Preparations to Ascend the River.--Crowding of the Boats.--The Bivouac at Bracos.--Sufferings from Hunger.--The Pathless Route.--The Boats Abandoned.--Light Canoes Employed.--Abandoned Ambuscades.--Painful Marches, Day by Day.--The Feast on Leathern Bags.--Murmurs and Contentions.--The Indians Encountered.--Struggling through the Forest.--The Conflagration at Santa Cruz.--Battle and Skirmishes.--First Sight of Panama.--Descent into the Plain.--Feasting. From the prisoners Morgan learned that three weeks before their arrival the garrison at Chagres was informed, by a message from Carthagena, that the English were equipping a fleet at Hispaniola for the capture of Panama. The governor immediately sent one hundred and sixty-four soldiers to strengthen the garrison at Chagres, which had previously numbered but one hundred and fifty. Morgan was also informed that the governor of Panama had placed several ambuscades along the Chagres River, and that a force of three thousand six hundred men was awaiting his arrival at Chagres. These were tidings sufficient to appal any ordinary mind. But the pirates were accustomed to triumph over vastly superior numbers. There were several large Spanish boats at Chagres, adapted to river navigation. All these Morgan seized. They generally mounted two great iron guns and four smaller ones of brass. These vessels, with those he took from his ships, made a flotilla of thirty-two gunboats. They were manned by twelve hundred sailors. Five hundred were left behind to garrison the castle. One hundred and fifty had charge of the ships. On the 18th of August, 1670, Morgan put his fleet in motion to ascend the Chagres River on his advance to Panama. His boats were greatly crowded, and so heavily laden with men, ammunition, and arms, that he could take but a small supply of provisions. He expected to provide himself abundantly from the supplies he should find in the Spanish ambuscades. The first day the little fleet ascended the river but eighteen miles, to a place called Bracos. The men on board his boats were greatly cramped in their limbs, having but little room to move, and none in which to lie down. They therefore found it necessary to land for the night, that they might enjoy a few hours of sleep. They also hoped to rob some of the neighboring plantations. Nearly all their food had disappeared in this one day’s sail. The cheer of camp-fires seems to be essential to all bivouacs. The gloom of the dense tropical forest was soon illumined by the flames around which twelve hundred men were congregated. Most of them went supperless to their mossy beds, consoled only by their pipes of tobacco. In the morning they ranged the country in vain for food. The planters had fled, taking with them or destroying everything that could be eaten.