CHAGRES. 



269 



to enable them to discern^ not only that she 

 was a three-masted vessel^ but that she had all 

 the appearance of H. M. sloop of war^ Gannet. 



After breakfast I went on shore, and walked 

 up to the forto This stands out boldly to- 

 wards the sea, forming an excellent defence 

 to the entrance of the river, and is a consider- 

 able height above the miserable huts, for they 

 can hardly be called houses, of Chagres. Pale, 

 aguish looking faces met me in this ramble, 

 and I think I never felt so oppressive a climate. 

 Behind the fort, the view is carried over low 

 swampy ground, overgrown with aquatic plants, 

 thence up the winding river, and to the woody 

 hills rising above it. 



As I was talking to the commandant of the 

 fort, whom I met upon the ramparts, the 

 Gannet dropped her anchor at a quarter of a 

 mile from the entrance of the river, just where 

 a long brown muddy line of demarcation indi- 

 cates the separation of the waters of the Cha- 

 gres from the blue waves of the Caribbean sea, 

 I saw her boats getting ready, and hastened 

 down to the river again, to present myself to 



