Jaguars, and other animals, are said to enter Porto Bello during the night, and to carry off any domestic animals they meet with. They are slain in the woods by the negroes and Indians, who hunt them for the sake of a trifling reward, which is paid on their destruction.
The sloth is an animal very common in the vicinity of this city. Its habits are well known. Serpents of every deadly nature are extremely numerous. Frogs and toads are seen in such numbers after the showers, that the natives say every drop of water is changed into one of those nauseous animals. The country about Porto Bello, resembles in this instance the British settlements in some parts of North America, where toads and frogs cover the land after any humidity.
The city of Porto Bello is also called San Felipe de Puerto Bello; it consists of one principal street, extending along the shore, and crossed by several others up the side of the mountain. In it are two squares, two churches, two convents, a custom-house, and some other public buildings; at the east end of the town, in the quarter called Guinea, are the habitations of the free and enslaved negroes.
Formerly, when the galleons were permitted, this place had an annual fair, and was then excessively crowded with people. The houses at present are chiefly of wood with a few of stone, and the better sort do not amount to 150. This city is sixty miles north of Panama, and its climate is said to have been wonderfully improved by a cut which has been lately made through a neighbouring hill to admit a current of air. The governor, Don Vincente Emparan, has also levelled great part of the forests which formerly reached to the very gates of the town.
Sir Francis Drake took this place in 1596, and died in a subsequent voyage in its harbour.
When Porto Bello was taken and plundered by John Morgan, the town was ransomed for a large sum, which prevented his burning it.
In 1739, Admiral Vernon with six ships entered the harbour and made himself master of the place, after demolishing the forts. He afterwards bombarded Carthagena, and took Fort Chagre, near the mouth of the river of that name.
The population of Porto Bello is inconsiderable, being chiefly negroes and mulattoes, with about thirty white families, and the garrisons of the forts.
The third city of Panama is St. Jago de Nata de los Cavalleros, or Nata, so named from the Prince, or cacique, who reigned over this part of the province when it was explored in 1515 by Alonzo Perez de la Rua.
It is situated near the extremity of the Canataguan chain, fifty miles south-west of Panama, in north latitude 8° 35ʹ, and west longitude 81° 6ʹ, in a bay on the borders of the Pacific, which extends to the island Iguenas; it was founded by Gaspar de Espinosa, but the Indians burnt and plundered it shortly after its first erection; he again rebuilt it with the title of city.