Revised Jun 22 2021
Mr. Nobbs, though a well-tried traveller, and equal to the endurance of much hardship, experienced a full share of the trouble and annoyance for which the journey over the Isthmus of Panama was then proverbial. He had purposely avoided taking much luggage. Not only, however, was the charge for conveyance exorbitant; but, with all his care, he, for some time, lost sight of a trunk, containing, among other articles of importance, a beautiful set of silver communion plate, which had been entrusted to his care by a friend at Fulham, for use in the church at Pitcairn. This painful event, added to the ill effect of the climate, brought on an attack of fever, the symptoms of which were serious after his leaving Panama. By God's blessing, this sickness passed away. The reappearance of the goods, which were, through the active zeal of Mr. Perry, the British Consul at Panama, restored to Mr. Nobbs's hands, appears to have tended to his recovery.
Two dreadful events, occurring in the year 1856, on the Isthmus of Panama, have added to the catalogue of horrors belonging to the place; the one a terrific conflict between some American passengers and the natives, in which the former were robbed, and several on both sides killed and wounded; the other, a frightful accident, causing the death of between thirty and forty persons, and serious injury to seventy or eighty, on the Panama railroad. Between nine and ten miles from Aspinwall, nine cars were precipitated into a ravine thirty feet deep.