There was in Nicaragua at the time a filibustering
expedition under the command of Captain Walker, who
went from California to overthrow the government there
by taking sides with the revolutionary movement that
had been started, and to get an American control of
the government, which I did not approve of, for I
considered it a dishonorable movement; but still,
if I had landed, they being my countrymen, I might
have got mixed up with them. They were conquered
and all sentenced to death, and shot. It is barely
possible I might have shared their fate. I have
often thought since I made a good escape by not landing.
SCENES ON THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
The course of the steamer is frequently in sight of
land. The storms I have referred to were tropical
storms, lasting but a short time. The ocean is
generally very mild all the distance, three thousand
five hundred miles from Panama to San Francisco.
North of San Francisco the storms are somewhat similar
to the Atlantic ocean storms. The passengers
on the return trip were in the best of spirits; they
were returning home; all of them had been more or
less successful in California, and I can recall to
my mind many pleasant times we had on board the steamship.
The porpoise are very numerous on the Pacific ocean;
there were often, for days, schools of them on the
sides of the steamer, throwing themselves out of the
water, and then diving in again; great numbers, at
the same time, seeming like the motion of a revolving
wheel. Occasionally we would hear the cry, “There
she blows;” a jet of water being thrown up many
feet high in the air—a sperm whale had come
up to breathe. We frequently saw flying fish.
One day there was a school of them landed on the steamer;
they are similar to other fish, except having wings,
but not of a very large size. At another time
a booby bird came on the steamer. It got its
name from its stupidity. We frequently saw them
on the water, floating on a piece of board or a stick
of wood; sailors say they have seen them five hundred
miles out to sea in that way. This one you could
take up and handle; it made no resistance. On
the coast of Central America we saw two mountain peaks
of great height, standing out, individually, like
the Pyramids, said to be extinct volcanoes that were
thrown up from the internal fires of the earth, and
which, at one time, belched forth melted lava and fire.
We arrived safe in Panama. I was so near home
that I thought I might as well return and see my friends,
and take a fresh start for California, and try my
fortune once more. They had commenced building
the railroad over the Isthmus, but it was not completed,
so we crossed over to Cruize, the head of navigation
on the Chagres river, and went down that to its mouth,
and there took the steamer Georgia for New York,
commanded by Captain Porter, of the United States navy—the
man who had control of the vessels in going down the
Copyrights
The Adventures of a Forty-niner from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
