162 



COLOMBIA. 



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 con- 

 cern connected with the South Sea. 



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 skreen 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 jfiU 

 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 brilliant foliage. 



As the days were intolerably hot, I determined 

 to water the ship by night ; and she was accord- 



