e little red bugs
that lay under the leaves called carrapati's and that came off on you
in a hundred at a time. And there were also "jiggers" that get under
your nails and leave eggs there. Some times we could not sleep at all
for the bites and you had to carry a brush to brush the carripats off
every time you passed through bushes. It's the damnedest country I was
ever in now that I have time to think of it. The other day I was going
in to bathe and the sand was so hot that I could not get to the
breakers and so I went yelling and jumping back to the grass and the
grass was just one mass of burrs, so I gave another yell and leaped on
to a big log and the log was full of thorns. That's the sort of
country it is. And then after you do make a dash for the surf a shark
makes a dash for you and you don't know what you are here for anyway.
It had its humorous side and it was very funny, especially as it never
turned out otherwise, to see the men scamper when the sharks came in.
They never scented us for ten minutes or so and then they would swim up
and we would give a yell and all make for the shore head over heels and
splashing and shrieking and scared and excited. There would always be
one man who was further out than the rest and he could not hear on
account of the waves and we would all line up on the beach and yell and
dance up and down and try to attract his attention. But you would see
him go on diving and playing along in horrible loneliness until he
turned to speak to some one and found the man gone and then he would
look for the others and when he saw us all on the shore he would give
one wild whoop out of him and go falling over himself with his hair on
end and his eyes and mouth wide open. I saw one shark ten feet long
but we would have died of the heat if we had not bathed so we thought
it was worth it. That's over now because we cannot get any more sea
bathing. Just around Panama. Finest place seen yet.

RICHARD.

PANAMA, February 28th, 1895.

DEAR MOTHER:

Griscom has awakened to the fact that he is a Press correspondent and
is interviewing rebels who come stealthily by night followed by spies
of the government and sit in Griscom's room with the son of the Consul
General, as interpreter. Somerset and I refuse to be implicated and
sit in the plaza waiting for a file of soldiers to carry Griscom off
which is our cue for action. There is a man-of-war, the Atlanta, the
one we made friends with