Abbeville press. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1860-1869, 1868-11-27
Tropical Scenes.

| SP~oN~~ ~ooAASSs
Tho missionaries that havo recently
been sent out by tho Southern Pres
hyte'ian Church, are writing back to
their friends, giving instercs,ing dc.
scr'ptions of what they saw and
heard by tho way, to China and TO
Brazil and other countries.
From tho correspondence of tho
Central Presbyterian, we take a para
graph from lettor written by M. Ii.
H., describing trip across the 18th
mus Of Panama:
"on reaching Aspinwall, our pas
sengers, about 800 in number, wcre
soon landed, and it was not long be-
fore trains were in readiness TO takc
US to Panama. This gavo us no or
portunlty Of walking through Aspin-
wall. We could sec from the steamer
That 1t was small town, combining
features which We havo associated
with tropical seclusion, and those
which belong TO moro bustling. lati-
tudcs. Tho coco&-nut trees at the
landing, with their clusters of fruit,
were blackoned with tho smoke from
tho locomotive; and tho palm-:h ch-
cd huts OF the natives surrounded bv
their gardens Of bananas, were only a
tow hundred yards distant from a
'nodcrn-looking depot. The chief
buildings in the town belong to tho
railroad company; and among them
wo observed a noat-loclsing church,
which we wera told was Episcopal,
built for the railroad employees. A
number of the natives were about
tho landing and tho depot, importun-
ing passengers to be allowed to carry
their baggage, and offering fruits, &C.,
tor sale. Thcro seemed to he con-
siderable variety among them-No.
groes, Indians, Mexicans, Mulattocs,
and other shades ard types. They
wore offering for sale orarges, banan-
as, lemons, lines, mangc-applcs, pine
apples, melons, Panama hats, fruit.
baskets, &c. A colored man, who sat
behind table covered with piIes of
silver, exchanging specie for grcca-
backs, seemed to act as chief broker
in the lively traffic which sprung up
between the passengers and fruit. soil
ere. We got started from Aspinwall
about o'clock. The rolling stock of
tho railroad is very light, owing to
tho marsby>Boil over which a great
part Of tho track is lard. Tho loco.
motives are small things, and all the
ougineers and firemcn arc natives.
;fho distance from AspinwaH to Pan
ANA is Al miles, which we passed
over in three hours. The pleasures of
this ride to Us, who had never been in
the tropics, we can hardly descIbe. It
was like being in new world. Till
nightfall We had succession of novel
and interesting sights, in plants, trees,
birds, animals, men and houses. Tho
luxuriance Of the vegetation far ex-
ceeded anything we had ever seen
before. It looked rs if plants and
trees and vines were struggling which
should havo the ground. Again and
again we thought, truly this earth is
full OF the riches of our Lord. Moth
ing looked familiar. We saw the
palm, calabash, lime, cocoa-nut, or.
angc, banana, papaya, and thous-
and other trees and plants of which
we did not learn the names. FIocks
of strangc.looking birds parrots
among tbem-were seen occasionally
in tho forests. Many of tho trees
wore festooned with vines, and we
saw many beautiful flowers. The
road for about twenty miles passed
through fat, marshy country, and
then we came into a mount ainous re-
gion, which continued to Panama. We
passed various settlements of tho na-
tives, both in the marsby districts, on
tho banks Of the Chagres river, and
in the highlands. The people are en-.
inently gregarious in their habits,
crowding their huts together In villa
ges. The huts are built of wattled
work daubed with mud, or of boards,
with roofs Of palm-thatching, high
peaked. Their settlements look ex-
ac!1y like the pictures Of African vii
lagos, with which we are familiar.
| The houses did not look verv cleanIv.
but tho persons and clothing of the
natives showed . free use Of water.
We passed somo houses on the road
that were quite tasteful, surrounded
with gardens of fruits and flowers
the residences, we supposed, Of Span
iards or Americana"
An n.i@portant meeting Of capitalists