166 COLOMBIA. 



ject was effectually answered by this noisy com- 

 pliment^ so dear to the whole race which inhabit 

 the coasts of South America and Mexico. 



The watering of the ship was completed in the 

 course of the day, after which we tripped our an- 

 chor, and made all sail out of the bay, on our 

 course to Acapulco ; which lies on the south-west 

 coast of Mexico, at the distance of fifteen hundred 

 miles from Panama. There are two ways of mak- 

 ing this passage, one by going out to sea, far from 

 the land ; the other by creeping, as it is called, 

 along shore. I preferred the latter method as 

 the most certain, and as one which gave an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing the country, and of making oc- 

 casional observations on remarkable points of the 

 Andes, the great chain of which stretches along 

 the south-west coast of Mexico, precisely in the 

 manner it does along the west shore of South 

 America. 



On the 23d of February, eighteen days after^ 

 leaving Panama, when we had reached a point a 

 little to the northward of Guatimala, we discovered 

 two magnificent conical-shaped mountains tower- 

 ing above the clouds. So great was their altitude^ 



4 



