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“...356 POCKET GUIDE TO THE WEST INDIES
when his vessels steamed out to destruction, and it was
the bottle-necked entrance which Lieutenant Hobson
courageously endeavoured to block by sinking the
Merrimac.
Overlooking the Bay, in front of the Town Hall, on the
Avenida de Loraine (formerly de Michaelsen), stands
a pylon of pink marble with a bronze bust upon it of the
English naval officer, Commander, afterwards Rear-
Admiral, Sir Lambton Loraine (bom November 17th,
1828, died May 17th, 1917), who while in command of
H.M.S. Niobe in November, 1873, saved the lives of over
one hundred members of the crew of the United States
ship Virginius, who had been captured by the Spanish
ship Tornado and sentenced to death by the Spanish
authorities.
The bust was cast from a plaster model executed by
Senora Lucia Victoria Bacardi de Grau, daughter of an
old Cuban patriot and famous rum manufacturer. It
was unveiled by Mrs. Godfrey Haggard, wife of the
British Chargé d’Affaires in Havana in 1922. On the...”
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“...fronds of whose leaves instantly close up when they are I
touched.
The main thoroughfare of Panama is the Avenida I
Central which, starting in a curve, leads to the Plaza de I
la Independencia, as the old Cathderal Plaza is now I
called, and to the Malecon, or sea-wall, beyond. A stroll I
down this street reveals the cosmopolitan nature of the I
city. The retail trade is largely in the hands of China- I
men. Tempted by the improved condition of affairs in I
the country, celestials began to arrive in such numbers I
that it was deemed necessary to impose a head tax of I
$250 on those arriving since 1904. This the new- 1
comers pay willingly for the privilege of residing and I
carrying on trade in Panama. Here the West meets the I
East, and Spaniards, Italians, Frenchmen, and, indeed, I
representatives of every European country, and negroes, I
mb shoulders with Indians and Chinese.
The Avenida Central is traversed by electric cars, j
which take one in a few minutes to the Cathedral. The j
chief...”
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“...430 POCKET GUIDE TO THE WEST INDIES
At the lower end of the Avenida is a substantial group I
of Government Buildings, at the back of which is the I
handsome Teatro Nacional, certainly one of the finest j
buildings of the kind in this part of the world. The I
palatial Union Club, where the Prince of Wales was I
entertained at a Ball on March 31st, 1920, overlooks the I
harbour and bay.
The Malecon, or sea-wall, is a popular and fashionable I
promenade. To the west of it is another Malecon—
that of Las Bovedas, under which are the old prisons. I
The view from these sea-walls of the Pacific—which, I
strange though it may seem to some expectant tourists, I
does not differ in appearance from the Atlantic—is very |
attractive. The islands in the bay are those óf Naos, I
Flamenco, and Culebera, which have now been fortified I
by the United States, and Perico and the larger island of I
Taboga, which can be visited. These islands are believed I
to have been the outlets of the prehistoric volcano...”
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