Ch. V. SOUTH AMERICA. 103 



ture ; and as the furface over them is generally dry, 

 the toads are not perceived; but no fooner does it 

 begin to rain, than they leave their retreats, to come 

 at the water, which is their fuprcme delight ; and thus 

 fill the iireets and open places. Hence the vulgar 

 opinion had its riie, that the drops of rain were iranf- 

 formed into toads. When it has rained in the ni ?ht, 

 the iireets and fquarcs in the morning ieem paved with 

 thele reptiles; fo that you cannot Itep without tread- 

 ing on them, which fomeiimes is produdtive of trou- 

 blefome bites; for, befides their poilion, they are large 

 enough for their teeth to be levercly felt. Some we 

 have already oblerved to be iix inches long, and 

 this is their general meafure ; and there are fuch 

 numbers of them, that nothing can be imagined more 

 difmal than their croakings, during the night, in all 

 parts of the town, woods, and caverns of the moun- 

 tains. 



CHAP. VI. 



Of the ^rade of Porto Bella, 



T^HE town of Porto Bello, fo thinly inhabited, by 

 reafon of its noxious air, the fcarcity ofproviiions, 

 and the barrennefsof its foil, becomes, at tl)e time of 

 the galleons, one of the moil populous places in all 

 South America. Its iituation on the illhraus betwixt 

 the fouth and north fea, the goodnefs of its harbour, 

 and its fraall diftance from Panama, have given it 

 the preference for the rendezvous of the joint com- 

 merce of Spain and Peru, at its fair. 



On advice being received at Carthagena, that th« 

 Peru fleet had unloaded at Panama, the galleons make 

 the beft of their way to Porto Bello, in order to avo¡4 

 the difiempers which have their fource from idlenefs. 

 Yhe concourfe of people, on this occaiion, is fuch, 



H 4 ^^ 



