The weather is extremely hot all the year, the temperature never falling much below ninety degrees Fahrenheit. The heat is not so extreme, however, during the “rainy season,” which comprises our fall, and a portion of our summer and winter months. All kinds of tropical fruits grow there in abundance. I saw oranges, lemons, limes, bananas, pineapples, cocoanuts, and other fruits, on the trees.
The natives obtain these fruits by merely gathering them, and do a good business by selling them to travelers, at prices which, though lower than New York prices, are there considered enormous.
In justice to these natives I will say that travelers who conduct themselves with propriety, are always civilly treated by them. But it is not safe to injure or abuse them, where they are in such a decided majority; for, like most cowards, they are brutal and vicious, and, if irritated, do not hesitate to murder foreigners.
Many, no doubt, remember the terrible riot that occurred in Panama, a dozen years ago, between foreigners and natives. It was occasioned by one rascally drunken passenger, who managed to raise a dispute with a fruit-vender, and concluded to settle the matter by knocking over the fruit-stand and shooting at the owner. Thus it originated: the natives making an assault on the offender, and his fellow-passengers attempting to defend him. The riot soon became general; and the military of the New Granadian Government being called out to quell the disturbance, did so by wantonly shooting down every white man that came in their way. The slaughter was fearful. It should be a warning to all coarse and reckless fools, like the originator of this difficulty, who do not know how to conduct themselves with common decency in a foreign country.
WE embarked at Panama on the steamer “Golden Age,” the same day we landed at Aspinwall, and made the passage to San Francisco in fourteen days—touching at the ports of Acapulco and Manzanillo, Mexico—coaling at the former place. The distance from Panama to San Francisco is three thousand two hundred and sixty-seven nautical miles, according to the record of our run. Manzanillo is about midway between the two places, while Acapulco is about three hundred miles nearer Panama.