We arrived safe in Panama. I was so near home that I thought I might as
well return and see my friends, and take a fresh start for California,
and try my fortune once more. They had commenced building the railroad
over the Isthmus, but it was not completed, so we crossed over to
Cruize, the head of navigation on the Chagres river, and went down that
to its mouth, and there took the steamer _Georgia_ for New York,
commanded by Captain Porter, of the United States navy--the man who had
control of the vessels in going down the Mississippi river and
successfully passing Vicksburg, which had so much to do with its
capture. He was a perfect gentleman, and commanded your admiration with
the skill of his management of the vessel. There were on the vessel
well-dressed pickpockets, who went from New York to the Isthmus, to
return by the steamers to the city, for the chances of robbing the
returning Californians of their gold dust, as all of them had more or
less of it on their persons. One unfortunate victim of their wiles
appealed strongly to my sympathies. He was an English sailor, and had
been two or three years up in the gold mines, and had $3,000 or $4,000
in gold dust in a buckskin bag on his person. He showed it to me. I
advised him to deposit it with the purser for safety; that I had done so
with mine. He said they could not rob him. He was about the happiest man
I ever saw. He was richer, in feeling, than the Vanderbilts. He said he
had a wife and children in Liverpool, and would take the first steamer
from New York for that port. He said he had not seen his family for
several years, and now that he had the gold he could make them all
happy. He was in the steerage. A few days after I heard he was sick. He
had fainted. Some parties had helped him up; evidently pickpockets had
taken that opportunity to rob him; his gold was all gone. I explained
his case to Captain Porter, but nothing could be done. There was no way
to identify his gold dust from any other; it was all alike. When he
arrived in New York, he would have to go to the hospital until he got