2
THE BATTALION.
ject and taxing the reader’s patience, so
I will take up the dropped thread. Hav
ing at last concluded to try Central
America, for various reasons—the main
one of which was its easy access, we
took berth in the steamer Gracia, a di
minutive fruiter of about 1000 tons.
The captain, a Mr. Regner, turned out
to be an amiable, nice sort of a fellow
and I spent a good deal of our voyage on
his deck talking and assisting him in
taking observations, which latter he had
to do twice a day. There were six
other passengers on board besides Puss
and myself, so that we anticipated a
nice trip, but Oh! ye winds and waves.
We had scarcely entered the gulf after a
nice glide of eight hours along the Miss
issippi, when dire misfortune befell the
majority of our fellow passengers. Puss,
I am sorry to say was the first to pay
his tribute to old Neptune, then one
after another of the poor fellows disap
peared into their respective bunks, from
which at intervals groans of anguish
and heart-rending woe could be heard to
issue. The captain looked at me with
wonder, thin Ring it not more than right
that I should bear those others company
in their distress and help them make the
air resound with hideous wails, but after
my mentioning another trip of a far
rougher nature he desisted from his sur
prise and congratulated himself on hav
ing somebody to help him eat supper,
and a hearty meal we made despite the
various attempts of the ship to upset
our plates and stand us on our heads
just at the moment of conveying an art
fully speared piece of meat to our
mouths. These solitary meals lasted
four days, one or the other of the pass
engers occasionally being a silent and
fealous spectator of our enjoyment,
which silence was generally concluded
with a rush for the outer railing and a
very expressive argument with the fishes.
Puss especialW had it bad and be
came morose, wishing himself anwhere
except in heaven or in the boat. But
the fifth day brought a perfectly smooth
sea, which sparkled and flashed in the
sunlight like a million precious gems,
lined by a beautiful setting of a tropical
vegetation. This beautiful scenery and
the perfectly even motion of the vessel
induced all the invalids to come on
deck and sun themselves, and my pri
vate opinion is, that if they would have
come up sooner they would have been
spared much. I gave expression to this
opinion and was answered unanimously
that they had come up long ago, every
bit of them, and there was nothing left
of them.
We caught a glimpse of the Cuban
coast; but it was too far off to distin
guish anything clearly, even through a
powerful telescope. We now sailed, or
rather screwed, along a pretty, richly
wooded shore, a steep cliff concealing
from us our port of landing; at last
rounding it, the glow of the setting sun
revealed the most natural and undoubt
edly one of the prettiest harbors of the
Gulf coast. There lay before us a nest
of pioturesqe cottages overshadowed by
palms of all varieties, over which the
government buildings seemed to hover,
as a hen does over her flock ; behind
all of this there were the mountains in
their grand majesty, clothed in the most
beautiful robe of state—the spring foli
age. The sun now went below our
horizon, but still lighted the mountains
which threw huge shadows over the bay,
and traveling siep by step the lord of
day lingered with, a farewell kiss on the