Both the man and beast looked very doubtful of each other’s future actions, but the man shook the water off and bestowed some lively kicks on his muleship which made him bounce into and through the mud-hole, and the captain, still holding the bridle, followed after.  Once across the pool the captain set his marine eye on the only craft that had been too much for his navigation and said “Vengeance should be mine,” and in this doubtful state of mind he cautiously mounted his beast again and fully resolved to stick to the deck, hereafter, at all hazards, he hurried on and soon overtook the train again, looking quite like a half drowned rooster.  The others laughed at him and told him they could find better water a little way ahead, at the river, and they would see him safely in.  The captain was over his pet, and made as much fun as any of them, declaring that he could not navigate such a bloody craft as that in such limited sea room, for it was dangerous even when there was no gale to speak of.

The ladies did not blush at the new and convenient costumes which they saw in this country, and laughed a good deal over the way of traveling they had to adopt.  Any who were sick were carried in a kind of chair strapped to the back of a native.  Passengers were strung along the road for miles, going and coming.  We would occasionally sit down awhile and let the sweat run off while a party of them passed us.  Some were mounted on horses, some on mules, and some on donkeys, and they had to pay twelve dollars for the use of an animal for the trip.

Our night at this wayside deadfall was not much better than some of the nights about Death Valley, but as I was used to low fare, I did not complain as some did.  This seemed a wonderful country to a northern raised boy.  The trail was lined on both sides with all kinds of palms and various other kinds of trees and shrubs, and they were woven together in a compact mass with trailing and running vines.  The trees were not tall, and the bark was as smooth as a young hickory.  The roots would start out of the tree three feet above the ground and stand out at an angle, and looked like big planks placed edgewise.

It seemed as if there were too many plants for the ground to support, and so they grew on the big limbs of the trees all around, the same as the mistletoe on the oak, only there were ever so many different kinds.

The weather was very clear, and the sun so hot that many of the travelers began to wilt and sit down by the roadside to rest.  Many walked along very slowly and wore long faces.  The road from Panama to Crucez, on the Chagres River, was eighteen miles long, and all were glad when they were on the last end of it.  The climate here seems to take all the starch and energy out of a man’s body, and in this condition he must be very cautious or some disease will overtake him and he will be left to die without burial for his body if he has no personal friends with him.