Page:Narrative of a Voyage around the World - 1843.djvu/57

 1837.] Canoes of the tonnage of seventy bales and under, to proceed to Gorgona or Cruces, are to be obtained at the rate of ten to eighty-five dollars; during the freshes, or rainy season, something higher.

A despatch to Panama, express, with the reply, should be seventeen dollars; time, seventy-two hours at longest. A small canoe with two persons and a change (of luggage), may get to Gorgona in sixteen or eighteen hours, and on to Panama in nine hours, if daylight favours; but this can only be performed by an European; the common proprio will take his time. The cost is ten or fifteen dollars.

The "rapids," or dangers of grounding, are mere bugbears. In large or heavily-laden canoes much delay or stoppage may arise during the dry season; but even with our heavy cargo, and the present dry period, we were not delayed more than five hours.

No danger exists in point of highway or sea robbery. The people, generally, may be trusted with large sums of money. Part of my baggage was missing for eight or ten days, but without apprehension on the part of the residents at Panama, who affirmed "that it must he safe." And so it proved, — having been delayed by the breaking down of the mules. It was eventually borne on the heads of men: one package weighed one hundred and seventy-six pounds.

As our passage was not to commence until dawn, we took up our quarters in a house provided by an Englishman, with the intention of enjoying a