The Winslow mail., 1913-09-13


lage on Ts
Down verdure-clad slopes and ter
racing reaches
Where orange and mango and pine
apple grow,
One wanders through Eden to ocean
washed beaches
An Eden that only the sun-children
know"
Thus James S. Gilbert, the late Ia
mented poet Of Panama, wrote of
Taboga Island 1t was so enticing
that I determined to be one of the
sun-children for a day or two and so
steamed away in little launch twelve
miles out into the Pacific to that
beauty spot. 1t is all that Mr.. Gil
bert called it, and more, and it is no
wonder that the sanitarium, estab-
lished there by the French canal COM
pany and reopened by the Americans,
is so we'll patronized. If you are a
canal employe-white- have
been i'll, the doctor may be kind
enough to send you over to Taboga
for two weeks to recuperate. If you
are a mere visitor you can put up at
the unpretentious little hotel con-
Quoted by William Jones, the Ameri-
can six-footer who looks like a
miner and dances like cotillon
leader. In either case you will be
fortunate, for you will find those
'verdure-clad slopes" gorgeous with
flowers and alive with brilliant birds,
and the "ocean-washed beaches" the
finest places in the world for a swim.
You can sail about the pretty bays
with the native fishermen, or you can
climb up the hills where the boys are
vociferously driving the kline home to
be milked, or you can merely lie in
the shade and dream dreams of the
Spanish galleons and the buccaneers.
A more delightful place for rest and
the repair of shattered nerves would
be hard to find.
Taboga has a history, too, small as
it Is. De Luque, the second bishop
of Panama, looked upon the island,
saw that it was good and established
there his country residence. In fact
he maintained a household there the
year round, for, like many another
churchman of the old days, he did not
adhere closely to the rule of celibacy.
His memory is preserved by a bath
ing place in a stream that runs down
the mountain side, called the Bish-
ops Pool 1t was reserved for the
use of him and his retinue. Above 1t
is the Family Pool, for women and
children, and still higher up is the
Pool of the Letters, for the men.
The last one derives its name from
the inscription 81. F. B., Ohio" carved
on a nearby rock. This is reminder
that in 1852 the Fourth infantry, U.
8. A., crossed the isthmus en- route
for garrison duty in California, hav-
ing sailed from New York on the
United States mail steamer Ohio.
Cholera was prevalent at the time in
Panama and the American soldiers
and the sailors from the Ohio were
attacked by the disease, about eighty
Of them dying. Some Of the sick
were left on Taboga island to recov-
err and evidently one Of them did re-
cover sufficiently to climb up to the
bathing pool and leave the record
that is a mystery to the native in
habitants of this day. incidentally
u. s. Grant, then a captain, was with
the Fourth infantry on that trip.
If you climb up the hill, following
this stream most Of the way, you win
come to a place at the summit Of a
pass called Las Cruces. There, set
In cement, are three small crosses
commemorating the most exciting in
cident in the islands history. Ac
cording to a Spanish work written
early in the last century, a shipload
of Peruvian pirates came sailing up
the coast in 1915 and decided Taboga
was a good place to loot. They land
ed and drove the small Spanish gar
rison out of the village and up the
mountain. But in the pass the SOL
diers rallied, the inhabitants came to
their assistance and there, says the
chronicler a most bloody combat
ragged for hours. Finally the pirates
were routed and fed to their ship,
leaving three men dead on the field
of battle!
The isthmus reeks with history,
some of the most interesting pas
sages of which have to do with Porto
Bello. But the visitor who goes
there with mind full Of the mighty
fights aud great trade of the old