There is a report that we shall not leave for two or three days—we certainly shall not to-day. I mention it at once lest I should forget it, and our nonarrival at St. Francisco possibly give rise to anxiety.

We got in to the wharf at Aspinwall at 2:30 last night; went on shore, where are a number of great inns, the chief feature of which is the bar room. It is a wretched, new half-made, dirty, big shantee-town, leveed out from a swamp. I went over all the ground where it was dry enough and found lots of cocoa-nut trees, lemons & what not in the edge of the swamp. We got coffee at four, bananas at 7 and a poor beef-steak breakfast at 8, and at 9, left in a train of cars, a l’Americaine but very rough, without glass windows &c.

I have hurried over that to tell you what followed—only now I can’t—I don’t know when I have had such a day of delight. I had anticipated a good deal from the tropical scenery but it greatly exceeded my expectations and well repaid the great discomfort of the Champion. You have seen something of it in Cuba but I don’t believe you ever saw anything so fine in its way as it is on the isthmus. There is no grandeur and there is a good deal of muddy water, but simply in vegetation it is superb and glorious and makes all our model scenery—so far as it depends on beauty of foliage—very tame & quakerish. You will see it and I will not go into particulars. I think it produces a very strong moral impression through an enlarged sense of the bounteousness of Nature. I could not help asking whether the idea I had of producing some such effect about the island in the park was preposterous with our Northern trees & shrubs & vines. Except for the palm & bamboo, my conclusion was that by a careful assemblage and arrangment, all the character could be followed after, and that I had not gone wrong for a beginning in the planting or rather in my intentions.

We arrived at the station near Panama soon after noon and were immediately put on a steam tender and brought here. This ship is the largest and finest in all respects (so far as I yet see) that I have ever been quartered upon—a long way ahead of the Cunarders. We have a grand big stateroom, outside, to ourselves Martin & I, & the boys one next to us, doors vis a vis, sofa, plenty of air, water, towels, cleanliness-but the spaciousness of the boat—that’s the grand thing. Such a promenade & such a saloon! It’s Fifth Avenue with the park, after Greenwich Street with the battery—coming from the Vanderbilt vessel. But I wouldn’t [81]advise you to take the Champion, in order to get the Constitution, though there is not another like the Constitution. Also there can be but one Champion. The North Star, by the way, is said to be very dirty; the Ocean Queen to be better. As I know the Ocean Queen and don’t know the others at all, I should rather you came, as at present informed, in the Queen—next to her, the North’n Light.

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If you arrive during the night at Aspinwall keep asleep with all the children if you can. They can’t go on shore safely & surely till well after day-break, and you will do better to defer going on shore as long as you can. They won’t breakfast you on board & urge you off, but there is no decent place for women & children ashore. The natives on shore offer lots of fruit but nothing worth having but bananas. The oranges were all green. I have found one, with all Charles’s assistance, that I dared eat, to this time. I barely tasted a mango and got the milk of one cocoa-nut. The lemons look very fine, but if the lemonade that came through the cars was a specemin, their flavor is slight. I saw parquets in the trees & a beautiful long tailed blackbird. We should have [had] a good deal of trouble with our baggage if it had not been for Charles and our large party all assisting one another. Both at Aspinwall & Panama there is a great crowd of negroes fighting for it. Have everything snugly put up, strapping several small articles together if necessary. There was room enough in the cars, after the first rush, and we occupied three seats more than we were entitled to with our hand baggage. Charles had two negroes to help him in the longer lifts, and we paid $2 for them (the whole both at Aspinwall & Panama, two sets). Breakfast was a dollar each on shore. You can get nothing on the ship—not even a cup of coffee, and you should have it—so you had better go where we did (& most of the ladies) the “Howard House.” It’s abominably dirty, but the coffee without milk might have been worse, if it had been boiled a few hours longer. If you can be sure of knowing when the passenger train leaves (which cannot well be till several hours after arrival), and can keep the ship, I should rather you would all have a glass of wine & water with some ginger snaps and then a plantain or two on the way. The natives bring them alongside the cars every few miles, at the wooding stations, and you can get them by the cart load at the station before starting, if you prefer. They sell you also palm-leaf fans (10 cts) and bags and baskets (50 cts.) Silver is the currency. The ship-servants (dining room & bed room, each one) were satisfied with $5 a piece, for three of us. It would be better to be near the engine in taking the cars, but as there is a rush or if you see that there is, go right along with your baggage, toward the rear, till you find one they have not reached—the last if necessary. Thus try to get on the North or [82]

water side—toward the ship—as the blinds must be let down on the sunny side.

I have written all this about prices & everything, that, at the worst, you may be ready to take care of yourself and not be thrown into confusion by ignorance of about what ought to be done. Of course if you have as you most likely will a respectable experienced escort, or if you can join yourself to anything like a party wherein there are those who have been through it, you had better let all this go for the barest suggestion. Recollect, however, it is a tropical swamp nearly all the way and don’t let anyone go about after sunrise with an empty stomach, and don’t despise the prophylactic. I gave three grains a day to all our party at night, beginning the night before we arrived. It is the Chagres river, you know, and the Chagres variety of the shakes is no joke.

This bay is fine and Panama a rather picturesque specemin of the old Spanish town. They are all pretty much alike though. Remember to point out the mountains to the children & tell them they are the Andes. There are great vultures & pelicans floating about. There are light (thunder) showers (without the thunder) every hour or two. The passing [83]

veils of the showers and the outbursting sun-shafts add to the dizzy gorgeousness of the foliage. It has excited me very much. If we lie here tomorrow—we are a mile from the town—I shall try to get ashore and go about among the trees, where it is dry. There are beautiful conical hills all about. I am thoroughly enchanted with the trees & vines. But cane & palms are not trees or vines or shrubs or herbs. They are Gloria in Excelsis with lots of exclamation points, thrown in anywhere, in the grand choral liturgy. There isn’t any of your Cuba bare ground here. It’s all calla-like and lily and rush and fern & morning glories on an antic vine of Kalmia, where it is not foliage.

If your vessel promises to be anything like the Champion, give your state room steward $5 at once, before you are sick, and promise him ten more at least, if he gives you what you want and meets your expectations. You may find it well to send a couple of dollars to the cook and the butcher, for to get apples baked or porridge warmed when you want it, and ice. The butcher controls the ice. We wanted ice & lemons most. You see that I am afraid you will starve to death for want of something not sickening. Don’t spare money with the ship’s servants, if things promise badly.