114 A VOYAGE TO Book III. 



their attention on it; and from their report, the 

 fituation of the city has been determined. This opi- 

 nion is in fome meafure confirmed by our courfe, 

 the diredtion of which on the river, from its mouth to 

 the town of Cruces, was eaft 6° 1 5' foutherly and 

 the diftance being 21 miles, the difference betv/een 

 the two meridians is 20 minutes, the diftance of 

 Chagre is fituated to the weft of Cruces. We muft 

 alfo confider the diftance between Porto Bello and 

 Chagre. During the firft two hours and a half, we 

 failed a league and a half an hour; when, the land 

 breeze fpringing up, we failed two leagues an hour, 

 for feven hours ; which in all makes 1 8 leagues and 

 the whole courfe having been very nearly weft, the 

 difference of longitude muft have been 44 miles or 

 41, allovv^ing for what might have been wanting of 

 a due weft courfe ; and from this again fubtradling 

 the 20 minutes which Cruces lies to the eaft of 

 Chagre, the refult is, that Cruces is fituated twenty- 

 one minutes to the weftward of Porto Bello. To 

 this laft refult muft be added the diftance of meri- 

 dians between Cruces and Panama, the bearing of 

 which is near S. W. and N. E. and reckoning that 

 we travelled, on account of the roughnefs and crag- 

 ginefs of the road, only three quarters of a league an 

 hour, during the feven hours, the whole is 14 miles, 

 and confequently the difference of meridians 10 mi- 

 nutes and a half. Confequently Panama is fituated 

 about 30 minutes weft of Porto Bello •, and the Spanilh 

 artifts nearer the truth than the French. 



The firft difcovery of Panama, the Spaniards owe 

 to Tello de Guzman, who landed here in 1515; but 

 found only fome fiftiermen's huts, this being a very 

 proper place for their bufmefs, and from thence the 

 Indians called it Panama, which fignifies a place 

 abounding in fifh. Before this, namely in the year 

 1513, Bafco Nunez de Balboa difcovered the fouth 

 fea, and took legal pofTellion of it in the names of the 

 3 kings 



