Ch. I. SOUTH AMERICA. 109 



that part of it where Cruces is fituated ; but the firft 

 Spaniard who failed down it, to reconnoitre it to its 

 mouth, was captain Hernando de la Serna, in the 

 year 1527. Its entrance is defended by a fort, fitu- 

 ated on a fteep rock on the eaft fide near the fea fhore. 

 This fort is called San Lorenzo de Chagres, has a 

 commandant and a lieutenant, both appointed by 

 his majefty, and the garrifon is draughted from 

 Panama. 



About eight toifes from the above fort, is a town 

 of the fame name. The houfes are principally of 

 reeds, and the inhabitants Negroes, Mulattoes, and ' 

 Meftizos. They are a brave and ad:ive people, and 

 on occafion, take up arms to the number of triple 

 the ufual garrifon of the fort. 



Opposite, on a low and level ground, ftands the 

 royal cuftom-houfe, where an account is taken of all 

 goods going up the Chagre. Here the breadth of 

 the river is about 120 toifes, but grows narrower 

 gradually as you approach its fource. At Cruces, 

 the place where it begins to be navigable, it is 

 only twenty toifes broad ; the nearefl: diftance be- 

 tween this town and the mouth is twenty-one miles, 

 and the bearing N. W. 7° 24 weflerly ; but the dif- 

 tance meafured along the feveral vv^indings of the river, 

 is no lefs than forty- three miles.. 



It breeds a great number of caymanes or alliga- 

 tors : creatures often feen on its banks, which are 

 impaflable, both on account of the clofenefs of the 

 trees, and the bufhes which cover the ground, as it 

 were with thorns. Some of thefe trees, efpecially 

 the cedar, are ufed in ma'king the canoes or banjas, 

 employed on the river. Many of them being under- 

 mined by the water, are thrown dov/n by the fwellings 

 of the river; but the prodigious magnitude of the 

 trunk, and their large and extenfive branches, hinder 

 them from being carried away by the current ; fo 

 that they remain near their original ficuation, to the 



great 



