Jan.] LETTER FROM A TRAVELLER. 231 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Isthmus of Darien — Letter from a Traveller — Town of Porto Bello— How to pre- 

 vent a wet Jacket — An excellent Dinner, and Wine with an Excellency — Canoe 

 Navigation — Gloomy Prospects— Town and River Chagres — Ascending the 

 River — Crossing the Isthmus — Town of Cruces — The Pizarro Road — Coming 

 to an Anchor — Emotions excited by a first View of the Pacific — City of Panama 

 - — Importance of a Passport — Projected Canal across the Isthmus — Ruins of old 

 Panama — An Earthquake — The Gulf of Panama. 



The general reader may possibly require some apology for such 

 frequent allusions to the fact of my having critically examined the 

 western coast of America. The nautical reader will expect none ; as 

 to him the immense importance of this fact will be its own excuse. 

 To the latter it will be sufficient to state that I have personally in- 

 spected and pointed out every danger which exists on this whole extent 

 of coast, from the Strait of Magellan to the thirty-eighth degree of north 

 latitude, comprising six thousand miles, with the exception of the Isth- 

 mus of Darien, the west coast of Mexico, and that interesting region 

 now known by the appellation of " Central America.'''' It has also 

 been seen, by the attentive reader, that many historical facts and anec- 

 dotes connected with the revolutionary struggle of the South Ameri- 

 cans have been interwoven with the thread of this homely narrative. 



My examination of the western coast of South America terminated, 

 it will be recollected, at the port of Tacamez, fifty-two miles north of 

 the equator, when the progress of the season rendered it proper to 

 steer for the Gallipagos Islands, leaving the Gulf of Panama and the 

 Isthmus of Darien unnoticed. Thus the chain of my surveys is defi- 

 cient in a very important link, which I hope to supply on some future 

 occasion. In the mean time I have obtained permission to lay before 

 the public the following interesting letter, which I received while 

 making preparations for my first voyage in 1822. The writer is John 

 J. Adams, Esq., now one of the editors of the New-York Traveller, 

 but at that time a commercial agent at Panama ; his lively and graphic 

 description of which will certainly not come amiss in this place. 



"Panama, May 20, 1822. 



" Dear Sir, 



" When you were about to sail on a sealing expedition to the Falk- 

 land Islands, as first officer of the Wasp, some two years ago, I told 

 you, in jest, that before your return I might perhaps take a leap from 

 the three-legged stool of a counting-room to the quarter-deck of a ship. 

 You expressed some doubts as to the probability of such a transition ; 

 but made me promise, in case I did so, to make you the depositary of 

 ' my travel's history,' by regular extracts from my journal. ' I have 

 done the deed,' but have kept no journal ; and as your return to New- 

 York was daily looked for when I left that city, I shall partially 



