It was long after sunset when we arrived at the upper rapids; and, as our pilot was unwilling to venture through them in the dark, we were obliged to lie to until morning. The place selected for this purpose had formerly been occupied as a trading establishment—the skeletons of two small buildings still stood near the bank in the middle of a narrow clearing, and half-a-dozen barrels scattered about plainly showed what had been the nature of the traffic. The ground was thoroughly soaked with the rain that was still falling, and every drop as it touched the earth seemed to hatch into a monstrous mosquito, and every mosquito seemed to say or sing, with true Spanish accent, that she did not get such a chance every day in the year, and meant to make the most of it. The woods crowded around us as close as they dared, and like a pack of wolves seemed only waiting till they could muster courage to make a sudden dash. At no great distance we heard the roaring of wild beasts, and could easily imagine we saw their eyes glaring at us out of the thick damp darkness. Never apparently had we been in such evil plight, at least on land; but in a short time we succeeded in effecting a wonderful transformation. After exhausting entreaty, we prevailed upon one of the natives by a bribe of half-a-dollar to strike a fire by means of the flint and tinder which they commonly carry about them. There was no want of fuel—a scrap of paper first received the divine fire, and communicated it in turn to splinters of the palm leaf that formed the thatch. We gently nursed the infant blaze with withered twigs till it had gained strength and confidence to grapple with the staves of the barrels, and lock them in its mortal embrace. A thick log, big enough to keep it burning all night, was then placed upon the top—the smoke soon banished the mosquitoes, and the most cheerful and benign light put to flight all our gloomy fancies. Bringing in huge armfuls of palm leaves from the fallen roof of one of the houses, we spread them thickly over the floor of that which was still standing; and with our feet to the fire, spikewise, as Eothen has it, one by one fell off to sleep.
Waking in the grey of the morning, we combed quantities of slimy snails out of our hair with our fingers, and again taking our stations in the canoe, were directly sucked into the rapids. Clinging nervously to the sides of the canoe, and peering out into the dim twilight, we saw nothing but whirling eddies, sunken rocks starting up to meet us, and waves white with foam. Suddenly a huge billow, that seemed to have been lurking in ambush near the shore, darted out directly upon our beam. For a moment my heart, as the saying is, was in my mouth,—the rowers also seemed paralyzed and stopped rowing. I thought of the weight I carried about me, and calculated how long I should probably be in getting to the bottom. But all was over in less time than it has taken to write a single line—nobody stirred, and the wave, after emptying a few pailfuls of water over the gunwale, sunk suddenly beneath the surface, and the next moment we entered the comparatively smooth water below.
The remaining rapids had nothing to excite any apprehensions, and we passed them with contemptuous indifference. All day long we slid down the glassy river. About nine in the evening our canoe drew up into a little stream, tributary to the San Juan, at a spot which had been selected by a German emigrant as suitable for a sugar plantation. He had been here only a short time, and every thing was yet in a rude, uncivilized state; but he gave us a most glowing account of the wealth of the soil and the favourable nature of the climate. His plantation consisted of several thousand acres, a very small proportion of which was under cultivation, but enough to show that no land in the world is better adapted to that purpose.
He gave us for supper a cup of tea and two slices of salt pork perhaps twice as big as a dollar; and as we furnished our own bread, he charged us only half-a-dollar apiece. The mosquitoes were as thick as, what shall I say? as thick as molasses; and as we crowded into the smoke of the fire under the shed that served him for a kitchen, to avoid their extortion, I made a rapid calculation of the probable number on his whole plantation, and came to the conclusion that if these creatures possessed any appreciable value, however small, our host must be by all odds the wealthiest proprietor in the whole world.
After resting here an hour, we were glad to return to the canoe, where they did not venture to follow us. A sip of brandy and the coolness of the night gave our boatmen fresh energy—their oars fell with more regular cadence, and early Sunday morning we entered the harbour of San Juan, two weeks after leaving the shores of the Pacific. The harbour is very shallow, and our boatmen were several times obliged to jump into the water to push us over the bars; but our canoe was at length drawn up safely on the beach, in the midst of a large number of others, all pointing to the town. Many of our companions had already arrived, and the rest made their appearance the next day, except the party already mentioned, who had been the first to leave Granada. Day after day passed without bringing any tidings, and we began to fear that they had been lost on the lake, when the following Sunday, a week after our arrival, they landed on the shore like a party of shipwrecked mariners—squalid, filthy, and attenuated. For thirteen days, and nearly as many nights, they had been crowded together in that open boat—the sun, and the rain, and the dew, had had full sway over them, and if it had not been for the constant effort required to keep the canoe from upsetting, they would certainly have run together like so many sticks of molasses candy.
They had carried sail across the lake, and owing to the tipsy nature of their craft, they had been obliged to preserve the centre of gravity by constantly shifting their position. When the wind blew freshly, they sat on the weather side of the boat to keep her steady; and when the wind lulled, they transferred their weight more to the centre. If the wind had been aft, they would have made the passage in twenty-four hours, or even less; but as it was directly contrary, and they could beat to windward but little better than a tub, they were more than a week in getting to San Carlos, having in that time sailed over nearly every square foot in the whole surface of the lake.
San Juan, where we passed a miserable week, is, even after seeing San Carlos, one of the most uninteresting places that can be imagined. The land is even flatter than the sea. It is a low sandy plain, just rising above the water, agreeably diversified with stagnant marshes, and hemmed in by unwholesome-looking forests. A few mushroom houses seem to have sprung up out of the sand, and among them three or four hotels, of the same board and shingle pattern that is so odious even in its native New England.
At one of the best or worst of these we secured board and lodgings for one dollar a day, until the steamer, which was now expected, should arrive, and again get ready to sail. Our impatience grew greater every hour. Home was now so near that we murmured at the least delay. We even turned our thoughts regretfully backward to the cool and quiet tent we had left standing among the breezy hills of Natoma, and to the comparatively luxurious life we had led there in our hermit solitude. Here we were in positive danger of famine. Provisions became every day more scarce, and every meal was worse than the one before it. To make matters worse, the Prometheus arrived on Wednesday, and a large proportion of her passengers, who had gone up the river intending to cross over to the Pacific, were obliged to return, after reaching the upper rapids, for want of provisions; so that the whole number of Americans now in town was at least four hundred, which was apparently quite equal to the permanent population.
There were plenty of liquors, however, for even a much larger increase; and drinking and card-playing filled up every hour. The Sunday after our arrival, a party were called from their game to attend a dying comrade. His death was extremely sudden, owing, as was supposed, to an excessive dose of morphine. But nobody cared, not even, so far as I could perceive, the party to which he belonged; indeed, Ohio, with his mechanical tenderness, manifested more pity than all besides. But, as I had often had occasion to observe, a nomadic life is not favourable to the gentler virtues, and, of all virtues, the rarest is an abstract humanity. What often goes under that name is nothing but decency, and a selfish regard to the opinion of others, and both these motives lose almost their entire force when all are strangers, and expect soon to be separated forever.
At length it was announced that the Independence, the Pacific steamer, had arrived; and, her passengers being first provided for, a certain number of tickets were to be disposed of. Long before the appointed hour, an eager crowd had assembled round the office. The agent took his station at an open window about eight feet from the ground, with some rude steps placed against the building, so that a man standing at the top could rest his chin conveniently on the window-sill. Having been fortunate enough to obtain our own tickets early in the day, we had nothing to do but to watch, from our post of observation, the progress of the fight. Fifty aspirants were gathered round the little window, which they seemed about to enter in a body. They advanced against it in three different directions—from the right—from the left—and from the front. Each man pasted himself to the one before him, fearful lest any rival should dispossess him. They fitted together as closely as a bundle of spoons. But all these forces met at the centre, as in a focus. The man who at length succeeded in reaching the top was directly squeezed as flat as a pancake. He inserted both his arms into the window, not to maintain his position, but because there was no room for them anywhere else. He could by no possibility get his hand into his pocket, and must have his money all ready in his fist before he started on his perilous adventure. When at last the ticket was secured, the crowd was rent violently as by an earthquake, or the pains of travail. He came out, nobody could tell how nor where. He almost always lost his hat, and was fortunate if he met with no greater calamity.