Ch. VL SOUTH AMERICA. 103 



ture ; and as the furface over them is generally dry, 

 the toads are not perceived ; but no fooner does it 

 begin to rain, than they leave their retreats, to come at 

 the water, which is their fupreme delight and thus fill 

 the ftreets and open places. Hence the vulgar opinion 

 had its rife, that the drops of rain were transformed 

 into toads. When it has rained in the night, the ftreets 

 and fquares in the morning feem paved with thefe 

 reptiles ; fo that you cannot ftep without treading on 

 them, which fometimes is produdlive of troublefome 

 bites ; for, befides their poifon, they are large enough 

 for their teeth to be feverely felt. Some we have al- 

 ready obferved to be fix inches long, and this is, in- 

 deed, their general meafure; and there are fuch 

 numbers of them, that nothing can be imagined more 

 difmal than their croakings, during the night, in all 

 parts of the town, woods, and caverns of the moun- 

 tains. 



C H A P. VI. 



Of the Trade of Porto Bello. 



THE town of Porto Bello, fo thinly inhabited, 

 by reafon of its noxious air, the fcarcity of pro- 

 vifions, and the barrennefs of its foil, becomes, at the 

 time of the galleons, one of the moft populous places 

 in all South America. Its fituation on the ifthmus 

 betwixt the fouth and north fea, the goodnefs of its ^ 

 harbour, and its fmall diftance frorn Panama, have 

 given it the preference for the rendezvous of the joint 

 commerce of Spain and Peru, at its fair. 



On advice being received at Carthagena, that the 

 Peru fleet had unloaded at Panama, the galleons make 

 the beft of their way to Porto Bello, in order to avoid 

 the diftempers which have their fource from idlenefs. 

 The concourfe of people, on this occafion,, is fuch, 



H 4 as 



