It now became terribly hot, and the sun was nearly overhead at noon.  Sometimes a shark could be seen along-side, and though he seemed to make no effort, easily kept up with the moving ship.  Occasionally we saw a sea snake navigating the ocean all by himself.  I did not understand how these fellows went to sea and lived so far from land.  The flying fish seemed to be more plentiful as we went along, and would leave the water and scud along before us.

We had evening concerts on the forecastle, managed by the sailors.  Their songs were not sacred songs by any means, and many of them hardly fit to be heard by delicate ears.  We again had to run the gauntlet of the narrow passage and have our tickets looked over, and this time a new stowaway was found, and he straightway made application for a job.  “Go below, sir” was all the Captain said.  Several died and had their sea burial, and some who had been so sick all the way as not to get out of bed, proved tough enough to stand the climate pretty well.

As we were nearing Panama the doctor posted a notice to the mast cautioning us against eating much fruit while on shore, as it was very dangerous when eaten to excess.  We anchored some little distance from the shore and had to land in small boats managed by the natives.  I went in one, and when the boat grounded at the beach the boatman took me on his back and set me on shore, demanding two dollars for the job, which I paid, and he served the whole crowd in the same way.  The water here was blood warm, and they told me the tide ran very high.

This was a strange old town to me, walled in on all sides, a small plaza in the center with a Catholic church on one side, and the other houses were mostly two story.  On the side next to the beach was a high, thick wall which contained cells that were used for a jail, and on top were some dismounted cannon, long and old fashioned.

The soldiers were poor, lazy fellows, barefooted, and had very poor looking guns.  Going out and in all had to pass through a large gateway, but they asked no questions.  The streets were very narrow and dirty and the sleeping rooms in the second story of the houses seemed to be inhabited by cats.  For bed clothes was needed only a single sheet.  On the roofs all around sat turkey buzzards, and anything that fell in the streets that was possible for them to eat, was gobbled up very quickly.  They were as tame as chickens, and walked around as fearless and lordly as tame turkeys.  In consideration of their cleaning up the streets without pay, they were protected by law.  One of the passengers could not resist the temptation to shoot one, and a small squad of soldiers were soon after him, and came into a room where there were fifty of us, but could not find their man.  He would have been sent to jail if he had been caught.  We had to pay one dollar a night for beds in these rooms, and they counted money at the rate of eight dimes to the dollar.