Revised Jun 22 2021
Mr. Nobbs having been placed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel on its lists of Missionaries, with a salary of 50l. per annum, sailed on the 17th December, 1852, from Southampton, in the Royal Mail steam-ship La Plata. He reached the island of St. Thomas early in the year 1853, and from thence proceeded in another steamer to Navy Bay. The Directors of the Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company had kindly provided him with a free passage to that place.
At the head of Navy Bay lies the town, which by the government of the province, and in all official documents, is styled "Colon," but by the Americans, who are its founders and chief owners, is known by the name of "Aspinwall." There is the terminus of the railroad, by which the traveller was conveyed about 25 miles, at a high rate, to the station of Barbacoas, on the river Chagres. Thence there was a conveyance up the river by canoes about 14 miles, to the town of Cruces. From Cruces the journey overland to Panama, about 25 miles, was completed on mules, over one of the very worst roads that ever existed in the world.
The Panama line of railroad has since been completed for traffic from Navy Bay on the Atlantic to the Bay of Panama on the Pacific, a distance of about 50 miles.