Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-01-18
EN- ROUTE TO SOUTH AMERICA.
FANNIE B. WARD NOW ON HER WAY
TO STRANGE LANDS.
"Out on the Ocean Sailing From New
York to Aspfnwall- Mid Ocean
Pictures.

A visitor to the southern continent
and there are more of them in these days
than could once be counted in half CEN
tury-if coming from the United States,
may make his choice among several routes.
If bound for the eastern coast of South
America he would better sail from New
York by one of the Brazilian mail steamers
to Rio Janeiro, and at the latter port (chief
city of the newest republic under the sum
embarking in some other floating palace
for Montevedeo and Buenos Ayres; and
thence, if he desires, through the straits of
Magellan and Up the western side.
If wishing to visit first the western
coast, the best plan is to go via the Pacific
Mail steamer to Aspinwall, and thence by
rail across the Isthmus, connecting at PAN
anna with some English or Chilean vessel
for sup south" as they say near the equa-
tor.
Or, starting from any point by rail, he
may travel IN Pullman car, away down
through Mexico to Vera Cruz, and sail
from that fever-haunted old town across
the Gulf and into the caribbean sea; or
from San Francisco by ocean and the aid
of the Panama railway, he may easily
reach any port of South America. In val
gar phrase, "He pays his money and he
takes his choice" = according to the
amount of lucre and length of leisure he
may have at command.
1t must be remembered, however, that
in South America the seasons are the re-
verse of ours and that the rainy time, for
whose sudden jump from country to coun-
try no man can account, should be care
fully avoided. In point of health, climate
and in travelling, the western
side of the lower continent is greatly to be
preferred during the season of our northern
winter and the eastern coast during our
summer months. For example, though
Panama may be visited with comparative
impunity as early as October, many of the
Venezuelan ports, only little farther to
the eastward, are totally inaccessible, on
account of yellow fever, far into December.
The rainy season along the Isthmus is now
nearly over; but down in the United
States of Colombia-to which republic that
hyphen connecting the continents properly
belongs-the floods are still descending
and the roads practically impossible.
In Ecuador, the division next below Co
lombia, the rainy season has Just now fairly
begun, making it unwise for the traveller
to venture far into the interior, lest he be
compelled to remain there for months to
come. As is well known, not drop Of
rain ever falls along the greater portion Of
the coast of Peru, while in the southwest
ern interior Of that republic the windows
of heaven are opened near the middle Of
December. In Bolivia the rains begin
about the LIST of January and in Chile some
time later. By posting himself well be-
forehand on the vagaries of the weather,
which, in different localities, vary scarcely
day from year to year, he may have sun
shine during all his stay in South America
and ayoideall extremes of heat or cold,
dust or dampness.
Therefore, if leaving the United States
in autumn, the very best way is to sail from
New York via the Pacific Mail line, pur-
chasing a ticket TO Panama only.
On bright but chilly November Friday
your correspondent found herself floating
slowly away from Pier 45-a sort of female
Columbus, seeking an unknown world.
Have you experienced that singular feel
ing which possesses one when first on board
ship about to start on a long, long voy-
age? You are like the imam without a
country" belonging no longer to your
native land, although you have not left it.
You stand between the future and the
past, without present; and as the home
shores fade away, the most hardened trav-
eler wonders if he will see them again.
Ours was the usual experience. With
engines at half speed we paid dutiful re-
spect to the tall brown goddess in the har-
Dor; passed the narrows and entered the
lower bay; and when the outer bar was
safely crossed, the pilot with pockets
crammed full ofletters and memory charged
with innumerable last messages, clam
bered down into his skiff and was rowed
away to Sandy Hook. And then, at last,
the steamer, setting her nose to seward
and dashing the salt spray, like tears, from
her prov, began her work in earnest.
Our little moving world, isolated from
the rest of the human family in gray
waste of waters, is as polyglot collection
as that which accompanied Noah on his
edIlN eADeulllDuo. 1AC I'LL
zens of the United States, bound for Frisco
Englishmen come next in numerical
strength; then Germans, Jews, Frenchmen,
Italians and South Americans, the latter
mostly engaged in business on the Isthmus
but not half dozen outside our own
party, who are en- route to the southern
continent. AS our small clique includes a
newly-hedged American Minister Ito Be-
livia), an extra flag floats from the main
mast; and by and by, when we find our
selves under the protection of foreign flags,
on another ocean, the Stars and Stripes,
still flung to the breeze, signaling the fact
that representative of Goods country" is
on board will be answered by general
hosting of flags on shore. So much for the
dignity of Uncle Samuel. Though he has
no trade to boast of south of his own do
main. nor much of the love and confidence
OF his South American cousins, the latter
vet cherish a wholesome respect for his
proves on land and sea.
Those mid-ocean cranks, with whose
idiosyncracies all sea-goers are familiar,
are with us-eyery one. And what lot
of them there are, to be sure, and how
their hobbies crop out and flourish on the
briny deep Though most OF them are
old acduaintances to those who frequently
go down to the sea in ships, they are not
to be recognized the first day or two out
not till nerves grow unsteady and stomachs
rebellious, and the closely crowded COM
munity begins to assume somewhat of a
family character. Among the commoner
sort Of cranks are those of both sexes who
are ''neyer more sick at sea" though this
is their fourteenth Tor some other teenth)
trip who have been caught in the storm
lest storms and experienced the most
thrilling escapes in the most phenomenal
voyages on record or of.
The nautical cranks are generally callow
youths who have never smelled salt water
before, but have derived fund OF valuable
information from "Ten Years Before the
MAST and similar literature, and who
talk glibly oflee-scuppers and jib-booms,
of heaving the halyards and boxing the
mizzen lee way and all the rest Of it.