Summary
I write this chapter at Jamaica. Our return voyage from Peru to Panama was most successfully performed. I have formerly mentioned how much we suffered on our first voyage, thermometrically speaking; but we experienced scarcely any oppressive heat whatsoever on our way back.
We left the city of the land of the Incas in that unromantic conveyance called an omnibus; for we feared we were late, and thought that we should save time by so doing. Mr. Yates was good enough to arrange all for us, and we found the omnibus just starting. The administrador recommended dispatch. We clambered in hastily, and–weak mortals–we thought, when we got in, it was full; but another passenger appeared–an Indian woman, with a little chocolate-coloured baby, who looked round with great sang-froid on the crammed vehicle, most philosophically indifferent. These Indian infants seem the most stoical little dingy Diogeneses on earth.
At last the omnibus overflowed. A few arms, and heads, and shoulders, and such insignificant portions of the human frame were squeezed out at the rows of open windows and then, arré! On we go, through the Morisco-Spanish streets of the noble old city, on, till we dash through the great gate.
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- Travels in the United States, etc. During 1849 and 1850 , pp. 221 - 243Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009