VOYAGE TO PANAMA. 



183 



whilst searching for pearls^ and crush them to 

 death. To defend themselves the divers are 

 provided with a knife, with which they rush at 

 the manta, and also at the shark, by which 

 they are more frequently attacked, and thus 

 drive them away, but numbers lose their lives 

 in this dangerous pursuit of ornaments for the 

 coquettes of Panama. 



In the morning, when I came on deck, I 

 was delighted with the appearance of Tobogo. 

 The village is composed of bamboo huts, in 

 the Indian fashion, surrounded by cocoa-nut 

 trees, and built against the side of the mountain, 

 the whole of which is covered up to the top 

 with the most luxuriant wood. I went ashore 

 with the captain. On a close inspection of the 

 huts, I found them thatched with grass, and the 

 apex of the roof of each, covered with a row of 

 gourds, cut in two, like semicircular tiles, to 

 keep off the rain. Behind this village are maize- 



VOL. II, I 



