and lo! the smoke of Panama, and the blue Pacific, with her
sky-line trembling gently, and a ship under sail, with five boats, going
towards some emerald specks of islands. The clouds were being blown
across the sky. The sun was glorious over all that glorious picture,
over all the pasture, so green and fresh from the rain. There were the
snowy Andes in the distance, their peaks sharply notched on the clear
sky. Directly below them, in all her beauty, was the royal city of
Panama, only hidden from sight by a roll of green savannah.

Just at the foot of the rise, in a wealth of fat pasture, were numbers
of grazing cattle, horses, and asses--the droves of the citizens. The
pirates crept down, and shot a number of these, "chiefly asses," which
they promptly flayed, while some of their number gathered firewood. As
soon as the fires were lit the meat was blackened in the flame, and then
greedily swallowed in "convenient pieces or gobbets." "They more
resembled cannibals than Europeans at this banquet," for the blood ran
down the beards of many, so hungry were they for meat after the long
agony of the march. What they could not eat they packed in their
satchels. After a long midday rest they fell in again for the march,
sending fifty men ahead to take prisoners "if possibly they could," for
in all the nine days' tramp they had taken no one to give them
information of the Spaniards' strength. Towards sunset they saw a troop
of Spaniards spying on them, who hallooed at them, but at such a
distance that they could not distinguish what was said. As the sun set
"they came the first time within sight of the highest steeple of
Panama."

This was a stirring cordial to the way-weary men limping down the
savannah. The sight of the sea was not more cheering to the Greeks than
the sight of the great gilt weathercock, shifting on the spire, to these
haggard ruffians with the blood not yet dry upon their beards. They
flung their hats into the air, and danced and shouted. All their
trumpets shouted a levity, their drums beat, and their colours were
displayed. They camped there, with songs and laughter, in sight of that
steeple, "waiting with impatience," like the French knights in the play,
for the slowly coming dawn. Their drums and trumpets made a merry music
to their singing, and they caroused so noisily that a troop of horsemen
rode out from Panama to see what was the matter. "They came almost
within musket-shot of the army, being pre