Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/207



I

by a  Pizarro,  a  Morgan,  or  an  influx  of  Callfornian gold-seekers, far  behind. That night  a  thunder shower attended  us. There was  no  wind  to  speak  of, only rain  and  lightning  and  cloud-ripping  blasts — not the old-fashioned  rolling  artillery,  and  fire-lined,  forked flashes of  northern  heavens,  but  sharp,  angry,  snap- pish blasts, an  electrical  whip-cracking,  accompanied by torrents  of  light  streaming  from  gulches  sky-fur- rowed from horizon  to  zenith. For hours  this  luminous darkness hovered  round  our  ship,  between  the  ex- tremes of alternate  pitchy  blackness  and  bright,  glar- ing light. Toward morning  all  w^as  still,  and  the  sun rose on  an  ocean  with  a  face  as  sweet  and  peaceful  as the  sleeping  babe  of  Bethlehem.

Next day  the  Panama  sighted  the  promontory  of Veraguas,  a  grand  coast  with  grander  mountains. Steaming lazily  along  through  the  quiet  waters,  like the chariot  of  Poseidon,  attracting  round  us  mj^riads of the  monsters  of  the  deep  sporting  and  gamboling on every  side,  with  the  load  of  cares  behind  unbur- dened, and the  load  before  us  not  yet  put  on,  time and observation  seemed  to  expand  with  the  expand- ing sea. Gossips took  heart ;  matrons  smiled  serenely ; pater familias  grew  jocund ;  attention  turned  toward comfort, reading,  and  amusements. Gallants mixed huge pitchers  of  iced  punch  and  therewith  regaled  the ladies. Gamblmg, which  in  the  earlier  voyages  mo- nopolized the saloon,  had  very  rightly  been  prohibited on board  the  company's  vessels ;  yet  there  was  plenty of card-playing  in  the  state-rooms,  where  the  occu- pants could gamble  to  their  heart's  content,  and  lesser games obtained  on  capstan,  bench,  and  skylight. Three evils  the  law  seems  powerless  to  control,  gamb- ling, drunkenness, and  the  social  evil ;  which  with like social  phenomena  seem  to  say  that  law,  so  far  as possible,  should  let  the  individual  alone,  nor  place  its grasp upon  him  but  to  prevent  his  interference  with the rights  of  others. Self-injury is  a  moral  wrong touching which  the  law  appears  to  be  inoperati