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the Serapiqui river, and by Greytown.
Greytown, it is true, is quite as unhealthy as Punt' Arenas, and by that
route one's baggage must be shipped and unshipped into small boats.
There are all manner of difficulties attached to it. Perhaps no direct
road to and from any city on the world's surface is subject to sharper
fatigue while it lasts. Journeying by this route also, the traveller leaves
San Jose mounted on his mule, and so mounted he makes his way
through the vast primeval forests down to the banks of the Serapiqui
river. That there is a track for him is of course true; but it is simply a
track, and during nine months of the twelve is so deep in mud that the
mules sink in it to their bellies. Then, when the river has been reached,
the traveller seats him in his canoe, and for two days is paddled
down,--down along the Serapiqui, into the San Juan River, and down
along the San Juan till he reaches Greytown, passing one night at some
hut on the river side. At Greytown he waits for the steamer which will
carry him his first stage on his road towards Southampton. He must be

a connoisseur in disagreeables of every kind who can say with any
precision whether Greytown or Punt' Arenas is the better place for a
week's sojourn.
For a full month Mr. Arkwright would not give way to his wife. At first
he all but conquered her by declaring that the Serapiqui journey would
be dangerous for the baby; but she heard from some one that it could be
made less fatiguing for the baby than the other route. A baby had been
carried down in a litter strapped on to a mule's back. A guide at the
mule's head would be necessary, and that was all. When once in her
boat the baby would be as well as in her cradle. What purpose cannot a
woman gain by perseverance? Her purpose in this instance Mrs.
Arkwright did at last gain by persevering.
And then their preparations for the journey went on with much
flurrying and hot haste. To us at home, who live and feel our life every
day, the manufacture of endless baby-linen and the packing of
mountains of clothes does not give an idea of much pleasurable
excitement; but at San Jose, where there was scarcely motion enough in
existence to prevent its waters from becoming foul with stagnation, this
packing of baby-linen was delightful, and for a month or so the days
went by with happy wings.
But by degrees reports began to reach both Arkwright and his wife as to
this new route, which made them uneasy. The wet season had been
prolonged, and even though they might not be deluged by rain
themselves, the path would be in such a state of mud as to render the
labour incessant. One or two people declared that the road was unfit at
any time for a woman,--and then the river would be much swollen.
These tidings did not reach Arkwright and his wife together, or at any
rate not till late amidst their preparations, or a change might still have
been made. As it was, after all her entreaties, Mrs. Arkwright did not
like to ask him again to alter his plans; and he, having altered them
once, was averse to change them again. So things went on till the mules
and the boats had been hired, and things had gone so far that no change
could then be made without much cost and trouble.
During the last ten days of their sojourn at San Jose, Mrs. Arkwright
had lost all that appearance of joy which had cheered up her sweet face
during the last few months. Terror at that terrible journey obliterated in
her mind all the happiness which had arisen from the hope of being

soon at home. She was thoroughly cowed by the danger to be
encountered, and would gladly have gone down to Punt' Arenas, had it
been now possible that she could so arrange it. It rained, and rained,
and still rained, when there was now only a week from the time they
started. Oh! if they could only wait for another month! But this she said
to no one. After what had passed between her and her husband, she had
not the heart to say such words to him. Arkwright himself was a man
not given to much talking, a silent thoughtful man, stern withal in his
outward bearing, but tender-hearted and loving in his nature. The sweet
young wife who had left all, and come with him out to that dull distant
place, was very dear to him,--dearer than she herself was aware, and in
these days he