We sailed on the little Dolphin from New Orleans to Pensacola, where the cruiser Columbia lay waiting to take us down to Panama, and it was to the boom of saluting guns, the cheers of hospitable Pensacola citizens and the strains of “ The Star Spangled Banner ” that we got under way on this first memorable trip to the Canal Zone.

We arrived at Colon on a Sunday morning, and I remember distinctly that it seemed more like “getting home” than like getting to a strange place. The whole atmosphere and surroundings, the people, the language they spoke, the houses and streets, the rank earth odours and the very feel of the air reminded me so strongly of the Philippines as to give me immediately a delightful sense of friendly familiarity with everything and everybody.