Note XV‑5 — Chapter XV · PANAMÁ AND PERU. 1538-1550.

In his description of a journey from Acla to Panamá by way of Nombre de Dios, Benzoni mentions that his party was accompanied by 20 negro slaves, whose business it was to cut away the undergrowth and branches of trees that barred their path. The same writer also alludes to the danger incurred by travellers during the rainy season through the frequent crossing of the Chagres en route across the Isthmus. He relates a story of a Spaniard, who while fording the last branch of the river, mounted on a mule, and with gold and jewels in his possession to the value of 4,000 ducats, was carried down stream, lost everything, and was saved only by tying himself to the branch of a tree, arriving at Nombre de Dios with only his waistcoat.