Old Panama and Castilla del Oro; a narrative history of the discovery, conquest, and settlement by the Spaniards of Panama, Darien, Veragua, Santo Domingo, Santa Marta, Cartagena, Nicaragua, and Peru: including the four voyages of Columbus to America, the discovery of the Pacific ocean by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, a description of the aborigines of the isthmus, accounts of the search for a strait through the New world and early efforts for a canal, the daring raids of Sir Francis Drake, the buccaneers in the Caribbean and south seas, the sack of the city of Old Panama by Henry Morgan, and the story of the Scots colony on Caledonia bay ..

Front matter

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Table Of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Glossary ix

Foreword xi

Chapter I

THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA Darien — Panama — Veragua Geography, Orography, History

"Here the oceans twain have waited All the ages to be mated, — Waited long and waited vainly, Though the script was written plainly: This, the portal of the sea, Opes for him who holds the key; Here the empire of the earth Waits in patience for its birth."

— James Jeffrey Roche.

>HE Isthmus of Panama is a narrow sigmoid flexure of land joining North America to South America. No other part of the world records such stirring exploits by such various peoples. Indian, Spanish, English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and African have all played their parts upon and about the Isthmus of the New World. Cacique and Conquistador, Padre and Buccaneer, Indian, Latin, Teuton, Negro, and Asiatic have come and gone ; and in a few years the tropical jungle has closed over their remains and effaced their impress.

Both North and South America are irregularly triangular in shape, being widest at their northern extremities, and becoming very narrow at their southern ends. These two continents, of almost equal area, are joined by a strip of land called the Isthmus ; corresponding practically to the limits of the present Republic of Panama.

Darien was the first name of this region, and for a long time was used synonymously with Panama. Nowadays, Darien means the eastern part of the Republic of Panama, more particularly the section between the Gulf of Darien on the Atlantic, and the Gulf of San Miguel on the Pacific ; and also the adjoining territory of Colombia west of the Gulf of Uraba.

Early writers applied the term Darien to both the Gulf of Uraba, and the Atrato river on the Atlantic side, and the Gulf of San Miguel, and the Tuira river on the Pacific side ; as well as to other rivers in the eastern part of the Isthmus. This has given rise to much confusion, and even to disaster to exploring parties.

The Darien was the first route across the Isthmus by white men, and was seriously considered as a location for an interoceanic canal. In the same restricted sense, the low region between the cities of Colon and Panama, through which the canal is now being constructed, is often called the Isthmus of Panama.

Considering Central America as a part of North America, the Isthmus may be said to join the southeastern extremity of the Northern to the northwestern corner of the Southern continent. The 8oth meridian of longitude, which passes through the mouth of the Chagres river, and just west of the Canal Zone, bisects the Isthmus from north to south, and runs east of Havana and of the State of Florida. South of the Isthmus, this meridian passes west of almost all of South America, touching the land only within the westernmost cape of Parina.

In studying Panama, one must remember that the Isthmus of the western hemisphere runs east and west ; that Colon, on the Atlantic, is not only north, but also west of Panama ; and that in the latter city the sun rises out of the Pacific Ocean. As Tracy Robinson says: "There is a suspicion of something crooked about this." The crookedness is in the Isthmus, which, as I have said, is bent twice upon itself like the Greek letter sigma.

For a long time after the Pacific was discovered it was called the South Sea, while the Caribbean was known as the North Sea. At the time of the discovery of the Isthmus by Bastidas (1501) and Columbus (1502), they recognized that it was not an island ; so named it Tierra Firme. Ferdinand of Spain, in 1509, divided Tierra Firme into two parts; the region extending from the middle of the Gulf of Uraba east to the Cabo de la Vela he named Nueva Andalucia, and gave to Alonso de Ojeda; while Diego de Nicuesa was appointed governor of the land extending westward from the Gulf of Uraba to Cape Gracias a Dios, which was denominated Castillo, del Oro, or Golden Castile. Some ancient maps represent Castilla del Oro as lying east of the Gulf of Uraba, and this error is occasionally repeated in modern publications.

In early days Castilla del Oro was commonly divided into Darien, Panama, and Verdgua.

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Until recently, the Republic of Panama was a state of the Republic of Colombia, and thus was reckoned as being in South America ; whereas, geographically, geologically, and now politically, it is in Central America, and a part of the northern continent.

Panama extends from Colombia on the east to Costa Rica on the west, a distance of 725 kilometers, or about 450 miles ; and varies in width from 50 to 190 kilometers, or from 31 to 118 miles. On account of its double flexion, it extends from 7° 10' to 90 41' north latitude. The area of the Republic of Panama is about 32,000 square miles; and it contains a population of about 360,000 souls, not including the 20,000 Indians of pure blood.

The general mountain system of the western hemisphere is continued through the Isthmus ; but, unlike the Rocky Mountains in the north and the Andes in the south, it here runs about midway between the Pacific and the Atlantic coasts, and in a direction east and west.1 The elevation of the divide varies from a few hundred feet to several thousand feet, reaching its greatest height in the Cordillera of Chiriqui. The mountains receive local designations in the different provinces, as the Cordillera de Verdguas, C. de Panama, C. de San Bias, C. del Darien, and C. de Baudo.

Panama is unique in being a part of a continent, having two extensive coastlines bordering upon the two great oceans of the world, yet in close proximity to each other. The Atlantic ("Caribbean) coastal plain is densely covered with forest and jungle, through which flow numerous streams and rivers. With the exception of a couple of towns, like Bocas, and Colon, this side of the Isthmus is inhabited only by remnants of the old Indian tribes and negroid mixtures. Communication is mainly by means of canoes, and in the rainy season passage by land is practically impossible. Indeed, since the days of the old C amino Real (King's Highway) between Panama and Portobelo, there has been nothing like a roadway on the Isthmus till the advent of the Americans in 1904. It is not generally known that the charter of the Panama Railroad contains a clause prohibiting the construction of a highway or other method of transit across the Isthmus, west of a line connecting Cape Tiburon on the Atlantic with Point Garachine on the Pacific. The convention between the United States and

1From the San Bias country eastward to the Gulf of Uraba, the Cordillera is nearer the Atlantic shore.

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Panama, November 18, 1903, confirms the monopoly of transit to the United States.

The Pacific (southern) side of the Isthmus is not so low and marshy as the Atlantic (northern) side. Between the mountains and the sea are plains or llanos, and savannas ; which are traversed by clear and rapid rivers. The amount of rainfall on the Pacific coast of the Isthmus is only about six feet, while on the Atlantic shore it averages twelve feet, or more, yearly. Neither is the Pacific coast subject to such violent storms as occur on the Atlantic side. The more elevated land and the better climatic conditions induced the Spaniards to settle on the Pacific slope after failing on the Atlantic coast. The open llanos furnish excellent grazing for horses and cattle; and maize, sugar-cane, the legumes, and all the tropical fruits and melons can be raised with little effort. Nearly all the Panamanians live on the Pacific side of the Isthmus, and little towns are frequent, especially in the provinces of Code, Los Santos, Veraguas, and Chiriqui, all in the western part of the Isthmus.

The two coasts of Panama, though but forty to one hundred miles apart, are entirely distinct. With the exception of a few miserable trails across the mountains, the Panama Railroad is the only communication from one side to the other. This gives the railroad a strategic advantage, of which it is not slow to avail itself, and determined the success of the revolution of 1903 and the establishment of the Republic of Panama.

A brief review of the notable points along each coast, and of the famous events which have happened on the Isthmus, particularly in colonial days, may be both interesting and instructive.

Beginning at Punta Mona, or Monkey Point, also called Punta Carreta, the boundary between Costa Rica and Panama on the Caribbean Sea, and passing eastward, we soon reach the mouth of the Sixola;* and a few miles further on is the Rio Changuinola? Both these rivers drain a rich banana section, and are navigable for small vessels. The next interesting point is the Boca del Drago, or Dragon's Mouth, which gives entrance to Almirante Bay, discovered by and named after Christ-

2 Called also HI Rio Tarire, the ancient boundary between Veragua and Costa Rica.

8 The Changuinola, or Rio de la Bstrella, was discovered by Juan Vasquez de Coronado, in 1564; and is described by Fray Augustin de Ceballos, in 1610, as being "rio prodigioso y el mas rico del mundo." The mines of Estrella and Tisingal were considered as rich as those of Potosi in Peru. This river separated Veragua from Costa Rica.

four opher Columbus, High Admiral of the Ocean Sea. Almirante Bay gives deep water anchorage, and is the best harbor in the north coast for large vessels, being much frequented by our naval vessels. Between Admiral's Bay and the Caribbean Sea is Columbus Island, on which is situated the town of Bocas del Toro, inhabited mostly by negroes, and a headquarters of the United Fruit Company.4 Bocas was founded, about a century ago, by negro immigration from the islands of St. Andrew and Old Providence, and has grown to be the capital of the province and one of the principal ports of Panama. Opposite Bocas is Careening Cay, where Columbus, in 1502, beached and cleaned his ships. Nearby is Nonsense Cay, one of the prettiest places I have seen in the tropics, on which the fruit company has erected their hospital. Further off are Bastimentos (Old Bank) and Pope islands.

Almirante Bay communicates with the Laguna de Chiriqui, which is not a lagoon in the ordinary sense, but a large, safe bay, thirty-three miles long, east and west, and fourteen miles wide. On the main shore are Chiriqui Grande, a little pueblo ; and Chiriquicito, which is the terminus of a narrow-gauge railroad running back to the banana farms. Here begins a very rough trail, passable only afoot, crossing the Cerro de la Horqueta, a mountain range six thousand feet high, to the city of David, on the Pacific slope.

When Columbus stopped in the lagoon he gathered provisions, traded hawks'-bells and gewgaws for the golden ornaments of the natives, and inquired anxiously about a rich region to the east, which the Indians called Veragua.

The lagoon and neighboring islands were favorite resorts of the buccaneers, and only three years ago a party made expensive diggings on Zapatilla Cay for pirate gold supposed to be buried there. The Chiriqui region was at one time considered as a transisthmian route, and a concession granted therefor.

At the eastern end of the lagoon is the port of Valient e, or Bluefield, on a projection of land called the Valiente peninsula. In this section dwell the Cricamola Indians, called Valiente by the Spaniards on account of their valor in resisting the white man, and the fierce duels in which they engage among themselves.

4 This place was called Boca del Toro long before a town was started. The name is taken from the boca, or channel, leading from the sea to Almirante Bay, and also from the figure of a large resting bull, presented by a cliff when viewed from afar.

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We entered the Laguna on the west by the Dragon's Mouth, and will leave it through Tiger Channel {Canal del Tigre), at its eastern extremity; pass around Punta Chiriqui, and sail along the coast inside the island known as Bscudo de Veragua,6 which is eight and one-half miles from the mainland. From here the shore makes a dip to the south, forming what is called Mosquito Gulf. It is not much of a gulf, but mosquitoes are very plentiful along the shore. Numerous rivers empty into the sea, and the principal points of land are Buppan Bluff, Point Coaita, and Zapatero Point. It was along this coast that the unfortunate Nicuesa wandered, seeking escape from his Golden Castile.

About sixty miles from the Laguna de Chiriqui we arrive at the mouth of the Veragua* river, upon the banks of which the famous Quibian, or head chief of the Indians, made his home, and where he was captured by the Spaniards. A few miles to the eastward is the Rio Belen, where was made, early in 1503, the second attempt at settlement by Europeans upon the mainland of the New World. It was here that Christopher Columbus planted a colony, called Nuestra Senora de Belen, under the command of his brother Bartholomew, the Adelantado. Our Lady of Bethlehem was short-lived ; as the Quibian, escaping from the Spaniards, collected his warriors and drove the white men to their ships. A few years later, in 151 1, Olano and Cueto built a few huts on the site formerly occupied by Don Bartolome; but starvation soon forced them to abandon the place. Afterwards the Spaniards obtained so much gold from the mines of Veragua that they called this region the Costa del Oro de Colon.

The point at the mouth of the Belen is called Cristobal, and the neighboring bay St. Christopher, in honor of the great discoverer. Remnants of the Guaimi Indians still inhabit the adjoining country and the mountains of Veraguas.

Further eastward along the coast is the mouth of the Chagres river, between Punta Butata and Punta Morrito. Next to

6 This island was once called Bscudo de Nicuesa (Shield of Nicuesa), because it guarded Castilla del Oro, and marks the spot near which that unfortunate cavalier is believed to have perished.

6 Later chroniclers would make it appear that the word Veragua is derived from Verdes-aguas, or Green-waters , an etymology to which I do not subscribe. Ulloa, who visited Panama in 1736, writes: " To the river now called Veragua, he [Columbus] gave the name of Verdes-aguas, on account of the green color of its water; or, according to others, because the Indians called it by that name in their language."

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Panama, the name of Chagres is the most familiar of Isthmian names. It was first known as the Rio Lagartos, or River of Alligators. For four centuries the Chagres has been the bond of union between the two great oceans of the world, the way between the East and the West, the key to the portal of the South Sea. The ancient history of the Isthmus, like that of the Panama Railroad, and of the French and American canals, centers around this river; and from about 1530 to the present day, the Chagres route has remained the only practicable gateway through the New World. The Chagres river has its origin in the mountains south from Palenque, nearly midway of the Isthmus, and runs a tortuous course of 120 miles, west and then north, to the Caribbean Sea. It drains a watershed of about 1200 square miles. The principal tributaries of the Chagres are the Esperanza, Rio Indio, the large Pequeni with its affluent the Boqueron, the Gatun, the Trinidad, and the Gatuncillo.

The relocated Panama Railroad crosses the Chagres at Gamboa, not far above Gorgona and Matachin. Three miles up the river comes Cruces, and twelve miles beyond is Alhajuela. Ten miles farther up, following the winding course of the river, is Dos Bocas, the junction of the Chagres and Pequeni. The headwaters of the Chagres, Pequeni, and Boqueron, run through box canons in many places, and rapids and falls are numerous ; so that navigation by cayuco, or canoe, is very dangerous and often impossible, as in these narrow, rocky gorges the waters may rise from forty to eighty feet during a heavy rainfall. San Juan, the largest settlement in this region, is a pueblo of 350 souls, and is located on the Pequeni, two miles above Dos Bocas, and about eight miles below Boca Boqueron. The old Camino Real, vestiges of which can yet be found, ran northward from Panama by a place called Maria Enrique, then through Venta de Camalilla, crossing the Chagres river at Venta de Chagre, above Dos Bocas. The road then followed the course of the Pequeni to the town of San Juan, to Pueblo de Indio, to Pequeni (on the Rio Pequeni), and to Boqueron. After several fordings of a river called San Juan, and crossing the hills on the north coast, the road turned eastward to NombredeDios ;or turning in the other direction, joined the Rio Cascajal near El Bujio, and followed that river northwest to Puerto Bello. North of the Chagres river the present trail is impassable on horseback, even in the dry season. Much of the Chagres river and many of the old landmarks along its course will soon be obliterated by the waters of Gatun Lake.

Guarding the entrance of the Chagres river, on the east, is a rocky bluff facing the sea, and washed on two sides by the river. On this height can be seen the ruins of the historic castle of San Lorenzo, erected by the engineer Juan Antonelli, by order of Philip II. of Spain. When the buccaneers under Henry Morgan raided Old Panama, in 1671, Captain Bradley went in advance and captured San Lorenzo, after which they all went up the river. The castle was again taken, in 1740, by the English under the command of Admiral Vernon. The mouth of the Chagres is 350 yards wide, and the channel is said to be three fathoms deep; but the depth of water on the bar varies constantly. The point opposite the castle is known as Las Animas. Directly behind the bluff, invisible from the sea, on the right bank of the river, is the village of Chagres. Formerly a busy port, it now is a sleepy settlement of a few hundred people, containing a modern church and a public school.

In early Spanish times the bulky merchandise for transit across the Isthmus from Puerto Bello was taken up the Chagres river as far as Venta de Cruces, and thence by land to Old or New Panama. For a year or two after the discovery of gold in California, and before the construction of the Panama Railroad, steamers anchored off the Chagres in good weather and landed the gold-seekers in lighters.7 They were then carried up the river in bongoes and canoes to Gorgona, or Cruces, where they left the river and crossed the trail to Panama, and there waited for a steamer going to San Francisco. The journey across the Isthmus often required a week, rates were

*As soon as the Panama Railroad reached Gatun, in 1851, the stream of gold-hunters turned from the mouth of the Chagres to Limon (Navy) Bay; and as that road gradually penetrated the jungle, the river traffic became less. When the railroad was completed, in 1855, the fare across was about twenty-five dollars in gold. Passengers were required to pay two dollars a head to the Isthmian Government for the privilege of passing from sea to sea.

During the travel to and from the gold fields of California, the Isthmus was infested with criminals and rough characters from all over the world. The local authorities often were unable to control the unruly crowds. Respectable passengers were robbed, and sometimes murdered, provoking complaints from the various consuls. Conditions became so bad that the best citizens and foreign residents organized an Isthmian Guard, to keep order on the railroad between Aspinwall and Panama. Ran Runnels, formerly a Texan Ranger, the chief of the regulators, invested with absolute authority by Governor Urrutia Afiino, rounded up the principal cut-throats, and quietly hanged them; when the rest of the gang hastened to leave the country.

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EL

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From Jeffreys, Fe«f Indies, 1762.

MOUTH OF THE CHAGRES RIVER AND CASTLE OF SAN LORENZO.

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 Manzanillo Island, in Limon Bay, as the beginning point of their road. A town soon 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 construction of the Interoceanic Canal, in 1881, they adopted the official name of the place, Colon, and for a time it was generally written Aspinwall-Colon. In 1890 the Government of Colombia, 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 remembered 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 sea8 can be viewed the entrance of the canal, the quarters of the Americans under the cocoanut palms in Cris-

8 The following graphic description is from the pen of a former United States Minister to Colombia, and a gentleman thoroughlyfamiliar 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 raindrops, but in solid sheets, which soon covered the already wet and smoking earth to the depth of many inches.

nine 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 erroneously ordered by the French management. I look upon the construction of the Panama Railroad, in 1850, by a few individuals, 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, yoij, 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 without 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 summer day was made up of regular alternations of drenchings and roastings, 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 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 Eesseps and the French Canal Company.

Colon has experienced about a dozen fires,9 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 former times it was a populous and busy port, being the Atlantic terminus for most of the travel and commerce across the Isthmus.

8 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 Lieutenant 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 18th of August, with several of his companions, the noose being adjusted by Captain Rountree, a notorious character in the old days.

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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.10

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. Englishmen seldom mention the capture of the place, in 18 19, by the filibuster, Sir Gregor MacGregor, from which he was ignominiously 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 neighborhood, 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 population 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 bombard 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.