New Panama Is About Four Leagues From The Old Town, Near The
Side Of A River, Being A Very Handsome City, On A Spacious Bay Of The
Same Name, Into Which Many Long Navigable Rivers Discharge Their Waters,
Some Of Which Have Gold In Their Sands.
The country about Panama affords
a delightful prospect from the sea, having a great diversity of hills,
vallies, groves, and plains.
The houses are mostly of brick, and pretty
lofty, some being handsomely built, especially that inhabited by the
president; the churches, monasteries, and other public edifices, making
the finest appearance of any place I have seen in the Spanish West
Indies. It is fortified by a high stone wall, mounted by a considerable
number of guns, which were formerly only on the land side, but have now
been added to the side next the sea. The city has vast trade, being the
staple or emporium for all goods to and from Peru and Chili; besides
that, every three years, when the Spanish armada comes to Porto Bello,
the Plate fleet comes here with the treasure belonging to the king and
the merchants, whence it is carried on mules by land to Porto Bello, at
which time, from the vast concourse of people, everything here is
enormously dear.
The Spanish armada, which comes every three years to the West Indies,
arrives first at Carthagena, whence an express is dispatched by land to
the viceroy at Lima, and two packets are also sent by sea, one for Lima,
and the other for Mexico, which last I suppose goes by way of Vera
Cruz. That for Lima goes first by land to Panama, and thence by sea to
Lima. After remaining sixty days at Carthagena, the armada sails to
Porto Bello, where it only remains thirty days to take in the royal
treasure brought here from Panama, said to amount to twenty-four
millions of dollars, besides treasure and goods belonging to the
merchants. From Porto Bello the armada weighs always on the thirtieth
day, but the admiral will sometimes stay a week longer at the mouth of
the river, to oblige the merchants. It then returns to Carthagena, where
it meets the king's money from that part of the country, as also a large
Spanish galleon or patache, which, on the first arrival of the armada at
Carthagena, had been dispatched along the coast to collect the royal
treasure. The armada, after a set stay at Carthagena, sails for the
Havannah, where a small squadron called the flota meets it from Vera
Cruz, bringing the riches of Mexico, and the rich goods brought by the
annual ship from Manilla. When all the ships are joined, they sail for
Spain through the gulf of Florida.
Porto Bello is a very unhealthy place, on which account the merchants of
Lima stay there as short time as possible. Panama is seated in a much
better air, enjoying the sea-breeze every day from ten or eleven in the
forenoon till eight or nine at night, when the land-breeze begins, and
blows till next morning. Besides, on the land side Panama has an open
champaign country, and is seldom troubled with fogs; neither is the
rainy season, which continues from May till November, nearly so
excessive as at Porto Bello, though severe enough in June, July, and
August, in which season the merchants of Peru, who are accustomed to a
constant serene air, without rains or fogs, are obliged to cut off their
hair, to preserve them from fevers during their stay.
The 21st February, near the Perico islands opposite to Panama, we took
another prize from Lavelia, laden with beeves, hogs, fowls, and salt.
The 24th we went to the isle of Taboga, six leagues south of Panama.
This island is three miles long and two broad, being very rocky and
steep all round, except on the north side, where the shore has an easy
dope. In the middle of the isle the soil is black and rich, where
abundance of plantains and bananas are produced, and near the sea there
are cocoa and mammee trees. These are large and straight in their
stems, without knots, boughs, or branches, and sixty or seventy feet
high. At the top there are many small branches set close together,
bearing round fruit about the size of a large quince, covered with a
grey rind, which is brittle before the fruit is ripe, but grows yellow
when the fruit comes to maturity, and is then easily peeled off. The
ripe fruit is also yellow, resembling a carrot in its flesh, and both
smells and tastes well, having two rough flat kernels in the middle,
about the size of large almonds. The S.W. side of this isle is covered
with trees, affording abundant fuel, and the N. side has a fine stream
of good water, which falls from the mountains into the sea. Near this
there was formerly a pretty town with a handsome church, but it has been
mostly destroyed by the privateers. There is good anchorage opposite
this town a mile from the shore, in sixteen to eighteen fathoms on soft
ooze. At the N.N.W. end is a small town called Tabogilla, and on the
N.E. of this another small town or village without a name.
While at anchor near Tabogilla, we were in great danger from a
pretended merchant, who brought a bark to us in the night, under
pretence of being laden with merchandise to trade with us privately, but
which was in reality a fire-ship fitted out for our destruction. But on
her approach, some of our men hailed her to come to anchor, and even
fired upon her, which so terrified the men that they got into their
canoes, having first set her on fire, on which we cut our cables and got
out of her way. This fire-ship was constructed and managed by one Bond,
who formerly deserted from us to the Spaniards.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 106 of 221
Words from 107304 to 108307
of 224764