing for a while the office of narrator for that of chorus of an antique tragedy by producing forthwith a leading article on a subject worn threadbare long before I left London by constant discussion of the Jamaica outbreak. I have had my little say about it at St. James's Hall, was applauded for it by the crowded meeting — the largest anti-negro demonstration ever held in London, — and abused in company with the majority of the speakers by some of the newspapers, praised by others. Why should I by reiterating my views in this place put some of my readers in bad humour ? I will not do it, convinced as I am that all those who, like myself, have lived amongst the blacks, and are honest and bold enough to make known the sum of their experience, have but one opinion about them, viz. that the negroes will never be able to take a leading position, educate them as much as you may, and that therefore all attempts to place them on a footing of equality with the white man must prove futile. The negro, the irrepressible negro, naturally formed the principal topic of conversation on board the mail steamer on my outward passage, and as nearly everybody connected with the West Indies had more or less suffered by the policy pursued towards these islands, the general tone was not free from bitterness. The effect of the Jamaica outbreak was just as might have been predicted by any one conversant with the negro character from personal observation. When the news of the steps Governor Eyre had adopted spread through the West Indies, nothing could exceed the good behaviour of the blacks. They were as obliging

8 DOTTINGS ON THE KOADSIDE. [Chap. I.— B. S.

and respectful to the whites as could be wished ; but no sooner did they hear of the stir made by their friends in England, and the pressure they had brought to bear upon Government, than they resumed their wonted insolence. " Who is at present Governor of St. Thomas ?" I asked the boatman who put me on shore at that island, innocently expecting to hear his name. " He is a white man now, but he may soon be a black ;" was the significant reply. " There you see," said a military officer who was in the same boat with me, and had been in the West Indies before ; " there you have the effect of your leading articles, and your negrophilist meetings. If you stop long enough, you will have much to reflect upon, and be able to collect such answers as these by the hundred."

"As I was riding out one afternoon," he continued, warming on the subject, "I found the road blocked up by negroes, and called out to them to make room for me to pass. One of them turned sharply round, and indignantly demanded i who de debil I was ?' It was the Queen's highway, and they had as much right to loiter as I had to ride upon it. I was not a whit better than a black man, and they would not stir an inch. I gave the fellow fair warning that unless he stood aside I would ride over him ; and as he took no notice of what I said, I had no option but to carry my threat into execution ; but, knowing that I should be fined £5 for the assault, I took a mean advantage of the opportunity by administering to the saucy fellow a fair castigation with a rhinoceros whip brought from the Cape of Good Hope."

Chap. L— B. S.] ATTEMPT AT POISONING. 9

One of my fellow-passengers, an officer in her Majesty's service, gave me many curious details about negro life in the West Indies. He had been compelled to go home in order to recruit his health, which had been very much shattered by slow poison administered by his black cook, whom he had scolded for being dead drunk on the day of a dinner party. The officer found that after every luncheon (a meal which he always took by himself) he became sick ; he consulted his medical man, but never suspected any foul play on the part of the negro. However, one day mentioning the case to a friend, he heard to his surprise that the late mistress of the cook had suffered from similar symptoms, and finally died. The luncheon was analysed, but the chemists of Trinidad failed to detect any trace of poison. The case being sufficiently suspicious, the poisoned man insisted that the cook should be dismissed by the messman, but, as he was considered to be the best cook in the island, his brother officers naturally objected to comply with the request, and they tried to argue that the sickness must have some other cause, as they themselves were never affected by any unpleasant symptoms after partaking of their meals. To set the matter finally at rest, one of the other officers offered to partake of the luncheon, the cook not being made previously acquainted with the fact. No sooner, however, had he eaten of the luncheon than he too became veryrsick ; and then there remained no doubts that poisoning had been attempted.

" One would have thought facts like these," my informant added, " would have been sufficiently strong

10 DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. L— B. S.

to warrant the apprehension of the cook ; and in most other countries they would, but in the West Indies it would have been perfectly useless to attempt to prosecute the man. He would probably have been tried by a black, or two -thirds black, jury, and even in the face of much stronger evidence than could have been adduced, he would certainly have been acquitted.''

I remember a Jamaica magistrate, with whom I came home a few years ago, told me a similar story. His little daughter had been poisoned by a womancook, who took umbrage at his refusal to allow the cook's daughter to accompany the family when going out of town ; and, from other statements I could mention, I am inclined to believe that there is much secret poisoning going on wherever there is a mixed population of black and white.

That the two races will ever live harmoniously together on a footing of equality seems to me an Utopian idea. In all tropical countries the whites must naturally be in the minority ; and unless they can contrive by some means or other to exist there in the capacity of masters, they must go to the wall. The upshot of every revolution throughout Spanish America and the West Indies has been to bring the black element more and more to the surface. At first the negroes and half-castes combine against the pure whites ; and whenever the latter have been driven from power and decimated, the blacks turn against the half-castes. This has been the result pre-eminently in Venezuela and St. Domingo, two magnificent countries, now sunk as low politically and socially as it is possible for any country to sink.

Chap. L— B. S.] PANAMA RAILWAY. 11

The West Indians are glad to observe that at least a portion of the English press correctly appreciates the true bearing of the negro question, though they add despondingly it is too late ; the mischief has been done ; our planters have been ruined ; our merchants have gone away ; capital will never flow back in our time ; we have been sacrificed to a sentiment ; and we, our children, and grandchildren have been impoverished to prop up the absurd anthropological theory that the white and the black races are equal, a theory which nobody can maintain for a moment in the face of the facts he sees around him.

Panama, since I visited it in 1848, has much improved, owing principally to- the railway from Colon, which connects the traffic of the Atlantic with that of the Pacific Ocean. A great part of this railway goes through swamps, and is a noble monument of American enterprise. It is well known that but few of the natives could be induced to work on this great highway of nations, and that labour had to be imported from other parts, principally China; and when the rank swamp vegetation came to be disturbed, fearful miasmas arose, and such was their pernicious effect upon the workmen that every foot of the road cost a human life. The Chinese coolies took a most desponding view of the task the Americans had set before them, and every morning dozens were found suspended on the trees, so that a guard had to be set over them to prevent their committing self-destruction during the night. But American energy finally triumphed over every obstacle, and they have now the best paying railway in the world.

12 DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap.L— B. S.

It took four hours and a half to get across the isthmus, which to some of my fellow-passengers seemed long ; but not so to me, who had formerly spent four days in going over the same distance. At the various stations where the train stops there are very fine American houses, surrounded by nice flowergardens and neat white fences, forming a singular contrast with the wretched huts of the native negroes, which are neither better nor worse than I have known them twenty years ago. Yet food is as abundant as ever, and wages are much higher. To me it was a great treat to revel once more amongst the vegetation of a country about which I wrote the first Flora. The palm-groves seemed to nod their feathery leaves in friendly recognition ; and many of the trees and shrubs which I introduced to Science seemed to be so many old friends, glad to see me again.

When we arrived at Panama the first great improvements that struck me were omnibuses and carts. As late as 1848 a cruise upon wheels in the isthmus would have been impossible, there being not even a wheelbarrow in the whole country. The introduction of these improvements led to others, one of these being the pulling down of the old "land gate," and part of the wall of the city, to allow the vehicles to come into Panama ; and one of the others, the making of a good carriageroad to the savanas, where you have the most lovely park-like scenery in the world, — beautiful short grass, capital for galloping upon, clumps of fine trees and shrubs, a gently -undulating ground, little rivulets and now and then glimpses of the city, the bay, and

Chap. I.— B. S.] FOREIGN ENTERPRISE. 13

the islands. A lithogram published by Appleton, of New York, of which nearly all the copies were destroyed by fire, gives an excellent idea of these savanas and their vegetation ; and it is the only one I have seen that really does justice to the neighbourhood of Panama. Even such rough men as the buccaneers of old broke out in shouts of delight when, after toiling for days through the gloomy virgin forests of the isthmus, they at last reached the savanas, richly stocked with horses and cattle, and showing in the distance the wealthy city which they had come to sack.