Ch. i. south AMERICA. lof 



part of It where Cruces is íiíuated ; but the firit 

 Spaniard who failed down it, to reconnoitre it to its 

 mouth, was captain Hernando de la Serna, in the 

 year 1527. Its entrance is defended by a fort, iitu- 

 ated on a fteep rock on theeaft fide near the fea inore. 

 This fort is called San Lorenzo de Chagres, has a 

 commandant and a lien-tenant, both appointed by 

 bis majefty, and the garriibn is draughted from 

 Panama^. 



About eight toifes from the above fort, is a town 

 of the lame name. The honles are principally of 

 reeds, and the inhabitants Ní^groes, Mulattos, and 

 Meflizos. They are a brave and active people, and, 

 on occafion, take up arms to the number of triple the 

 ufual garrifon of the fort. 



Opposite, on a low and level ground, itands the 

 royal cufíom-honfe, where an account is taken of all 

 goods gomg up the Chagre. Flere the breadth of the 

 river is about i 20 toifes, but grows narrower gradu- 

 ally as you approach its fource. At Cruces, the place 

 where it begins to be navigable, it is only twenty toiies 

 broad ; the neareft diiiance between this town and 

 the mouth is twenty-one miles, and the bearing 

 N. W. 7" 24' wefierly ; but the diiiance meafured 

 along the feveral windings of the river, is no Icfs thaa 

 forty-three miles. 



It breeds a great number of caymanes or alliga- 

 tors : creatures often fecn on its hanks, which are im- 

 paiTable, both on account of the clofenefs of the 

 trees, and the bufnes, which cover the ground, as it 

 were, with thorns. Some of thefe trees, efpecially 

 the cedar, are ufed in making the canoes or banjas 

 employed on the river. Many of them being under- 

 mined by the water, are thrown down by the fwellings 

 of the river ; but the prodigious magnitude of the 

 trunk, and their large and exteniive branches, hinder 

 them from being carried away by the current; {o 

 that they remain near their original ñtuaíion, to the 



great 



