ARRIVAL AT PANAMA. 



29 



From fore part of upper shell to the fore 



part of belly shell, 

 Fi'om after-part of upper shell to the after 



part of belly shell, . 

 Length of fore-leg and thigh, 

 Circumference above the foot, 

 Length of hind-leg and thigh, 

 Circumference above the foot, 

 Length of tail, . 



Depth of upper shell when scooped out, 

 Width inside, . 



Number of pieces composing the disk, 

 Number of pieces in the margin, 



When alive weighed 

 Quantity fit for use, . . . 



Inches. 



«* 





21* 





H 



. 



24 



. 



16 



. 



8^- 



t, 



17 





27 



• 



13 



• 



24 



190 lbs. 



84 





. 106 



Having finished our experiments, we made sail 

 on the 16*th of January 1822 for Panama, but 

 owing to the light winds and calms which prevail 

 in the bay of that name, it was not till the 29th 

 that we came in sight of the coast of Mexico, about 

 one hundred and twenty miles to the westward of 

 Panama. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



PANAMA. 



Arrival at Panama.— Hospitality of the Inhabitants.— 

 Negroes speaking English. — Pacific Revolution of this 

 City.— Moonlight Games and Music of the Negro Slaves. 



We anchored in Panama Roads at nine in the 

 morning of the 2d of February 1822, and as no 

 one on board was acquainted with the place, a 

 fisherman was called alongside, who undertook to 

 pilot our boat through the reefs to the landing- 

 place. On rowing round the angle of the fortifi- 

 cations encircling the town, which is built on a 

 rocky peninsula, we found ourselves in a beautiful 

 little bay, strongly marked with the peculiar 

 features of the torrid zone. The beach was 

 fringed with plantain and banana trees, growing 

 amongst oranges, figs, and limes, and numberless 

 rich shrubs, shaded by the tamarind-tree rising 

 higher than any of the others, excepting the tall, 

 graceful cocoa-nut, with its feathery top and naked 

 stem. Close to the ground, and almost hid by the 

 foliage, were clustered groups of cane-built huts, 

 thatched with palm-leaves ; and on the sandy 

 beach before them lay the canoes of the natives, 

 hollowed out of single trees ; while others were 

 paddling across the bay, or skimming along under 

 a mat sail, hoisted on a bamboo mast ; all con- 

 tributing, with the clear sky and hot weather, to 

 give a decidedly tropical aspect to the scene. 



Our surprise on landing was considerable, when 

 we heard the negroes and negresses who crowded 

 the wharf, all speaking English, with a strong 

 accent, which we recognised as that of the West 

 Indies ; a peculiarity acquired from the constant 

 intercourse kept up, across the isthmus, with Ja- 

 maica. Most of the natives also spoke English 

 more or less corrupted. Innumerable other trivial 

 circumstances of dress and appearance, and man- 

 ners, conspired to make us feel that we had left 

 those countries purely Spanish, and more effec- 



tually excluded by the ancient policy from foreign 

 intercourse. 



We had no letters of introduction, but this 

 appeared to be immaterial, for we had scarcely 

 left the boat before a gentleman, a native of the 

 place, but speaking English perfectly, introduced 

 himself, and made us an offer of his house, and 

 his best services during our stay. This ready 

 hospitality would surprise a stranger landing at 

 a European port, but in distant regions, where few 

 ships of war are seen, the officers are always 

 received with attention and confidence : for as 

 they can have no views of a commercial nature, 

 they are at once admitted into society as persons 

 quite disinterested. This cordial reception, which 

 is universal in every part of the world remote 

 from our own shores, independently of being most 

 agreeable, is also highly convenient ; and com- 

 pensates, in a great measure, to naval travellers 

 for the interruptions to which they are always lia- 

 ble in their researches, by the calls of professional 

 duty. 



Our hospitable friend being connected with the 

 West Indies, as most of the Panama houses are, 

 put into our hands a file of newspapers, principally 

 Jamaica Gazettes ; and as we had not seen an 

 English paper for many months, nothing could be 

 more acceptable. But upon examining them, we 

 discovered that most of the news they contained 

 came to us trebly distilled, via Jamaica, via New 

 York, via Liverpool from London. In some of 

 these papers we saw our own ship mentioned ; but 

 in the several transfers which the reports had 

 undergone, from one paper to another, could 

 scarcely recognise our own proceedings. 



We had been led to expect that Panama was 

 still under the Spaniards, and the first indication 

 we saw of the contrary was the flag of another 

 nation flying on the fort. We were by this time 

 indeed become so familiar with revolutions, and 

 had learned to consider every government in that 

 country so unsettled, that we ceased to be much 

 surprised by any such change, however sudden. 

 It appeared that the Spaniards a few weeks before 

 had detached nearly all the troops of the garrison 

 to reinforce the army at Quito, and the inhabitants 

 being thus left to themselves could not resist the 

 temptation of imitating the example of the sur- 

 rounding states, and declaring themselves inde- 

 pendent. They were not, however, quite so 

 extravagant as to constitute themselves into a 

 free and separate state, like the town of Guayaquil ; 

 but chose, more wisely, to place themselves under 

 one of their powerful neighbours, Mexico or 

 Colombia. After considerable debating on this 

 point, it was decided by the inhabitants to claim 

 the protection of Bolivar, to whose country, 

 Colombia, they were nearer, and with which they 

 were likely to hold more useful intercourse than 

 with Mexico. 



No place, perhaps, in all the' Spanish Trans- 

 atlantic possessions, suffered so little from the erro- 

 neous systems of the mother-country as Panama ; 

 partly in consequence of the constant intercourse 

 which it maintained with the West India islands, 

 and partly from its being the port through which 

 European goods were formerly made to pass 

 across the isthmus to Peru, and to the south coast 

 of Mexico. This degree of intercourse and business 

 gave it an importance, and afforded it the means 



