32 



THE ALCALDE OF TABOGA. 



whole of the campaigns. Their accounts, though 

 interesting in the highest degree, do not belong to 

 the present subject, and are, I believe, already 

 generally known to the public. Whatever we may 

 think of the prudence of people voluntarily en- 

 gaging in such enterprises, it is impossible not to 

 respect the persevering fortitude with which they 

 have endured privations and hardships of the most 

 overpowering nature, and far exceeding anything 

 known in regular services. In the streets, nothing 

 was to be seen but Colombian officers and soldiers 

 enjoying a partial respite from their hard labours; 

 for I observed, that the severe discipline which 

 Bolivar has found it so advantageous to establish, 

 was still unrelaxed ; and that drilling parties, and 

 frequent mustering and exercising of the troops, 

 were never intermitted : the town, in short, was 

 kept in a state of military bustle from morning till 

 night. 



Having occasion to send dispatches to the com- 

 mander-in-chief on the Jamaica station, I found 

 no difficulty in procuring means of doing so, as 

 there is a constant communication, both by mer- 

 chant-ships and men-of-war, from Chagres and 

 Porto Bello with the West Indian islands. To 

 such an extent is this carried, and such is the su- 

 perior importance of their West Indian intercourse, 

 that every one at Panama spoke, not as if residing 

 on the shores of the Pacific, but as if he had been 

 actually living on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. 

 One gentleman said to me, that the Africaine fri- 

 gate had been here ten days ago ; an assertion which 

 surprised me greatly, as I had reason to know that 

 the ship in question had not doubled Cape Horn. 

 On stating this to him, he laughed, and said he 

 meant to speak of Port Bello, on the other side 

 of the isthmus ; with the arrivals and departures 

 of which he was much more familiar than with 

 those of his own port, in which he had, in fact, 

 little or no mercantile concern connected with the 

 South Sea. 



CHAPTER XLI. 



MEXICO. 



Visit to the Island of Taboga —Tropical Scenery.— Peaks 

 of the Andes near Guatimala.— Estimation of their 

 Distance and Height.— Severe Gale of Wind. 



On the evening of the 4th of February we took 

 our leave of Panama, and proceeded to recruit our 

 stock of water at the little island of Taboga, which 

 lies about nine miles to the southward. The an- 

 chorage is in a snug cove, opposite to a romantic 

 little village, the huts of which, built of wattled 

 canes, are so completely hid by the screen of trees 

 which skirts the beach, that they can scarcely be 

 seen from the anchoring-place, though not two 

 hundred yards off ; but the walls of a neat white- 

 washed church, built on a grassy knoll, rise above 

 the cocoa-nut-trees, and disclose the situation of 

 the village. The stream from which vessels fill 

 their water-casks is nearly as invisible as the 

 houses ; the whole island, indeed, is so thickly 

 wooded, and the ground so crowded with shrubs 

 and thick grass, that nothing can at first be dis- 

 covered but a solid mass of hrilliant foliage. 



As the days were intolerably hot, I determined 

 to water the ship by night ; and she was accordingly 



moved as close to the shore as possible. The sea 

 in this corner of the cove being quite smooth, the 

 boats rowed to and from the shore all night with 

 perfect ease ; and the moon being only one day 

 short of the full, afforded ample light to work by. 

 The casks were rolled along a path, to the side 

 of a natural basin, which received the stream as 

 it leaped over the edge of a rock, closely shrouded 

 by creepers and flowers interlaced into one another, 

 and forming a canopy over the pool, from which 

 our people lifted out the water with buckets. This 

 spot was lighted only by a few chance rays of the 

 moon, which found their way through the broken 

 skreen of cocoa-nut leaves, and chequered the 

 ground here and there. Through a long avenue 

 in the woods, we could just discover the village, 

 with many groups of the inhabitants sleeping before 

 their doors on mats spread in the moon- light. 

 The scene was tranquil and beautiful, and in the 

 highest degree characteristic of the climate and 

 country. 



I discovered next morning, from the Alcalde or 

 governor, that a very unfavourable impression of 

 the English had been left on the minds of the in- 

 habitants of this island, by the conduct of a ruffian, 

 said to be an Englishman, commanding a Chilian 

 privateer ; who, some time previously, had attacked 

 the village, robbed it of all it possessed, wantonly 

 destroyed the church, and ill-treated the inhabit- 

 ants. He pretended to act under the authority of 

 the Chilian government, but it is now well known 

 that he had no right to hoist the flag of that 

 country, by which he had been disowned : in short, 

 he was a pirate. 



I was desirous to do everything in my power to 

 regain the good opinion of the islanders ; and was 

 much pleased to find that no offence had been given 

 to the villagers by our people during the night ; 

 but, on the contrary, that the inhabitants were 

 delighted with the prices they had got for their 

 fruit and vegetables, and with the treatment they 

 had received on board. 



I went, with several of the officers, in the course 

 of the morning, to call upon the Alcalde and his 

 family. He had expected our visit, and had in- 

 vited a party of his friends to meet us. I took 

 the liberty to offer each of the women some Euro- 

 pean trinket, from a collection made at Lima, in 

 anticipation of such incidents. Nothing could be 

 better bestowed ; and after sitting for half an hour, 

 we rose to take leave. The whole party, however, 

 insisted on accompanying us to the beach, where 

 we were received by the rest of the natives, who 

 had all left the village, and assembled to bid us 

 good-bye. They were a little surprised, but 

 seemed pleased when I invited the governor to 

 accompany me on board ; which he readily agreed 

 to. He was received with all attention, shown 

 round the ship, and finally complimented with a 

 salute of a few guns. His satisfaction, and that of 

 his attendants, at this honour, and indeed of the 

 whole inhabitants, many of whom had come off in 

 their canoes, was very manifest, and exactly what 

 I had hoped to produce. The occasion, indeed, 

 was not a very important one ; but it appeared, 

 nevertheless, of some consequence, in so remote a 

 country, to restore the English to the good-will of 

 these injured and unoffending people. I did not, 

 therefore, stop to inquire, whether or not, in strict 

 etiquette, the governor was entitled to a salute 



