138 THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 



being brass pieces of great calibre and beautiful 

 ■workmanship. The pavement of this plaza was laid 

 with cement, and has the apparent durability of one 

 immense solid stone, although it has faced the storms 

 of over two hundred years. Cannon balls and shells 

 lay scattered about, or piled up in pyramids, and the 

 magazine contains boxes of powder so decomposed 

 that it is no longer ignitable. 



From this part of the fort a subterranean passage, 

 handsomely arched, and ten or twelve feet wide, 

 leads to underground apartments, deep back in the 

 hill ; but answers to inquiries concerning them were 

 as unsatisfactory as the echoes which came back as 

 distinctly as they were uttered. I went in as far as 

 the light would reveal the way, against the advice 

 of a resident, who told me that a fever would be the 

 consequence of gratifying my curiosity; but without 

 even discovering a reptile, which are said to con- 

 gregate in these places in great numbers. From 

 one apartment, the roof of which had long since rot- 

 ted away, a tree, eight or ten inches in diameter, 

 was growing thriftily, with its green top reaching 

 far above the walls. 



Notwithstanding the general impression that ma- 

 soniy cannot be made enduring in this climate, the 

 walls of this old work, to the cap stone and watch 

 towers, are seemingly as perfect now, in the main, 

 as they could have been a hundred and eighty-one 

 years ago, when Morgan, at the head of the Bucca- 

 neers, took it from the Spanish. 



The banks of the river, from Chagres to Gatun 5 



