HOSPITALIIY OF PANAMA. 147 



put into our hands a file of newspapers, princi- 

 pally 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 con- 

 tained came to us treble distilled, via Jamaica, 

 via New York, via Liverpool from London. In 

 some of these papers we saw our own ship men- 

 tioned ; but in the several transfers which the re- 

 ports had undergone, from one paper to another, 

 we 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 be- 

 fore, 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 



