Panama Bay runs straight south from Ancon mountain about one hundred miles. It is filled with a great number of islands, which are evidently the tops of mountains projecting above the surface of the water. One of these islands is Taboga, situated in the bay about twelve miles south of the city of Panama. It rises abruptly from the surface of the ocean about a thousand feet, and at the present time is very thoroughly cultivated, the principal product being pineapples which have a great local reputation for size and flavor. It was inhabited by the Indians when the city of Panama was first founded by the Spaniards, and the wealthy inhabitants of the city of Panama early made it a resort, as being pleasanter, cooler and more healthy than the mainland. The water was considered unusually pure, and the island had the reputation of not being liable to yellow fever. A quaint little village, Taboga, nestles on the beach at the foot of the mountain. This village is now some four hundred years old, and the church there is reputed to be about that age. A gruesome thing about the pretty little church is the fact that in the outer wall a human skull is imbedded in the masonry. A glass cover is placed over the front, and the skull can be plainly seen. I was told that this was the skull of one of the early padres, who had been a very good man, and to whom the people were greatly devoted. And when he died, they took this method of perpetuating his memory and showing their veneration. For the reason that Taboga was considered so much more healthy than Panama, the French located there a sanitarium. It was very prettily situated outside the limits of the village of Taboga, and the grounds about the sanitarium had been beautified and improved by the French just as had the grounds of Ancon Hospital. In their sanitarium they could accommodate about one hundred people. We enlarged this institution, and made it a convalescent hospital of about one hundred and twenty beds, and patients were received here on the same terms as in our other hospitals. It has proved to be to us a most useful institution. In the early days, the Isthmus had such a bad reputation for health that when an American got sick, he became very much depressed and made up his mind that he was going to die, and usually determined that he would go back home to the United States if he ever again became able to travel. The island of Taboga had such a reputation for salubrity that we could generally persuade him, when in this frame of mind, to go to the convalescent hospital there until he was able to travel, or until his ship sailed. He usually improved so rapidly at Taboga that by the time a ship was ready to sail, he had gotten over his homesickness and depression. In this way a large number of useful employees were saved to the Commission.