Explorers in every part of the Isthmus, with the exception of Darien, give favorable accounts of the temper of the natives. Trautwine, who crossed the divide at several points in the province of Chócó, regarded a bundle of cigars as the best passport. General Michler depended on the natives for provisions during a part of his survey, and was never disappointed. But the Darien and San Blas Indians have been permitted to threaten and murder with impunity. They have been further emboldened by the timid behavior, and exasperated by the conduct of expeditionists. Had the hostile demonstration of the savages against Codazzi and Gisborne, and the massacre of four of Capt. Prevost’s men, been promptly punished, subsequent exploring parties might now pass through the country unmolested. Strain, who thoroughly distrusted them, acknowledges that in one case his suspicions were unjust. After dismissing his guides, he remarks that he “was afterward convinced that the Caledonia Indians, and their Sucubti friends, intended to lead them by the most direct route to the Savana, and that they were prevented doing so by the Indians of the Chuquanaque, or the Chuqunos, whom they met on the seventh day’s march, and whom from the first excited suspicion.” It would appear that this unfortunate expedition would have been better served by a little more confidence in these “formidable Indians,” as Gisborne calls them, and a little acquaintance with their language, than by the fortitude it afterward exhibited in encountering the trials which befell it. When misfortune appeals so strongly to sympathy, as it does in this case, criticism becomes an ungracious task. Throughout this paper we have omitted much in observing the rule, laid down for ourselves, to indicate what should be done, rather than notice what should not have been done. We therefore quote with pleasure the following graphic account of the difficulty of cutting a way through the tropical undergrowth, which we find in Mr. Gisborne’s narrative: _Cutting the way_, “we were wading along the river margin, or facing clusters of prickly stems sometimes backing this mass of vegetation. Every step had its difficulty, and every difficulty was attended with additional bodily suffering; but our hearts nearly failed when an interminable mangrove wood extended as far as the eye can reach. “The twisted and interlaced roots, some eight feet high, grew out of a bed of slimy mud, left by the tidal waters, making progress a succession of gymnastic feats, in which the gift of balancing had no small share. Hand and foot were equally occupied, and every muscle was called into play; nearly an hour’s perseverance had only advanced us a few hundred yards.”