The Mississippi Creole. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1841-1851, 1849-07-14
THE OLD CITY Of PANAMA.

A letter in the Boston Post contains the
following account OF what was a%nciently the
city Of Panama;- v
PANAMA, April %, l849. "
| have Just returned from an excursion a. ;
mOng the rocks of the old city Of Panama, '
(seven miles east Of the present city0 accom- >
panied by Mr.. Bell, an ornithOlogist Of some
note IN New York, and another New York !
friend Mr.. Vandervoort' We pitched our tent .
arranged our cooking apparatus, and sailed
forth in quest Of game. The city was foun-
ded in 1919, on a plain near the sea shore, a
bout twelve feet above high water mark, and
built mostly Of brick anu stone, thick walls,
and stone masonry. But l suppose yon know
something Of its early history. l will describe
it as it now is. A dense forest now covers
the city SO that the wall now standing, TWEEN
" or liberty feet high, canno. be seen uutil you
approach within fifty or a hundred feet ofthem.
Immense blocks Of buildings, halt fallen down
and sections Of walls, peering up amongst the
trunks OF large trees and undefbrush, form
j1NN~ Bi"PhlS PASbuAO Ll tHO lbNSllCl'- !
One immense cathedral is now standing, ex-
cept one end wall, within which I measure cd a
cotton-woodtre tree eighteen-feetin circumference
and on one Of the main arches, thirty feet high,
grows a tree some thirty feet higher, entirely
, supported by the arch. On another section Of
the wall, about thirty feet high, has grown a
; troo 6TtaoD Caot IN o;rcn ,EoponcU tho mood tak-
ing root on the top Of the wall, and sending
down roots into the earth; which roots have
: grown fiat (siabslided) against the wall with
such strength as to support the immense tree
' which in turn supports the wall, which is held
; as in a wooden vice. Should the wall fall out
} it would present the curious anomaly Of a tree
that commenced in the middle and grow both
ways, o~utdOing Pat, who proposed to COM
mence at the top and build his chimney down
wards. Asst is, one might imagine that Mr.,
Van Buren, took his idea Of straddling the
fence from this very tree. Old cisterns and
walls, piles Of stones and rubbish, vines and
underbrush, make il diAicultto get about among
the ruins. There is but one UNDERSTANDING thi'
! is one hundred feet high by forty feet square,
seven feet thickness Of wall and Of the strongest
masonry, 1t is covered with moss, vines and
creepers to the top, and on its summit stant
several small trees, bearing beautiful flowers
Thiscity once 90 wealthy and poPulous, isnoy
= the abode Of wild boasts, who have driven maj
from its vicinity. We saw tigers, Oligators
deer, wild bears, monkeys, snakes, igua1oos
and squirrels, cormorants, ~pelicans, pigeons
buzzards, doves, parrots, owls, bats and brick
~ bats in abundance. Sea otter tracks we say
in plenty, as they have crawled through deser
~ ted arches on the rivers side. In our ramble
among the broken walls of the the city a ii
ger leaped down a tree to the top of a wall an
then to the ground, and ran as il Baruum wa
- at his heels, Is it not strange that such a city
=, within seven miles of the present one, shout
- so soon have gone to utter ruin, and SO CON
pletely as to destroy every trace of its streets
10 or the usage Of its buildings, and become tn
ro fixed abode of beasts Of prey! Such is tn
nc ~lact,'and it ~isstill more strange that the native
ia know so little of its history, or location eyel
re l found great difficulty in obtaining a nativ
~. guide who could accompany us to the spot. =
- 1t is seldom visited; though during our Ell
=. campment and since our return several parti'
or have visited it to see for them selves. W
pitched our tent on the bank Of a small rive
lust on the outskirts of the city, near an arc
IN in good preservation, over which passed ii
,oL the paved road to Cruces and Gorgona in Il
III. days of the buccaneers, who d~etroyed the eli
Ala and put the inhabitants to the sword, if n
sro memory serves me since | read the history
~ the buccaneers and Sir Francis Drake. II W
founded in 1919, but when destroyed do n
N, remember.