Passengers can also be booked through, via the Colon and Panama Railway, to the principal ports on the Chilian Coast. The steamers of the Pacific Mail Co. and Campania Sud-Americana Co. leave Panama weekly for the South, reaching Callao in about nine days and arriving at Valparaiso in about 21 days. Seeing that for years past the climate of Jamaica has been libelled as unhealthy, it cannot be too strongly affirmed, that from a medical point of view, the wonderful air of the hilly districts is unrivalled; it being in every way equal to that of the better known European winter resorts, to which it bids fair to become a serious rival. [Illustration: Sailboats in harbor] [Illustration: R.M.S. ULSTER. City of Dublin Steampacket Co.] CHAPTER V. THE CITY OF DUBLIN STEAMPACKET COMPANY. In the summer of the year 1822 Mr. C. W. Williams, of Dublin, crossed over to Liverpool with the object of inducing the merchants to take shares in a line of steampackets he proposed building for the Liverpool and Dublin trade. Except to the most sanguine, the time did not appear to be favourable for such a scheme. A large fleet of sailing smacks maintained daily communication (subject to the weather) between the two ports, carrying all kinds of goods, and even cattle. The steampackets WATERLOO and BELFAST sailed with passengers only every alternate day from each side. Both these vessels had already won for themselves a reputation, the former being the first steampacket to ply regularly between England and Ireland, and the latter having made a passage in the then remarkably short time of 12½ hours. Besides this, “The Original Steampacket Company,” a new company (with powerful Government influence), including amongst its shareholders Lord Blaney, Major-General Preeth, Sir John Tobin, &c., and trading under the title of the St. George Steampacket Company, had in April preceding launched two of the largest and most powerful steampackets that had yet been built, viz., the ST. PATRICK and the ST. GEORGE. This latter vessel on the 13th September made a passage from Dublin in 11½ hours, thus making a record which she herself broke on the 23rd April, 1824, by making a passage from Liverpool to Dublin in 10 hours 40 minutes. In addition to the already established steam and sailing lines, a third local steampacket company, supported by the traders, the “Dublin and Liverpool Steam Navigation Company,” was in course of formation. It is not, therefore, surprising under these circumstances that Mr. Williams, a stranger in Liverpool, failed to obtain the financial support to his scheme which he desired. It is the more to his credit that, though disappointed in Liverpool, he persevered with his project in Dublin with so much success that he was enabled to return to Liverpool in February of the following year (1823) and place an order with “Frigate” Wilson for the pioneer steamer of the future famous City of Dublin Steampacket Company, the CITY OF DUBLIN, a vessel of 130 h.p.