with the heat of the tropics and fatigued I threw myself in the water.  Lieutenant M. exclaimed:  “Do not give up in that way.”  “I am not giving up,” I replied; “only refreshing myself.”  In a short time he did the same thing.  As we lay there we thought we heard voices.  In looking back who should we see but one of our countrymen, the most gladdening sight to us.  We felt saved at once.  We asked him if he had any provision.  He said he thought not.  Then he said one of his companions might have a little piece of ham left and some crackers.  He said there were three of them, and they would soon be there, and when they came one of them had some bacon and a few crackers, which he gave to us.  The eating of it soon refreshed us.  As I had some of the brandy left in the bottle, I extended it to them, which they were very glad to receive.  Explanations ensued.  We, by chance, had struck the Crusos road, and were but ten miles from Panama.  They had come from Philadelphia in a brig, and had started across from Crusos, the head of boating on the Chagres river, and had been from two to three weeks getting so far across the Isthmus, and were perfectly astonished at the rapidity with which we had come.  So we joined them and arrived in Panama that evening.  Lieutenant M. and myself were the first of the one thousand passengers of the Georgia to enter the city.  The office of the agents of the Pacific steamers was closed.  I went, the first thing in the morning, to purchase the five tickets for our party.  Alas for human expectation!  I was informed it would be several weeks before the steamer would sail.  She had not yet returned from the first trip to San Francisco.  They said there were but sixty tickets for sale, and they would not be offered until a few days before the departure of the steamer.  Of course, all we could do was to abide our chances of getting them.  The city was walled around and dyked like those of the Middle Ages.  Toward the bay the wall was one hundred feet high by twenty broad.  The city had been on the decline for most a hundred years.  We could see the ruins of what it once had been.  At one time Spain owned all South America, Mexico, California, Louisiana and Florida.  Panama was the only port of entry on the Pacific coast, and controlled its commerce.  As you enter the gates of the walled city there is a chapel just inside, where the lights are always burning on its altars.  The first thing on entering all good Catholics enter, kneel and make their devotions, seeking the protection of the patron saint of the city.  The head alcalder of the city was a Castilian Spaniard, a venerable-looking gentleman, white as any Northern man, evidently of Scandinavian descent, who ages back conquered Spain and divided the land up among themselves and became its nobility, from whom the present rulers of Spain are descendants.  It is said that when conquered, the original inhabitants of Spain, to a great extent, fled to their vessels, put to sea, and found the island of Ireland, from which the present inhabitants are descendants.  The second alcalder was a negro as black as I have ever seen.