Learning from these men that Captain Townley was coming across the isthmus of Darien with 180 Englishmen, we set sail on the 2d March for the gulf of _San Miguel_ to meet Townley. This gulf is on the east side of the great Bay of Panama, in lat. 8° 15' N. long. 79° 10' W. thirty leagues S.E. from Panama; from whence the passage lies between Isola del Rey and the main. In this gulf many rivers discharge their waters. Its southern point is Cape _Carachina_, in lat. 8° 6' N. and the northern, named Cape _Gardo_, is in lat. 8° 18' N. The most noted rivers which discharge themselves into this gulf, are named _Santa Maria, Sambo_, and _Congo_. This last rises far within the country, and after being joined by many small streams on both sides of its course, falls into the north side of the gulf a league from Cape Gardo. It is deep and navigable for several leagues into the country, but not broad, and is neglected by the Spaniards owing to its nearness to the river of Santa Maria, where they have gold mines. _Santa Maria_ is the largest of the rivers in this gulf, being navigable for eight or nine leagues, as far as the tide flows, above which it divides into several branches fit only for canoes. In this river the tide of flood rises eighteen feet. About the year 1665, the Spaniards built the town of Santa Maria, near six leagues up this river,[173] to be near the gold mines. I have been told, that, besides the gold usually procured out of the ore and sand, they sometimes find lumps wedged between the fissures of rocks as large as hens eggs or larger. One of these was got by Mr Harris, who got here 120 pounds weight of gold, and in his lump there were several crevices full of earth and dust. [Footnote 173: In modern maps the river which seems to agree with this description of the Santa Maria, is called _Tlace_, one of the principal branches of which is named Chuchunque. The gold mines of Cana and Balsa are placed on some of its branches, on which likewise there are several towns, as Nisperal, Fichichi, Pungana, Praya, and Balsa.--E.] The Spaniards employ their slaves to dig these mines in the dry season; but when the rivers overflow, as the mines cannot be then worked, the Indians wash the gold out of the sands that are forced down from the mountains, and which gold they sell to the Spaniards, who gain as much in that way as they do by their mines. During the wet season, the Spaniards retire with their slaves to Panama. Near the mouth of the Santa Maria, the Spaniards have lately built another town, called _Scuchadores_,[174] in a more airy situation than Santa Maria. The land all about the gulf of San Miguel is low and fertile, and is covered with great numbers of large trees. [Footnote 174: This probably is that named Nisperal in modern geography, the appellation in the text being the Spanish name, and the other the name given by the Indians.--E.]