 In order to clear the environs of lurking parties of the Spanish, Baskerville picked a force of 750 men.On 20 January they started upon the perilous march by the old Panama road.They occupied the small settlement of Venta de la Quebrada two days later but on the third day, after an exhausting march of nearly thirty miles in incessant rain and high humidity, Baskerville had found himself confronted by a gorge near another settlement of Capirilla.