Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/110

88 cutting the paws, afterwards despatches him at his leisure,—carrying his head, paws, and skin to Porto-Bello, as a trophy of his valour, and preserving the skin to make tobacco-pouches, or covers to little easy chairs used in the country.

The great abundance of toads about Porto-Bello has been already noticed. This is so prodigious after rain, that the popular prejudice is, that the drops are changed into toads (de cada viene un Sapo); and even the more learned maintain, that the eggs of this animal are raised with the vapours from the adjoining swamps, and, being conveyed to the city by the succeeding rains, are there hatched. Their large size, however—many of them being from four to six inches in breadth—sufficiently attests their mature growth in more favourable circumstances. After a night of rain, the streets are almost covered with them, and it is impossible to walk without crushing them.

Chagres.—The town of Chagres is one of the most miserable that can be imagined, being situated in a little sandy bay on the north side of the river, open to no wind but a westerly one, and bounded by woods to the south, by a black and dismal-looking fortification on a hill to the north, and by a swamp to the east, which is continually fed by springs which have no outlet. It also is thus extremely unhealthy. The inhabitants are chiefly black, or coloured, with the exception of a few custom-house officers, and the commandant of the castle. Their number is about one thousand. In entering the river from the sea, the town is not seen till close upon it; and does not look better than a collection of negro huts on a West India sugar plantation, the houses being chiefly built of mud, and thatched.

Gatun, Gorgona, Cruces, &c.—Gatun is quite a small village. Gorgona is somewhat larger, being a point where passengers going to Panamà frequently land, in order to avoid the danger and delay caused by the progressively increasing rapidity of the current, as boats ascend to Cruces. Cruces, however, is the place to which goods are always conveyed, sad was a village of considerable extent when Mr. Lloyd first saw it, but was accidentally burned down in 1828. When he left it, there were not more than one hundred and twenty houses, built of reeds, occasionally plastered, and neatly thatched. The inhabitants of these places are nearly all owners of canoes or mules,—or store-keepers for taking charge of goods,—or bogas, that is, persons employed in working the canoes, which is done either by paddles or poles, according to the depth of water. Cruces and Gorgona are also resorted to as watering-places in summer by the inhabitants of Panamà, being considered very healthy; and the town of Chorrera, on the river of that name, falling into the Pacific, has the same advantage.