mention of foreigners comes in a letter describing her journey through Panama en route to California. Six native women prepare meals for her and her husband, as well as their small party, as they wait in Panama for passage to the coast. Mrs. Megquier describes the women killing a pig for the partys breakfast. She writes, ...[the natives] hack his throat away with a large knife, they use for all purposes, something like your stoutest bush scythe...(by the way, it is the only weapon they have, either for use or defense)...10 These comments imply that she sees the Panamanians as being quite different from herself. They are so uncivilized that they use the same tool for butchering as for defending themselves. She finds them quaint and barbaric in comparison to what she knows. This view of the natives is predictable and similar to what one would expect from a Victorian woman.Soon, Megquier's letters begin to offer up some contradiction in regards to foreigners. In describing a small boat ride she says, Was it not a scene for a painter to see us tugged along by two miserable natives.11 While still in Panama, she describes the natives as being, intolerably ugly12 yet, in the very same letter she gives a different opinion. In this letter to her daughter, Megquier says this about a group of young men,...I have seen a couple of young spaniards, a number of times. I shewed him your picture, he said, bonito which means pretty, I think if you were here you could make a bargain with him... he is very pretty and dresses in good taste, if he could talk English I would tell him to wait two years, and I would take him to the states.13 It seems she cannot decide what she thinks of the Panamanians. When looking at them from a distance, she seems to find the natives miserable and very undesirable; however, after becoming acquainted with some young men, she is willing to let them marry her daughter. Is it because they are good looking and dr...
