236 CENTRAL AMERICA. 



gunwales of the boat, three on each side, 

 and then we shoved off; but as the boat 

 pulled much faster than the horses could 

 swim, before they were half way across, 

 they were being towed along half dead, and 

 on their arrival could not stand for some time. 



I now took a view of the piragua in which 

 I was fated to live a fortnight. It was a 

 large canoe of about forty feet in length, by 

 about eight feet beam, with five thwarts for 

 ten men to pull double-banked. It was hol- 

 lowed out of a single magnificent tree, but 

 the sides raised upon about two planks on 

 each side. 



The patron, or steerer, had a small com- 

 partment aft, in which he kept the provisions 

 for his crew, his tobacco, and jar of spirits : 

 my ramada, as it is called, occupied the part 

 between the patron and the crew. 



The ramada is a semi-circular shelter, made 

 sometimes from leafy boughs, from whence 

 the name ; but mine was made of bent sticks 

 covered with a tarpauling ; it is a very useful 

 shelter against the great heat and the fierce 

 showers constantly occurring in the river St. 

 Juan. It was one of these ramadas that 



occasioned the death of poor Captain , 



of H.M.S. , in the river Chagres ; he 



