William R. Olden

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Panama May 13, 1849

My dear Wife

According to my expectations at the time, I mailed the letter from Chagres the mail had gone when we arrived here & I consequently had no opportunity of writing until the first of June steamer. – I suppose you would prefer a plaine [plain] narrative of events as they actually accured [occured] in order to obtain a correct understanding of the dangers & difficulties real & imaginary with which those truthfull [truthful] individuals the penny a lives have invested the idea of crossing the Isthmus. – Early in the morn'g [morning] of the 25 the Orus came along side of us at our anchorage in Navy bay we were soon transferred on board with our baggage & got under way, touring the Chas Devins out of the harbour we soon cast her off & proceeded on our way along the shore th to Chagres some 10 miles, the shore here is an abrupt bluff of about 50 to 100 feet high covered with a dense growth of timber of varieties entirely new to me, on the way saw two or 3 indian huts constructed of poles thatched with palm leaves surrounded with cocoanut [coconut] trees which with few plantain & bananas form almost their entire subsistence – they are very las indolent, instances having been known of their being too lazy to scratch themselves. –

On a high rocky bluff to the left of the entrance of the Chagres River stands (or rather totters) the old spanish castle of St Lorense [St. Lawrence] a strong place where new but now a complete muk, the gun carriagges have all rotted away, some of the guns have fallen over the parapet & lie at the waters edge the balance, are lying in disorder about the fort. I do not think a single soldier is kept here – the entrance is shallow & dangerous, then being only eleven feet water & quite narrow – close by the rock on which the castle stands inside of the bar the river is perfectly calm & so deep that ships lay against the right shore without difficulty, on the left shore it is shallow & then the town of Chagres is built, it numbers about 60 or 70 miserable huts one story high with a high steep roof thatched with palm leaves – they are built with a frame work of

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timber the weather boarding being composed of reeds – The interior consists of one, sometimes of two rooms, with a ground floor on which they lie during the day, at night they sleep over head in the attic, to which they ascend by means of a log with notches cut in it for stairs – the people are filthy in their habits and are not remarkably partial to clothing some of them appearing in all the majesty of nature in fact there is no lack of model artists of all ages in this country, children under 8 years are never clothed with those older it seems to be a matter of taste acting The Orus after about 4 hours detention at Chagres proceeded on his voyage up the river which is at this place about 100 yards wide & very deep without any current, bordered on both sides with the most dense growth of tropical vegetation composed of large & small timber covered with creeping vines and parasites plants, the shores are low but sufficiently high never to be flooded to my surprise, I find that there are no swamps in this country except in the low places during the wet season As we prodeeded up the river It continued to present the same appearance with but slight variation; the larger timber is principally composed of Mahogany trees which grow to an imense size, in some places in the country; about 5 miles from Chagres we began to see an occassional but with a clearing of 5 or 6 acres on which a few cows & pigs were grazing & 10 or 12 cocoanut trees growing; but, no garden or any appearance of cultivation how they live is a mystery to me – occassionally there would be a dozen huts collected together with a larger clearing – the river winds considerably in its course but not so much as to impede navigation materially, the Orus altho' she has a single shaft made the turns without any difficulty at about 5 oclock she landed 17 miles from Chagres at a small village of 5 huts – I omitted mentioning that upon leaving Chagres she took in tow about 20 canoes with which we were to continue our journey on the

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morrow. A considerable portion of the night was occupied by the free & independent citizens of New Grenada in dancing fan dan goes – the music is made by a small drum & the dancing seems to be a parody on the cachucha – the feet move but little but they wiggle the body & move the arms in time with the music – On the following morn'g [morning] at an early hour we got into the canoes & got under way ours contained four including myself it was about 20 feet long by 5 broad manned by 3 natives an old man our Padroon sat in the stern & steered two young men who stood in the bow a puddler or pusher as the water was deep or shoal. –

My party for I had selected them to cross the Isthmus with me consisted of an Irishman, who by the way of variety for it is uncommon was a gentleman in every sense of the word & a very clean fellow the other two were western men whom we had taken in to fill up the party, they were clever fellows in their way. – The distance from Chagres to Gorgona by the river is 42 miles by an air line 18, we had come 17 & had 25 to go yet, we made but slow progress not averaging 2 miles per hour but at the same time we got the lead & kept ahead of the others – the water is now at its lowest stage & in places the current is quite strong – but in no place is it less than 2½ ft deep in the channel, there is nothing to prevent the river being navigated by a small light draft steamer during the lowest water as far as Gorgona – except a few small snags & one or two rocks which could easily be removed.

We slept that night at a place about six hours from Gorgona (distance here being measured by time not miles) in a hut by the river side – the inhabitants of the hut seemed kindly disposed towards us – we heated water made tea & ate a very hearty supper upon cheese dried beef & ship head, the remains

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of our supper furnished a supper for our hosts, which they seemed to relish very much – after which I swung my hammock to the timbers of the hut & slept very comfortably the others spread their matresses on skins spread upon the floor & would have got along equally well – if one of them had not received a visitation from one of the Muschachoes (children) who slept on the cane floor above which interfered with his comfort very slightly. – About 3 oc [o'clock] in the morning commenced the most unearthly noise that I ever heard to get an idea of it you must condense about 40 menageries into a small span & stir up all the haninmals [animals] at once with a sharp stick it proceeded from an immense number of wild beasts of different kinds in the surrounding forest & they are full of them Monkeys panthers tigers wild boars – deer are very plenty but they do not show themselves on the river – there used to be plenty of aligators [alligators] in the river but they have disappeared. I only saw a dead one of 5 ft in length – Animals have been frightened away from the river & the traveled routes from being shot at so much – My information in regard to the game is from Gen. Norris US Top eng [engineer] of the surveying party for the railroad about 12 oc [o'clock] the next day we reached Gorgona Capt Tucker of the Orus furnished the canoes & we paid $8.00 a piece from C & G we then secured 4 pack horses (they are not as large as my roan pony nor near as stout but possess a strength & endurance that is perfectly wonderful) paying $30 for the 4 to Panama one half in advance the distance is 24 miles. We started at 4 [o'clock] & proceeded 6 miles – we walked much faster than our horses & where we would get about half mile a head [ahead] we would sit down & rest till they came up so that we to [too] took matters pretty easy – our road is a clearing thro'

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the timber varying from 5 to 10 yds wide it is of course merely a horse path but, not a bad one of the kind & if the ravines & streams were bridges would be a very good one – the first 6 miles are the worst of the whole distance it was up hill all the time, we were over coming the ridge of mountains in the center of the Isthmus. We encamped at night upon the summit of the hills it was an old camping ground & the timber had all been cleared away for some distance around, there was a cool & pleasant breeze blowing, we found another party encamped here they had a firm fire burning at which I heated some water & made some tea while the others were fixing our tent out of blankets so as to make a shelter from the dew which is all that is required in this mild climate – we then supped pretty much as we did before. I have not spoken of our other meals, because we did not take them regularly – we each had a cold cut of something when we got hungry – I had a Flushing ham which was not bad to take, we did not sleep very comfortable for a large kind of Ant, bit two of my companions intolerably & kept them grumbling all night – I however managed to do pretty well. – There are no mosquitoes on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus nor Pacific except in the woods or bushes the vermin dont seem to fancy me – I fare much better than the rest – We started early in the morn'g [morning] & by 9 ocl [o'clock] were at the half way house where a couple of Massachusetts Yankees have opened a (tent) tavern & furnish food & drink for the traveler here we breakfasted & rested a couple of hours – we were obliged to leave one of our horses here he had given out – this is not unfrequently the case we counted more than 50 dead horses on the way – the other 3 had