When the boats had returned to the frigate witli the plunder, and it was reported to Cochrane that there were ten men made prisoners on shore, he sent a message saving, if their men were not immediately given up, he would lay the place in ashes. As any resistance on the part of the people was out of the question, the drunken sailors were given up, and when our ship made her appearance, although with a different flag, they supposed her to be the same one, come again to finish up what they had left undone of their previous depredations. We sailed from this port for Panama, where we stopped to fill up our fresh water, as it was inconvenient to do it at Callao.
The watering-place was at Toboga, an island in the Bay of Panama. We anchored about ten miles distant from it, so that we could easily communicate with Panama at the same time. The entrance into the city from the water, was by one gate only, and that strongly guarded by soldiers, as in most Spanish towns the guard house is near the gates. It was, at a former visit, rather difficult for any of the officers of the frigate to enter the town, as they were rather suspicious of us, not knowing our true character. Cochrane had anchored there only a few months before under English colors, but they soon became suspicious, and would not allow him to land, and finally ordered him off.
Thev then went down to Toboga. destroyed a fort and robbed a poor family (the only one on the island.) of their fowls and pigs; and when our boat landed they were terribly frightened, but we succeeded in assuring tliem that we were friends and Americans, and not as they at first supposed, Chilians. The place where we obtained our water was one of the most lovely groves I had ever seen. Oranges, lemons, pineapples, growing spontaneously, and all around us birds of beautiful plumage and of the sweetest notes warbling on every tree throughout this Paradise. These kind and "hospitable semiIndian islanders, treated us to roasted plantains, and delicious bananas in which the island abounded. Plainly showing that the milk of human kindness is indigenous to the soil of our natures, and does not always require civilization for its development.
In my travels through the world how much have I learned from the half-civilized and untutored, and from the savage too. The Fejee and Tongataboo cannibals kill, roast and eat their victims, not because their hearts are more prone to wickedness and cruelty than was that of Napoleon Bonaparte, Nicholas of Eussia, and many others whose deeds of cruelty have almost given the lie to any pretensions of an advancement towards civilization or of humanity. The former, act from an impulse springing from what they suppose and actually believe to be lawful and justifiable revenge for injuries. And there is not a doubt in my mind, and if this were a proper place, I think I could demonstrate it fully, that these and all the Oceanic islanders are the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, evidently retaining that innate vindictive law, "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for tooth," and also of the indiscriminate slaughter of their enemies.
And even among these, there is in their hearts a small reservoir of uncontaminated benevolence kept there to show that they came from God! One day on returning to the ship from the watering-place, on passing an island near Toboga, and being close in, we saw something that looked like a large seal on a projecting rock, but soon ascertained that it was a man. He jumped into the water and swam to our boat; we took him in. He was nearly naked; his hair was long and matted; his beard very black and bushy; taking him altogether, he was a frightful looking fellow. He told us that he and several others were taken in a Chilian privateer, by a Spanish frigate, brought to Panama, and imprisoned; being heavily chained, and put in dungeons.
Such being the fate of all privateersmcn sentenced to death. They had been in prison about sixty days, when lie and two others, in a most remarkable manner, made their escape. As these three were confined in one cell, they had during the day contrived to wrench off their chains, and at night to remove heavy stones and get away almost under the very nose and eyes of the sentinels. They were obliged to drop some distance into the sea, and fortunately for them, it was then high water. If, however, the tide had been out they must have dropped on the rocks, and run the risk of breaking their limbs, or of dashing out their brains. I have stood over the place many a time, and the very look of it is enough to frighten one.