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PORT AND TOWN OF TACAMES. 



[1823. 



The town of Tumbez is about six miles inland, and here, according 

 to Spanish accounts, once stood a superb temple of the sun, an inca's 

 palace, and other splendid edifices, not a vestige of which are now to 

 be seen ; but in their places wave aged forests of heavy timber. The 

 present town contains about three thousand inhabitants, who are 

 mostly poor, but industrious. I have ever found them a very pleasant 

 and obliging people, constantly employed in rural occupations, and 

 their plantations are generally productive. Vegetables of all kinds 

 may be procured here, but the prices are high. The soil produces 

 cocoa, corn, melons, oranges, sugar-cane, sweet-potatoes, pumpkins, 

 plantains, &c. The houses are formed of reeds, covered with rushes, 

 open at all sides, and having the floor elevated about four feet from 

 the earth, to protect them from the alligators, which are numerous in 

 the river, and of a large size. 



September \6th. — Finding that we could not obtain the necessary 

 supplies in this place without paying an exorbitant price, a due regard 

 to the interest of my owners induced me, on Tuesday, the 16th, to sail 

 for Tacames, a port about eighty leagues farther north, and fifty-two 

 miles north of the equator, which we crossed, under a vertical sun, on 

 Sunday, the 21st, in long. 80° W. 



September 22d. — On the following day, at one P. M., we anchored 

 in the Bay of Tacames, in four fathoms of water. In running for this 

 port, a ship should endeavour to make Cape St. Francisco, in lat. 00° 

 42' N., long. 79° 39' W. ; variation 7° 51' easterly. The land of the 

 coast, to the southward of this cape, forms an extensive height ; from 

 which there are many rocky shoals running off some distance from the 

 shore, particularly about the vicinity of the village of Arcol. By 

 keeping two leagues off-shore, however, all dangers may be avoided, 

 and from fifteen to twenty-five fathoms of water secured. 



Off Cape St. Francisco there are a number of small rocks, which ex- 

 tend to the northward as far as Cape Galera, about which point the 

 land is not very high. Here the wind commonly blows from the south, 

 between the months of April and December, from midday to seven or 

 eight o'clock in the evening, quite fresh. 



From Point Galera, north-east-by-east-half-east, distant about five 

 leagues, lies Tacames, or Attacames, a small seaport town, in the 

 south part of the republic of Colombia. Here vessels will find good 

 anchorage and safe shelter, a little to the eastward of a rock that lies 

 on the west side of the bay, about two cables' length from the shore, 

 rising nearly seventy-five feet above the level of the sea. 



The best watering-place is in a small river on the west side of the 

 bay, at the mouth of which, on the last of the ebb, water-casks may 

 be filled, not more than three-fourths of a mile from the ship. This is 

 also the best place to cut wood, which may be procured in any quan- 

 tity at the mouth of this river. The water taken from this stream is 

 of an excellent quality for long voyages, no other having ever, to my 

 knowledge, kept sweet and pure so long. 



The town of Tacames is small, containing about five hundred in- 

 habitants, the construction of whose habitations is somewhat singular, 

 but well adapted to the climate and other localities. They are built 



