Litchfield enquirer., 1873-02-27

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 Panama then, who had plenty of sinners i always ready for spree, and this one
 suited them exactly In about month
 we had fourteeR in our party, and 950O0
 actually subscribed. With this money we chartered small steamer that chanced to
 be lying idle in port and one dark night we cleared for Tehuantepec-au fourteen of us on board, and crew of ten hands, l chiefly firemen. Every mothers son of
 them was searched as he came on board, and not so much as knife left for you
 see we couldn't trust them. We were all
 armed-well, too, you may bet. To hide I our track effectually as we left the harbor, I we put her head to the northward and steamed up the coast. The lights of l Panama were reflected thousand times
 on the dancing water astern of us, then
 one by one they sank and faded out, till | those at the pier-head alone were visible,
 and broad on the quarter, the lights of the
 mail steamer lying at anchor under the l lee of the islands. In another hour these
 too disappeared. The helm was put hard down, full steam ahead was the order, and we shot from the dark shadow of the 1 land, and headed direct to sea- An horf later we had made good ofing, and her head was s. by W. S., and without a 1 light showing, we steamed past the | islands again, leaving them on the port hand and held our course. Not till then did we leave the deck, for the Doc and l had bargained that, until we were fairly at sea, the exact measurements, observa- tions, and plans should remain in our keeping and secret The crew were all sent forward. One of our party took the wheel, whilst another stood sentry at the head of the cabin-stairs The rest of us crowded round the small table There was dead silence as one by one M'Gin spread out the worn and yellow papers, and his voice seemed hushed and trembled as he read out to the rest the great secret. Then one by one the papers were closely examined, and the observations and measurements compared and then as, finally, MGiu placed his finger on Q par ticular spot in the map, and remarked,
 ''It's just thereabouts, gentlemen, there rang out su:h cheer, such a wild exult- ing shout, that verify believe you might have heard 1t here from Denver. Down rushed the guard we had left on duty, and the man Vho was steering, unable to remain longer on deck We had quite forgotten them ; and as some of us tumb- led up to take their places, we saw the crew, engineers and all, clustered together forward, and looking half scared, as if they thought themselves in floating mad-ship. There was not much sleep that night, you bet and morning still found fls grouped aft talking over our chances and counting our piles. The steamer was fast little boat, and towards the afternoon sighted land ahead What scurry there was Every glass in the ship was pointed at the two blue cones we could just make out rising apparently from the water
 ''Higher and higher grew the blue cones, and hour by hour the outline of the sharp broken ridges connecting them be- came more and more distinct; down went the sun like ball of blazing gold and mind how eagerly, whilst there was ray of light left, we scanned the mysterious island, and tried to locate the spot where our treasure lay hidden.
 ''By ten o'clock we were close ill with the land, and lay to till morning. The boats were launched and provisioned in- struments, spades, picks, and tools were slowed beneath the thwarts and as soon as the first symptom of dawn appeared, the oars fell into the water, and we started for the land, some two miles off. M'Gill was in the bows of the launch and I in the whale -boat-he leading, as he knew the coast. The island had been q volcano one time, guess, for the shore was steep and rocky all but one spot where there was 8 little sandy bay and in front of this, as if to guard it, some 400 yards out was reef, over which the rollers thunder ed and dashed, throwing up clouds of spray. As we neared it there seemed to be no break in the belt of foam, and some of us thought M'Gill must have gone mad or lost his bearings as he went for it ; but we followed half-a.dozen lengths astern, and guess we'd have rowed over Niagara if it had been in our way. But M'Gill knew what he was about, for sure enough there was channel just where the old chart said and as the launch seemed almost in the white water, down went the helm, and she shot into the gap. Marrow enough it was for as we followed there seemed hardly room enough to use the oars as 8 big sea slid from under us, and the gray sharp-pointed rocks seemed to rise on each side as if by magic With thunder roar the next huge roller came in i; and catching the whale-boat on the quarter, half filled her and lifting her
 like feather, carried her clear over the rocks that moment before seemed ten feet above US. It seemed but couple of seconds. but in those two seconds I ex- perienced what it was to be nearer death than | ever was before for apart from being smashed and drowned in that hell of water, man has no chance where the sharks are as plentiful as fish in the lake here. We'll, all we got for our scare was a shout of laughter from the boys in the Doctors boat, who had pulled through without splash but we took the shine out of them in the race to the beach for fhn17nh fhov h o6 O rr0n6 otort oho1 it with them, and ran our boat half her length up on the sand. Then such cheer We had won our goal at last. They had been watching us from the steamer, and above the hoarse roar of the breakers we could hear the boom of her gun as she saluted. Viv0, boys but my heart felt big then, tell you: From the little strip of sand at the landing there was steep pull up dry water-course some 200 feet or so, till you came to the woods : woods !-I tell you, boys, there's no such woods in the five republics, nor yet in the Amazonas, to equal them.
 Why, the mangrove-swamp to Realeio isn't a circumstance to them-big trees, little trees, vines, tree-ferns, creepers- every kind of green thing that grows was there, I guess, and all matted and tangled together, so that snake could hardly get through. l never saw sucn an undergrowth in my ife-never. We'll, we took the bearings of the steeple-rock from the point where we first landed, and found, sure enough, it was just as the old chart gave it. That put us in high spirits, and we set to work with axe and naachette to cut trail through the bush. What job that was Night come on, and we had only just reached the foot of it. We found no water, so had to return to the boats, and camp on the beach but there wasn't t one of us who slept wink, ,Ireckon
 The mosquitoes are downright desperate. r tell you, boys, there were so many of them, there wasn't room on all our car cases for them all to sit down at once-so. they had to work by relays and when one million or so had got a good square meal, they would fly off to the woods, and perch on the biggest tree they could find
 to rest. whilst the next million, who had
 been patiently waiting all the time,