34 



BAY OF PANAMA. 



we closed with the eastern coast the wind drew 

 more to the westward, and enabled us to make 

 the land about Point Escondida, in 7° 40' north. 

 From hence we took advantage of the shifts of wind 

 between the night and the day, and beat up till 

 abreast of the Island Galera, lying between the south 

 end of the Isla del Rey and Point Garachine, form- 

 ing the south side of the Gulf of San Michael. 

 There, in latitude 8° 1 1 ' north, it was thought pru- 

 dent to anchor till the morning, as there is a shoal 

 laid down in this neighbourhood, but which, we af- 

 terwards learned, has eight fathoms on its shallow- 

 est part. Next morning, the 1st, we were employ- 

 ed working against light winds from the northward, 

 with a slight current in our favour : towards sunset 

 the breeze freshened considerably, and when we 

 tacked close to the Island of Petado, on the N. E. 

 shore of the bay, the breeze was so fresh that we 

 could hardly carry the top-gallant sails. This 

 breeze blew from N. N. E. to N. E, by North, enab- 

 ling us to clear, at a proper distance, the long line 

 of small islands which stretch to the N. N. W. of the 

 Isla del Rey, and thence to proceed, in a straight 

 line, a little to windward of W. N. W. by compass, 

 directly for the anchorage of Panama. But towards 



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