Note 97 — REMINISCENCES OF VILLAGE LIFE AND OF PANAMA AND CALIFORNIA. 1840-1850.

Captain Bailey had succeeded D. D. Porter, afterwards Admiral of the Navy, in command of the Panama, but Porter was aboard the ship on this voyage. Others on board who were to reach eminence in various callings were John B. Weller, William W. Gwin, afterwards United States Senator, from California; Jessie Benton, daughter of Thomas H. Benton, and the wife of John C. Fremont; Joseph Hooker, afterwards known as “Fighting Joe Hooker;” William H. Emory, afterwards a general; Hall McAllister, brother of Ward McAllister, and Lieutenant Derby, the humorist who wrote under the name of “Phoenix.”

Porter was then thirty-six years old and had made a good record in the Mexican war. Hooker was a year older and his rank was that of assistant-adjutant general. Gwin had been in Congress nine years, but was yet to earn that title of Duke which came from his relations to Louis Napoleon in Mexico. Admiral Porter died on February 13, 1891, four days before the writer of these Reminiscences. The Panama remained for many years in active service between San Francisco and other Pacific ports. In 1876 she was a store ship at Acapulco.