This is the third day out from Panama. We have been steaming steadily in
the teeth of the trade wind. It has blown pretty hard, and the ship
has pitched a little, but not enough to make either Mother or me
uncomfortable.
Panama was a great sight. In the first place it was strange and
beautiful with its mass of luxuriant tropic jungle, with the treacherous
tropic rivers trailing here and there through it; and it was lovely
to see the orchids and brilliant butterflies and the strange birds and
snakes and lizards, and finally the strange old Spanish towns and the
queer thatch and bamboo huts of the ordinary natives. In the next place
it is a tremendous sight to see the work on the canal going on. From the
chief engineer and the chief sanitary officer down to the last arrived
machinist or time-keeper, the five thousand Americans at work on the
Isthmus seemed to me an exceptionally able, energetic lot, some of them
grumbling, of course, but on the whole a mighty good lot of men. The
West Indian negroes offer a greater problem, but they are doing pretty
well also. I was astonished at the progress made. We spent the three
days in working from dawn until long after darkness--dear Dr. Rixey
being, of course, my faithful companion. Mother would see all she liked
and then would go off on a little spree by herself, and she enjoyed it
to the full.