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Show 4.6 ber of passengers congregate at this spot and have to wait their turn in being conveyed across the Isthmus, as but one hundred can be carried daily, who can fortell the suffering that may, must take place. Companies would not leave their sick comrades or dying friends, and victim after victim would there find a grave ! The river journey is performed in canoes, propelled up the stream by means of poles.. From Chagres to CrucE;s the distance is about forty-five or fifty miles. The traveler! who, for the first time in his life, embarks on a South American river like the Chagres, cannot fail to experience a singular depression of spirits at the dark and sombre aspect of the scene. In the first place, he finds himself in a small canoe, so small that he is forced to lay quietly in the very centre of the stern portion, in order to prevent it upsetting. The palm leaf thatch (or toldo, as it is termed on the river) over his portion of the boat, shuts out much of the view, while his baggage, piled carefully amidshi~s, and covered with oiled cloths, encerrados, as they are termed, is under the charge of his active boatman, who, stripped to the buff, with long pole in hand, expertly propells the boat up stream, with many a cry and strange exclamation. 'fhe river itself i£ a dark, muddy, and rapid stream; in some parts quite narrow, and again, at other points, it is from three hundred to five hundred yards wide. Let no one fancy that it resembles the bright and cheerful rivers which are mt>t with here at the North. No pleasant vilJages adorn its banks-no signs of civilization are seen on them • nothing but the sombre primeval forest, which gro~s with ~ll the luxury of the tropic~ down to the very margin of 1ts swampy banks; and the Inangrove, and all the 1ribe o~ low hush~s, which love to luxuriate in marshy ground, fnnge the sHies of the river, affording a most convenie ~t 47 place of resort for the alligators, with which the marshy country swarms. The sensible traveler, however who remains quiet in his boat and make~ no adventuro~s visits_ on shore, is perfectly safe from any harm from these animals, or the small panthers, monkeys and deadly snakes with which the country on each banfr of the river abounds. But those adventurous spirits who, here in New York, talk of l~nding on the banks and shooting ga~e eno~gh for their provisions, will find the thing to be 1mposs1ble; as, even if they were to succeed in cross ... ing the marshy banks on to firm ground without suffering from the alligators, they would find the forest so ~hick and tangled as to forbid further passage, and lucky 1ndeed would they be if they got back to their boat unharmed by snakes or other poisonous reptiles. The journey to Cruces or Gorgona is not a long one. Of course its length depends on the heaviness of the boat and the number of hands poling it up. A light canoe ' with two active boatmen and but one passenger in it' will reach Cruces in ten or twelve hours, whilst a hea: vier one might require thirty-six hours to accomplish the passage. The passenger must take his provisions with hitn, as none are to be had on the river, and a good water filter will be found a great convenience, as the river water is so muddy that it it apt to derange the bowels, unless filtered in some way before drinking it. In view of the great and sudden influx of passengers to Chagres ~t the present time, it is impossible to say how they will all be accommodated with canoes, and what the river journey will cost. In former times the supply of canoes was quite limited, and the charge depended on the c·elerity with which the journey was performed. A doubloon ( $16) was the lowest charge for a single passenger, and fro:n that up to two, three, and four doubloonB. As for . |
