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Updated: June 8, 2025
Finally, between Chagre on the Atlantic side, and Chorrera on the Pacific side, the conical mountains are not so numerous, having plains of great extent, interspersed with occasional insulated ranges of hills, of inconsiderable height and extent.
These were all made prisoners, and compelled to tell whatsoever they knew of their designs and enterprises." Five days after the taking of the castle, Morgan arrived from Providence Island with the rest of the armament; but at the entrance to the Chagre river, in passing over the bar, his flagship and five or six smaller boats were wrecked, and ten men were drowned.
"From Chagre, Captain Morgan sent presently after his arrival, a great boat unto Porto Bello, wherein were all the prisoners he had taken at the Isle of St. Catherine, demanding by them a considerable ransom for the Castle of Chagre, where he then was, threatening otherwise to ruin and demolish it even to the ground.
Having completed his arrangements, he took with him all the prisoners of the island, and then sailed for Chagre, where he arrived in eight days.
About the same time, a sloop arrived in England with despatches from admiral Vernon, who, since his adventure at Porto Bello, had bombarded Carthagena, and taken the fort of San Lorenzo, on the river of Chagre, in the neighbourhood of his former conquest. This month was likewise marked by the death of his Prussian majesty, a prince by no means remarkable for great or amiable qualities.
The president immediately dispatched reinforcements to the Castle of Chagre, which arrived fifteen days before the buccaneers and raised its strength to over 350 men. Two hundred men were sent to Porto Bello, and 500 more were stationed at Venta Cruz and in ambuscades along the Chagre river to oppose the advance of the English.
His purpose was to have carried this merchandize in carts from Panama, about four leagues, or sixteen miles overland, to the river Chagre, which is said to be navigable, and which discharges itself into the North Sea not far from Nombre de Dios, where the goods could be reshipped for Spain; by which means all kind of goods might be brought from India in a shorter time, and with less danger, than by sailing round the Cape of Good Hope, as the voyage from the Moluccas to Panama is almost a perfectly straight course between the line and the tropics.
Marchena got some information respecting their plan of operations, and sent off two confidential intelligent negroes to give notice to the president of what had occurred in Panama, and of the ulterior designs of the Contreras. One of these negroes was directed to travel the whole way by land, and the other to go by way of the small river Chagre, which route had been taken by the president.
No boat can ascend higher than Cruces, a village in a direct line not more than twenty-two miles from Chagre harbour; but owing to the sinuosities of the river, the distance to be performed along it is nearly double. To stem the current requires from three to eight days, according to the season, whereas the descent does not take more than from eight to twelve hours.
"The river Chagre," says the Colombian commissioner, "its channel, and the barks which in the dry season embarrass its navigation, are laid down in my manuscript plan with great care and minuteness.
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