Chap. I. CHAGRES — AMERICAN TOWN. 5 
the rear. By-and-bye the castle of San Lorenzo, rising 
above the mouth of the Rio de los Lagardos, became 
visible ; a few hours later we anchored on the roadstead at 
its base, and on the following morning we succeeded in 
safely entering the river, where we moored our brig close 
to the bank, just in front of the frame buildings which 
constituted the so-called "American" part of Chagres. 
The reader, I suppose, is aware that throughout America 
the term " American' is almost exclusively applied to the 
people of the United States, — a practice by which the 
"manifest destiny" of that compound of the most active 
elements of the present generation of mankind is thought- 
lessly recognized even by those who are most immediately 
threatened by it, — for in all Spanish -American countries 
" los Americanos" means the people of the great northern 
republic. 
This "American town" of Chagres, then, which most 
likely has ceased to exist since the opening of the Panama 
railroad, when Aspinwall has taken its place as the 
Atlantic terminus of the isthmus route, was situated on 
the left bank of the river, while on the opposite side, in a 
nook formed by the hill of San Lorenzo, stood the "village 
of the natives" which, as it existed before the time of 
Californian travel, may be supposed to have outlived its 
go-ahead rival, and to be still the home of a few families. 
In choosing the place of the American settlement, the 
exclusive considerations of a reckless love of gain must 
have decided. In a locality known to be sickly in the 
highest degree, it was built on the water's edge, on a low 
and muddy ground. But it stood on the deep-water side 
of the river, and brigs and schooners could unload a few 
hundred steps from the houses. These had all been sent 
ready-made from New York. The most prominent among 
