324 



MEXICO, CENTEAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



isthmus. Here the Spanish flotillas landed the merchandise and all tlie g'old of 

 Peru, and over 2,000 mules were employed in transporting the jDrecious metal from 

 Panama to Puerto Belo, where they were shipped for Spain. But these treasures 

 could not escape the attacks of the buccaneers. In 1670 Morgan, at the head of 

 1,100 men, crossed the isthmus and captured Panama, which was sacked and burnt. 

 Fearing renewed attacks, the Spaniards never rebuilt it, and nothing remains to 

 mark its site except the shapeless ruins of two churches overgrown with brush- 

 wood. 



The present city stands some six miles farther west, at the foot of Ancon Hill 

 (560 feet), and near the mouth of a rivulet called "Pio Grande." Solid walls 10 

 feet thick still enclose San Fe/q)e, the city proper, and form towards the sea the 



Fig. 146.— Pat^ama. 

 Scale 1 : 57,000. 



79'3I'20- 



West or Greenwich 



79'3i-4- 



Depths. 



Sands exposed at 

 low water. 



Oto7 

 Feet. 



7 to 16 

 Feet. 



2,200 Yards. 



magnificent promenade of Las Bovedas. Beyond the ramparts the suburbs are 

 continued along the beach and neighbouring slopes. Conspicuous amongst its 

 monuments is the cathedral, whose two towers serve as beacons and lighthouses. 



Although chosen as the seat of a Spanish American Congress in 1824, and 

 raised to the rank of a capital when Colombia formed a confederacy of states, now 

 reduced to the position of provinces, Panama is a place of slight importance as a 

 centre of population and local trade. The so-called "Panama" hats, at one time 

 so fashionable in Europe, are not made in the town whose name they bear. 



In fact, this place owes all its celebrity to its vital position at the narrowest 

 part of the isthmus, and its chequered history presents a remarkable alternation 

 of rapid progress and decline according to the routes followed by international 

 trade. Hence it flourished when it commanded the trafific of Peru and Chile : 



