On the 25th we had a sight of the island of Gallo, bearing E.S.E. 1/2 E. four leagues distant; from hence we crossed the bay of Panama with a N.W. course, hoping that this would have carried us in a direct line to the island of Quibo. But we afterwards found that wrought to have stood more to the westward, for the winds in a short time began to incline to that quarter, and made it difficult for us to gain the island. And now, after passing the equinoctial on the 22d, leaving the neighbourhood of the Cordilleras, and standing more and more towards the isthmus, where the communication of the atmosphere to the eastward and the westward was no longer interrupted, we found, in a few days, an extraordinary alteration in the climate. Instead of uniform temperature, we had, for several days together, close and sultry weather, resembling what we had met with between the tropics on the eastern side of America. We had besides frequent calms and heavy rains, which we at first ascribed to the neighbourhood of the line, where this kind of weather is found to prevail; but, observing that it attended us to the latitude of seven degrees north, we were induced to believe that the stormy season, or, as the Spaniards call it, the Vandevals, was not yet over; though many positively assert, that it begins in June, and is ended November.
On the 27th Captain Mitchel's largest prize being cleared, was scuttled, and set on fire, and as the remaining five ships were all good sailers, so we never occasioned any delay to each other. Being now in a rainy climate, which we had been long disused to, we found it necessary to caulk the decks and sides of the Centurion, to prevent the rain-water from running into her.
On the 3d of December we had a view of the island of Quibo, the east end then bearing N.N.W. four leagues distant, and the island of Quicara W.N.W. at about the same distance. Here we struck ground with sixty-five fathom of line, and found the bottom to consist of grey sand, with black specks. When we got sight of the land, we found the wind to hang westerly, and therefore thought it adviseable to stand off till morning, as there are said to be some shoals in the entrance of the channel. At six the next morning, point Mariato bore N.E. 1/2 N. three or four leagues distant. In weathering this point, all the squadron, except the Centurion, were very near it, and the Gloucester, being the leewardmost ship, was forced to tack and stand to the southward, so that we lost sight of her. At nine, the island Sebaco bore N.W. by N. four leagues distant; but the wind still proving unfavourable, we were obliged to ply on and off for the succeeding twenty-four hours, and were frequently taken a-back. However, at eleven the next morning the wind happily settling in the S.S.W. we bore away for the S.S.E. end of the island, and about three in the afternoon entered Canal Bueno, passing round a shoal which stretches off about two miles from the south point of the island. This Canal Bueno, or Good Channel, is at least six miles in breadth; and as we had the wind large, we kept in a good depth of water, generally from twenty-eight to thirty-three fathom, and came not within a mile and a half distance of the breakers, though, in all probability, if it had been necessary, we might have ventured much nearer without incurring the least danger. At seven in the evening we came to an anchor in thirty-three fathom, muddy ground; the south point of the island bearing S.E. by E. a remarkable high part of the island W. by N. and the island Sebaco E. by N.
SECTION XVIII.
Our Proceedings at Quibo, with an Account of the Place.
The morning after our coming to an anchor, an officer was dispatched to discover the watering-place; and, having found it, returned before noon; then we sent the long-boat for a load of water, and at the same time weighed and stood farther in with our ships. At two we came again to an anchor in twenty-two fathom, with a bottom of rough gravel intermixed with broken shells, the watering-place now bearing from us N.W. 1/2 N. only three quarters of a mile distant.
The island of Quibo is extremely convenient for wooding and watering, for the trees grow close to the high-water mark, and a large rapid stream of fresh water runs over the sandy beach into the sea; so that we were little more than two days in laying in all the wood and water we wanted. The whole island is of a very moderate height, excepting one part. It consists of a continued wood spread over the whole surface of the country, which preserves its verdure all the year round. We found there abundance of cassia, and a few lime-trees. It appeared singular to us, that, considering the climate and the shelter, we should see no other birds there than parrots, parroquets, and mackaws; of the last there were prodigious flights. Next to these birds, the animals we found in most plenty were monkeys and guanos, and these we frequently killed for food; for though there were many herds of deer upon the place, yet the difficulty of penetrating the woods prevented our coming near them, so that though we saw them often, we killed only two during our stay. Our prisoners assured us that this island abounded with tygers; we did once discover the print of a tyger's paw upon the beach, but the tygers themselves we never saw. The Spaniards, too, informed us that there was often found in the woods a most mischievous serpent, called the Flying Snake, which they said darted itself from the boughs of trees on either man or beast that came within its reach, and whose sting they believed to be inevitable death. Besides these mischievous land-animals, the sea hereabouts is infested with great numbers of alligators of an extraordinary size; and we often observed a large kind of flat fish jumping a considerable height out of the water, which we supposed to be the fish that is said frequently to destroy the pearl-divers, by clasping them in its fins as they rise from the bottom; and we were told that the divers, for their security, are now always armed with a sharp knife, which, when they are entangled, they stick into the belly of the fish, and thereby disengage themselves from its embraces.
Whilst the ship continued here at anchor, the commodore, attended by some of his officers, went in a boat to examine a bay which lay to the northward; and afterwards ranged all along the eastern side of the island. In the places where they put on shore in the course of his expedition, they generally found the soil to be extremely rich, and met with great plenty of excellent water. In particular, near the N.E. point of the island, they discovered a natural cascade, which surpassed, as they conceived, every thing of this kind, which human art or industry hath hitherto produced. It was a river of transparent water, about forty yards wide, which ran down a declivity of near a hundred and fifty yards in length. The channel it ran in was very irregular; for it was entirely formed of rock, both its sides and bottom being made up of large detached blocks; and by these the course of the water was frequently interrupted: For in some places it ran sloping with a rapid but uniform motion, while in other parts it tumbled over the ledges of rocks with a perpendicular descent. All the neighbourhood of this stream was a fine wood; and even the huge masses of rock which overhung the water, and which, by their various projections, formed the inequalities of the channel, were covered with lofty forest trees. Whilst the commodore, and those with him, were attentively viewing this place, and remarking the different blendings of the water, the rocks, and the wood, there came in sight (as it were with an intent still to heighten and animate the prospect) a prodigious flight of mackaws, which hovering over this spot, and often wheeling and playing on the wing about it, afforded a most brilliant appearance, by the glittering of the sun on their variegated plumage; so that some of the spectators cannot refrain from a kind of transport, when they recount the complicated beauties which occurred in this extraordinary scene.
In this expedition, along the eastern side of the island, though they met with no inhabitants, yet they saw many huts upon the shore, and great heaps of shells of fine mother-of-pearl scattered up and down in different places: These were the remains left by the pearl-fishers from Panama, who often frequent this place in the summer season; for the pearl oysters, which are to be met with every where in the bay of Panama, are so plenty at Quibo, that by advancing a very little way into the sea, you might stoop down and reach them from the bottom. They are usually very large, but extremely tough and unpalatable.