eleven AM
I shot one of them ; he was about twelve feet long ; the bullet entered in the joints of the mail , below the shoulder of the fore paw , where the hide was tender ; but if you fire at them with the scale , that is , with the monster looking at you , a musket ball will glance . I have often in this my log spoken of the Brobdignag lizards , the guanas . I brought down one this day , about three feet long , and found it , notwithstanding its dragon like appearance , very good eating . At eleven AM on the 18th , we arrived at the village of Cruzes , the point where the river ceases to be navigable for canoes , and from whence you take horse , or rather mule , for Panama . For about fifteen or twenty miles below Cruzes , the river becomes rapid , and full of shoals , when the oars are laid aside , and the canoes are propelled by long poles . The Town , as it is called , is a poor miserable place , composed chiefly of negro huts ; however , a Spanish trader of the name of Villaverde , who had come over in the Wave as a passenger , and had preceded me in a lighter canoe , and to whom I had shown some kindness , now repaid it , as far as lay in his power . He lodged me for the night , and hired mules for me to proceed to Panama in the morning ; so I slung my hammock in an old Spanish soldier 's house , who keeps a kind of posada , and was called by my friend Villaverde at daydawn , whose object was , not to tell me to get ready for my journey , but to ask me if I would go and bathe before starting .