The Boy Travellers in South America. Thomas Wallace Knox
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organization. When the project for visiting South America was first discussed, the Doctor told his young friends that their best plan would be to proceed from New York to Aspinwall by one of the Pacific Mail Steamers. "We will then," said he, "have the whole of the continent before us; we can go down the western coast to any point we choose to visit, or we can travel along the northern and eastern coast, and make our way westward by one of the overland routes, or through the Strait of Magellan. We can ascend the Amazon, or descend it, or we may cross the Andes in the vicinity of Santiago. We will leave our plans incomplete till we reach Panama, and there be guided by circumstances."
As our friends were by no means novices in ocean travel they speedily dropped into the ways of the ship and made acquaintance with the passengers and officers. The passengers were a polyglot collection, numbering some fifty or more, and including about a dozen nationalities. There were Americans, on their way to California or Central America; Englishmen, with similar destinations, or bound for Callao and Valparaiso; Frenchmen, who were interested in the work on the Panama Canal; Peruvians, Chilians, Nicaraguans, and other natives of Central and South America; Germans, commercially engaged in the republics beyond the Equator; besides, as Fred expressed it in his note-book, "several districts to hear from." But in spite of their difference of nationality they were entirely harmonious, and the voyage proved a most agreeable one.
"Things are not now what they were before the overland railways were built," said one of the officers in conversation with Frank; "in those days we carried three or four hundred passengers in the first cabin, and twice or three times as many in the steerage. Now, the travel between the east and west goes by railway, and comparatively few persons make the sea trip between New York and San Francisco. But it's as pleasant as it ever was, and if people would only think they could spare the additional time there would be more of them going by steamer than by rail. There's no more delightful voyage in the world than from Panama to San Francisco. You are in sight of the coast nearly all the way; the ocean is so calm that you might suppose yourself on an inland lake, except on rare occasions; and before you begin to be weary of the trip you are entering the Golden Gate, and making fast to the dock, at your journey's end."
Dr. Bronson confirmed the assertion of this ancient mariner, as he had made the voyage to California in the manner described; "and we used to think," said he, "that we were getting along finely when we went from New York to San Francisco in twenty-three days. Now we can go in a week by the railway, and it is contrary to the American temperament to make the longer journey."
Frank and Fred were agreeably disappointed in the expectation of a storm before reaching the Caribbean Sea. In looking up the accounts of previous travellers they had found an old couplet:
"If the Bermudas let you pass,
You must beware of Hatteras."
They questioned the captain on the subject, and found that the poetical assertion was not without basis, as many a ship sailing on her course had encountered a gale in the neighborhood either of Cape Hatteras or the Bermuda Islands. "But in marine verses, as in every other sort," the captain continued, "you must allow for the poet's license, which often requires a very large margin to include it."
Hatteras and "the vexed Bermoothes" permitted them to pass without a semblance of a gale. They sighted one of the islands of the Bahama group, and there was great excitement on board the steamer when it was discovered that a ship was stranded on the shore. Fred and Frank rushed below to tell the Doctor, and that worthy ran on deck as soon as he could don his hat and coat. The captain scanned with his glass the unfortunate craft, and relieved the general anxiety with the information that she had sent a line to the land, and there was no danger to the lives of her people, whatever might be the risk to the property. "If anybody was in peril," said he, "I would do all I could to save him; but when it comes to a mere question of ship and cargo, none of us care to take any risk, or even go out of our course for a minute. It is a serious matter to stop a great steamer like this, and, besides, it is a peril to her passengers and crew. We will save life always, and the property of our own company, but when it comes to the ships of other people, who would, quite likely, refuse to pay anything for the service without a lawsuit, we mind our own business and keep on our way."
The correctness of his reasoning was apparent to all the listeners, and before the day was over the stranded ship was well-nigh forgotten.
They passed the eastern end of Cuba, and then steered between that island and Jamaica. The sight of the palm-trees that fringed parts of the shores reminded the youths of their journeyings in Ceylon and the Malay Archipelago, and increased their eagerness to be once more in tropical lands. In the Caribbean Sea they renewed their acquaintance with the flying-fishes, that darted from wave to wave, and were sometimes so numerous that hundreds of them could be seen at once. On the seventh day of the voyage the heavy baggage was brought from below and piled on deck, each piece being carefully weighed, and checked off on the purser's books. The Doctor explained to the youths that each passenger was entitled to free transportation of one hundred pounds of baggage across the Isthmus, but all above that amount was subject to an extra charge.
At daybreak the next morning the steamer entered the harbor of Aspinwall and made fast to her dock. The city was named in honor of William H. Aspinwall, of New York, but the French persist in calling it Colon, which was its appellation before the Panama Railway was thought of. It was a place of little consequence until the discovery of gold in California, in 1848, called attention to the necessity for a route of speedy travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of our continent.
Frank and Fred were up early on the morning of their arrival at Aspinwall, and as soon as the gang-plank was out they hurried on shore, accompanied by the Doctor. Tropical verdure greeted their eyes as they looked inland, and the open sheds and slightly built houses told very plainly that they had reached a region where frosts were unknown.
The wharf where the steamer lay was more than a thousand feet in length, and, on inquiry, they learned that it was built on a coral reef, which formed an excellent foundation. "You observe," said Dr. Bronson, "that the piles resting in the water are covered with copper, to resist the teredo, a tropical worm which is very destructive to wood. Perhaps you would like to know something about him.
"Well," the Doctor continued, "the teredo is better known as the ship-worm, a name he has obtained from his habits of attacking the timber of ships in tropical countries, and also in the warmer parts of the temperate zones. He is a long worm with a boring head; imagine an auger endowed with life, and you have a very good idea of what the teredo is. He enters the wood when young, and keeps on boring all his life; he goes in the direction of the grain of the wood, and only turns aside for hard knots or for a fellow-worm, whose presence he seems to detect by the sound of his work. The teredo attacks wood immersed in salt water, and hence his destructiveness to ships and to the piles that support docks and other marine structures. The timber is perforated and riddled so much that it crumbles to pieces in the course of time, and not a very long time either. Millions of dollars have been lost in consequence of the worm's performance, and not a few human lives. Ships lying in tropical harbors have been ruined by the teredo, and the injury has remained unknown until the vessels went to sea and were lost in the first gale that blew.
"But he has not been without his uses," said the Doctor, with a smile. "It was the teredo that gave Brunel his idea of a machine for tunnelling under the Thames River, and since his time most of the machines for tunnelling in soft earth have been made on the teredo principle. The head of the worm has a series of cutting disks that eat away the wood; Brunel made a gigantic worm with windows in front, and each window was occupied by a man who removed the earth before him and thus made way for the machine to be pushed forward. The progress of Brunel's worm under the bed of the Thames was exactly like that of the teredo in a piece of wood."