The unusual number of passengers that had come over on the steamer, and the large amount of freight to pack, had created an unprecedented demand for mules.

Some of the passengers paid as high as forty dollars for the use of a mule to ride twenty-five miles, when the mule would not have sold for ten dollars in that market at other times.

Meanwhile the cholera had broken out, and men were dying every hour.

To diminish the food for the disease, I permitted the company detailed with me to proceed to Panama.

The captain and the doctors accompanied the men, and I was left alone with the sick and the soldiers who had families.