rain which fall there every day. The woods are
infested with poisonous snakes, and abound in a sort of large toad or
frog which crawls into the city after rains. The tigers "often make
incursions into the street," as at Nombre de Dios, to carry off children
and domestic animals. There was good fishing in the bay, and the land
was fertile "beyond wonder," so that the cost of living there, in the
_tiempo muerto_, was very small. There is a hill behind the town called
the Capiro, about which the streamers of the clouds wreathe whenever
rain is coming. The town was taken by Sir Francis Drake in 1595, by
Captain Parker in 1601, by Morgan in 1668, by Coxon in 1679, and by
Admiral Vernon in 1740.

Having told his plans, the admiral bade his men make ready. During the
afternoon he held towards the west of Porto Bello, at some distance from
the land. The coast up to the Chagres River, and for some miles beyond,
is low, so that there was not much risk of the ships being sighted from
the shore. As it grew darker, he edged into the land, arriving "in the
dusk of the evening" at a place called Puerto de Naos, or Port of
Ships, a bay midway between Porto Bello and the Chagres, and about ten
leagues from either place.

They sailed westward up the coast for a little distance to a place
called Puerto Pontin, where they anchored. Here the pirates got their
boats out, and took to the oars, "leaving in the ships only a few men to
keep them, and conduct them the next day to the port." By the light of
lamps and battle lanterns the boats rowed on through the darkness, till
at midnight they had came to a station called Estera longa Lemos, a
river-mouth a few miles from Porto Bello, "where they all went on
shore." After priming their muskets, they set forth towards the city,
under the guidance of an English buccaneer, who had been a prisoner at
Porto Bello but a little while before. When they were within a mile or
two of the town, they sent this Englishmen with three or four companions
to take a solitary sentry posted at the city outskirts. If they could
not take him, they were to kill him, but without giving the alarm to the
inhabitants. By creeping quietly behind him, the party took the sentry,
"with such cunning that he had no time to give warning with his musket,
or make any other noise." A knife point pressing on his spine, and a gag
of wood across his tongue, warned him to attempt no outcry. Some
rope-yarn was passed about his wrists, a