Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands | Page 6

exhaustion. Indeed, I was very glad when, with the morning, the
crowd, as the Yankees called the bands of pilgrims to and from
California, made ready to ascend to Panama.
The first stage of our journey was by railway to Gatun, about twelve
miles distant. For the greater portion of that distance the lines ran on
piles, over as unhealthy and wretched a country as the eye could well
grow weary of; but, at last, the country improved, and you caught
glimpses of distant hills and English-like scenery. Every mile of that
fatal railway cost the world thousands of lives. I was assured that its

site was marked thickly by graves, and that so great was the mortality
among the labourers that three times the survivors struck in a body, and
their places had to be supplied by fresh victims from America, tempted
by unheard-of rates of wages. It is a gigantic undertaking, and shows
what the energy and enterprise of man can accomplish. Everything
requisite for its construction, even the timber, had to be prepared in,
and brought from, America.
The railway then ran no further than Gatun, and here we were to take
water and ascend the River Chagres to Gorgona, the next stage on the
way to Cruces, where my brother was. The cars landed us at the bottom
of a somewhat steep cutting through a reddish clay, and deposited me
and my suite, consisting of a black servant, named "Mac," and a little
girl, in safety in the midst of my many packages, not altogether
satisfied with my prospects; for the rain was falling heavily and
steadily, and the Gatun porters were possessing themselves of my
luggage with that same avidity which distinguishes their brethren on
the pier of Calais or the quays of Pera. There are two species of
individuals whom I have found alike wherever my travels have carried
me--the reader can guess their professions--porters and lawyers.
It was as much as I could do to gather my packages together, sit in the
midst with a determined look to awe the hungry crowd around me, and
send "Mac" up the steep slippery bank to report progress. After a little
while he returned to say that the river-side was not far off, where boats
could be hired for the upward journey. The word given, the porters
threw themselves upon my packages; a pitched battle ensued, out of
which issued the strongest Spanish Indians, with their hardly earned
prizes, and we commenced the ascent of the clayey bank. Now,
although the surveyors of the Darien highways had considerately cut
steps up the steep incline, they had become worse than useless, so I
floundered about terribly, more than once losing my footing altogether.
And as with that due regard to personal appearance, which I have
always deemed a duty as well as a pleasure to study, I had, before
leaving Navy Bay, attired myself in a delicate light blue dress, a white
bonnet prettily trimmed, and an equally chaste shawl, the reader can
sympathise with my distress. However, I gained the summit, and after

an arduous descent, of a few minutes duration, reached the river-side;
in a most piteous plight, however, for my pretty dress, from its contact
with the Gatun clay, looked as red as if, in the pursuit of science, I had
passed it through a strong solution of muriatic acid.
By the water-side I found my travelling companions arguing angrily
with the shrewd boatmen, and bating down their fares. Upon collecting
my luggage, I found, as I had expected, that the porters had not
neglected the glorious opportunity of robbing a woman, and that
several articles were missing. Complaints, I knew, would not avail me,
and stronger measures seemed hazardous and barely advisable in a
lawless out-of-the-way spot, where
"The simple plan, That they should take who have the power, And they
should keep who can,"
seemed universally practised, and would very likely have been
defended by its practitioners upon principle.
It was not so easy to hire a boat as I had been led to expect. The large
crowd had made the boatmen somewhat exorbitant in their demands,
and there were several reasons why I should engage one for my own
exclusive use, instead of sharing one with some of my travelling
companions. In the first place, my luggage was somewhat bulky; and,
in the second place, my experience of travel had not failed to teach me
that Americans (even from the Northern States) are always
uncomfortable in the company of coloured people, and very often show
this feeling in stronger ways than by sour looks and rude words. I think,
if I have a little prejudice against our cousins across the Atlantic--and I
do confess to a little--it is not unreasonable. I have a