230 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



destroyed. The native police and the soldiery 

 distinguished themselves during the fire by 

 getting drunk and preventing those who were 

 endeavouring to save their property from being 

 able to. 



A day or two after this event we sailed to 

 carry out the Admiral's instructions relative 

 to the lighthouses ; two officers of the flag-ship 

 came with me for the sake of sport or any 

 amusement they could get. The next morning 

 we were off Cape Mala, a headland terminating 

 the western shore of the Gulf of Panama. 

 The current sweeps round this cape with great 

 velocity, and carried us rather past it, but as 

 this was one of the most important places for 

 a lighthouse to be fixed, we beat back, and 

 anchored under the lee of the point foi the 

 night. 



Cape Mala is rightly named, it is a low 

 rocky, and most dangerous headland, witi; 

 reefs extending for nearly a mile, on which a 

 heavy sea continually breaks. 



All steamers approaching Panama from the 



