ce can be very pleasant which has an annual rainfall
of 120 inches and a mean annual temperature of about 80 deg.. The country
adjacent is indescribably beautiful; the river is clear and brilliant;
the woods are gorgeous with many-coloured blossoms, and with birds and
butterflies that gleam in green and blue among the leaves. During the
rains the river sometimes rises forty feet in a night, and sweeps into
the town with masses of rotting verdure from the hills. There is always
fever in the place, but in the rainy season it is more virulent than in
the dry. At present the town has few white inhabitants. The fair stone
houses which Drake saw are long since gone, having been destroyed in one
of the buccaneering raids a century later. The modern town is a mere
collection of dirty huts, inhabited by negroes, half-breeds, and
Indians.

CHAPTER V

BACK TO THE MAIN BODY

The treasure train--The spoil--Captain Tetu hurt

As soon as the town was in his hands, Drake set guards on the bridge
across the Chagres and at the gate by which he had entered the town. He
gave orders to the Maroons that they were not to molest women or unarmed
men. He gave them free permission to take what they would from the
stores and houses, and then went in person to comfort some gentlewomen
"which had lately been delivered of children there." They were in terror
of their lives, for they had heard the shouts and firing, and had
thought that the Maroons were coming. They refused to listen to the
various comforters whom Drake had sent to them, and "never ceased most
earnestly entreating" that Drake himself would come to them. Drake
succeeded in reassuring them that nothing "to the worth of a garter"
would be taken from them. They then dried their tears, and were
comforted.

The raiders stayed in the town about an hour and a half, during which
time they succeeded in getting together a little comfortable dew of
heaven--not gold, indeed, nor silver, but yet "good pillage." Drake
allowed them this latitude so that they might not be cast down by the
disappointment of the night. He gave orders, however, that no heavy loot
should be carried from the town, because they had yet many miles to go,
and were still in danger of attack. While the men were getting their
spoils together, ready for marching, and eating a hasty breakfast in
the early morning light, a sudden fusillade began at the Panama gate.
Some ten or twelve cavaliers had galloped in fro