PANAMA. 



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rangement which has been adopted within a 

 few years, the vessel, which generally arrives 

 once a month at Chagres, delivers a mail at 

 that town, and sails immediately for San Juan de 

 Nicaragua for the same object, from whence she 

 returns again within ten days to Chagres, in 

 order to receive the correspondence and specie, 

 if any, forwarded from Panama to meet the 

 vessel at the mouth of the river. It may easily 

 be imagined that I am not a little rejoiced at 

 the thoughts of escaping from hence in a few 

 days, at the commencement of a period when a 

 residence any where on the isthmus is a great 

 trial to the constitution. Panama, however, 

 has the reputation of being a healthier residence 

 than most of the other habitable places on either 

 coast. I am told, that to be delayed at Chagres, 

 when the rains have regularly set in, is in the 

 highest degree dangerous. That sometimes a 

 few hours have been enough to add a fresh 

 victim to the numerous list of those who have 



