The 21st February, near the Perico islands opposite to Panama, we took another prize from Lavelia, laden with beeves, hogs, fowls, and salt. The 24th we went to the isle of Taboga, six leagues south of Panama. This island is three miles long and two broad, being very rocky and steep all round, except on the north side, where the shore has an easy dope. In the middle of the isle the soil is black and rich, where abundance of plantains and bananas are produced, and near the sea there are cocoa and _mammee_ trees. These are large and straight in their stems, without knots, boughs, or branches, and sixty or seventy feet high. At the top there are many small branches set close together, bearing round fruit about the size of a large quince, covered with a grey rind, which is brittle before the fruit is ripe, but grows yellow when the fruit comes to maturity, and is then easily peeled off. The ripe fruit is also yellow, resembling a carrot in its flesh, and both smells and tastes well, having two rough flat kernels in the middle, about the size of large almonds. The S.W. side of this isle is covered with trees, affording abundant fuel, and the N. side has a fine stream of good water, which falls from the mountains into the sea. Near this there was formerly a pretty town with a handsome church, but it has been mostly destroyed by the privateers. There is good anchorage opposite this town a mile from the shore, in sixteen to eighteen fathoms on soft ooze. At the N.N.W. end is a small town called _Tabogilla_, and on the N.E. of this another small town or village without a name. While at anchor near _Tabogilla_, we were in great danger from a pretended merchant, who brought a bark to us in the night, under pretence of being laden with merchandise to trade with us privately, but which was in reality a fire-ship fitted out for our destruction. But on her approach, some of our men hailed her to come to anchor, and even fired upon her, which so terrified the men that they got into their canoes, having first set her on fire, on which we cut our cables and got out of her way. This fire-ship was constructed and managed by one Bond, who formerly deserted from us to the Spaniards. While busied next morning in recovering our anchors, we discovered a whole fleet of canoes full of men, passing between Tabogilla and another isle. These proved to be French and English buccaneers, lately come from the North Sea across the isthmus of Darien, 200 of them being French and 80 English. These last were divides between our two ships, under Captains Davis and Swan; and the Frenchmen were put into our prize, named the Flower, under the command of Captain Gronet, their countryman, in return for which he offered commissions to Captains Davis and Swan, from the governor of Petite Goave, as it is the custom of the French privateers to carry with them blank commissions. Captain Davis accepted one, but Captain Swan had one already from the Duke of York.