juicy and sweet. It has two or three black kernels, resembling
pomegranate seeds. The _Avogato_-tree is higher than our pear-trees,
having a black smooth bark, and oval leaves. The fruit is about the size
of a large lemon, green at first, but becomes yellow when ripe, having a
yellowish pulp as soft as butter. After being three or four days
gathered, the rind comes easily off, and as the fruit is insipid it is
commonly eaten with sugar and limejuice, being esteemed a great
provocative by the Spaniards, who have therefore planted them in most of
their settlements on the Atlantic. It has a stone within as large as a
horse-plum. The _Sapota_-tree, or _Mammee-sapota_, is neither so large
nor so tall as the wild mammae at Taboga, nor is the fruit so large or
so round. The rind is smooth, and the pulp, which is pleasant and
wholesome, is quite red, with a rough longish stone. There are also here
some wild _mammee_-trees, which grow very tall and straight, and are fit
for masts, but the fruit is not esteemed. The tree producing the
_star-apples_ resembles our quince-tree, but is much larger, and has
abundance of broad oval leaves. The fruit is as big as a large apple,
and is reckoned very good, but I never tasted it.

The river _Chepo_, or _Cheapo_, rises in the mountains near the north
side of the isthmus, being inclosed between a northern and southern
range, between which it makes its way to the S.W. after which it
describes nearly a semicircle, and runs gently into the sea about seven
leagues E. from Panama, in lat. 9° 3' N. long. 79° 51' W. Its mouth is
very deep, and a quarter of a mile broad, but is so obstructed at the
entrance by sands as only to be navigable by barks. About six leagues
from the sea stands the city of _Cheapo_, on the _left_ bunk of the
river.[175] This place stands in a champaign country, affording a very
pleasant prospect, as it has various hills in the neighbourhood covered
with wood, though most of the adjacent lands are pasture-grounds to the