ALTHOUGH so much has been said about the Isthmus of Panama, and the works now being carried on there, very little mention has been made of the town from which that district takes its name. Englishmen should, however, feel some special interest in it; since the old town, founded in 1518, was destroyed by Morgan, the celebrated buccaneer, who started from our shores on his romantic expeditions. The new town was built by the Spanish Governor, Fernandez de Cordova, at some distance from the old site, on a rocky peninsula, which was raised artificially and protected from the sea by a huge stone rampart, flanked on either side by solid bastions, and so fortified by the famous engineer, Alfonso de Villa Costa, as to be considered the strongest place in the New World after Carthagena. An account of the place now given by the Exploration, a French paper, relates that these stone defences are now crumbling into ruins, with the exception of the southeast bastion, which is still used by the inhabitants as a favorite promenade. On the land side, where the defences would have been most useful in modern times, they have been purposely destroyed; and now the town is exposed to periodical attacks by the people of the suburbs, who are from time to time stirred up by some aspirant to power, and led up to the hill of Santa Ana, which dominates the town. Having gained this vantage ground, they engage in skirmishes with the townsfolk, and if victorious, seize upon the government, which they retain until subverted by similar proceedings. The town was, toward the end of the last century, opulent and handsome. But its commerce was ruined by the wars; and its inhabitants, by their carelessness, have allowed many fine buildings to be burned. The railway has, it seems, restored some of its importance to the place; and much more is, of course, expected from the canal now projected.

—Selected.