A TRIP ACROSS THE WORLD, VIA PANAMA.

Press, Volume X, Issue 1170, 7 August 1866, Page 3

A TRIP ACROSS THE WORLD, VIA PANAMA.

The following are extracts from an account of the first trip to these colonies from England via Panama, contributed by one of the passengers, to the "Independent" of the 26th ultimo:— I propose to furnish your readers and future travellers with some notahda of the way. If I were writing for readers on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus, I should feel it needless and impertinent to say anything in commendation of the ships of the R.M.S.P. Co. in which the eastern part of the voyage to and from England will be made. The whole fleet is so noble— officered by long tried and competent men. Its arrangements are so complete, and carried out with such admirable regularity, that the travelling public feels proud of the service, and words of mine; would be wapted in saying how well the work is done; but I write for Australians and New Zealanders, to whom the whole route is new, and who are interested in knowing how their travelling comforts are likely to be looked after, and with what composure they may commit themselves to the care of the Directors of the Panama Route on their voyages to and fro—through what scenes they will pass—the conditions of climate they will be subject to, and why as I have said the should go Westward Ho! to reach the east. The passage from Southampton to St. Thomas, a small Danish island in the West Indies, was made in the Atrato, a magnificent steam frigate of 1967 tons register, 3126 tons burden. She is driven by paddle-wheel engines of SOO nominal horse-power, working up to 2400. The Atrato is the largest steamer I have ever voyaged in, and will not suffer in comparison with any other, whether of P. & O. or Cunard, either as to cleanliness, comfort, speed, or quiet. Space and fitness are her characteristics in every part. Like most others belonging to the R.M.S.P. Company, she has a flush or spar deck, which gives a fine promenade for passengers, and affords most acceptable shelter in bad weather. In walking over the ship, the first thing the visitor notices, after curiosity about the ship itself has been satisfied, is the fact that all the rules and regulations, all the instructions and advice to passengers are Tri-lingual —at once suggesting that he has em- j barked with strangers and foreigners, | and although going to a British colony in a British ship, he will see and hear much that is not English; and his first walk on deck, his first meal in the saloon, will satisfy him that he is with people of strange speech and divers tongues, and perhaps he will conclude that not three but thirty different voices are around him ; but then he is on his way to the West Indies, to the old colonies of Spain and France, of Portugal and Holland, of Denmark and England; and so the three languages suffice alike for Chilian and Peruvian, for Mexican and Californian, for Cuban and Jamaican, for the Windward Islands and the Leeward, for the Gulf and the Pacific; and if he be i interested about Berbice or Bermuda, about Guadaloupe or Hayti, if he take part with the Republic or their haughty mother, if he glory in Britain's polyglottal rule, or in the grasp of the Northern Republic, he will be sure to find some to share his pride or cherish his ambitions; e.g., a notice is posted up, in which the English are requested not to spit on the quarter deck. The French are prayed, de ne pas cracker, and the stately Spanish supplicates senores de no escupir. The one language utters the hissing sound of the dirty act, the second tells its effect as

it falls, the third indicates its cause. Is our word scoop, "to scoop out," derived from or through this of Spain ? If co, it is intensely significant when applied to the malady of the sea. Anyhow, the motly company on the Atrato read the injunction and obeyed. We left Southampton on Saturday, June 2, slipping from our moorings a little before four o'clock, with a head wind, which blew persistently for twelve days. On the Saturday follo-v----ing had passed the westernmost of the Azores, 1425 miles; or at the rate of 250 miles per day. On the afternoon of Friday, loth, sighted Martinique, and early next morning anchored in the capacious and excellent b arbour of St. Thomas, a free port, md the rendezvous of the fleet belonging to the Royal Mail Company, aud head quarters of their intercolonial trade. The run from Southampton was made in thirteen days fourteen hours, twenty hours being at half-speed. The distance is 3654 miles, an average of more than eleven miles an hour, although the wind blew strongly from the west; but then the Atrato is a giant in steam power. She carries 1350 tons of coal, and burns about ninety tons per day. Her engines made 280,232 revolutions, at the rate of nearly fourteen and one third per minute, and as the actual distance ran by the ship was 3630 miles, each turn of the wheels propelled her nearly twenty-four yards; the difference between the actual and computed distance run being due to ship's deviation. Tho passengers from Belgium and Poland, from Austria aud Switzerland, from Germany and France, from Italy and Spain, with all the varieties from Britain, were bound for very varied lands; for Antigua, for Barbadoes, St. Thomas, for Hayti, Jamaica, Havaua, for Vera Cruz and St. Kitt's in West Indies;- for Demarara, La Guayra, Caraccas, Columbia, and New Granada, ou the Main; for Peru, Chili in South Pacific; for San Salvado, Honduras, Guayaquil, Mexico, aud California in the North; with four for New Zealand, and myself alone for Australia. At St. Thomas, four vessels, each a large ship, awaited our arrival, and into these, mails, cargo, and passengers, with their baggage were transferred. In the course of the day each had proceeded ou its way. The Conway to Barbadoes and Demerara, the Sol ient to Havana, the Ida to Jamaica, and the Tamar to Colon and other places on the Spanish Main. Our share for places on the Pacific side of the Isthmus was about thirty passengers and 200 tons of cargo, contained in 700 packages of merchandise, besides the mails. It may well be imagined, therefore, how great the bustle, toil, and excitement onboard the Atrato in effecting this mighty eseupir in the course of the day, and under a blazing sun. No sooner was the work effected, than we began our life on board the Tamar, which, favored by a strong trade wind, made the run jto Colon —1060 miles in four days fifteen hours, and the captain informed mc it could have been, done in. twentytwo hours less had there been any object to gain, but it was useless to make speed, because the ships at Panama going North, South, and West, would not be ready to receive their passengers till the 24th. Colon, called Aspinwall by the Americans, is the port and terminus of the Panama railway on the Atlantic side. The old town or village named after Columbus is a few miles distant, a very unhealthy place, as is also the new settlement, which is on a swamp, reeking with the luxuriance of tropical vegetation—a choice place for fever, mosquitoes, and Hies, but we do not, or need not, debark until the train is ready to bear us away, and on Friday, 22nd, we mount the cars and plunge into the wild and exquisitely beautiful scenery of the Isthmus. The immense chain of the Cordilleras, which, under different names, extends almost without interruption through the entire length of the-two Americas, traverses the Isthmus, but instead of those lofty volcanic peaks which constitute so striking a picture of this gigantic range of mountains, there is a sudden depression in its passage across the Isthmus, its continuity being nearly broken at a point directly in the line of the shortest communication between the two oceans which is where the railway crosses, and is only thirtyfive miles in breadth. The summit level of the rail is 254 feet above Pacific high-water mark, and is very near the Pacific coast, towards which it descends with a gradient of one in the hundred, or fifty feet per mile. It was originated by three American merchants, Messrs. Stephens, Aspinwall, and Chauncey, the first named gentleman being the celebrated author of 'Researches in Central America.' They effected a formal contract with the Government of New Granada, for the exclusive privilege of constructing a railway across the Isthmus and were secured from competition by a guarantee that no other iron railroad or maritime canal should be sanctioned during the term of the concession granted to them, which has yet ten or eleven years to run. The work involved six years of toil, the sacrifice of many thousand lives and an expenditure of £1,500,000. The line is constructed in a most substantial manner, and is maintained in great efficiency. An electric telegraph connects its terminus, and it is altogether more easy and pleasant to travel on than any railway on which I have journeyed in the States or Canada. Its total length is forty-seven miles, and the fare across, without any distinction of class, is 25 dollars, but this is included in your ticket from England to the Antipodes. For the most part the rail is carried through alluvial plains or savannahs— by the edge of morasses—along the bank of the Chagus and Obisco rivers, through dense forests of exceeding richness and beauty alike of foilage and flowers. The overwhelming fertility of the soil is indicated by a reeking mass of vegetation, which covers the whole face of the country, and would speedily choke up the railway itself

but that it is kept in check by gangs of men, whose work it is to conflict with this prodigal growth. Plantains, bamboos, palms, and sugar-canes, forest trcea, and gigantic climbing plants, seem to struggle ceaselessly to get into the light, while bulbous plants and rushes crowd each inch of soil and water, orchids and lichens seize upon every bit of wood and decaying boughs on which to fasten a new life that shall feed upon death and triumph over desolation. Arrived at Panama, we found the Rakaia, in which the voyage across .he Pacific was to be made, waiting for us, and thus any anxiety we may have felt as to the immediate prosecution of our course was allayed, and we could pleasantly occupy the short time of our stay in the town by exploring its ruins, and endeavoring to realise its grimly gay life, when the wealth of the new world was showered on the chivalry of Spain. The present town of Panama is built upon a rock, surrounded on three sides by wator, and very strongly defended. It makes a fine appearance from the sea, and has noble buildings, although now for the most part in decay. Its churches and convent houses have an imposing appearance from the sea, while the sea-walls and bastions have a defiant look, although time's tooth and the ocean's fret have in some places worn them away. The town is thoroughly Spauish. It tells of tie time when the Church and the Castle rose together, and when the keyß of the temporal and spiritual powers were in the same hands. It bears marks of great opulence, of deep desolation, and also of reviving enterprise. Its streets are stately, but comfortless. Its houses are massive, but the windows aro for the most part grated and unglazed. The ecclesiastical buildings are large and solid, and carry their date with them in the debased style and wretched taste >of the 17th century. The town-is very dirty, for its excellent, drainage has been ruined, and were it not for its admirable site, and the abundant rains, would doubtless be the haunt of fever. In spite of human neglect it is probably one of the most healthy, as it ia also the most picturesque and imposing town along the whole West Coast. When the Rakaia left Panama, her weight, including engines, coals, and cargo,, was 3200 tons, and it must be regarded as a triumph of mechanical skill and science that the application of two and a-half cwts. of coal should drive this mass through the water at the rate of a mile in six minutes, and that this should be repeated for twentyseven or twenty-eight days in continuity until the whole breadth of the Pacific, 6510 miles, has been passed over. We left Tabogo, an island about twelve miles from Panama, where ships anchor and take in: 'coals, because the bay near the~shore is ~ shal_oW7 at two - p.m. on Sunday, June 24th. Our course lay south, m- order to clear Cape Mata, a low point eighty miles distant, and forming the' western arm of the gulf* thence to Galapagos, sighting and leaving them on the starboard hand. From Galapago-, the ; Captain, who has had long- experience in command of steamships, and ia ; evidently a master of Ms craft in its higher departments and scientific knowledge, took a great circle course that, would carry us by Pitcairn Island to a certain point on--the New Zealand coast,whence he could at.airy 4 'time [ diverge to Cape Palliser.... Erom theGalapagos wp..', had tho Hmnboldt or Equatorial, current. in bur favor; and the trade wiiids blew softly. We accomplished half lour?' distance in twelve and a-half days. ; During this period the weatbO-* waa deliciously mild and enjoyable. We were, in tWtropipW The thermometer generally stoodf about 80 deg-., hut there was no sensation bTfheat,T the" atmosphere was so pure and invigorating that; it Was luxury to inhale its; freshness, and ; at night. the vault of heaven seemed to have enlarged and the stars to have become more lustrous, owing to the moisture and the diaphaneity of the atmosphere. jßespectihg this part of the passage I heard it said ifc was monotonous, but then peace itself is monotonous, and. all enjoyment becomes tame after a little while; however, we were soon roused from this luxury, tor?.the second ] half of the passage was stormy enough. On Sunday evening,; July Bth, wo passed Pitcairn,, but as it was dark,, I and a heavy swell ranning, w© durs. | not near the shore. " No sooner had we passed the island' than we found wehadleftfthei tropics and pleasant weather, and fallen at onceinto wintry storms^;,and cold. The sea raged—the wih_j_ and the ship lightened of her coal, began to aoll heavily. After two gales of great severity had blown themselves out, we began to fear that our hopes of a rapid passage would be disappointed; then favoring winds sprung np, and the engines, refreshed by cold water, propelled the ship with greater velocity, and we recovered time lost; but it was then found that the rate given by the log and the work done by the propeller gave a much less result by observation than was expected, proving a strong current towards the east. A third gale of greater force and endurance dashed our hopes, and for several days the powers of the ship were heavily tasked.' At about 800 miles from Cape Palliser a patch of green water with much weed was passed, and on Satti- f - --day, the 21st, the weather cleared, and a line wind speeded us to our desired haven. We sighted Palliser at ten p.m. The total distance run has been 6523 miles, The time occupied was twenty-eight days, The engines made 1,519,502 revolutions, and 861 tons of coals were consumed. The thermometer between Panama and Pitcairn raged from 90 degrees to 75 degrees; between Pitcairn and Palliser, from '69 to 49. - The average in the on© case being 78 degrees, and in the other 58 degrees. The barometer (aneroid) in the former half of the passage was very steady* 'average 30.16, m the latter / half, 27.79, failing as low aa 2&degrees.