From New Orleans to San Fransisco in '49 [pp. 189-205]

189.1 From New Orleans to S5anz Francisco in'201
astride, for it was impossible to ride in
any other manner over that rough path.
That night we spent at another hut. In
addition to the rice and beef we were
given some hominy and a whitish kind
of syrup. After supper, the owner of
the hut cut down some kind of a palm
tree, which yielded a quantity of sap that
looked like milk and water. This he
gave us to drink. It tasted very much
like some of the milk sold by milkmen
in cities. We had stewed yams, with
roasted bread-fruit for our breakfast the
next morning, and started on our way
early, as we hoped to get through to
Panama that day.
Our feet were very sore from walking
in our wet shoes, and kept us awake a
good deal during the night. They itched
and burned so badly that mother
thought they were poisoned. But the
native woman at the hut told us that we
had gotten jiggers in our feet. These are
small insects of a parasitical nature, and
the woman said that the soil was full of
them. She said that they would eat or
burrow in the flesh of a person's foot,
and would lay their eggs under the skin
and hatch there. In a few days small
blisters would form on our feet. These
blisters were the cells containiing the
jiggers and their eggs, and mother must
open them, scrape them well. and wash
with strong salt and water to rid us of
the pests. They had got into our feet
from the mud that was continually gettinginto our low shoes, and as the wet
shoes kept our feet soft it was an easy
matter for the insects to work through
the skin. We were frightened at what
the woman said, for we had seen many
natives with crippled feet, and she said
that the jiggers were the cause.
The path was now better than any we
had passed over, and continued to improve as we neared Panama. We
children were much amused by the huge
armies of ants that we saw on our way.
They would be seen crossing the trail in
trains a foot in width, and each one
would be carrying a green leaf, which he
held over him as if to shield him from
the sun or rain. When we disturbed
them they would scatter without drop ping their leaves, and would immediately
fall into ranks and go marching along
like a great army of soldiers.
This was the fourth day of our jour ney, and in the afternoon we came to
quite a large stream of water. Mother
made each of us little girls wade into it,
one at a time, and stand there until she
could wash some of the mud off our
dresses. We then waded out, had some
of the water wrung out of our skirts,
and our toilet was made for entering the
city of Panama.
As we went on we came to a wide
road, which was being paved with cobble-stones by a chain-gang of natives,
while officers stood guard over them.
This paved road led to the gate of the
city, so we did not have any more mud
to travel through, though it was not very
easy walking over those round cobbles
with our wet shoes.
We entered the city a short time before sundown, and mother immediately
began to inquire for a room to rent
while we had to remain there. As we
walked the streets we saw many Americans, who stared at us so that we were
muchashamed of ourwoe-begone appearance. But having crossed the Isthmus as
we had done was sufficient excuse for it.
After many inquiries, mother succeeded in renting a room about twenty
feet square, on the second floor of a large
house. The only articles in the room
were a hammock, a water-jar, and a filter.
The owner of the house was a pompous
old Castilian widower, who with his
daughter, a lovely girl, and their numerous servants, occupied the greater portion of the building. Brother went out
and bought us some supper, and as the
baggage was not due until the next day,
mother put the two little ones in the
hammock, one at either end, and the
rest of us lay down on the floor to sleep.