The Castle of Gold (Castilla del Oro)

The famed Cathay of Columbus' dreams led that daring, but disappointed navigator to make a fourth and final attempt in the year 1502, to discover a short sea route to the East.  After being buffeted about for days by contrary winds in the Caribbean Sea, his small and leaky boats threatening to go to the bottom at any moment, he at last sighted land in the vicinity of Cape Gracias á Dios, Nicaragua.  Doubling this cape on the 14th of September, in the year above-mentioned, he landed and explored a region to which he gave the name of Cerabora.  Here he ran across numerous specimens of gold ore, and by questioning the Indians, ascertained that the precious metal existed in large quantities in a district to the east of there called Veragua.  He secured numerous ore samples, and obtained a rough description of the mines.

Continuing his voyage, he sailed along the coast of what is now Costa Rica, and Panama, passing on his way the famous Chiriqui Lagoon in the Province of Bocas del Toro, called by the Indians, Aburema, and which quite deceived Columbus for a time into believing that he had discovered the much sought for passage.  While voyaging down the coast he encountered numerous storms which imperiled his boats, and on one occasion forced him to seek shelter at a small island.  Here he found fruits, fish and game in abundance, which led him to give the place the name of Puerto de Bastimento, meaning a place of supplies.

After a few days' rest at this point, Columbus organized a small expedition, and on the 23rd of November left the haven, but was obliged to put in to the coast again three days later owing to a tempest which narrowly came to swamping his ships.  This place he aptly termed Retrete, meaning a place of retreat.  Here he stayed until the 5th of December, when he decided to turn back over his course.  He kept a westerly direction for fifteen days, which brought him on the 7th day of January, 1503, to the mouth of a river called in the Indian tongue Quiebra but to which Columbus gave the name of Belen.   This river today forms the natural boundary line between the Province of Colon, and that of Veraguas.  Towards the interior could be seen a broken mountain range which Columbus named San Cristobal.  Near this spot, a short while later, the Adelantado D. Bartolome Colon, founded the first establishment on Isthmian soil, but it did not endure long, being destroyed by the Indians under a chief named Quibian.

At this point Columbus again changed his plans and sailed back toward the east, stopping at the present site of Porto Belo [Variously spelled Puerto Bello, Portobelo, and Porto Bello], and going as far as the islands in the Mulatto Archipelago, which lie in the Gulf of San Blas.  After some further journeyings back and forth, ever on the look-out for a natural opening in the barrier before him, he decided to return, the bad state of this ships, making such action imperative.

History credits Columbus as having first set foot on the soil of what is now the Republic of Panama, on November 2nd, 1502, somewhere in the vincinity of the Chiriqui Lagoon.   Thus we have two important dates in Isthmian history nearly coincidental as to the day and month; the discovery, and the declaration of independence of the Republic of Panama, Nov. 3rd, 1903.

"In the Name of God"

Accounts of the newly discovered country, and the samples of gold having in due time reached the court of Spain, the fanciful name of Castilla del Oro, or Castle of Gold was conferred upon all that region extending from Cape Gracias á Dios, to the Gulf of Urabá, and in the year 1510, Diego de Nicuesa was sent over from Santo Domingo to govern it.  He took along with him colonists to the number of 700, but during the voyage a tempest arose, wrecked some of his ships, and caused the loss of 400 of his men, while the others were in desperate straits.  In the tempest the ships became separated and some of them reached the coast near the mouth of the Belen River, while others brought up at the mouth of the Chagres River.  After collecting his men, Nicuesa left the Belen River and went to the port of Bastimento, and when he had doubled Manzanillo Point, he shortly landed and said:  "We will remain here in the name of God."   This was the site of the town of Nombre de Dios, called into prominence at the present time chiefly from its having been one of the earliest settlements on the Isthmus, and some of the most unhealthful spots in Panama.  In this enterprise Nicuesa perished miserably along with the bulk of his followers.

Before Nicuesa's time, two other hardy navigators had added considerably to the store of knowledge concerning Spain's new possessions.  One of these, Rodrigo de Bastida, headed an expedition that visited various parts of the Spanish Main, and discovered in 1501, a year in advance of the arrival of Columbus, that part of the coast lying between Cape Tiburon, on the Gulf of Urabá and the port of Retrete.  The other, Alonso de Ojeda, explored the whole northern coast of South America, and gave the country adjacent to the Gulf of Urabá, the name of Nueva Andalusia.  He founded a town in the eastern part of the Gulf, naming it San Sebastian.  He grew tired of the resistance offered by the neighboring tribes of Indians and very soon abandoned the colony, leaving his lieutenant, Francisco Pizarro, afterwards famous as the conqueror of the Inca empire, in possession of the place.  Ojeda later distinguished himself as the founder of several places in Venezuela.

The Story of Balboa

Many a child at school has fallen down on a hard history lesson, but rarely a dullard so great as to fail the recital of Balboa's exploit.   History accords it but a brief mention, albeit it is entitled to second place in the New World discoveries.  Balboa fared forth adventuring at a comparatively early age.  At 25 he voyaged with Bastida to the Spanish Main, and on his return of Hispaniola, the Haiti of today, he took up the pursuit of agriculture.  His bent did not at all lie in that direction, and his principal harvest was a lot of bad debts.   To escape these, and an occupation distasteful to him, he concealed himself one night in a cask, and bribed some of the crew of a ship lying in the harbor to take the cask on board.  this happened to belong to an expedition commanded by one Bachiller Enciso, then fitting out for a voyage to the South American coast.  Balboa was at this time a man of very pleasing appearance, and later, when at sea, his presence on board became known, he made such an earnest appeal to the Commander, that the latter reversed his earlier decision to throw him overboard.  Balboa's representations of the richness of the country, and the fact that he had been there before in company with Bastida, led Enciso to head his course for the Gulf of Urabá, and the colony of San Sebastian.  Before reaching the mainland one of his ships became wrecked and through this accident, lost all the horses and pigs he had brought with him.  Still greater misfortune awaited the expedition, for on its arrival, the town of San Sebastian was found to have been burned by the Indians, and the colonists that were there scattered.

Balboa, undaunted, promised Enciso that if he would accompany him, he would take him to the western shore of the gulf, where another town could easily be founded, and where the Indians did not use poisoned arrows.  The offer was accepted, and together with their men they marched into the territory of an Indian chief named Cemanco, whom they defeated and took prisoner.  At the town of this chieftain, they founded Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien, in honor of the celebrated image at Seville, Spain.  This place is noted for its having been the site of the first Episcopal See, and the oldest church on the American continent.  Enciso was at the head of this new colony, but it did not last long owing in a large measure to an interdict received from the Crown of Spain prohibiting the traffic of gold with the Indians.  About this time, to, Balboa and Enciso had a falling out, and the former, gaining the ascendancy, sent his fellow-explorer back to Spain in irons.

Balboa Seeks the Temple of Gold

The whole country of the Castilla del Oro was now in Balboa's charge, and one of the first of his acts was to dispatch Pizarro to explore the interior.  About the same time he sent out a company of men to collect the survivors of the ill-fated town of Nombre de Dios.  He then took the field against the Indians, first capturing and imprisoning the chieftain Cuareca along with his family, and afterwards pillaging the lands of an Indian chief named Ponca.  This brought him and his men to the territory of another Indian chieftain named Comagre, at that time probably the most powerful chief in the entire Darien region.  Comagre lived in a state of magnificence, and had the mummies of his ancestors enshrouded in rich clothes, adorned with pearls, precious stones, and ornaments of gold.  Although he had 3,000 warriors at his call, he received Balboa peaceably, and gave him the freedom of his domain.  Comagre's eldest son named Panquiaco became very friendly with Balboa, and besides presenting him with 4,000 ounces of gold, and 60 women slaves, taken prisoner in battle with neighboring tribes, gave him the information that back of the line of mountains that reared their tops in the dim distance, was a nation very rich and powerful, having ships with sails like the Spaniards, and using vessels of solid gold.  He also told him of a temple of gold called Dabaibe, situated forty leagues from Darien on the banks of a great river, emptying into the Gulf of Urabá [The Atrato River].  In the aboriginal belief, Dabaibe was the mother of the Deity, which dominated the elements, and created the sun, moon, stars, and all things good.

Balboa's curiosity was greatly aroused by these tales, and returning to Santa Maria, prepared for an expedition in search of the golden temple.  It is evident that at this period Balboa placed some credence in the Indian's tale of "ships with sail," but had more faith in the existence of a temple of gold.  It is quite likely that this temple had a reference to the treasure house of the Inca emperors at Cuzco, an account of which, more or less distorted, might easily have passed from tribe to tribe until it reached the Darien.

His expedition in trim, Balboa entered the mouth of the Atrato, and passed up it until he reached the Rio Negro, or Sucio, as it is commonly called on account of the color of its waters.  Ascending his tributary he finally arrived at the lands of an Indian chief named Abiheiba, without having seen any indication of the object of his quest.   He left here a company of 30 men to guard the place, and then returned to Darien.   On arriving he found that the Indians under Cemaco, and five other chiefs, with a force of 5,000 warriors, and 100 canoes, had planned an attack on the colony, which plot was disclosed by one of the number named Fulvia.  Balboa at once took the initiative, surprised and defeated the Indians, and left Cemaco dead on the field.

In Quest of the South Sea

About this time there were internal discussions in the colony, but Balboa succeeded in pacifying all parties, so that by the time reinforcements arrived from Spain bringing to him the title of the Captain-General de la Antigua, he was ready to set out on an expedition in quest of the South Sea.  He sailed from Santa Maria on the lst of September, 1513, taking with him 190 of his own men, some Indians, and a number of dogs.   A short distance on his way, the Indian chief, Cuareca, who had been baptized by the Spaniards, gave him guides, some Indian auxiliaries, and on the 6th of September, after attending mass to ask the blessing of God on his mission, he took the road to the mountains.

On the 8th of September, Balboa arrived at the home of the Indian chief, Ponca, mentioned in a previous expedition.  Here he was the recipient of the first really credible information concerning the great sea to the South.  Ponca informed him that the ocean would open to view after passing certain mountains, which he would show him.  He also gave Balboa some curious, but handsomely formed gold ornaments, which the Indian said came from places on the ocean of which he spoke.

On the 20th of September he continued his march.  The surface of the ground was so rough and broken, and there were so many small streams to cross, that in four days, he only covered thirty miles.  At the end of this march, he came to the territory of the belligerent chieftain, Cuaracua, who gave him a hard fight.  The Indian was finally overcome, and perished in company with 600 of his men.  The town of Cuaracua who he now was, laid, he was told, at the foot of the last mountain remaining to be surmounted, before his eyes could rest on the object of his long and tedious march.

Balboa Discovers the Pacific

On the 26th of September, a little after ten o'clock in the morning, the Spaniards, discovered from the top of the mountain, the mighty waters of the Pacific.  The priest of the expedition, Andres de Vara, intoned the Te Deum, and all those in the company fell on their knees around him.  They afterwards raised at this point a cross made of the trunk of a tree, braced up by rocks, and upon which they wrote, as well as on various trees in the vicinity, the names of the rulers of Spain.  On his descent to the beach, Balboa and his men had to pass through the lands of an Indian warrior named Cheapes, who treated them kindly, and made them a present of 500 pounds of gold.   Reaching the water-side, Balboa waded out knee-deep into the sea, and with the banner of Spain waving in his hands, proclaimed the vast ocean, and the coasts adjoining it, the property of his King.

Find Pearls of Fabulous Size

Shortly after the discovery of the South Sea, as the Pacific was for a long time afterwards called, Balboa set about making arrangements to explore the vicinity.  The ocean at this point on the coast forms a gulf to which Balboa gave the  name of San Miguel in honor of his having arrived there on the day the Catholic church celebrates this saint, which name it bears at the present time.  He dispatched one of his men named Alonso Martin at the head of a small company of Spaniards and Indians, to explore the coast in a canoe, while he himself embarked and went to an island inhabited by a chief named Tumaco.  Marti, leaving first, has the credit of being the first European to navigate the waters of the Pacific.  The island Balboa landed on was one of many, and to the group, he gave the name of the Archiepelago de las Perlas, or the Pearl Archipelago.  To the largest island in the group he gave the name of Isla Rica, or Rich Island, on account of the quantities of pearls he found there, some of which were of great size.  Balboa's papers relate how that the canoes of Chief Tumaco had their oars incrusted with pearls, so plentiful were they at this period.  Some time after this, an expedition under Pizarro and Morales, two of Balboa's lieutenants, were sent to the Pearl Islands.  They crossed the Isthmus by a less difficult route than Balboa had done, and arrived at the islands without incident.  After four different battles with the chief whom they found in possession of Isla Rica, the latter finally surrendered, and as a peace offering presented Pizarro and Morales with a basket full of very fine pearls, one of which weighted 25 carats and afterwards sold for 4,000 ducats, equivalent to $9,120.00 [in 1908 dollars] veritably a prince's ransom.

Origin of the "Bloody Shirt"

After collecting all the gold and pearls he could lay hands on, Balboa returned to Darien, the only notable incident of the backward journey being the execution of a native chief named Ponera, together with three of his associates, accused of certain vicious practices.   These men, Balboa caused to be devoured alive by the savage dogs which he carried with him.

The year following 1514, there arrived at Antigua, a colonel of infantry named Pedro Arias Davila, commonly called Pedrarias, who had been named by the Spanish Crown as governor of Darien.  It is related that Pedrarias was the father-in-law of Balboa, but history does not appear to be fully clear on this point.  He commanded a brilliant expedition consisting of 2,000 picked men, which had originally been raised and equipped for war in Italy, under the orders of Grand Captain Gonzalo de Cordova, Cavalier of Spain.   About this time La Antigua had been elevated to a metropolitan city of Castilla del Oro, and Friar Juan de Quevedo was named as the first bishop, while Gaspar de Espinosa was chosen as the first Alcalde.  Shortly after the arrival of Pedrarias, Balboa made another and last quest for the mythical temple of gold, resulting in the usual failure.   Then followed several months of Indian fighting.  Tumanama, one of the most powerful chiefs of the mountains had long been at enmity with the Spanish invaders, and securing allies in a number of other tribes commenced a war of extermination against the Conquistadores.  The Indians carried a flag in their fights made out of the bloody shirts of the Spaniards they had killed, which is the first mention History makes of that since famous tocsin.  The victories gained by the Indians caused great alarm at La Antigua, and the mind and other public buildings were closed.  However, after several desperate engagements, Tumanama and his warriors were put to rout, and a peace pact was entered into.

Balboa's Last Expedition

Upon the cessation of Indian hostilities, Pedrarias consented to an expedition planned by Balboa, to explore the South Sea.  This involved the construction of the ships necessary for navigating the Pacific, on the Atlantic side of the divide, and their transporations, knocked-down, across the Cordillera to some point on the south coast.   The work of cutting trees and preparing the parts of the ships was performed after several months of arduous toil, and then commenced the long and wearisome journey across the Isthmus.  The native Indians were utilized as carriers, and History records that upwards of two thousand of them weakened and died under their heavy burdens.  In making the passage, Balboa showed poor judgment.  Instead of journeying by a known route, he started across an unexplored part of the isthmus, discovering the Rio Balsas on his way, which stream he utilized as far as he was able.  Reaching the Pearl Archipelago, navigated across the Gulf of San Miguel, and to a point about two leagues farther on.  Here the crews of his ships became alarmed at a school of whales, whom they took to be reefs in the ocean, and induced Balboa was brought to a sudden stop, by orders received from Pedrarias, the Governor, authorizing Balboa's arrest and imprisonment, under the charge of being a traitor to the Crown.

Balboa, a Victim of Jealousy and Hate

Up to the time of the last ill-planned expedition, fortune had always smiled on Balboa's enterprises.  At this period of his life, however, the fickle goddess turned her back upon him forever.  Pedrarias, the Governor of Darien, had long been jealous of Balboa's successes, and this feeling culminated into one of intense hate.  While fearing to withhold his consent to the South Sea expedition, he was busy planning the while how to frustrate it.  The news of a great Indian empire far to the south had filtered through to the Spanish camp, and stirred Balboa to accomplish what his able but unprincipled lieutenant, Francisco Pizarro, later carried out.  Pedrarias was well aware of Balboa's ambitious plans, and this knowledge did but serve to put an edge to his jealousy and hate.

With but a farce of a trial, and condemned of being a traitor to the Crown on evidence of purely an ex parte character, Balboa, in the year 1517, in the forty-second year of his age, met death by the headsman's axe, and thus ended the life of one of the greatest explorers of the New World.  Balboa maintained his innocence to the very last, defying his accuser and murderer, Pedrarias, who occupied a window only ten feet distant from the scaffold where the execution took place.

In view of Balboa's great achievement, history has passed lightly over his faults, among which avarice and cruelty were the most prominent; but taking into account the general customs of the age in which he lived, the difficult and exasperating circumstances and emergencies he had to contend with and overcome, it cannot be gain-said but that he was an exceptional man; an intrepid, cunning and resourceful warrior whose ultimate success and wonderful discovery conquered for him a lasting place in the world's history.   Besides, his latter sufferings, imprisonment and death on the scaffold on an unjust charge, were, no doubt, ample atonement for his sins.

Founding of Old Panama

Pedrarias, incompetent, treacherous, and cruel, continued in high favor with the king whose coffers he kept well supplied with gold and treasure wrung from the enslaved and oppressed natives who died by the thousands on account of not being physically adapted to the work.  It was this terrible decimation of the Indians that prompted some time later a prominent Catholic bishop to suggest the importation of negroes from Africa, thus saving the Indian from complete extermination, but at the same time inaugurating the system of slavery that afterwards spread over the greatest part of two continents.

In 1515, Diego de Albites and Tello de Guzman formed part of an expedition that crossed to the Pacific side of the Isthmus and arrived at a hut of a poor fisherman, at a point called by the Indians Panama, from the abundance of fish and sea shells found there.   Here in 1519, Pedrarias founded the city of Old Panama, giving it the Indian name.   In 1521, by order of Emperor Charles V. the title of "Muy noble y muy leal" was bestowed on the place, and the government, bishopric and colonists of Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien removed thereto.  This was only accomplished after great privation and suffering, it being estimated that no fewer than 40,000 Spaniards perished in this trans-Isthmian hegira during the ensuring thirty years.  The coat-of-arms given to the new city consisted of a yoke, a bunch of arrows on a gilded field with two ships underneath, a star, castle and lions.  The city became the seat of the first court of the Real Audiencia, which obtained in the Spanish possessions in America from 1535 to 1752.

In 1525, a Catholic priest named Hernando Luque celebrated solemn mass in the Cathedral at Old Panama, taking communion with two Spanish explorers and men-of-arms, Francisco Pizarro and Diego Almagro.  He broke the holy bread into three pieces, taking one, and giving the other pieces to the two men.  The significance of the act was no other than the solemnization of a contract between all three to conquer the countries to the South.  They shortly afterwards manned several vessels and sailed down the coast, reaching at last the "golden" Peru.  Pizarro's flag used in his conquest is a treasured relic today in the archives at Bogota.

Early Trans-Isthmian Routes

Some time after the settlement of Old Panama, an attempt was made to establish land communication from Nombre de Dios, at that time the principal port on the the Atlantic, to the new city on the Pacific.  A road was finally constructed between the two places, which crossed the Chagres River at Cruces.  For a part of the way the road was paved, evidences of which remain to this day.  Later small vessels commenced to sail from Nombre de Dios to the mouth of the Chagres, then up that stream to Cruces, where the cargoes were transferred to the backs of mules.  Nombre de Dios was abandoned at the end of the sixteenth century in favor of Porto Bello, known to be on the best havens on the entire Isthmian coast, south of Chiriqui Lagoon, to which even the steamers of the present day resort when an unusually strong norther is blowing at Colon.   Nombre de Dios had long been known as a graveyard for the Spaniards, and its decay was of little importance.

After the conquest of Peru, and the development of the gold mines in the Darien, Old Panama sprang rapidly into prominence.  all the golden treasure of the West Coast was poured into her lap to be sorted for shipment and lastly and chief of all, the sack and burning of Old Panama, perhaps at the time the most opulent city in all New Spain, by Henry Morgan and his band of seventeenth century buccaneers, pirates and sea rovers, furnishes one of the most thrilling chapters in the early history of the Spanish Main, and some of the most notable events in the piratical record of the West Indies, not only from the boldness and intrepidity of the attack, but for the gallant defense as well.

Today, nearly three hundred and fifty years after, crumbling ruins mark the spots where these occurrences took place, though as the late Mr. James Stanley Gilbert has written in his famous work, Panama Patchwork:

From:  Canal Zone Pilot (Guide To the Republic of Panama and Classified Business Directory).  Edited by William C. Haskins.  Published by A. Bienkowski, Ancon, Canal Zone and Panama, R.P.  Star & Herald Publication, 1908.

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