Читать книгу The Boy Travellers in South America - Thomas Wallace Knox - Страница 15

VIEW FROM THE RAMPARTS OF PANAMA.

From the ruins of the church the youths and their companions strolled to the ramparts of the city, where they watched the sunset gilding the distant hilltops and lighting up the waters of the beautiful Bay of Panama. The wall is here enlarged into a wide promenade, which overlooks a level space containing the arsenal, the military barracks, and the prisons of the city government. The Esplanade is the favorite lounging-place of the people at the close of the day, and our friends had an excellent opportunity to study the local dress and manners. Nobody appeared to be in a hurry, and there was a tendency to divide into groups and couples, very much as in other lands and under other skies. Some sauntered slowly up and down the promenade, while others leaned over the parapet, or reclined on the grass which covered a considerable part of the Esplanade. Ships and steamers were anchored in the distance, while the foreground of the bay was dotted with native boats, which seemed to be drifting aimlessly in the gentle breeze. Altogether, the picture was delightful, and long to be remembered.

On the next morning our friends were up early for an excursion to Old Panama, which we have already mentioned. As we drew on Frank's note-book for the modern city, we will rely upon Fred for our information about the ancient one.

"We had a delightful ride on horseback," said Fred; "leaving Panama by the northwestern gate, which brought us to the fish-market on the beach. To judge by what we saw, Panama is justly named 'a place of fish,' as there seemed to be a supply three times as large as could possibly be wanted for the use of the inhabitants. There were Spanish mackerel, oysters, bonito, and a good many other fishes, and all of the very best quality, with the possible exception of the oysters. We asked if these oysters were the ones from which pearls are obtained, and they told us the pearl-fisheries were about a hundred miles down the bay, and the oysters not at all like those sold in the market. There was formerly a fine revenue from the pearl-fisheries, but the beds are practically exhausted, and of late years very little attention has been given to the business.

ON THE NORTHEASTERN BEACH.

"From the market we galloped along the beach for a couple of miles, and then turned inland. We came out to the shore again, after winding among rocks and thick foliage, and followed along the bay till we reached the ancient city.

"Everything is in the most complete ruin; what was left by Morgan has been vigorously attacked by the tooth of time. And I remark, by the way, that the tooth of time is much more effective in its work in the tropics than in the colder north, where the vegetation is less rapid and aggressive. Walls and towers are so overgrown with mosses and creepers that, in many instances, the structures are completely hidden from sight, and their positions are only indicated by their shape. Seeds carried by the birds, or wafted by the winds, fall into crevices between the stones; they are warmed into life by the temperature, and nourished by the moisture that prevails at all seasons of the year. They grow and flourish in spite of the inconveniences of their position, and after a time they force the stones apart, and the structure is weakened, and hastened to its overthrow.

"Everywhere in Old Panama you can see evidences of this great force of nature. Much of the stonework of the city has been thrown down by the roots of the trees and plants, and in several places we saw stones of great weight resting entirely upon the roots of the trees that had lifted them up. Evidently the city was built to last, and it is a sad commentary upon the work of its founders that it was so soon destroyed. The walls were massive, and the stones carefully cut. The old Spaniards came to America to plant colonies, and make a permanent home, if we may judge by the way they constructed this important city, which was intended to command the commerce of the Pacific seas.

WATCH-TOWER OF SAN JEROME.

"One of the most interesting relics of Old Panama is the watch-tower of San Jerome, which is said to have been built only six years before the city's capture and destruction. It is a square tower, and we estimated its height to be about eighty feet; it is covered with mosses and vines, and there are trees and bushes growing on its top. The staircase on the inside has been thrown down by the roots of the trees, as far as we could judge from the position of the stones, though it may have been destroyed by the famous buccaneer. The whole of the inside space was full of roots, and we could not have climbed to the top even if the stairs had remained.

"The tower was intended as a signal-station, from which vessels approaching Panama could be descried, and tradition says a light was burned there at night. It is now the only visible part of the old city as you look from the beach or from a boat on the water; everything else is covered up with the tropical forest, which has been undisturbed for two hundred years. The only way to see the ruins is by clambering through the mass of vegetation; we did so, and were thoroughly wearied with our exertions, though amply repaid for them.

"Not the least interesting part of the sights were the fantastic shapes which the trees and vines had taken; in some places the trees were on the tops of walls thirty or forty feet high, and had thrown down roots on each side reaching into the ground. At every crevice in the walls little twigs were thrown off to hold the roots in place, and it almost seemed as though these vegetable growths had been endowed with human intelligence. Two or three times we were deceived by the appearance of the roots, and mistook them for snakes. Even when assured of their harmless character, Frank paused and deliberated before moving nearer, and I'm free to confess that I followed his example.

A HERMIT AT HOME.

"We were accompanied on our excursion by a gentleman who lives in Panama, but had not been in the old city for two or three years. He said the place had two or three inhabitants, or, rather, there were that number of negroes who lived there, and acted as guides to visitors. With some difficulty he found the hut of one of them, and luckily for us its owner was at home. His only clothing was a strip of cloth around the waist and a pair of sandals on his feet, and the entire furniture of the place would have been dear at ten dollars. He had a few baskets and earthen jars, an old hammock, a rough bench to sleep on, an iron pot for cooking purposes, and a pair of rollers for crushing sugar-cane. He had a small patch of sugar-cane, another of bananas; the bay supplied him with fish, the beach afforded plenty of oysters, shrimps, and mussels, and the money obtained from visitors was enough for buying his tobacco and a few other trifles which made up the sum of his necessities, and were procured in a semi-annual trip to Panama. He declared that he was perfectly satisfied with his way of life, and as he had been there for twenty years and more, I have no doubt he spoke the truth.

"A prince in his palace could not have been more polite than was this dark-skinned hermit. He had no chairs to offer, but asked us to sit down on his bench; we accepted the invitation, and after handing us a gourd of water, which we found very refreshing, he put on his hat in order to be more fully dressed. Then, with true Spanish politeness, he told us that the house and all it contained were ours, but we couldn't see that we should have been much richer if we had taken him and his belongings at his word. We rested perhaps a quarter of an hour, talking with him about his solitary life, and then asked him to guide us through the old city.

"'Sí, Señores,' he replied, touching his hat in a most dignified manner, 'but would we drink some chichi before starting.'