Travels in the United States, etc.,: during 1849 and 1850./ By the Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley.

START FOR GORGONA.
R forty dollars more, for a respectable person to go with us,
as far as that place, who understood the habits of the natives, and
the best places for stopping at, and who also would engage mules
for us there. We waited hour after hour in vain expectation for
our boat, with our bonnets on; fortunately the day was not very
sultry. As to the swamps we had heard so much of, where we
were we saw nothingff of them, and while thus waiting we sate at
an open window in our cool, lofty apartment, inhaling a deliciously
fresh breeze.
At last, to our joy, the thatching was pronounced complete, and
we sallied forth, expecting to find an awning of considerable dimensions, and of the most elaborate workmanship, from the time
that had been employed in its construction. What was our dismay to find one of the smallest proportions imaginable, and which
it was next to impossible to crawl under, or when that was accomplished, to remain beneath long without being cramped like
poor Mrs. Noble, in the cage she was carried about in, in China!
But no time was to be lost, and, indeed, we were all impatience
to see the beautiful Isthmus, remembering the glowing descriptions
of Mr. Bayard Taylor and others of its extraordinary natural attractions.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
The River Chagres-The Boat-The Rowers-Their Peculiar and Vocifer ous Songs-Gatun and Millaflores-Exquisite Beauty of the Scenery on
the Banks of the Chagres-Innumerable Flowers and radiant Birds Strange and Prodigal Intertexture of Parasitical Plants-Enormous and
brilliant Butterflies-Las dos Hermanas-Accoinmodations at that Place
-The Hostess and her adopted Daughter-Americans bound for Califor nia-Scenery during the Progress of the Voyage-San Pablo-An Acci dent-The Lady with her immense Coiffure-Monte Carabali-Arrival at
Gorgona.
OURs was a light and graceful-looking craft, and we soon discovered she was one of the speediest on the river.
After taking leave of Sefior fR, we shot off at a merry pace,
sitting under parasols and umbrellas and vails, which tolerably
screened us from the burning sun, and taking it by turns every
now and then to squeeze ourselves under the apology for an awning, where we found it comparatively cool, but, from the necessarily cramped position which one had to maintain, it was not so
281
0