At the beginning of 1687 freebooters were again off the Costa Rica coast and infesting the gulf of Nicoya, keeping the Spaniards in a state of constant alarm, wringing from them ransom for captives, and torturing prisoners to obtain information.[XXX‑59] On the 26th of January they were rejoined by Captain Grogniet, whose movements had been principally confined to the bay of Fonseca and the coast of Nicaragua, but dissension occurring, eighty-five of his men separated from him, and with the remaining sixty he turned once more toward Panamá.[XXX‑60]

Again this brood of ocean-banditti directed their course to the rich coast of South America, where they and their fraternity had acquired so infamous a reputation that the women they captured were in dread of being eaten by them.[XXX‑61] After amassing immense wealth they sailed northward and coasted along the Central American and Mexican shores as far as Acapulco, burning, destroying, and murdering as was their wont. But in spite of their sufferings from toil, hunger, and thirst, the pirates had amassed much wealth, and they now wished to return to the North Sea, where their hardships would end, and they could squander and enjoy their ill-gotten riches. Having consulted as to the best course to pursue, they decided to march overland through the province of Segovia to Cape Gracias á Dios. So on the 2d of January 1688, after they "had said their Prayers," they started on their perilous journey, two hundred and eighty in number.[XXX‑62]

Their overland march through the wildest part of Central America was somewhat extraordinary. The journeys of the pirates across the Isthmus, like those of the discoverers and conquerors, were full of danger and sufferings; but the difficulties overcome by these dauntless villains in some respects surpassed anything on record.

Their route lay from the bay of Fonseca to Wank River, down which they proposed to descend on rafts. Marching first to Nueva Segovia, they found the inhabitants ready to oppose them. In the woods their road was impeded by felled trees; in the open country the grass was set on fire, so that to avoid suffocation they were often compelled to halt until the fire should spend itself. The cattle were driven away and provisions removed or destroyed, while ambushed Spaniards assailed them everywhere.

There was nothing for them, however, but to trudge along, which they continued to do until they reached Nueva Segovia on the 11th. The town was deserted. Everything that could maintain life had been carefully removed. As they continued famished and footsore toward the river, now twenty leagues distant, they were harassed by a force of three hundred Spanish horse, constantly threatening their annihilation.

The road, which led over a steep mountain, was found on the second day from Segovia to be intrenched. Thus beset in front and rear, between two bodies each largely outnumbering their own, what were the pirates to do? Blood-besmeared and determined, they were now to the effeminate Spaniards what the early Spaniards had been to the Indians. It was on a bright moonlit night that the filibusters encamped before the intrenchment. Nevertheless two hundred of them managed to steal into the forest unperceived by their enemies.[XXX‑63] With incredible labor they worked their way round rocks and through quagmires, till, guided by the voices of the Spaniards at morning prayer, by daylight they found themselves in the road above, and in the rear of the intrenched Spaniards. A dense mist which had arisen just before dawn concealed them from sight, but while it in some measure aided them, it rendered their operations more dangerous from the nature of the ground. It appeared that there were three intrenchments, one behind the other, and with the reversed position the defenders of the rear one were not protected. Upon this exposed detachment, numbering five hundred men, the freebooters fell so suddenly that the Spaniards fled panic-stricken, and the successful assailants were in possession of the barricade. It was equivalent to victory. There was no hope for the Spaniards now. Guided in their aim by the flashes of the enemy's fire, the pirates, well protected, poured volley after volley upon the Spaniards, who did not know where to shoot or what to do. For an hour they held out; but when, still enveloped in the mist, the pirates charged upon them, unperceived till almost within reach of sword-blow, they turned and fled. What followed was mere butchery. The Spaniards, impeded in their flight by their own defences, were slaughtered till the ferocious victors, "weary of running after them and killing," desisted.[XXX‑64]

The cutthroats are now master of all before them, but nature still interposed her forces to the best of her ability. On the following day, it is true, they arrived at another intrenchment, but the terror they had inspired was so great that they passed it unmolested, and on the 17th reached the banks of the longed-for river which was to carry them to the sea.[XXX‑65] The current was swift, and for leagues the waters rushed down rapids or plunged in cataracts over opposing rocks, eddying and seething in their course. Yet the freebooters hailed it with delight, and with wild enthusiasm constructed for themselves small rafts each capable of carrying two men.[XXX‑66] Trusting to these they launched themselves, many of them to their death. Besides paddles they were provided with long poles to aid them in avoiding the rocks. It was a fearful passage; the boldest trembled, and his brain grew giddy as he was swept past an overhanging precipice or whirled about in the surging flood. Most of the rafts were so overweighted that the men stood up to the waist in water. Among those who had escaped with their lives were many who had lost all their gains acquired by years of hardship and of crime.[XXX‑67] Numerous portages and the building of new rafts long delayed them, and it was not until the 20th of February that they arrived at the broader and less impetuous part of the river. In the mean time, in spite of peril and suffering, the evil passions of human nature were not dormant. As there were no Spaniards present to kill they killed each other as occasion offered.[XXX‑68]

When the river became navigable for boats the freebooters built canoes, and on the 1st of March one hundred and twenty of them,[XXX‑69] in four boats, started down the river, and arrived at the mouth the 9th of March. On the 14th an English vessel arrived from the isles of Pearls,[XXX‑70] on board of which about fifty of them, among whom was Lussan, embarked. This band of the survivors eventually reached French settlements in the West Indies. Of the subsequent fate of those left behind little is known;[XXX‑71] but the gratitude of the devout ruffians whom Lussan accompanied for their deliverance is thus chronicled: "When we were got all ashoar to a People that spoke French, we could not forbear shedding Tears of Joy, that after we had run so many Hazards, Dangers, and Perils, it had pleased the Almighty Maker of the Earth and Seas, to grant a Deliverance, and bring us back to those of our own Nation."[XXX‑72]

A peculiar feature in the history, particularly of Spanish America, is presented by the buccaneers, a New World revival of the vikings, whose adventures were the absorbing theme of the old Norsemen, as preserved in the sagas, and a counterpart of their successors, the corsairs, who maintained equal sway in sunnier climes, spreading terror over entire kingdoms and exacting tribute to support a regal state of their own. The European hordes who under the name of conquerors were ever alert for plunder under the pretence of extending the domain of their divine and royal masters scattered freely the seeds from which sprang the freebooters, to whom the rivalry between Saxon and Latin races gave a desired opportunity to prey upon cities and commerce. Next to the early-discovery voyages none are so absorbing as the expeditions of these wild fellows, culled from all nationalities, and their narratives include not only daring raids, bloody feuds, and hair-breadth escapes by sea and land, but cover the usual topics of exploring voyages. Indeed, their transgressions against society, while covered in most cases by the mask of patriotism and of just war, or retaliation, were frequently condoned by discoveries for the benefit of trade and science, by the extension of geographic knowledge, of natural history, ethnology, and other branches.

The first special account of the buccaneers appears to be the Zee Roover, by Klaes Compaen; Amsterdam, 1663; but the great original for the many subsequent works on them is the book written by A. O. Exquemelin, corrupted by the English into Esquemeling, and by the French into Oexmelin. An employé of the French West India Company, he had in 1666 gone out to the Tortuga Island, but trade failing here, the company sold its effects and transferred its servants. Exquemelin fell into the hands of the lieutenant-governor, under whom he suffered great hardship till a new and kinder master left him at liberty. Finding nothing better to do, he joined the filibusters and sailed with them till 1672, sharing in many notable exploits. He then returned home to Holland, and employed his leisure in writing a history of buccaneer expeditions in the Antilles and adjoining regions, including his own adventures. This was issued as De Americaensche Zee-Roovers. Behelsende een Partinent Verhael van alle de Roverye en Onmenselÿcke Vreetheeden die de Engelsche en France Roovers Tegens de Spanÿaerden in America Gepleeght Hebben; t'Amsterdam bÿ Jan Ten Hoorn, 1678, sm. 4^o, 186 pp. Few books have been so extensively used, wholly or in part, or as a foundation for romances and dramas; but the ones used have generally been of the numerous foreign editions, particularly the Spanish, published with more or less variation, and often without credit to the author. The original is exceedingly rare, one copy only besides my own being known to Müller. It is a black-letter specimen, on coarse paper, illustrated with curious maps and plates, depicting battle scenes, burning towns, and portraits of leading captains, as Morgan and L'Olonnois. The title-page is bordered by eight scenes of freebooters' warfare and cruelty. Beginning with his voyage to the West Indies, Exquemelin proceeds to depict the geography and political and social condition of the islands, including the rovers' retreat, and then relates their doings in general. In a second and third part he gives special sketches of the different leaders and their expeditions; and in an appendix are found some valuable statistics for the Spanish possessions on wealth, revenue, and officials. The information is not only varied, but has been found most reliable. The English edition was first published in London by Th. Newborough in 1699, under the title of The History of the Buccaneers of America. The second and third editions of this translation appeared in 1704.

Several of the buccaneers have become known to readers in special treatises by their own hand, or by biographers, as Raveneau de Lussan, Journal d'un Voyage, Paris, 1689; Dampier's New Voyage, London, 1697, and others, which have also proved rich sources for compilers. To the edition of Exquemelin, issued in 1700, Ten Hoorn added two parts, one being an account of English buccaneer voyages under Sharp, Sawkins, and others, written by Basil Ringrose, who had also been a member of the fraternity, and had kept a journal from which the first edition was prepared and issued in 1684. The second part gives Lussan's Journal, followed by the Relation de Montauban, captain of freebooters, on the coast of Guinea in 1695.

Ringrose's account furnishes some particulars not found in other buccaneer narrators of the same expeditions. Though he disapproved of Sharp as a leader, his statements may be considered truthful as well as fuller than those of the other writers, all of whom corroborate Ringrose in the main points. His narrative is also published in the above mentioned work, The History of the Buccaneers of America, under the title of The Dangerous Voyage and Bold Attempts of Capt. Bartholomew Sharp and others in the South Sea. It contains numerous rude cuts of islands, points, capes, etc., on the western coast of America. Ringrose was killed with all his company near a small town 21 leagues from Compostela, in Jalisco, owing to the insubordination of his men. Dampier, Voy., i. 271-2, says: 'We had about 50 Men killed, and among the rest my Ingenious Friend Mr Ringrose was one.... He was at this time Cape-Merchant, or Super-Cargo of Capt. Swan's Ship. He had no mind to this Voyage, but was necessitated to engage in it or starve.' The most important other authorities for the history of this enterprise are Capt. Sharp's Journal of his Expedition, Written by Himself, published by William Hacke in A Collection of Original Voyages (London, 1699). Sharp omits all mention of the defection of the men whom Dampier accompanied across the Isthmus.

The Voyages and Adventures of Capt. Barth. Sharp. London, 1684. The author is anonymous, and was a strong partisan of Sharp, omitting much told against him in other accounts and frequently bestowing upon him fulsome praise. Many pages of the narrative are taken up by mere log-book entries of the ship's sailing and contain no other information. Dampier, A New Voyage round the World. London, 1697-1709, 3 vols. This writer touches in his introduction very briefly upon Sharp's expedition 'because the World has accounts of it already in the relations that Mr Ringrose and others have given' of it; but his account of his return across the Isthmus is interesting and minutely described. Wafer, A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America, Giving an Account of the Author's Abode there. London, 1699, also only cursorily alludes to Sharp's voyage, but supplies a valuable description of the Isthmus at that time. Wafer, who accompanied Dampier on his return, had been compelled to stay behind on account of a severe wound caused by an explosion of gunpowder, and remained several months with the Indians on the Isthmus. His treatise is principally confined to a description of the physical features of the country, its flora and fauna, and the occupations and customs of the inhabitants. It contains several copper-plates in illustration of these latter, as well as a map of the Isthmus and charts of coast-lines.

A Collection of Original Voyages, by Captain Wm. Hacke, London, 1699, 12^o, with some rude cuts and map, contains among other narratives Cowley's Voyage round the Globe, touching Central America, written by himself. As a sequel to these publications may be named Johnson's General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pyrates; London, 1724, which was added as a fourth volume to the French Exquemelin collection of 1744 and later editions. Similar combinations, more or less complete and changed, exist in different languages, from the early Bucaniers of America, London, 1684, to the History of the Buccaniers of America, Boston, 1853, and later editions. The first thorough book on the subject, however, and one which enters into the causes of the filibuster movement, carrying on the narrative till its suppression in the beginning of the eighteenth century, is Admiral Burney's History of the Buccaneers, London, 1816, a special issue of a part of his Chronological History of Discovery.

CHAPTER XXXI.
PANAMÁ.
1672-1800.

The Scots Colony—They Propose to Establish Settlements in Darien—Subscriptions for the Enterprise—Departure of the Expedition—Its Arrival at Acla—Sickness and Famine among the Colonists—They Abandon their Settlement—A Second Expedition Despatched—Its Failure—Cartagena Sacked by Privateers—Indian Outbreaks—Conflagrations in Panamá—Pearl Fisheries—Mining—Spanish Commerce Falling into the Hands of the British—Seizure of British Vessels and Maletreatment of their Crews—Jenkins' Ears—Declaration of War—Vernon's Operations on the Isthmus—Anson's Voyage round the World—Vernon's Second Expedition—Its Disastrous Result.

Yet another phase of life and restless human endeavor on the Panamá Isthmus here presents itself. Great Britain is seized by an idea, born of greed and nurtured by injustice; and this conception expands until it covers the earth, and until the good people of England and Scotland are in imagination masters of the whole world, which possession is acquired not through any honest means, but after the too frequent vile indirections of the day and the nation; in all which the people of those isles give themselves and their money over to Satan.

In June 1695 a number of wealthy Scotchmen under the leadership of William Paterson[XXXI‑1] obtained from the Scottish parliament a statute, and later letters patent from William III.,[XXXI‑2] authorizing them to plant colonies in Asia, Africa, or America, in places uninhabited, or elsewhere by permission of the natives, provided the territory were not occupied by any European prince or state. Paterson had spent several years in the Indies and had explored the province of Darien. Near the old settlement of Acla he had found a port safe for shipping. Three days' journey thence, on the other side of the Isthmus, were other suitable harbors. By establishing settlements on either shore, he purposed to grasp the trade whereby Europe was supplied with the products of North and South America, China, Japan, and the Philippine Islands, with European goods. From the Isthmus to Japan and parts of China was but a few weeks' sail, and the products of Asia could thus be landed in Europe in far less time than that occupied by the vessels of the India companies. Moreover on the rich soil of Darien, sugar, indigo, tobacco, and other articles of value could be raised. "Trade," said the projector of the bank of England, "will beget trade; money will beget money; the commercial world shall no longer want work for their hands, but will rather want hands for their work. This door to the seas and key to the universe will enable its possessors to become the legislators of both worlds, and the arbitrators of commerce. The settlers of Darien will acquire a nobler empire than Alexander or Cæsar, without fatigue, expense, or danger, as well as without incurring the guilt and bloodshed of conquerors."

Paterson was either knave or fool; having been both preacher and pirate he may have been both fool and knave. It was impossible for him to have explored the Isthmus as he claimed and not know that the climate was deadly, and that to the wild highlander, fresh from the cold north, the harbors of Darien could prove nothing but pest-holes, breeding swift destruction. As for the people who blindly threw themselves into the adventure, they were as sheep, and differed little from the human sheep of the present day.

Spain had at least the right of discovery and conquest to her possessions in the New World, even though such conquest had been attended with cruelty almost as great as that of the English in Hindostan. The natives of Darien were never indeed entirely subdued. Yet even according to the European code of robbery it does not appear that Great Britain had any more right to plant colonies in Tierra Firme than she now has to establish them in portions of the United States that may be infested by hostile Indians. Nevertheless in the year 1699 when, as we shall see, the scheme was on the verge of failure, the English monarch, in answer to a petition from "The Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies and their Colony of Darien," as the association was styled, asking that "His Royal Wisdom be pleased to take such Measures as might effectually vindicate the undoubted Rights and Privileges of the said Company, and support the Credit and Interest thereof," replied, "Right Trusty and Well-beloved, We greet you well: Your Petition has been presented to us by our Secretaries, and we do very much regret the Loss which that our antient Kingdom and the Company has lately sustained."[XXXI‑3]

"To prove," says a writer of the period,[XXXI‑4] "the Falsehood of the Allegation, That the Province of Darien is part of the King of Spain's Domains: It is positively denied by the Scots, who challenge the Spaniards to prove their Right to the said Province, either by Inheritance, Marriage, Donation, Purchase, Reversion, Surrender, Possession or Conquest." "And as to their Claim by the Pope's Donation," writes another author of the period,[XXXI‑5] "the very mentioning, and much more the pleading of it, is a ridiculing, as well as bantring of Mankind; seeing even on the supposal that the Roman Pontiffs should be acknowledged the successors of St Peter, which as no Protestants are forward to believe or confess, so they have never hitherto found, nor do they think the Pontificans able to prove it: Yet this would invest them with no right of disposing the Kingdoms of the World as they please and unto whom they will. For Peter being cloathed with no such Power himself, nor having ever pretended to exert such a Jurisdictive Authority as some Popes have had the Vanity and Pride to do, how could he convey it unto, and entail it upon others, under the quality and character of being his Successors"? These and similar excuses, however sorry, were all that the apologists for the Scots' colony had to offer for thus grasping at this territory. It may be remarked that the claim of Great Britain to her colonies is in few instances based on discovery, and that nearly all her most valuable possessions have been gained at the point of the sword. Might is right.

Six hundred thousand pounds were required for the enterprise and the amount was quickly subscribed, in Scotland, England, Hamburg, and Amsterdam. The scheme was a bold one, but the promise of returns was vast, and as will be remembered this was the era of gigantic and insane speculations. In Scotland alone the subscriptions summed up three hundred thousand pounds, an amount which absorbed almost the entire circulating capital of the country. All who possessed ready money ventured at least a part of it in the enterprise. Some threw in all they had; others all they could borrow. Maidens invested their portions; widows pledged their dower, expecting to be repaid fifty or a hundred fold. In England half the capital stock was subscribed for in nine days, one fourth being paid in specie or bank notes, and the rest in bills payable on demand. The total of the subscriptions from all sources was nine hundred thousand pounds, a sum which at the close of the seventeenth century was enormous even in the money capital of Great Britain. Soon the success of the scheme aroused the jealousy of English merchants, who feared that the commerce of the world might pass into the hands of the Scotch. William III. was at heart opposed to the scheme, although he had granted letters patent to the association; and partly through his influence the contributions in England, Hamburg, and Amsterdam were withdrawn. Nevertheless, another hundred thousand pounds was raised in Scotland, thus making up a capital of four hundred thousand pounds sterling.

Permission was given by the crown to Paterson and his associates to fit out men-of-war, to plant colonies, build cities and forts, make reprisals for damage done by land or sea, and to conclude treaties of peace or commerce with princes and governors. They were also allowed to claim the minerals, the valuable timber, and the fisheries in sea or river, and "in the name of God and in Honour and for the Memory of that most Antient and Renowned name of our Mother Kingdom" the country was to be named New Caledonia. The enterprise was under the control of a council of seven,[XXXI‑6] to whom was intrusted all power, civil and military. Paterson was of course one of the members, but from all deliberations he was excluded, and in the final arrangements for the fleet he was not even consulted, his reasonable request that an inventory of supplies be taken before setting sail being refused.

The expedition had been planned and ordered in keeping with the first subscriptions[XXXI‑7] and was the largest and most costly of any that had yet been fitted out for schemes of colonization in the New World. On the 26th of July 1698 twelve hundred men, among them three hundred youths belonging to the best families of Scotland, and many veterans who had been discharged from the British army after the peace of Ryswick, assembled at the port of Leith. A wild insanity seized the entire population of Edinburgh as they now came forth to witness the embarkation. Guards were kept busy holding back the eager aspirants who, hungry for death, pressed forward in throngs, stretching out their arms to their departing countrymen and clamoring to be taken on board. Stowaways when ordered on shore clung madly to rope and mast, pleading in vain to be allowed to serve without pay on board the fleet. Women sobbed and gasped for breath; men stood uncovered, and with choked utterance and downcast head invoked the blessing of the Almighty. The banner of St Andrew was hoisted at the admiral's mast; and as a light wind caught the sails, the roar of the vast multitude was heard far down the waters of the frith. The breeze freshened, and as the vessels were carried seaward, cheer after cheer followed the highlanders, who now bade farewell, most of them, as it proved, forever, to their native land.

On the 4th of November, having lost fifteen of their number during the voyage, they landed at Acla; founded there a settlement to which they gave the name New St Andrew; cut a canal through the neck of land which divided one side of the harbor from the ocean, and on this spot erected a fort whereon they mounted fifty guns. On a mountain at the opposite side of the harbor they built a watch-house, from which the view was so extensive that there was no danger of surprise. Lands were purchased from the Indians, and messages of friendship sent to the governors of several Spanish provinces.

On the week following the departure of the expedition, the Scottish parliament met and unanimously adopted an address to the king asking his support and countenance for the Darien colony, but no time was lost by the India companies in bringing every means to bear to ensure its ruin; and notwithstanding the memorial of the parliament, the British monarch ordered the governors of Jamaica, Barbadoes, and New York not to furnish the settlers with supplies.[XXXI‑8] To such length did rancor go, that the Scotch commanders who should presume to enter English ports, even for repairs after a storm, were threatened with arrest.[XXXI‑9]

A stock of provision had been placed on board the fleet sufficient as was supposed to last for eight months, but the supply gave out in as many weeks, since those who had been placed in charge of the commissariat department had embezzled the funds. Fishing and the chase were the only resources, and as these were precarious the colonists were soon on the verge of famine. As summer drew near the atmosphere became stifling, and the exhalations from the steaming soil, united with other causes, wrought deadly destruction on the settlers. Men were continually passing to the hospital and thence to the grave, and the survivors were only kept alive through the friendly services of the Indians.[XXXI‑10]

Matters daily grew worse with the colonists. A ship despatched from Scotland laden with provisions had foundered off Cartagena. The Spaniards on the Isthmus looked on their distress with complacency. No relief came nor any tidings from Scotland; and on the 22d of June 1699, less than eight months after their arrival, the survivors resolved to abandon the settlement. Paterson, the first to enter the ship at Leith, was the last to go on board at Darien. Ill with fever and broken in spirit, his misfortune weighed so heavily on him that he became temporarily deranged.[XXXI‑11] Of the rest, four hundred perished at sea.

Eight weeks after Paterson's departure two ships arrived from Scotland with ample stores of provisions and three hundred recruits. Finding the colony at New Saint Andrew abandoned they set sail for Jamaica, leaving six of their number, who preferring to remain on the Isthmus, were kindly treated by the natives, and after they had lived there long enough to satisfy themselves were safely brought away.

Not until several months after the departure of the first expedition did the court of Spain protest against the invasion of her territory. And no better policy could have been devised than to have thus let death do the work; but on the 3d of May 1699 a memorial was presented[XXXI‑12] to William III. by the Spanish ambassador stating that his Catholic Majesty looked on the proceeding as a rupture of the alliance between the two countries and as a hostile invasion, and would take such measures as he thought best against the intruders.

Provoked by this interference, and as yet ignorant of the fate of their colony, the Scotch soon afterward[XXXI‑13] despatched another expedition of thirteen hundred men in four vessels. The ships were hastily fitted out, and during the voyage one was lost and the others scattered. Many died on the passage, and the rest arrived at different times broken in health and spirit. The dwellings of the first settlers had been burned, the fort dismantled, the tools and agricultural implements abandoned, and the site of the settlement was overgrown with weeds. Meanwhile two sloops had arrived in the harbor with a small stock of provisions; but the supply was inadequate, and five hundred of the party were at once ordered to embark for Scotland.

In February 1700 Captain Campbell arrived at New Saint Andrew with a company of three hundred men who had served under him during the campaign in Flanders. Intelligence had now reached the colony that sixteen hundred Spaniards lay encamped on the Rio Santa María expecting soon to be joined by a squadron of nine vessels, when it was proposed to make a concerted attack on the settlement. Campbell resolved to anticipate the enemy, and marching against them at the head of two hundred veterans, surprised their camp by night, and dispersed them with great slaughter. Returning, he found that the Spanish ships were off the harbor, and that troops had been landed from them, cutting off all chance of relief. Nevertheless for six weeks the Scotch sustained a siege, and when their ammunition gave out they melted their pewter dishes and fashioned them into cannon balls. At length provisions ran short and the Spaniards cut off their water supply. A surrender became inevitable. Campbell with a few comrades escaped on board his vessel and made his way to New York and thence to Scotland. The rest capitulated on condition that they be allowed to depart with their effects,[XXXI‑14] but so weak were the survivors and so few in number that they were not able to weigh the anchor of their largest ship until the Spaniards generously came to their assistance. All but two of the vessels were lost; only thirty of the men succeeded in reaching home, and after the loss of more than two thousand lives and several millions of money, the Scotch abandoned further attempts at colonization in Tierra Firme.[XXXI‑15]

While the Spaniards were thus annoyed by foreign encroachments in Darien, the capital of the neighboring province was captured by filibusters. This was in 1697. To Pedro de Heredia had been assigned in 1532, as will be remembered, a province in Nueva Andalucía; and there had been founded the colony of Cartagena, which toward the close of the sixteenth century had become a flourishing settlement. A hundred years later Cartagena ranked next to Mexico among the cities of the western world. Situated on a capacious harbor, esteemed as one of the best in the Indies, it possessed several large streets, each nearly one sixth of a league in length, with well built houses of stone, a cathedral, several churches, and numerous convents and nunneries. Its population was probably little short of twenty thousand, of whom about three thousand were Spaniards and the remainder negroes and mulattoes. It was strongly fortified by nature and art, and had to some extent superseded the cities of the Isthmus as an entrepôt of commerce between the hemispheres. Here the pearl fleet called once a year, an entire street being occupied with the shops of the pearl-dressers, and here was brought, by way of the Desaguadero, the sugar, cochineal, and indigo sent from Guatemala for shipment to Spain.

Cartagena was therefore a tempting prize for the banditti who infested the waters of the North Sea. Drake's operations off that city have already been related. A few years after the decease of that famous adventurer it was laid in ashes by French privateers; and now, in 1697, it was captured by a French fleet having on board twelve hundred men, of whom seven hundred were filibusters under command of Le Baron de Pointis. The spoils of this raid were variously estimated at from eight to forty millions of livres; and yet it is said that before the capture of the city a hundred and ten mule-loads of silver were despatched to a place of safety.

In 1726 the governor of Panamá gave authority to the mestizo, Luis García, a man whose exploits had brought him into prominence, to lead the Indians in a war of extermination against the French filibusters, who still continued to devastate the Isthmus.

A brief but sharp campaign resulted in the death of the French leader, the notorious Petitpied, and García, on his return to Panamá, was amply rewarded. The Cana mines proved too great a temptation to García after his return to his home in Darien, and finding that some of the caciques whose territory extended to the Balsas River were in a state of mutiny on account of grievances inflicted by the curates in the name of the church and the king, he made a compact with them to throw off Spanish allegiance, withdraw their forces to the mountain fastnesses, and form a government of their own. A rendezvous was established in the Cordillera, and García, growing more resolute, resolved on an aggressive war upon the Spaniards and their Indian allies. The campaign opened in a frontier town on the river Yavisa, where they killed the cura, the teniente de justicia, a few Spaniards, and all the Indians who would not join them; then they plundered the place. Elated by this victory, García continued his march until he reached Santa María, where he attempted the same system of spoliation and slaughter. He was less successful, for the inhabitants had fled with most of their valuables. García's men entered the town, burned it, and killed every Spaniard they could capture in the neighborhood.

Meanwhile news of the revolt had reached the president, and seventy picked men well officered had been sent to suppress it. This and other attempts threw the people of Darien, now numbering twenty thousand, into consternation, and concerted action was planned with Panamá. A large reward was offered for the body of García, dead or alive; he perished at last by the hands of a negro.[XXXI‑16]

Although the Isthmus was the seat of the first Spanish settlement in America, as I have said before, the natives of Darien were never completely subdued. The Spaniards built strongholds, gathered the Indians into settlements, introduced missionaries, guarded the coast with men-of-war, but all in vain. In 1745 Fort San Rafael de Terable was built by Governor Dionisio de Alcedo on a small peninsula bordered by the river and bay. In 1751 the natives carrying out an oft repeated threat attacked this stronghold, and of the garrison but two or three wounded men escaped. In 1756 the population of Yavisa, composed chiefly of friendly Indians, was massacred by the Chucunaques. A fort was erected in 1760 at this point, and a few years later it became the capital of the province and the seat of the residence of the governor. In 1768 the Chucunaques slaughtered the garrison at Port Ypelisa, plundered the place of arms and tools, and in the same year laid waste the banks of the Congo.

Ten years later another extensive raid occurred; but in 1774 Andrés de Ariza, being appointed governor, dealt vigorously and skilfully with the hostile tribes. He discovered numerous secret passes and well cut roads from their quarters to various portions of the province; he deciphered a system of alarm signals, and found a number of caves where the light boats of the natives were constructed. By his efforts the Indians were kept at bay or brought under control.

But outbreaks among the natives and the raids of corsairs were not the only misfortunes to which the Isthmus was exposed. During the eighteenth century the city of Panamá was thrice devastated by fire. On the 1st and 2d of February 1737 a conflagration occurred which destroyed two thirds of the buildings; March 30, 1756, a second fire destroyed one half of the city; and on the 26th of April 1771 fifty-five houses were burned.[XXXI‑17]

While the people of Tierra Firme thus suffered many disasters at this period of their history, and as we shall see later were frequently subject to attack from the armaments of hostile powers, they appear to have been remarkably free from the internal dissensions which prevailed at an earlier date. The unseemly strife between the church and the audiencia had now entirely ceased, and little worthy of note is mentioned by the chroniclers. During the latter portion of the seventeenth century, and for the first few years of the eighteenth, records as to the succession of governors in Panamá are meagre. In 1708 the marqués de Villa Rocha was in power; but incurring the displeasure of the audiencia, he was deposed in June of that year, and confined in the castle of Portobello. His successor, Fernando de Haro Monterroso, the senior oidor, who had been mainly instrumental in effecting the downfall of the marquis, held the reins of government for about six months when he was prosecuted for alleged outrages of so grave a character that he was sent in custody to Spain for trial.[XXXI‑18] From Alcedo we learn that Juan Bautista de Orueta y Irusta, alcalde del crímen of the audiencia of Lima, succeeded to the gubernatorial office, and ruled until 1710, when a governor of the king's appointment arrived, and Orueta returned to Lima.

In June 1711 Villa Rocha, having been released and seeing an opportunity of seizing the reins of power, hastened to the capital and proclaimed himself governor. His career was short, for within twenty-four hours José Hurtado de Amedzaga, mariscal del campo of the royal forces, compelled him to abdicate, and he himself took possession of the governor's chair, occupying it until 1716, by which time he had rendered himself so obnoxious to the people that he was removed by the king's order. The government was then placed in the hands of the bishop of the diocese, and the authority of the audiencia was suspended. Following Haya we find that Doctor Fray José de Llamas y Rivas, bishop of Panamá, administered the government from the deposition of Villa Rocha to January 1719. Authorities differ as to the order of succession of the different governors. I have selected Haya as probably the most accurate. This writer informs us that Governor Alderete began his administration of Panamá on the 25th of April 1725, and that he was deposed and sent to Spain in 1730.

The successor of Alderete was Juan José de Andia, marqués de Villa Hermosa, who was promoted from the governorship of Cartagena to the presidency of Panamá. In 1735, after five years' service, he was given a generalship in the royal army of Spain, and returned there with honors.

Dionisio de Alcedo y Herrera was appointed a few years later with authority over all the fortified cities which had been the objective point of the English in the war which they had declared in 1739.

On the day before Christmas 1749 the governorship of Panamá was conferred on Jaime Muñoz de Guzman; but on the same day one appointed by the crown arrived in the person of Manuel de Montiano, who held the office until the 11th of November 1755. Montiano was promoted to this position from the governorship of Florida, and was a mariscal de campo.

While engaged in geodetic surveys at the Isthmus about this time, Ulloa had an opportunity of witnessing the manner in which justice was bought and sold. Matters had come to such a pass that the members of the audiencia chose the most dexterous of their number and empowered him to negotiate with rival parties as to what amount of bonus they were respectively disposed to pay in consideration of a favorable verdict.

Panamá, in 1758 had for its governor Antonio Guill, an officer of unusual merit, and one whose executive ability was highly prized by the crown. He was promoted to the captain-generalship of Chile in 1761. In the following year José Raon succeeded, and was promoted to the presidency of Manila two years later. In 1764 José Vasco y Orosco became governor. He died in 1767, and was succeeded in January 1769 by Vicente Olaziregui, others acting provisionally during the interval. Temporary appointments were made till 1779, when Ramon de Carbajal took charge, returning to Spain in 1786.

Until 1718 the three provinces of the Isthmus were subject to the viceroy of Peru, but after that they were incorporated with New Granada, the viceroy of which resided at Santa Fé de Bogotá. The latter was endowed with the prerogatives of royalty, the only checks upon his authority being the residencia and the right of appeal to the audiencia of Panamá. The audiencia enjoyed the privilege of direct communication with the sovereign, and with the council of the Indies. Any beneficial effect which that institution might have had was counteracted largely by the vast powers of the viceroy and their consequent means of influencing any and every subordinate.

In 1774 there was instituted at Panamá a new audiencia real y chancillería, having for its limits the province of Castilla del Oro as far as Portobello, the province of Veragua, and toward Peru as far as the ports of Buenavista and the river Darien, the territory under its control being bounded on the east and south by that under the jurisdiction of the audiencias of Granada and Quito; on the west by that of Guatemala; and on the north and south by the two oceans.