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V- V -i' ^ .0 -- v^- •~6' .^^ ..^^ .v\ o5' -.^^/^ \\-' •r'._ ^ :^i: -^z- V i^ -^^t >^ ■"^^. ^^^ V. ^/.-^^^^^ Vc^ ^, v*^- < X to o 00 « K H fc O O O w w < < o 1-1 < PQ W O N !Z OLD PANAMA AND CASTILLA DEL GEO NARRATIVE histon- of the discoven,-, con- quest, and settlement by the Spaniards of Pan- rj ama, Darien, \ eragua, Santo Domingo, Santa Marta, Cartagena, Nicaragua, and Peru : Including the four voyages of Columbus to America, the discover}" of the Pacific Ocean by \ asco Nunez de Balboa, a description of the Aborigines of the Isthmus, accounts of the search for a Strait through the New \\ orld and earlv efforts for a Canal, the darmg raids of Sir Francis Drake, the Bucccineers in the Caribbean and South Seas, the sack of the cit\- of Old Panama by Henr\- Morgan, and the stor}* of the Scots colony on Caledonia Bay WITH MAPS AXD RARE ILLUS TRATIO XS 7 DR. CT/L; G; AXDEBSOy Medical Reserre Corps, United States Ajnny; Lale PliT9ciaii l<«t«"«a'' Caaal Cooamkaoo ; FonDerij i^ L>eut. and Asst. SnrgeoD, U. S. Araqr, aad Major aod Sorgeaa U. S. Vok.; M e a lxa of the Americam Medical Assodatian : of die Medical Society. District of ColoBbia : of the Andaioinloeical SocEty ft WaiU^taa. etc BOSTOX THE PAGE CO:VIPAXY AiDCCCCxrr Copyright, igii, by C. L. G. Anderson t^ ^ Ji H VS I 3L ^ S3 HH'^\311 DEDICATED TO THE BUILDERS OF THE '^ PANAMA CANAL 111 "La mayor cosa, despues de la creacion del mundo, sacando la encarnacion y muerte del que lo crio, es el descubrimiento de las Indias." Francisco Lopez de Gomara, 1552. "II n'y point eu d'evenement aussi interessant pour Tespece humaine en general, & pour les peuples de I'Europe en particu- lier, que la decouverte du Nouveau-Monde & le passage aux Indes par le cap de Bonne-Esperance. Alors a commence une revolution dans le commerce, dans la puissance des nations, dans les moeurs, I'industrie & le gouvernement de tous les peuples. C'est a ce moment que les hommes des contrees le plus eloig- nees se sont rapproches par de nouveaux rapports & de nouveaux besoins. Les productions des climats places sous I'equateur, se consomment dans les climats voisins du pole; I'industrie du Nord est transportes au Sud; les etoffes de rOrient sont devenues le luxe des Occidentaux ; & par-tout les hommes ont fait un echange mutuel de leurs opinions, de leurs loix, de leurs usages, de leurs maladies, de leurs remedes, de leurs vertus & de leurs vices." L'abbe Raynal, 1781. IV. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations vii Glossary ix Foreword xi I. The Isthmus of Panama. Darien — Panama-;— Veragua. Geography, Orography, History. . i II. Columbus and his Dream 29 III. First Voyage of Columbus to America, 1492. Discovery of the Bahamas, Cuba, and Haiti . 45 IV. Second Voyage of Columbus to America, 1493. Discovery of the Lesser Antilles, Porto Rico, and Jamaica 65 V. Third Voyage of Columbus to America, 1498. Discovery of the Mainland „ "JJ VI. Fourth Voyage of Columbus to America, 1502. Discovery of Central America and the Isth- mus of Panama 85 VII. Don Rodrigo de Bastidas. Discoverer of the Isthmus of Darien. "Conquistador y Pacyfi- cador de Sancta Marta." "Spain's best and noblest Conquistador." 117 VIII. Tierra Firme : Comprising the Provinces of Nueva Andalucia and Castilla del Oro. The Governors Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa: Rivals in fame and rivals in mis- fortune 127 IX. Diego de Nicuesa. First Governor of the Isthmus 141 X. Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Discoverer of the Pacific Ocean 157 XI. Pedro Arias de Avila. Pedrarias. "The wrath of God"— "The Timur of the Indies." 183 XII. Last Days of Antigua and Settlement of Panama 211 TABLE OP CONTENTS XIII. Gil Gonzalez Davila. The First Conquistador in Nicaragua 217 XIV. The Spaniards on Panama Bay. Pedrarias seizes Nicaragua 225 XV. The Quest for Peru. Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque 235 XVI. Castilla del Oro, 1 525-1 550. Rebellious at- tempts to control the Isthmus 247 XVII. Early Descriptions of Veragua and Panama. Nearly literal translations from original documents 269 XVIII. The Search for a Strait, and Early Efforts for a Canal 293 XIX. Aborigines of the Isthmus , 319 XX. Sir Francis Drake. Circumnavigator and Ad- miral. "The Master Thiefe of the Un- knowne Worlde." 337 XXI. The Buccaneers 375 XXII. Henry Morgan and the Sack of Panama 401 XXIII. The Buccaneers in Panama Bay and the South Sea 439 XXIV. The Darien Colony 471 Appendix 501 Bibliography 519 Index 531 VI. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Vasco Nunez de Balboa takes possession of the South Sea Prontis. Map of the Republic of Panama and of the Canal i Mouth of the Chagres River and Castle of San Lorenzo . . 8 Triangular monument and Washington House, Colon lo Bronze statue of Columbus on Cristobal Point ii Nombre de Dios, in 1909 13 Cathedral of Panama 18 Surveying for the Panama Railroad 26 Ruined Church of Santo Domingo, Panama 29 Railroad bridge over the Chagres at Barbacoas 36 Gatun on the Chagres, in 1907 45, Restored Toscanelli chart of 1474 57 Columbus makes the tgg stand on end 76 Map of Central America and the West Indies 80 Columbus encounters great storms off Veragua 96 Ruins of the Castle of San Lorenzo 117 Ascending the Chagres River 128 Isthmian jungle 141 Pariciaco tells Balboa of the South Sea 162 Tree-dwelling Indians in the lowlands of Panama 165 Day-ak, a San Bias chief, from Rio Diablo 192 Chagres River near Gorgona 211 Sloth, and method of transporting horses 224 Cruces, formerly called Venta de Cruces 233 Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque 238 Bellin's map of the Isthmus, 1754 256 vii. LIST OF ILLUSTRATION S 1 Cathedral tower of Old Panama 269 Ancient stone bridge at Old Panama 279 Interior of ruined Church, Old Panama 288 Portobelo, in 1910 314 Culebra Cut, in 1910 316 Golden figures from the guacas of Chiriqui 320 Group of Indians, basalt stool, and piedra pintada 325 Decorated vase from Indian graves 330 Sir Francis Drake 337 Plan of Portobelo, in 1602 395 Sir Henry Morgan 401 Battle of Old Panama 423 Street in village of Taboga 448 Lacenta, chief of the Dariens, and retinue 459 Caledonia Bay and New Edinburgh 471 Sea-wall of Panama at low tide 480 vni. GLOSSARY Adelantado — He who goes in advance; the leader of an ex- pedition, or governor of a frontier province; sometimes trans- lated as meaning lieutenant-governor. The verb is adelantar, to advance. Alcalde — Justice of the peace ; from the Arabic al cadi, the judge, or governor. Besides the alcaldes ordinarios, there were alcaldes may ores, or district judges. Alguacil mayor — High sheriff. Audiencia — From the Latin, audire, to hear; a court of oyer and terminer ; the highest court of appeal and jurisdiction in the Spanish colonies. The chief judge was known as the presidente ; the other members of the tribunal were called oidores, or hearers. There were eleven Royal Audiences estab- lished in Spanish America. Ayuntamiento — Spanish town-council. Bachiller — Bachelor of law. Cahildo — Corporation of a town; chapter of a cathedral. Casa de Contratacion de las Indias — India House of Trade, established at Sevilla, in 1503, to promote and regulate traffic with Spain's colonies beyond the seas. In time, it became also a court gi judicature. Conquistador — Conqueror. Consejo Supremo de Indias — Supreme Council of the Indies ; a permanent body of learned men finally established at Madrid, in 1524, to deal with affairs relating to the Indies. Contador — Auditor, accountant. Corregidor — Magistrate, mayor, councilman. Corregimiento — Mayoralty, city government. Bncomienda — A charge, or commandery; from encomendar, to recommend, or give in charge; an allotment of Indian vas- sals given in charge to a Spaniard, as a repartimiento became vacant. The custom was of ancient usage by the four military ix. GLOSSARY orders of Spain in the vassalage of the Moors, and other infi- dels. An encomendero was a Spaniard who held an enco- mienda. Bscribano publico — Notary public. Bscudcro — Shield-bearer, squire. Factor — Agent. Gobernador — Governor. Grumetes — Ships' apprentices, or cabin-boys. Hidalgo — From hijodalgo, son of something ; nobleman. Licenciado — Licentiate in law, a degree higher than bachiller. Regidor — Alderman, prefect. Regimiento — Administration, municipality. Repartimiento — A distribution ; repartir, to distribute. First division of the Indians in serfdom to the Spanish conquerors, after the failure of the per capita tax system instituted by Columbus on Hispaniola. The term repartimiento was later applied to the allotment of lands, the Indians residing thereon being given in encomienda. Residencia — The examination and accounting taken of an executive or judicial officer while in residence within his juris- diction. This was always done at the expiration of the term of office of a Spanish governor, judge, or other high official; but could be ordered at any time. The inquiry was conducted by a jues de residencia, judge of residence, appointed by the King, or in the New World by the Council of the Indies, or by a Viceroy. The residencia was intended to encourage good officials and to check mal-administration in office, but the system had its defects and evils. Said Solorzano, in his Politica Indiana, "the Prince will not cure his commonwealth with this medicine, if the medicine brings with it greater evils than those which it is intended to remedy." The residencia was sometimes called a visita, or visit. Veedor — Inspector, overseer. ! FOREWORD The finding of America zvas the greatest event in history; tJiie cruel conquest and almost complete annihilation of its people t$ie greatest wrong known to mankind. Human intercommuni- cation and interrelation were never affected so powerfully as zphen Columbus, suddenly and within a few years, enlarged the known world by the addition of a new continent and another great ocean, together comprising about two-fifths of the surface -'l»*^'.'.*'' *' *' »' * ."' ■ ' From Jeffreys, West Indies, 1762. MOUTH OF THE CHAGRES RIVER AND CASTLE OF SAN LORENZO. M „a rrurbi.iii of C H A C R E . THB ISTHMUS high, hardships plentiful, and the dreaded "Chagres Fever" was lurking in every pool. A few miles east of the Chagres is Punta Brujas, or Witches' Point; and a couple of miles further is the lighthouse on Toro Point, marking the entrance to Limon Bay, on which are Colon, Cristobal, and the Atlantic terminus of the Panama Canal. The United States is now constructing a breakwater to protect the port and canal entrance from northers. When the Isthmus was a colony of Spain, Limon Bay was known as the port of Naos (Ships), and later as Navy Bay. In 1849 the newly organized Panama Railroad Company selected Man- zanillo Island, in Limon Bay, as the beginning point of their road. A town soen sprang up, which was called Aspinwall by the Americans. The part of the town about the railroad offices was known as Washington. When the French started the con- struction of the Interoceanic Canal, in 1881, they adopted the official name of the place, Colon, and for a time it was generally written Aspin wall-Colon. In 1890 the Government of Colom- bia, in order to put a stop to this confusion of names, directed the return of all correspondence not superscribed simply Colon. It is thus seen that Colon is a very young town as compared with most other places on the Isthmus. It should be remem- bered that Colon is within the territory of Panama ; while Cristobal, the American settlement in the Canal Zone, is under the jurisdiction of the United States. When the French had the canal they called Cristobal, Cristophe. From the sea' can be viewed the entrance of the canal, the quarters of the Americans under the cocoanut palms in Cris- * The following graphic description is from the pen of a former United States Minister to Colombia, and a gentleman thoroughly- familiar with the Isthmus : "As we lay at anchor by the wharf, the scorching rays of the sun had already drawn up the mists and vapors of the forenoon into great banks of clouds, which hung heavily on the mountain sides, or floated in broken fragments over intervening swamps and watercourses. It was easy to trace the serpentine course of 'the deadly Chagres' through the mountain fastnesses by the dense volume of white vapor which hovered just above the surface. Very soon these floating masses of steam (for they were little else) began to cohere and darken the sky, and in a few moments the sun was completely obscured. Then came a gust of damp, chilly wind, followed by a blinding flash of lightning and a deafening roar. The next moment the whole vapory mass came down in perfect torrents. I had witnessed many midsummer thunderstorms on our Gulf coast, but never before had I seen anything like this. The water seemed to come down not in a community of well-defined rain- drops, but in solid sheets, which soon covered the already wet and smoking earth to the depth of many inches. OLD PANAMA tobal, the stations of the Panama Railroad, steamship docks, Christ Church, the I. C. C. Hospital, and masts of the wireless station. The Panama Railroad, now the property of the United States, is not standard gauge, but five feet; and there is a story current on the Isthmus that the foundation of Cristobal Point was made largely with standard-gauge locomotives erro- neously ordered by the French management. I look upon the construction of the Panama Railroad, in 1850, by a few indi- viduals, as being as great, if not greater, an undertaking as the building of the canal by the United States at the present time. This was the first transcontinental railroad in the world, and from its completion, January 27, 1855, until the last spike was driven in the Pacific Railway, May 10, 1869, it remained the only rapid transit across the Western hemisphere. The Panama Railroad, between Gatun and Miraflores, is now being relocated above the level of the 85-foot contour, which will be the elevation of the completed Gatun Lake. In front of the Washington House, in Colon, facing the sea, is a triangular monument erected, in 1867, to the memory of William H. Aspinwall, John L. Stephens, and Henry Chauncey, founders of the road. Stephens gave his life to the toll of the Isthmus, as did Lieutenant Strain, Hosier, and many other "This downpour continued without cessation for about an hour, and then ceased altogether, quite as suddenly as it had begun. The sun now shone out with such dazzling brightness and power as to almost benumb the senses. The heat was intense beyond description. Very soon the hot, murky vapors began to rise in dense and sickening folds from the fever-laden earth. The lagoons and watercourses smoked like so many cauldrons. The perspiration streamed from every pore of the body. Bathe and shift your clothing never so often, yoxy were always wet and clammy. A strange feeling of suffocation came over you as you attempted to inhale the wet, poisonous atmosphere ; and one was made to think of the 'Carboniferous period,' when the earth was yet too new and crude and too densely enveloped in rank and noxious vapors to be a fit habitation for man — the era when birds were yet slimy reptiles, and the remote ancestors of the human race were with- out treetops in which to gambol. "This interval of roasting, or rather boiling, was of short duration, for very soon there was another sudden and ominous darkening of the sun, another chilly gust of wind, another blinding flash of lightning, followed by another downpour of the floods. And thus the long sum- mer day was made up of regular alternations of drenchings and roast- ings, with an ever-varying temperature ranging between the seventies and nineties, resulting in the usual complement of liver and stomach disorders, the end of which usually was violent and often fatal ague and fever." — "The Colombian and Venezuelan Republics," p. 5. By William L,. Scruggs. ten o 2 -a o « O - Z C l-H o ffi §■ GO < -a ^ tJ < I o 5 Photo by Maduro, Panama. BRONZE STATUE OF COLUMBUS ON CRISTOBAL POINT. THB ISTHMUS noble men from Nicuesa, Balboa, and Francis Drake, down to the present time. On Cristobal Point, in front of De Lesseps's old palace, is a bronze statue presented to the Isthmian people by the Empress Eugenie. It represents Christopher Columbus, in heroic size, clasping an Indian maiden, emblematic of America, about the waist, to whom he is pointing out the grandeur of European civilization. The beautiful red maiden shrinks from the embrace of the white man, and is loath to view the wonders unfolded to her timid gaze. Her whole attitude is prophetic of the extermination of her race by so-called civilized people. This beautiful piece of art reached Aspinwall in 1868, long before the advent of Ferdinand de Lesseps and the French Canal Company. Colon has experienced about a dozen fires," the ultimate effects of which have been beneficial. The population of Colon, with Cristobal, is now over 15,000. Two miles back of Colon is seen the cemetery of Mt. Hope, commonly known as Monkey Hill, the involuntary sepulchre of so many luckless souls. Racial strife continues even in the jungles of Panama, and we find Gentile, Jew, and Chinaman occupying separate lots in this famous burial ground. Every evening the railroad runs a funeral train from Colon to the cemeteries. About eighteen miles northeast from Colon is the old fortified town of Portobelo. This place was first visited by Columbus in 1502, and, on account of the beauty and security of the harbor, he named it Puerto Bello, or Belpuerto. In for- mer times it was a populous and busy port, being the Atlantic terminus for most of the travel and commerce across the Isthmus. ** March 30, 1885, Colon was entirely consumed,, with the exception of the buildings of the Panama Railroad, the French Canal Company, and the Pacific Mail Steamship Line. The loss was estimated at $6,000,000, and 10,000 persons were left shelterless. This fire was started by Pedro Prestan and a horde of dark-skinned insurgents, at the outset of a so-called "revolution." Prestan was a mulatto from Cartagena, and formerly was a member of the Assembly from Colon. He arrested Mr. Wright, the American consul; Captain Dow, general agent of the steamship company; the local agent, Mr. Conner; and lyieutenant Judd and Midshipman Richardson of the U. S. S. Galena, then in port. During the night Captain Kane of the warship landed a force, and the next day Colombian troops came over from Panama. Prestan and his gang were routed, but not before setting fire to the town. Prestan was afterwards captured, brought to Colon, and hanged, on the i8th of August, with several of his companions, the noose being adjusted by Captain Rountree, a notorious character in the old days. eleven OLD PANAMA To defend his bullion and galleons from the attacks of the pirates and buccaneers, Philip II. of Spain constructed at Puerto Bello four forts, or Castillos, called San Felipe, Santiago, San Jeronimo, and San Cristobal. San Felipe defended the entrance of the harbor, and was famous for being constructed in a superior manner/" In spite of these defenses, Portobelo suffered half a dozen invasions at the hands of the buccaneers, or of the English Navy. Francis Drake, in 1596, was the first to capture the town ; William Parker, in 1602 ; Henry Morgan, in 1669 ; Coxon and La Sound, in 1679; and Edward Vernon, in 1739. English- men seldom mention the capture of the place, in 1819, by the filibuster. Sir Gregor MacGregor, from which he was igno- miniously driven three weeks later by the Spaniards, under Governor Hore. A number of the English officers were shot at Cana, and the rest put in the chain gang. The body of Sir Francis Drake was placed in a leaden coffin and buried in the Caribbean Sea, a short distance off Portobelo, in 1596. A point of land, a little island, and a small port in the neighbor- hood, are called after him. In the palmy days of Portobelo the city held an annual fair, lasting sixty days, to which resorted merchants from all over the world. In modern times the popu- lation has dwindled away, and now it serves only as a place to procure stone for making concrete with which to build the locks for the American canal. Rock drills and dynamite now bom- bard the rocky north shore of Portobelo, and famous old San Felipe, the Iron Fort, has made its final surrender to the ruthless demands of utility and progress. The walls of their brag fort demolished and made into concrete! Surely, Felipe Segundo and Juan Antonelli must have turned in their graves ! Upon the approach of a violent storm shipping from Colon often seeks the better harbor at Portobelo. A few miles east and north of Portobelo is Punta de Man- zanillo, the northernmost land of Panama; and nearby is Isla Grande, on which is a lighthouse, showing alternate white and red light. Its exact position is 9° 39' north latitude, and_79° 35' west longitude. Several miles from this light, in the direction of Portobelo, is a little port called Bastimento, which should not be confounded with the anchorage of Bastimentos, off Nombre de Dios, much frequented by the early navigators. East of Point Manzanillo is the exposed bay of San Cristobal, ^" San Felipe, todo de hierro; called the Iron Fort by the British. "Notwithftanding all the pains taken to fortify it, there are few places which have fallen oftener into the hands of an enemy than Porto Velo." twelve THE ISTHMUS upon the shore of which Nicuesa started a settlement in 1510. When the first governor of Castilla del Oro arrived at this place he exclaimed : "Detengdmonos aqui, en nombre de Dios! " ("Let us stop here, in the name of God!") Thus was named in advance the town of Nombre de Dios, which for fifty years remained the Caribbean port for transisthmian commerce, and the beginning of the trail leading to Old Panama, on the South Sea. The harbor was unsheltered, and the site unhealthy, and after Sir Francis Drake, in 1572, showed how easy it was to rob the place, which he called "The Treasure House of the World," the people and business of Nombre de Dios were moved to Puerto Bello, between 1584 and 1597, by command of Philip 11. Nombre de Dios is often identified w4th the Puerto de Bastimentos of the great admiral. The present pueblo of Nombre de Dios, also known locally as Fato, con- sists of about 200 houses and shacks on the shore of the Caribbean Sea, between the Nombre de Dios river, on the west, and the Fato river, on the east. The population, as in other coastal towns about the Caribbean, is mostly negro. Here, as elsewhere, the North Americans have wrought radical changes among time-honored conditions. They show no vene- ration for age, nor respect for the achievements or romance of antiquity. United States engineers are dredging sand at Nombre de Dios for use in making the canal locks in the Gatun dam. Giant machinery is now upturning the soil trod by Nicuesa, Pizarro, Espinosa, Drake, and other famous men. The Americans are introducing, as some believe, a better order of things; and screened houses, water-works, sanitation, and a modern hospital are replacing the old costiimbres del pais. On the night of April 8, 1910, a spark from an I. C. C. loco- motive, used in connection with the sand dredging operations, started a fire in the town, which destroyed seventy-three build- ings. All the burnt houses have been rebuilt by the Commission with material brought from the Canal Zone, in a better manner and upon a more salubrious site, 450 yards from the beach. Deposits of excellent sand underlie the burned area, to which the dredge is now working from the mouth of the river. The port, never a safe haven, has been somewhat filled up since early Spanish times, but the dredging will leave behind it a very good little harbor. Recently, the hull of a ship, centuries old, has been uncovered. One mile east of Nombre de Dios, opposite' the islet called Playa Dama, is a landing, or wharf, from which a little railroad runs back to some manganese mines in the foothills. Three thirteen OLD PANAMA miles eastward along the coast is situated the hamlet of Viento Frio, and ten miles beyond we come to the port and village of Palenque, originally settled by fugitive negro slaves. They were called Simeroons, and frequently joined with the Indians and buccaneers in assailing the Spanish colonists. Ten miles further on is the little port of Bscribanos, visited by Columbus, and named by him "Bl Retrete" (The Closet). A dozen miles to the east of Escribanos you round Point San Blas'^ within which is the Bay of San Bias, or Mandinga Bay, as it is frequently called. Along this coast for fifty miles is a string of little islands and keys, known as the Archipielago de las Mulatas, called by Columbus Islas Barhas, "more numer- ous than the days of the year," according to a local saying. But little accurate information is available concerning this part of the coast, as the country is inhabited by the San Bias Indians, and they have held their country inviolate for cen- turies. These Indians will trade with outsiders, but strangers, whether white or black, are not allowed to remain among them over night. The San Bias are fine seamen, and often travel to Colon in their dugouts. They are occasionally seen with the nose-ring, or plate, described by the early visitors to these parts. When Nicuesa first sailed along this coast he stopped in a small port on the river Pito, in the Indian province of Cueba, and said mass, the first in Castilla del Oro, in honor of which he called the place Misas. The early Spaniards called Cueba the land of confusion, because it had no chief. When the Spaniards first came to Tierra Firme the Caciques Pocorosa, Comagre, Ponca, and Careta held dominion along this coast. The white men's inhumanity soon turned their simple friendship into bitter enmity. Ayora started the settle- ment of Santa Cruz on this shore, but Pocorosa drove them out after six months, only five Spaniards escaping to Antigua. After leaving the Mulatas you come to a projection of the mainland called Punta Mosquito, from which the coast dips southeast to the entrance of the Gulf of Uraba. About ten miles from Mosquito Point is the elevated Island of Pines, a favorite rendezvous of the old buccaneers. ^Lionel Wafer states that three leagues west of Point Samballas (San Bias) was Port Scrivan, and that it was there that Captains Coxon, La Sound, and other privateers landed in the year 1678-9 when they went to take Portobel, so as not to be discovered by the Spanish scouts. A little west of Port Scrivan came the river of Conception, off which was La Sound's Key, and Springer's Key, favorite resorts of the buccaneers because they furnished good water upon digging wells, and afforded safe shelter for careening. fourteen THE ISTHMUS Late in the year 15 15, Pedrarias sailed from Antigua, and, somewhere west of the Indian village of Careta, started the first of a line of posts to extend to the South Sea. The place was called Ada, signifying, in the Indian language, "Bones of Men." It has been variously located opposite the Island of Pines, near the present Puerto Carreto, and opposite Isla de Oro. At Ada, in 15 17, Balboa, who discovered the Pacific Ocean, was beheaded by order of the infamous Pedrarias. Nearby is Caledonia Bay"* and Puerto Bscoces. The cape commanding the approach to the bay is still called Punta Escocesa (Scotch Point). Here, in 1698, William Paterson, founder of the bank of England, established a well-planned colony of Scotch people, with the intention to control the trade of the two oceans. The hardy northern colonists disappeared rapidly in this torrid climate, and the Spanish Government forced them to retire. In January, 1854, the United States Darien Expedition, under Lieutenant Strain, started out from Caledonia Bay on its ill-fated journey across the Isthmus. This brings us to Puerto la Miel, which marks the limit of Panama; beyond which, in the territory of Colombia, is Cape Tiburon, and the Gulf of Uraba (or Gulf of Darien), into which empties the Atrato river. In Anachucuna Bay, west of Cape Tiburon, is a little anchor- age, called Puerto Escondido. There were other escondidos, or hidden ports, mentioned by the older writers, one of which is located on the western shore of the Gulf of Uraba. At the time of the Discovery, this entire region, the Indians inhabiting the same, and their chief town, were all called Darien. The principal cacique was named Cemaco. " Geographically and historically, Caledonia Bay is one of the most important spots on the Isthmus. The mouth of the bay is between Punta Escocesa, on the east, and Isla de Oro (called also Santa Cata- lina), four miles to the northwest. Caledonia Bay is almost tideless. Within the shelter of the peninsula forming Scotch Point is Puerto Escoces (Scots Harbor). Between Isla de Oro (Golden Island) and Punta San Fulgencio, on the mainland, is the entrance to the anchorage of Caledonia or Sasardi, a stretch of water about seven miles long, protected by Golden, Sasardi, and other islands. On the northwest this channel is limited by the prominent headland called Sasardi Point. It is sometimes stated that Caledonia Bay is the old Puerto Carreto, usually placed three leagues to the eastward. Most likely the old settle- ment of Ada (Agla) was on the Rio Aglaseniqua, which empties oppo- site Golden Island. West and north of Sasardi Point is the Island of Pines, covered with trees, and on it a rivulet of fresh water. West- ward for three leagues come rocky keys, and then a little sandy bay, called by the privateers 'Tickle Me Quickly Harbour." fifteen OLD PANAMA On the left bank of the Atrato, about a league and a half from its mouth, is where the shipwrecked Bachiller Encisco and his companions landed, captured Cemaco's village, and there started, early in 15 lo, the first permanent settlement of white men on the continent of the New World. This honor is sometimes claimed for Nombre de Dios, the exact dates of the two settlements being unknown." In homage to the celebrated image, Nuestra Senora de la Antigua, in Seville, they called the place Santa Maria de la Antigua del Darien, an appellation which it could not long survive. With Encisco were Balboa and Pizarro, both destined to win fame in the new continent. Antigua was settled after the failure of Ojeda's colony at San Sebastian, on the east shore of the Gulf of Uraba. Antigua, being west of the mid-line of the gulf, was in Castilla del Oro, and thus subject only to Nicuesa, a point which Balboa made when he deposed Encisco. From Antigua went Balboa to discover the South Sea, and from here he departed in search of the fabled temple of gold, called Dabaibe, somewhere up the great river of Darien, now known as the Atrato. He found no golden temple, but did encounter a tribe of Indians, whose chief was Abibeiba, making their homes in the treetops. The Darien section of the Isthmus, like much of Yeragua, is less known today than it was four hundred years ago. Cabo Tiburon is the western headland of the Gulf of Uraba (Darien), and it is claimed that about this point Columbus, on his last voyage, on account of the rottenness of his ships, gave up his vain quest for the strait which was to bear him to the splendors of the court of Kubla Khan. The boundary between Colombia and Panama begins at Port Miel, before mentioned, passes up the Rio la Miel, and then follows the serrania, or mountain chain, of Darien to the Altos of Aspave, between Points Ardita and Cocalito, on the Pacific. From here the coast line of the Isthmus runs northwest, passing Punta Pifias and Punta Caracoles, till it reaches Point Garachine, at the entrance of the Gulf of San Miguel, into which empties the large Tuira river. On the left bank of this river, in colonial days, was Santa Maria, or Villa Maria, the " I believe Antigua was the first to be settled. The location of this town has never been determined with certitude. Antigua was on a river emptying on the west side of the Gulf of Uraba, and the settlement was a league from the entrance to the river. Some believe this river was the one now called the Tanela, or Tarena. THU ISTHMUS depository for the gold from the rich mines of Cana" (Santa Cms de Cana). For vessels of light draft the Tuira is navi- gable for one hundred miles. When the buccaneers first extended their depredations on the land from the North Sea, they followed the San Miguel route, and Santa Maria fell a frequent prey to their spoliation. For this reason the mines were closed by royal decree in 1685. It was from the mountain top of Pirre that Vasco Nuiiez de Balboa first saw the Pacific Ocean (Mar del Sur), on the 25th day of September, 15 13. On the 29th of the same month, St. Michael's day, he waded into the Gulf of San Miguel, and took formal possession of the sea, and all the lands and islands bor- dering upon that sea, from pole to pole, for his sovereign of Castile and Leon, till the day of judgment. From a like summit further west Drake first viewed the South Sea, and prayed that God might some day permit him to sail an English ship on that sea. His prayer was granted, for Sir Francis Drake was the second navigator to go around the world, and his vessel, the Golden Hind, the first ship to completely circumnavigate the earth. With Drake at that time was John Oxenham, with the same longing filling his breast. He beat his commander to the South Sea, and was the first Englishman to launch a ship on the Pacific. Oxenham was captured shortly afterwards by the Spaniards, and executed as a pirate in Lima, as related in another chapter. The south coast of Panama makes a big bend towards the north, forming the large Gulf of Panama, which is 2° of longi- tude wide, and nearly 2° of latitude deep. About the center of the gulf is the Archipielago de las Perlas, or Pearl Islands, composed of thirty-nine islands and many more keys and rocks. The largest island of the group is now called Isla del Rey, San Miguel, or Columbia ; but was named Isla Rica by Balboa, who was the first white man to view these islands. Terarequi was the Indian name for this island. Along the coast towards Panama, guarding the mouth of the Chepo, is the little island of Chepillo. On the Rio Mamoni, a branch of the Chepo, is the town of Chepo, named after the " "The richest gold mines ever yet found in America," writes Dam- pier, in 1684. The place is situated in the Espiritu Santo mountains, and was founded by Captain Meneses, with the name of Santa Cruz, during the reign of Pedrarias Davila. At one time the mines attracted a population of 20,000 souls. The raids of the buccaneers, followed by the Indian insurrection of 1724, caused the Spaniards to abandon the settlement. An English outfit, countrymen of the old buccaneers, is now exploiting these old mines. I seventeen OLD PANAMA cacique of that name. The place was invaded four times by the buccaneers, the first attack being in 1675, by a party of 120 men, led by Captain La Sanda (La Sound). At the top of the gulf is situated the present city of Panama, founded in 1674 by Don Alonso Mercado de Villacorta, three years after the destruction of Old Panama. Unlike the old city, the new town was protected by strong seawalls," mounted with bronze cannon. Besides these, there were four bastions on the land side, called La Merced, Jesus, San Jose, and San Carlos. Later, another fortification was constructed, named Mano de Tigre. The new city was better situated than Old Panama and grew rapidly. It was regularly laid out about a central plaza, after plans drawn by the Council of the Indies for the founding of cities. The cathedral, the governor's house, and bishop's palace faced upon the plaza, and there was the usual proportion of churches and convents throughout the city. The masonry of the old Spanish-American churches always excites our admiration. These structures were erected by the sweat and blood of toiling Indians; temples to the creed of another people constituting their own monuments. The flat arch of the ruined church of Santo Domingo is one of the wonders of architecture, continuing to stand in defiance of the laws of gravity and the trembling of earthquakes. The oldest church still in use is San Felipe Neri, built in 1688. One of the finest ruins is that of the Jesuits' college. The cathedral, with its two high towers, was erected in 1760. The palace of the President, foreign legations, municipal offices, and leading business houses are all within a short distance of Central Park {Plaza de la Catedral). Until recently the Canal Headquar- ters, formerly the Grand Hotel, faced upon this plaza. The buildings, mostly of two stories, are constructed mainly of mamposteria, a kind of concrete. Modern Panama possesses public schools, a good market, the Chiriqui barracks, Santo Tomas hospital, and cemeteries for every race and creed. The university was established in 1751. It was in the old Cabildo, still fronting the plaza, that the Junta declared the Isthmus independent" of the Spanish Gov- "The fortifications cost so much money that the King of Spain, gazing out his palace window, inquired of his ministers if the walls of Panama were not visible. "At the instigation of Simon Bolivar, El Libertador, a call was sent out, in 1822, for a junta of Americanists to meet at Panama, with the object of opposing the machinations of the so-called "Holy Alliance" towards the resubjugation of Spain's revolted colonies in America. In addition to the Spanish republics, the United States, England, and eighteen THE ISTHMUS ernment, on November 28, 1821." At that time a great many- people of the Isthmus wished to establish an independent republic, instead of joining with Colombia, but the fruition of their desires did not occur until November 3, 1903. Until the latter occurrence, the 28th of the same month remained a great fiesta on the Isthmus. Under the Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty, formulated November 18, 1903, the United States secured from Panama sovereign rights in the Canal Zone — a transisthmian strip of land extend- ing for five miles on each side of the projected canal — a monop- oly of transit from sea to sea, the control of sanitation in the cities of Panama and Colon, power to erect defenses for the canal, and authority to condemn and use property necessary for the construction and maintenance of the canal. The United States guarantees the independence of the Republic of Panama, and declares the ports at either end of the canal to be forever free. Both governments soon ratified this treaty, and on February 26, 1904, the ratifications were exchanged at Wash- ington. The present city of Panama, capital of the republic, is situ- ated at the foot of Ancon Mountain, on a rocky peninsula of land jutting out into the bay. Its population at this time is 35,000. The Americans have introduced sewerage, water-works, and paved streets. Fumigation and screening against mosquitoes are required, and it is a crime to breed these pests on one's premises. The general sanitary supervision of Panama is better than that of Philadelphia or Chicago. Joining Panama is the American colony of Ancon, and extending up the sides of Ancon Hill are the numerous pavilions of Ancon Hospital, in which are treated most of the sick of the Canal Commission. In former times the present city has witnessed carnivals of Holland were invited to send delegates. Those from the United States took no active part in the deliberations. R. G. Anderson, then our minister at Bogota, died in Cartagena, on his way to attend the junta. The congress met at Panama June 22, 1826. Before that time, Decem- ber 2, 1823, President Monroe, in his message to the United States Congress, promulgated the American doctrine of Noli-Me-Tangere — a warning to European powers not to meddle in the affairs of the Western hemisphere. " Colonel Jose de Fabrega, an istmeiio by birth, became Governor of Panama, with the title of Jefe Superior del Istmo. The new govern- ment forbade the importation of African slaves. Negro children born after June 21, 1821, were free. Slaves were allowed to purchase their freedom ; and those remaining in bondage in 1850 were redeemed by the government and given their liberty. ; nineteen OLD PANAMA crime, like the massacre" of the passengers of the steamship Illinois, on the evening of April 15, 1856, over which it were well to draw the veil of oblivion. Five miles east of the modern Panama is the site of the famous city of Old Panama, called the "Gold Cup," on account of the riches it contained. Captains Diego de Albites and Antonio Tello de Guzman, while raiding the south shore of the Isthmus late in 15 15, arrived at a fishing hamlet, called Panama. The name in the aboriginal tongue means "A place where many fish are taken." In 1517, Caspar de Espinosa, the alcalde mayor, established at Panama the southern terminus of the line of stations to extend across the Isthmus. On August 15, 15 19, Pedrarias, the governor, formally founded the city of Old Panama. The same year Nombre de Dios, which had been abandoned, was reoccupied by Albites, and a permanent road, or trail, was made from sea to sea, between the two settlements. Pedrarias moved his household over to Panama, leaving the veedor, Oviedo — afterwards the historian of the Indies — in command at Antigua. Probably in 1521, Bishop Peraza, the successor of Quevedo, moved his Episcopal chair from Antigua to the new city. By royal decree dated at Burgos, September 15, 1521, the Emperor Charles V. created Panama a city with the title of "Nueva Ciudad de Panama." He gave it a coat-of-arms, con- sisting of a shield bordered with castles and lions, surmounted by a crown. On the shield a golden field divided ; on the right "The Panamenos call this unfortunate encounter, The Question of the Slice of Watermelon {"La Cuestion de la Tajada de Sandia"). It was really a race riot, the local blacks and negroids assaulting the white passengers who had just come over from Aspinwall and were waiting to board a steamer for California. Jack Oliver, a drunken passenger, disputed the price of a piece of melon in a shop in La Cienaga. Oliver called the frutero bad names in worse Spanish, and the native loungers took sides with their countr3mian. Crying "Mueron los hlancos!" the negroes attacked the 250 or 300 white passengers, of both sexes, from the Illinois. The whites sought shelter in the railroad station, near the bay shore, where they were besieged for hours by the negroes. When the soldiers finally arrived they acted in sympathy with the mob, and it was a long time before the fight ended. The United States warship St. Mary, then in Panama Bay, assisted the passengers, and stood ready to bombard the city. Estimates of the killed vary from fifteen to sixty, nearly all being white passengers. For a long period after this bloodshed travelers hurried over the Isthmus without spending their money in Panama. Years of vexatious diplomatic corre- spondence followed ; the matter was referred to a mixed Commission ; and finally settled by New Granada paying the United States $400,000 in gold, as indemnification for the injuries suffered by American citizens. twenty THE ISTHMUS a yoke, the device of the Catholic kings, and a handful of arrows ; on the left two caravels, with the north star above. A decree of December 3, 1581, dated at Lisbon, added the title "Muy Noble y Muy Led" (Very Illustrious and Very Loyal). The regidores, or councilmen, enjoyed the title of veinte- cuatros, and the royal tax was reduced from one-fifth to a tenth. Old Panama {Panama Vie jo) was the first settlement by Euro- peans on the western shore of America. It was here that Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, and Hernando de Luque, in 1525, made their historic contract for the discovery and con- quest of Peru. For many years it was the metropolis of the South Sea, and was the entrepot for the bullion of Peru and the silks and spices of the Orient. From Panama Viejo they were carried across the Isthmus to be loaded on the Spanish galleons at Nombre de Dios or Puerto Bello. Venta de Cruces" and Venta de Chagre (where the road crossed the Chagres river) were halfway stations to the north coast. They used to pack silver and gold over this road like cordwood. It was near Cruces that Francis Drake, privateer, or pirate, as you choose to call him, made his bootless capture of the plate-train on the night of February 14, 1573. Nearly a centiu-y later, in 1671, the buccaneers, under Henry Morgan, ascended the Chagres as far as Cruces, and then proceeded overland to Old Panama. The buccaneers assert they found Cruces in flames, while Spanish writers affirm that the pirates set fire to the town. The population of the city of Panama at this time comprised at least 30,000 souls. Old Panama was not fortified, but it was protected on three sides by the sea and marshes, and on "Called Venta Cruz by the pirates and privateers, and later abbre- viated to Cruces. Situated on the south bank of the Chagres river, surrounded by hills, and at an altitude of 78 meters. This old town is only a few miles east of Bas Obispo Station, on the P. R. R., but is seldom visited nowadays. For three centuries it was a resting-place for travelers, and a general depository for merchandise in transit. Vice- roys and vice-queens, as well as adventurers and cut-throats of all nationalities, have traveled over the old highway leading through Venta de Cruces. The town possessed a fine church, custom-houses, ware- houses, and stables for the King's recuas. At Drake's visit, Cruces con- tained about fifty houses. The present village consists of a like number of shacks, covered with thatch. By the tumble-down chapel, on the hill, built on the ruins of the old church, went the Camino Real, the paving stones of which are still in place; and nearby can be seen a couple of old anchors, half buried in the earth, relics of the early days. The dwellers in modern Cruces are well tinted with black, and look as if they might be descendants of the Cimarrones who infested this region. In colonial times the jurisdiction and incomes from Cruces appertained to the illustrious house of the Urriolas. twenty-one OLD PANAMA the land side was a causeway, in which was a bridge, still in existence, permitting the tidal water to pass under. It is hard to understand why the Spaniards left their natural stronghold to fight Morgan's men in the Savannas. The Spaniards, always excellent horsemen, sallied out in two squadrons to meet the pirates. The houcaniers, or cattle hunters of Tortuga, had been placed in front, and, being excellent marksmen, rapidly depleted the Spanish horse. The cavalry fell back on the Spanish foot and threw it into confusion. At the same time a herd of wild cattle, which had been collected to drive over the pirates, stampeded in every direction except towards the enemy, and the pirates soon possessed the city. This was the i8th day of January, 1671. Before night the city was in flames, an act generally ascribed, erroneously, I believe, to the commands of Morgan. The buccaneers remained in Panama nearly a month, during which time they visited the islands of the bay and the neighboring country. February 14, 167 1, Morgan departed from Old Panama for the mouth of the Chagres, with 600 prisoners and 175 mules loaded with loot. At the time of its destruction Old Panama contained a magnificent cathedral, and several beautiful churches, and eight convents. There were more than 200 warehouses stocked with foreign goods, 200 residences of European elegance, and 5000 houses of the common sort. Besides, the city possessed a mint, a large hospital, the King's stables, and a market for slaves, conducted by some Genoese. The tower of the old Cathedral of San Geronimo,"^ still standing, four stories in height, is visible from the present city of Panama, and from far out in the bay. The rest of the ruins are hidden with rank tropical growth. A few miles west of modern Panama, on the other side of Ancon and Sosa hills, is La Boca, or Balboa,^ at the mouth of "" In this I agree with Markham. Robinson gives the French designa- tion, St. Jerome. Both Nelson and Masefield call the, tower St. Anas- tasius. The first cathedral, destroyed by fire, was named Santa Maria La Antigua del Darien, after the first church in Antigua. Governor Guzman, describing the fall of the city, writes of the Cathedral of St. Francis. A recent writer calls it St. Augustin. ^At the suggestion of the Minister from Peru (the nation most benefited by Balboa's discovery), the United States authorities at Panama, on April 30, 1909, changed the name of the Pacific end of the Isthmian Canal from the simple La Boca (The Mouth) to Balboa, to commemorate the discoverer of the South Sea; just as Cristobal Colon, at the Atlantic entrance to the canal, honors the memory of Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America, and the first Euro- pean to visit Limon Bay and the western half of the Isthmus. ttvcnty-two THB ISTHMUS the Rio Grande river, the Pacific end of the Isthmian Canal. La Boca has extensive piers for docking ocean steamers, shops, and quarters for American employees. In front of Panama and Balboa, several miles from the shore, are the islands of Naos, Flamenco, Perico, and Culebra, which give protection to the shipping in the bay. The tide"^ frequently rises to a height of twenty feet. At low water small vessels rest on the sands beneath the city walls, and are unloaded into carts. Farther out are the islands of Taboga, Taboguilla, and others.'^ It was from the little port of Taboga that Pizarro's expedition sailed for Peru. The Canal Com- mission now maintains a convalescent sanitarium on Taboga. Turtles and whales were formerly seen in the vicinity of the island. The Bay of Panama has been the scene of exploits unsur- passed in the legends of Greece, and needing only a Homer tO" make them appear heroic. The success of Morgan induced the buccaneers to make other expeditions over the Isthmus, and into the South Sea. The next large party, consisting of 331 men, mostly English, under Captains Coxon, Sawkins, Sharp, and others, left Golden Island on the 5th day of April, 1680, and were guided across the land by friendly Indians. Disappointed in not finding more booty at Santa Maria, most of them continued down the Gulf of San Miguel into the Bay of Panama. Seizing some small vessels, they had a fierce naval fight before Panama with three Spanish ships, two of which were captured. After committing other depredations, they dispersed up and down the west coast. ^As the difference between high and low water at Colon is only about eighteen inches, this introduces a conspicuous factor in the con- sideration of a lockless or sea-level canal through the Isthmus.^ The mean levels of both oceans being equal, it follows that when it was low tide in Panama Bay there would he a current from the Colon side; and during high tide at Panama the flow would be towards the Atlantic end of the canal. "El movimiento de las mareas en el puerto de Colon tiene un atraso de nueve horas con respecto al de las de Panama; por consiguiente cuando es pleamar 6 bajamar en Panama, no hay mas que media marea en Colon, y cada dia la diferencia maxima de nivel entre los dos mares es ignal a la media amplitud de la marea del Pacifico, menos el cuarto de la amplitud tolal de la marea del Atlantic©, 6 sea, reduciendolo a cifras, 3. m 20 — 0. m 15=3. m 05." — ^Valdes. ^The islands in the bay were called the gardens of Panama, because they supplied much of the provisions for the city. twenty-three OLD PANAMA Lionel Wafer, surgeon to the buccaneers, describes the two Panamas, as seen from their ships at that time.'* May 28, 1685, Edward Davis, commanding 1000 buccaneers, had an encounter with a Spanish Armada of eighteen vessels off the Pearl Islands. August 22, 1686, Captain Townley, while lying at Taboga, came near being taken by Spanish ships, but won out after a bloody fight. He died of wounds shortly after, but not before he had sent a demand for supplies to the Commandant of Panama (the new city), accompanied by a canoe-load of Spanish heads. As late as 1819, Captain Illingsworth and his party of Chilians landed on Taboga, and sacked and burnt the village. From Panama the land makes a sweep to the south and west to Punta Mala, marking the western headland to the gulf. Parita Bay projects into the west shore, between the provinces of Code and Santos. This was the region ruled by Paris, whose name it commemorates, one of the few Indian chieftains who successfully repulsed the Conquistadores. From the west coast of the Gulf of Panama empty many rivers, which give access to towns of fair size a few miles inland, like Chorrera, Chame, Penonome, Nata, Aguadulce, Los Santos, Parita, and Pese. Near La Chorrera, famous as a " "Between the River of Cheapo and Panama, further Weft, are three Rivers, of no great Confequence, lying open to the Sea. The Land between is low even Land, moft of it dry, and cover'd here and there by the Sea, with fhort Bufhes. Near the moft Wefterly of thefe Old Panama was f eated, once a large City ; but nothing now remains of it, befides Rubbifh, and a few Houfes of poor People. The Spaniards were weary of it, having no good Port or Landing-place ; and had a defign to have left it, before it was burnt by Sir Henry Morgan. But then they no longer deliberated about the Matter; but inftead of rebuilding it, raifed another Town to the Weftward, which is the prefent City of Panama. The River of Old Panama runs between them ; but rather nearer the new Town than the Old ; and into this 3R.iver fmall Barks may enter. The chief Advantage which New Panama hath above the Old, is an excellent Road for fmall ships, as good as a Harbour ; for which it is beholden to the Shelter of the neighbouring Ifles of Perico, which lie before it, three in number, in a Row parallel to the Shore. * * * * "Panama ftands on a level ground, and is furrounded with a high Wall, efpecially towards the Sea. It hath no Fort befides the Town- Walls; upon which the Sea beats fo ftrongly, fometimes, as to throw down a part of them. It makes a very beautiful Profpect off at Sea, the Churches and chief Houfes appearing above the reft. The Building appears white ; efpecially the Walls, which are of Stone, and the Cov- ering of the Houfes red, fo probably they are Pan-tile, which is much used by the Spaniards all over the West-Indies," tzvcnty-four THB ISTHMUS health resort, is a beautiful little waterfall in the Rio Caimito. Chame, a name of Indian origin, abounds in maize and fruits, which are marketed in Panama. Penonome is another town named after an aboriginal chief- tain. Natd is one of the oldest European settlements on the Isthmus, being established on the site of an Indian village, whose chief was Nata, taken by Caspar de Espinosa in 15 17. Destroyed by the natives in 1529, Governor Pedrarias re- established it under the name of Santiago de los Caballeros "' (St. James, City of the Centlemen), but the primitive designa- tion has survived. The old church at Nata is a fine example of the style in vogue at that period. Aguadulce was formerly known as Trinidad. It is a ship- ping point for salt and cattle, and also for the coffee raised about Santa Fe. Los Santos, called Villa in colonial days, was the first place on the Isthmus, in 1821, to declare for independence; since which it has been known as the Heroic City. It was settled by people from Nata, on the site of an Indian village ruled by Gua- zan. La Villa de Los Santos became, in 185 1, the capital of the short-lived province of Azuero. Parita is situate upon the river and gulf of the same name. The district is noted for stock-raising and agriculture. Pese has grown from an aboriginal settlement of the same name to a place of culture and refinement. From Punta Mala the coast trends west again as far as Punta Mariato, where the land turns directly north, making the beautiful gulf or bay of Montijo, which gives entrance to Puerto Mutis, Sona, and Santiago.'' The mouth of the bay is protected by the Island of Cebaco, probably the island first visited, in 1516, by Hurtado, to whom Cacique Cebaco gave a golden armor, valued at 1000 castellanos. Farther west, and twenty-five kilometers from the coast, is Coiha, the largest island in Panaman waters. It was formerly called Quibo,"' and was much frequented by the buccaneers when they operated in the South Sea, ^^ According to Ulloa, "St. Jago de Nata de los Cavalleros" was dis- covered by Captain Alonso Perez de la Rua, in 1515, when Nata was prince of this district. "" Santiago was the capital of the old province of Veragua. In 1862 Governor Guardia, when driven out by the black "liberals," removed his government from Panama to Santiago. He was killed shortly afterwards, and Santiago was plundered. '"When Lord Anson made his celebrated circumnavigation of the world, he stopped at Quibo, on the 3d of December, 1741. He found there tigers, deer, plenty of birds, hawk's-bill and green turtles, sharks, twenty-five OLD PANAMA From here the coast line extends westward to Punta Burica, the entrance to Golfo Dulce. Near the coast are the towns of Remedios, San Felix, San Lorenzo, David, and Alanje.^ Remedios," which is also called Pueblo Nuevo, was one of the first Spanish settlements in the western part of the Isthmus. Some of the old mines about Remedios are still being worked. It was here that Captain Richard Sawkins was killed, and the buccaneers repulsed, in 1680. San Felix was originally called Las Lajas, from the lava beds in the vicinity. Near the town are some thermal springs. San Lorenzo is noted for the salubrity of its climate and the good quality of the tobacco raised in the neighborhood. A group of islands marks the entrance to Pedregal, the port of the city of David. Vessels drawing ten feet can go in the river and tie up to the bank, or at the new pier at Pedregal. David is the capital of Chiriqui province, and contains about 9000 souls. It is situated on an extensive llano, or plain, three miles from the landing, and is one of the most delightful and interesting of Spanish-American towns. The Panamanian; Government is now surveying a route for a railroad between David and Panama, which will pass through many of the towns just mentioned. The line, 275 miles in length, differs somewhat from the Pan-American survey of fifteen years ago, and will cross the canal at Empire, C. Z. The most prominent feature of this province is the Volcano of Chiriqui, rising to a height of 10,265 feet. It was formerly called Bl Volcan de Baru, and has been inactive for many years. "El Volcan" is about twenty-five miles from either coast, and plainly visible from both oceans. In the mountains, behind the volcano, is the pretty little valley of Boquete, famous for the excellence of its coffee, and the healthfulness of its climate. and a waterfall 150 feet high. In 1794, Captain Collnett visited the island, and was bitten by the dreaded hooded snake, from which he nearly died. ^ Travelers who see only the Canal Zone, and the cities of Panama, Colon, and Bocas del Toro, should not infer that nearly all Pana- manians are negroes or black mixtures. Most of the inhabitants of the smaller towns are Spanish, or mestizos (Spanish and Indian), generally called Cholos. When I was last in David, there was but one negro in the place; and if the Chiriquenos are wise, they will keep Africans out of their province. All over the warm regions of America the imported African has become a voracious parasite, like the giant tree-killing vine known as the matapalo, destroying and replacing the white man and the Indian. "'" Ulloa calls the place "Nuestra Senora de los Remedios de Puehlo- Nuevo." In 1685, Pueblo Nuevo was taken and sacked by Francois Grogniet and his French fiibustiers. twenty-six 1 rom Hat pel s lilagasine, Jan., 1859. SURVEYING FOR THE PANAMA RAILROAD. THB ISTHMUS In many places in Chiriqui are found the old Indian graves, or guacas, which contain beautiful pottery and golden orna- ments. The principal guacales are near Bugaba and Bugabita, about fifteen miles west of David. Southwest of the latter place is Alanje, in early times the capital of Chiriqui. It is on the Rio Chico, and the town is better known locally as Pueblo Rio Chico. On the authority of Ulloa, the name Alanje is a contraction of Santiago al Angel, a town founded by Benito Hurtado in 152 1. At one time it was called Chiriqui, and was the last settlement towards the confines of Nicaragua. Most maps give Punta Burica as the beginning of the bound- ary between Panama and Costa Rica. The old line between Colombia and Costa Rica, as determined by the President of France, September 11, 1900, was unsatisfactory. The new Republic of Panama, and Costa Rica, on March 6, 1905, came to an agreement on a new line, which gives Panama title to a large strip of land bordering on Golfo Dulce, while Costa Rica acquires a corresponding addition to her territory on the Atlantic side. January 25, 1907, both governments ratified this treaty, and the boundary between them now runs as follows:'" Beginning in the Rio Golfito, in the Gulf of Dulce, the line passes along the divide between the rivers Chiriqui Viejo and Coto de Terr aba, over the summit of the Santa Clara Mount- ains, through a point called "Cerro Pando" to the Rio Sixola, and thence to Punta Mona on the Caribbean. This is the point from which we started on our circuit of the Isthmus." ™ This year, 1910, the boundary line between Panama and Costa Rica still remains in dispute. (See Note 8, Chapter 17.) " "What is to be the future status of the Isthmus ? A strong govern- ment is doubtless a necessity, and must be provided from abroad. Shall it assume the form of a quasi-independent state, under the protectorate of the chief commercial nations, eliminating Colombia from participa- tion therein, or must the United States, as the power most interested in preserving the independence of the highway, take upon themselves the whole control for the benefit of all nations ? Time will tell." — "History of Central America," vol. 3, p. 558 — H. H. Bancroft, 1887. Of the Chagres river, Ulloa writes, in 1735 : "Efte Rio, cuyo proprio nombre es de Lagartos, aunque ahora cono- cida mas bien por el de Chagre, tiene fu origen en aquellas Cordilleras, no lexos de Cruces. Fue defcubierta el ano de 1510. por Lope de Olano fu defembocadura en el Mar del Norte, que es a los 9. Grados, 18. Minutos, 40 Segundos de Latitud Septentrional, y 295. Grados^ 6 Minutos de Longitud contada defde el Meridiano de Tenerife. Por la parte de Cruces lo defcubrio Diego de Alvitez; pero el primer Bfpanol, que baxo navegando, para reconocerlo hafta fu Boca, fue el Capitan Hernando de la Serna el aiio de 1527. Efta defendida fu twenty-seven OLD PANAMA Entrada con una Fortaleza fabricada en la Cofta del Efte, fobre un Penafco efcarpado a la Mar, con el nombre de San Lorenzo de Chagres: goviernala un Caftellano, a quien acompana un Teniente, nombrados por el Rey, y la guarnecen Soldados de Tropa Reglada, que fe deftacan de Panama." — tamo i, lib. Ill, cap. i, pag. 146. twenty-eight CHAPTER II. COLUMBUS AND HIS DREAM. "A time shall come, tho' it be late. When the proud ocean shall abate Of its vast empire; men descry New isles, new countries where they lie ; Nor shall bleak Thule longer stand To us the last discovered land." Prophecy in the Medea of Seneca. 'HRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, as the world knows him, Cristobal Colon, as he called him- self in Spanish, or Cristoforo Colombo, as he was baptized, was the eldest son of Domenico Colombo and of Susanna Fontanarossa, his wife. His brothers were Bartolome, Giovan (John) Pellegrino, and Giacomo (James), written Diego in Spanish. Giovan Pellegrino died in early manhood; but Bartolome and Diego followed the fortunes of their elder brother in the New World he discovered, Columbus had one sister, named Bianchinetta, who became the wife of Giacomo Bavarello, a cheesemonger. Doubtless her life was placid and happy, as it excited no human interest. Columbus was an Italian, being born in the ancient city of Genoa, some time between the years 1430 and 1456, say about 1446. His father's house in Genoa, in which Christopher was born, has been identified ; and in the Piazza Acquaverde, in front of the railway station, stands an imposing statue to his memory. Possibly of illustrious ancestry and connection, his imme- diate family were humble wool-combers and weavers. The boy Cristoforo helped his father in his trade, and attended a school established by the wool-combers for the education of their children. It is claimed that Columbus studied for a time at Pavia; and that famous Lombard university has erected a monument to commemorate the glory of having had him as a student. While at school he learned the common branches, and some Latin, geography, geometry, and astronomy. twenty-mne COLUMB US AND His schooling could not have been extensive, as when but fourteen years of age, so he tells us, he went to sea, for which he had a natural inclination; and followed a maritime career, on and off, for the remainder of his life. At. this time Columbus was a red-haired, freckled- faced boy, large for his age, and full of energy. For a number of years he probably followed the usual life of a sailor about the Mediterranean, rising rapidly, no doubt, to positions of command. Columbus must be rated as a self-made man ; or, more cor- rectly, a genius. He was a great reader and student of history, cosmography, mathematics, and astronomy. In navigation and seamanship he stood without a peer. He was a fine penman, and, at times, obtained a livelihood as a cartographer. Previous to the entry of Columbus into Spain, about 1485, but little is known of him. Many recorded incidents in his life are of questionable historical accuracy. Fernando Columbus, raised among courtiers, and sensitive of the lowly origin of his father, would have it appear that Columbus was related to the famous admirals or corsairs, the Colombos of Italy, or the Coulons (Casanove) of France. Columbus served under Rene of Anjou in his sea-fights against Naples. Colombo el Meso, said to be a nephew of Columbus, commanded the squadron, and was such a terrible corsair that Moorish mothers hushed their unruly children with the mere mention of his name. In an encounter with four Venetian galleys off the coast of Portugal, the ship commanded by Columbus caught fire, and he saved himself only by swim- ming two leagues to land, with the aid of an oar. This latter event, which did not occur until 1485, is often given as the manner in which he arrived in Portugal. But we know that Columbus came to Lisbon in 1470, to avail himself, according to Bernaldez, of the new facts concerning the west coast of Africa, brought to light by the Portuguese, then the foremost in maritime discovery. His brother Bartholomew was there with him, and together they made and sold charts, maps, nautical instruments, and books. The world at this time, as known to Europeans, was still defined by the geography of Ptolemy and of Marinus of Tyre. The continent of America and the great Pacific Ocean were unheard of. What was not Europe or Africa was Asia, of course. It was supposed that Africa was joined to Asia on the south, and enclosed the Atlantic Ocean, which was depicted on the maps as extending to the eastern shores of Asia. The thiriy HIS DRBAM Mediterranean was well known, and voyages were made along the shores of Europe ; but the hardy mariners hugged the coast and dreaded to lose sight of land. A few degrees out the Strait of Gibraltar marked the limit of the world to the west. To venture far from land was to face the dangers of the unknown, peopled with the demons of ignorance. There were vague stories afloat that, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, somewhere out in the great Sea of Darkness, as the Atlantic was still called, were the large island of Atlantis, as told to Plato by an Egyptian priest; Antillia, or the island of the Seven Cities, founded by the Seven Bishops driven out of Spain and Portugal by the Moors ; and the mirage island of St. Brandon, said to have been visited in the sixth century by St. Brandan, a monk from Ireland. An Englishman named Macham, "who, sailing out of England into Spaine, with a woman that he had stolen," was driven out of his course, and came, it is said, in 1344, upon the island of Madeira. The Isles of the Blest, or Fortunate Islands, probably meant the Canaries. There is little doubt but that Dante's description of the mount of repentance, "Purgatorio," is the Pico di Teneriffa, so far from the center of Tuscany that it was quite easy to place it at the antipodes of the center of the earth from Jerusalem. A few years before the advent of Columbus, Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed the Navigator, and who lived from 1394 to 1460, became convinced, from what he learned from the Moors while in Africa, that great discoveries could be made down the African coast; and from study of the works of the Ancients he came to the belief that Africa was circumnavigable ; and that the produce of India and of the Spice Islands, now coming by caravan, and through the Persian gulf and Red Sea, could be reached and brought to Europe by way of the Sea of Darkness. According to traditions, Hesperus, a King of Spain, had discovered as far as Cape Verde as early as 650 years after the Flood. Phenician sailors sent out by Necho, King of Egypt, and Hanno, the Carthaginian, had sailed from the Mediterranean around Africa to Arabia; and Eudoxus of Cyzicus had circumnavigated in the other direction from the Red Sea to the Pillars of Hercules. It was even related by Strabo that Menelaus, spouse of the fair Helen, had sailed around Africa, after the fall of Troy. Prince Henry, who was half English by his mother Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt, deliberately planned to discover thirty-one COLUMBUS AND new lands for Portugal, with the hope of ultimately rounding the southern extremity of Africa, and reaching China and India by sea. For this purpose this enlightened prince estab- lished a school for the study of navigation and astronomy, in 1418, at Sagres, near Cape St. Vincent, the extreme south- western point of Europe. The farthermost place down the African coast then known was Cape Nam (or Not) ; and it was a grim joke among Mediterranean seamen that "He who sails to Cape Nam will either return or not." The Prince ordered two of his young gentlemen, Varco and Texeira, to sail down the Barbary coast and see what they could find. They bravely passed Cape Nam ; but sixty leagues beyond, where the Jebel-khal, or Black Mountain, juts out from the great Desert of Sahara, they encountered a bold promontory, which they called Bojador. Its aspect was so forbidding, and the sea so turbulent, that they were frightened back; and for a number of years Bojador, meaning the "Outstretcher," defied further exploration to the south. When Gil Eannes, in 1433, rounded the Bojador and lived to return, his efforts were likened to the labors of Hercules. Subsequent ventures discovered Rio de Oro, La Mina, the mouth of the Senegal, Sierra Leone, and the Guinea coast about the equator. The discovery of Porto Santo and the Azores, and the rediscovery of Madeira, followed. In 1445 one of the Prince's vessels reached Cape Verde ; and five years later the Cape Verde Islands, 320 miles west of the Cape, were brought to light. Such was the knowledge of geography and the stage of discovery about the year 1470, when Columbus arrived at Lisbon. No better environment could have been found for completing and perfecting the education of the navigator des- tined to discover the New World. Columbus at this time was in the full maturity of his manhood. He is described by his son Fernando as follows: "The Admiral was a well-made man, of a height above the medium, with a long face, and cheek-bones somewhat promi- nent; neither too fat nor too lean. He had an aquiline nose, light-colored eyes, and a ruddy complexion. In youth he had been fair, and his hair was of a light color, but after he was thirty years old it turned white. In eating and drinking he was an example of sobriety, as well as simple and modest about his person." Columbus had a grave and dignified bear- ing, and took himself and the world seriously on all occasions. thirty-two HIS DRUAM His accepted portrait is as sad and severe as that of Dante, and reminds one of some faces we see among the American Indians. He commanded admiration and respect from his men, but never love nor enthusiasm. In Lisbon, Columbus attended mass at the Church of the Convent of All Saints, where he first saw and met Doiia Felipa Monis niece of Isabel Moiiis de Perestrello, whom he soon married. Columbus lived with his wife's aunt, who was the widow of Bartolommeo Perestrello, a distinguished Italian navigator, who died in 1457, and who had found the islet of Porto banto for Prince Henry, and over which he was appointed governor. She told Columbus of her husband's voyages, and showed his charts and papers. Soon after their marriage, Columbus moved to Porto Santo with his wife, who owned a share in the island. While here their son Diego the heir of Columbus, was born, about 1470. It was not long before they returned to Portugal, where Columbus continued to make maps and charts. According to the records, he visited his father in Genoa, in 1472, and again in 1473 » rendering him monetary assistance. Columbus made occasional voyages, at one time going as far south as Guinea, and again, in 1477, sailing to 100 leagues west of Ihule, supposed to be Iceland, or possibly the Faroes, where he met English merchants from Bristol. .l^'tl ^^^^ Columbus conceived the notion of reaching India and the Spice Islands by sailing to the west, it is impossible to state. As he extended his voyages and heard of lands farther west he probably thought that a little more sailing would bring him to the islands lying off the shores of Asia, described in such glowing terms by Marco Polo in the thirteenth century, and by Sir John Mandeville. He calculated that the Island of Cipango lay near where Cuba and Haiti were afterwards dis- covered and that Mangi (the mainland) was about where he found the Isthmus of Panama. Long study of the ancient cosmographers and philosophers confirmed him in this belief. Aristotle, Seneca, Strabo Plfnv Solinus, and other writers held that the Atlantic extended to the eastern shores of Asia. Pedro de Aliaco (Cardinal Pierre dAilly), and Juhus Capitolinus stated that India could be reached m a few days' sail from Spain. Ptolemy divided the circumference of the globe into twenty- four hours of 15 degrees each, making 360 degrees in all. The map of Marmus of Tyre showed fifteen hours as known to the ancients. The city of Thinae, in Asia, the eastern limit of the thirty-three COLUMB US AND world given by Marinus, had been much extended by the travels of Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville, Rabbi Benjamin ben Jonah of Ludela, and certain wandering friars. Discovery of the Azores, and Cape de Verd Islands by the Portuguese, added another hour, or 15 degrees, on the west; so only eight hours, 120 degrees, or one-third the circumference of the earth, remained to be discovered. Moreover, both Ptolemy and Marinus, supported by Alfer- gany, the celebrated Arabian astronomer, held the circumfer- ence of the earth to be much less than the other cosmographers made it; a view in which Columbus concurred. This opinion found religious support in the Book of Esdras, which affirmed that six-sevenths of the earth was land ; so the sea between the western shores of Europe and the eastern coast of Asia could not be so extensive, after all. Pedro Correa, who had married the sister of Dofia Felipa, told Columbus of picking up pieces of strangely carved wood on Porto Santo, after a period of westerly winds. Trunks of unknown trees and giant reeds were found on the shores of the Azores and other islands, or encountered far out at sea. There is no evidence that Columbus, while on his voyage to the north, learned anything about the discovery of America by the Norsemen, about the end of the tenth century; much less had he ever heard of the nebulous report of the voyage of Madoc, the Welshman. After the death of Columbus, a baseless story was started saying that he had obtained information of the islands he later discovered from a Spanish sea captain named Sanchez, who, driven far out of his course, had lived to return, but only to die in the house of Columbus, at Terceira, one of the Azores. Before breathing his last, it was said, he told Colum- bus of the new lands in the west, and gave him his log-book and charts. Belief in the sphericity of the earth, and in the possibility of sailing round it, did not originate with Columbus, but had been expressed by wise men from Plato, Aristotle, and Hipparchus to Roger Bacon. Columbus was the first man to make the venture, and prove the truth of their reasoning and deduction. It detracts nothing from the honor and credit due Columbus to believe that had he not made the discovery, someone else would have found America in a very short time. "The man who becomes the conspicuous developer of any great world- movement is usually the embodiment of the ripened aspirations of his time." thirty-four ' HIS DRBAM The whole tendency of the times was towards new and further ventures into the Atlantic; and events in the life of Columbus seemed to be preparing him for the undertaking of greater feats than had yet been accomplished. To unusual skill and experience as a mariner, he added an exceptional knowledge of geography, astronomy, and cartography. Stories of new discoveries excited his enthusiasm and strengthened his belief, until he developed religious fervor and delusions ; so that in later years he came to believe that he acted in obedience to Divine commands, and had been selected by Deity to chart the way to India by the west; to carry the Gospel to millions of benighted heathen ; and with the rich spoils of the East to raise and equip an army with which to rescue the Holy Sepulchre from the infidel Turk. The economic necessities of the western world required a westward thrust. The conquest of Constantinople by the Osmanli Turks, in 1453, carried with it the mastery of the overland trade routes from Asia. The sea-power of the inland Mediterranean cities fell as their power to exploit their former subjects had ceased. The pressure of population for new lands, checked by the closing of the East, pushed westwards, so that those states where the Crown had centralized power were in the pathway of utilizing the popular demand for newer lands and peoples. As contributory aids to the discovery of America at this time were the improved use of the mariner's compass, and the recent introduction by John II. of the astrolabe, the forerunner of the quadrant, with which navigators could tell their distance from the equator ; as well as the general revival of learning, fostered by the introduction of printing presses. As early as 1474, Columbus wrote to Dr. Paulo Toscanelli, a famous physician and astronomer of Florence, known to be an authority on cosmography, who sent Columbus a chart of the Atlantic, or Western ocean, and the eastern coasts of India, together with the copy of a letter recently written to the ecclesiastic Martinez on the same subject for the information of Affonso V. The learned doctor's reply is so interesting that it is given in full at end of chapter. It was this chart of Toscanelli, substantiated by his well- thumbed copy of the Imago Mundi by Cardinal D'Ailly (called by Irving the Vade Mecum of Columbus), that formed the sailing directions of Columbus in his discovery of the Western hemisphere. thirty-five COLUMBUS AND The map of Martin Behaim, which depicts the geography of that day, was issued from Niirnberg just after Columbus sailed. It will be observed that both maps estimate fairly well the width of the Atlantic, and roughly outline the islands and eastern coast of Asia; but express not the vaguest suspicion of the continent of America and the great Pacific Ocean (say two-fifths of the circumference of the earth) intervening between the Atlantic Ocean and Asia. It is almost inconceivable that Europeans, up to Columbus and Balboa, knew but one ocean, and remained in total igno- rance of another hemisphere. Had the actual distance between Spain and Cipango and Cathay (Japan and China), 12,000 miles, been known, and supposing no land in between, neither Columbus nor anyone else would have dreamed of sailing there ; nor could the vessels and crews have lived through such a long voyage. As it was, some figured the distance to be 4000 miles ; while many, including Columbus, believed it to be much less. The profound religious nature of Columbus found in Holy Writ confirmation of his faith in a western route to India, and he became convinced that his discovery was foretold by the prophets, and that he was to be the agent in the hands of God for accomplishing the Great Discovery. Columbus thought it was first necessary to receive the approval and financial support of some government or prince to carry out his great undertaking. Tradition says he first offered his discovery to his native State of Genoa ; but either she was too poor, or Columbus too obscure, for Genoa to consider the proposition. Probably he carried his scheme to the Republic of Venice; and with like result. We do know, however, that Columbus applied to John II. of Portugal, who had come to the throne in 1481, and was refused, largely owing to the counsel of his confessor, Ortez de Calzadilla. By the advice of that bishop. King John got possession of the charts of Columbus and secretly sent out a caravel to test his theory ; and it is a pleasure to read that the sailors soon became frightened and hastened back to Portugal, claiming that one might as well expect to find land in the sky as out in the great ocean. Hurt and ofifended at such mean treatment, Columbus departed from Lisbon in 1484, taking his boy Diego with him. Dofia Felipa and the other children were left behind; all of whom probably died within a short time, as they disappear from history. thirty-six HIS DRBAM In 1485 Columbus visited his father, his only surviving parent, and made provision for his welfare and the education of his younger brother, Diego. It is said that he again applied, this time in person, to the republics of Genoa and of Venice to carry out his plan. Fail- ing to receive any encouragement from these sources, Columbus decided to try his fortune in Spain ; "nor is it one of the least interesting circumstances in his eventful life that he had, in a manner, to beg his way from court to court, to offer to princes the discovery of a world." — (Irving.) About the end of the year 1485, Columbus entered Spain, placed young Diego with his aunt Muliar, at Huelva, and set out for the Spanish Court. For seven long years this vain- glorious dreamer followed their Highnesses from place to place, importuning everyone in authority to give him assistance. No doubt he made himself a nuisance to most everybody, and was considered what we now call a crank. Through the influence of Alonso de Quintanilla, controller of the treasury of Castile; Alessandro~'Geraldini, the papal nuncio; and the great Cardinal Mendoza, called by Peter Martyr "the third King of Spain," Columbus was enabled, in i486, to appear before the Court at Cordova; and later was received by Ferdinand at Salamanca. The united kingdoms of Ferdinand and Isabella were expending their utmost endeavors to drive the Moors from Spain, and had but little time or money to devote to such a visionary enterprise. Nevertheless, Talavera, confessor to the Queen, was directed to assemble a council of learned men to consider the subject. They met in the Convent of St. Stephen, at Salamanca, and gave Columbus a hearing. This junta was composed principally of churchmen, and soon found the project contrary to Scripture and the teaching of the Fathers. Concerning the sphericity of the earth and the existence of Antipodes, St. Augustine had written : "It is contrary to the Scriptures, for they teach that all men are descended from Adam, which would be impossible if men lived on the other side of the earth, for they could never have crossed the wide sea." Likewise Lactantius, who had said : "Is there anyone so foolish as to believe that there are Antipodes, with their feet opposite to ours; people who walk with their heels upwards and their heads hanging down — where everything is topsy-turvey ; where the trees_ grow with their branches downwards, and where it rains, hails, and snows upwards ?" thirty-seven COLUMB US AND Accordingly, the junta reported the project "vain and impos- sible, and that it did not belong to the majesty of such great princes to determine anything upon such weak grounds of infor- mation." Indeed, Columbus was considered fortunate in escaping Torquemada and the Inquisition for daring to enter- tain such heretical opinions. A small minority of the junta, among whom was Diego Deza, preceptor to the Infanta, were friendly to Columbus. He remained about the Court and continued his solicitations. Columbus received appropriations from the royal treasury, was entertained by Quintanilla and other eminent persons, and was not in such dire want and misery as often described. His condition was not so mean but that he could successfully prose- cute a suit in another court. Rejected by the Court of Spain, Columbus was yet a victor in the Court of Love. While wait- ing at Cordova, he won the favor of Beatrix Enriquez, a noble lady in reduced circumstances. She was the mother of his second son, Fernando, born in 1488, whom he always con- sidered equally with his legitimate son, Diego ; and who, after the death of Columbus^ became his biographer. In i486 Bartolomeu Dias reached Cape Bona Speranza, which opened up the probability of reaching India by sailing to the east. This epoch in navigation not only stimulated the endeavors of Columbus to reach India by the west, but inclined the Spanish Court, jealous of the many discoveries made by Portugal, to listen more favorably to Columbus, and finally to accede to his high-flown demands. Bartolome Colon, who was with Dias when he found the Cape of Good Hope, returned with him to Portugal, in Decem- ber, 1487. Late the next year Columbus availed himself of the invitation of King John to return to his kingdom, and went to consult with his brother at Lisbon. It was probably at this time that Bartholomew was dispatched to England to enlist the support of Henry VII. In 1489 Columbus is back in Spain prosecuting his appeal to their Highnesses. He entered actively in the war against the Moors, and was present at the siege of Beza, where, says Zuiiiga, he ''took a glorious part, giving proof of the great valor which accompanied his wisdom and profound concep- tions." Almost discouraged, Columbus sought aid from the powerful dukes, Medina-Sidonia, and Medina-Celi. The latter was thirty-eight HIS DRBAM friendly to Columbus, took care of him at his castle, and brought the matter again before Isabella. In 1490 the junta of wise men reported finally that the propo- sition of Columbus was simply impossible. In 1 49 1, completely disheartened, Columbus decides to leave Spain and peddle his notions at some other court. He goes to Huelva, gets Diego, and they set out on foot for the little neigh- boring seaport of Palos. When they arrive at the Franciscan Monastery of Santa Maria de la Rabida, standing then, as now, on the hill by the shore, a couple of miles from Palos, Columbus asks the brother porter for a little bread and water for the tired boy Diego. Former writers give this touching incident as taking place on the entry of Columbus into Spain^ five or six years anterior to this time. Juan Perez de Marchena, the worthy prior of the covenant, happened to notice Columbus, and, observing that he was na ordinary wayfarer, entered into conversation with him. Surely some good angel must have led Columbus to La Rabida, for he had at last found someone who would listen to him, and he told the good father of all his hopes, his weary waitings, and his dis- appointments. Juan Perez was a learned man, and from the observatory on the roof of his convent had studied the heavenly bodies, and looked out over the western sea and conceived of other lands and people across the wide waters. Columbus is invited to remain at the monastery; and that very night Padre Juan sends for Dr. Fernandez Garcia, the village doctor, and other friends in Palos, among them Martin Alonzo Pinzon, the leading navigator and ship-owner of the place. This was the most appreciative and sympathetic audi- ence Columbus ever had; and you can imagine the force and earnestness with which he argued his case. To the learned and erudite ecclesiastics of the cloister the plan of Columbus was visionary and impossible ; but to these men, familiar with the sea and recent discoveries, it appeared both reasonable and probable. As a result of this meeting Juan Perez, formerly confessor to the Queen, successfully interceded with Isabella that Colum- bus be given another hearing, stating, no doubt, the judgment of the sailor folk of Palos. With funds furnished by the Queen, said to have been 1180 dollars, Columbus buys himself a mule and a new suit of clothes, and starts back to Court. He found their Highnesses at the new city of Santa Fe, built before Granada, the last stronghold of the Moslems in Spain. January 2, 1492, Boahdil el Chico, the Moorish King, yielded thirty-nine COLUMBUS AND up the keys of the Alhambra; and the power of the Moors in Spain, enduring for 778 years, fell, never to rise again. The termination of the long-continued wars with the Moors gave the King and Queen time to examine into the plan of Columbus ; and they were about to grant his request, when the matter was again dropped on account of the preposterous rewards demanded by Columbus. He required that he be given the rank and title of Admiral ; to be Governor and Vice- roy over the regions discovered; to receive a tenth of the revenue thereof; and to enjoy the privileges of the aristocracy; all to be hereditary in his family. Fernando de Talavera, now elevated to the new Archbishopric of Granada, takes advantage of these exorbitant demands by a beggarly foreigner, and ridicules his case out of Court. In February, 1492, Columbus mounts his mule, again turns his back on the Spanish Court, and sets out across the Vega, or plain of Granada, intending to go to Cordova or La Rabida, and then apply to the Court of France. In the meantime, his friends, Alonzo de Quintanilla, the Marchioness de Moya, and particularly Luis de Santangel, Treasurer of Arragon, have so worked upon Isabella that she exclaims : "I undertake the enterprise for my own Crown of Castile, and will pledge my jewels to raise the necessary funds." Whether Isabella ever uttered this pretty phrase, and really proffered her jewels, is a mooted question with the historians, as it is claimed they were pledged already for the expenses of the late war. We do know, however, that Isabella was always friendly to Columbus, while Ferdinand was either lukewarm, calculating, or positively opposed to him. As a matter of fact, funds and equipment for the first voyage of Columbus were furnished by the treasury of Arragon, the town of Palos, and the Pinzon brothers. The money from Arragon, amounting to 17,000 florins, was charged to the King- dom of Castile, and was repaid out of the first gold brought from the New World, Ferdinand using it to gild the royal saloon at Saragossa. A royal messenger overtook Columbus, when but two leagues on his journey, at the old stone "Bridge of Pines" (Pifios Puente), still spanning a small stream in the Vega. When informed of the resolve of Isabella, he returns, somewhat reluctantly, to the city. Columbus is given the title of Don; and on April 17, 1492, at Santa Fe, Ferdinand and Isabella signed articles granting all his conditions, Columbus also receives a credential letter, forty HIS DRBAM signed in blank, accrediting him to the Court of the Grand Khan, Prester John, or any other potentate he may encounter. The letter is such a delicious bit of diplomatic affectation that I quote it entire: "Ferdinand and Isabella to King .... "The Spanish Sovereigns have heard that You and Your subjects have great affection for Them and for Spain. They are further aware that You and Your subjects are very desir- ous to hear news from Spain. They accordingly send their Admiral, Ch. Columbus, who will tell You that they are in good health and perfect prosperity. "Granada, April 30th, 1492." The port of Palos was selected as a place to fit out the expe- dition, not for the reason that it was the abode of friends of Columbus, but because that town was under sentence to furnish the Crown on demand the service of two armed caravels, for the space of twelve months. On May 23, 1492, the royal com- mand was read from the Church of St. George in Palos ; but neither vessels nor mariners appeared. Sailors were afraid to make the venture ; and many had to be pressed into service, and criminals taken from the jails. After considerable delay and difficulty, Columbus was able to assemble three vessels, and 120 men, for the voyage. Mar- tin Alonzo Pinzon and Vicente Yaiiez Pinzon, both well-to-do sea captains, saved the day by volunteering for the expedition and furnishing one of the vessels, the Niiia. Probably it was this contribution by the Pinzon brothers which constituted the eighth of the expenses supplied by Columbus, and enabled him to receive an eighth of the revenue, instead of one-tenth, as first agreed. The Pinta was seized from her owners, Rascon and Quintero, who went with the party. Palos provided the Gallego, which Columbus made his flagship and placed under the special protection of the Mother of God, and so renamed the Santa Maria. She was the largest of the three, and the only one completely decked. The Pinta and Nina were open caravels, being undecked in the waist, but having a cabin in the stern and forecastle in the bows. Before sailing, Columbus confessed himself to his good friend Fray Perez, and partook of the Holy Communion : an example which was followed by his officers and men in the presence of the awed and mourning town-people. Young Diego was taken from La Rabida and placed in charge of friends in Moguer, a few miles away, to be prepared to act forty-one COLUMBUS AND as page to the Infante, Prince Juan, to which office Isabella had graciously appointed him. Columbus then goes aboard his little fleet, and prepares to sail into the Sea of Darkness. Letter of Dr. Paulo Toscanelli to Christopher Columbus: "To Christopher Columbus, Paul the Physician wisheth health. I perceive your noble and earnest desire to sail to those parts where the spice is produced; and therefore, in answer to a letter of yours, I send you another letter, which some days since I wrote to a friend of mine, and servant to the King of Portugal, before the wars of Castile, in answer to another he writ to me by his Highnesses order, upon this same account, and I send you another sea chart like that I sent him, which will satisfy your demands. The copy of that letter is this: "'To Fernam Martins, Canon of Lisbon, Paul the Physician wishes health. I am very glad to hear of the familiarity you have with your most serene and magnificent King, and though I have very often discoursed concerning the short way there is from hence to the Indies, where the spice is produced, by sea, which I look upon to be shorter than you take by the coast of Guinea, yet you now tell me that his Highness would have me make out and demonstrate it so as it may be understood and put in practice. Therefore, tho' I could better show it him with a globe in my hand, and make him sensible of the figure of the world, yet I have resolved to render it more easy and intelligible to show this way upon a chart, such as are used in navigation, and therefore I send one to his Majesty, made and drawn with my own hand, wherein is set down the utmost bounds of the west from Iceland, in the north, to the furthest part of Guinea, with all the islands that lie in the way ; opposite to which western coast is described the beginning of the Indies, with the islands and places whither you may go, and how far you may bend from the north pole towards the equinoctial and for how long a time; that is, how many leagues you may sail before you come to those places most fruitful in all sorts of spice, jewels, and precious stones. Do not wonder if I term that country where the spice grows west, that product being generally ascribed to the east, because those who shall sail westward will always find those places in the west, and they that travel by land eastwards will ever find those places in the east. The straight lines that lie lengthways in the chart show the distance there is from west to east, the other cross them show the distance from north to south. I have also marked down in the said chart several places in India where ships might put in upon any storm or contrary winds or any other accident unforeseen. And, moreover, to give you full information of all those places which you are very desirous to know, you must understand that none but traders live or reside in all those islands, and that there is there as great a number of ships and seafaring people with merchandise as in any other part of the world, particularly in a most noble part called Zacton, where there are every year an hundred large ships of pepper loaded and unloaded, besides many other ships that take in other spice. This country is mighty populous, and there are many provinces and kingdoms and innumerable cities under the dominion of a prince called the Great Cham, which name signifies king of kings, who for the most part resides in the province of Cathay. His predecessors were very desirous to forty-two HIS DRHAM have commerce and be in amity with Christians, and 200 years since sent embassadors to the Pope desiring him to send them many learned men and doctors to teach them our faith; but by reason of some obstacles the embassadors met with they returned back without coming to Rome. Besides, there came an embassador to Pope Engenius IV, who told him the great friendship there was between those princes, their people, and Christians. I discoursed with him a long while upon the several matters of the grandeur of their royal structures and of the greatness, length, and breadth of their rivers, and he told me many wonderful thmgs of the multitude of towns and cities founded along the banks of the rivers, and that there were 200 cities upon one only nver with marble bridges over it of a great length and breadth, and adorned with abundance of pillars. This country deserves, as well as any other, to be discovered; and there may not only be great profit made there, and many things of value found, but also gold, silver, all sorts of precious stones, and spices in abundance, which are not brought into our ports. And it is certain that many wise men, philos- ophers, astrologers, and other persons skilled in all arts and very mgenious, govern that mighty province and command their armies. i