Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“New World”, headed for the western and central Caribbean coast, keen to lay his hands on
the legendary gold. He attempted to establish the first European settlement on the isthmus,
prompting violent conflicts with indigenous populations. Though relations between Colum-
bus and the local chief or
cacique
,
Quibián
, known as “El Señor de la Tierra”, were initially
friendly, the mood changed once it was clear the Spanish intended to stay. When Columbus
left his garrison at Santa María de Belén (in present-day Veraguas) to seek reinforcements,
Quibián rallied local leaders to destroy the settlement but was captured by Columbus's broth-
er Bartolomé, who had been left in charge. While being transported as a prisoner downriver to
Belén, the chief dived out of the dugout and was presumed drowned. He survived, however,
and went on to lead an assault against the invaders, eventually forcing them to flee.
The respite was short-lived. In 1505 the King of Spain, Ferdinand II, intent on expanding
and consolidating his empire, dispatched two men to take charge of what had been named
“
Tierre Firme
” (extending from present-day Venezuela to Panama):
Alonso de Ojeda
was to
govern the land between Cabo de la Vela in present-day Colombia through to the Golfo de
Urabá, known as Nueva Andalusia, while
Diego de Nicuesa
was to oversee the west from
the gulf to Gracias a Dios on what is now the border between Honduras and Nicaragua (and
was known as Castilla de Oro, after its supposed riches). Both campaigns ended in disaster;
indeed, of Nicuesa's eight hundred men only a hundred survived.
Though estimates of the indigenous population at the time of the Spanish conquest vary
from two hundred thousand to two million, what is not in dispute is the speed at which
the local communities were decimated, as much by
disease
brought by the conquistadors as
through
massacre
and
enslavement
. The remainder retreated to inhospitable remote moun-
tain areas, where they either lay low or continued their resistance against the invaders. The
Spanish instituted a feudal-style system of
encomiendas
, theoretically entrusting “free” in-
digenous peoples to the stewardship of colonizers for their well-being and instruction in the
Catholic faith in return for labour; in practice, workers were more often treated like slaves.
Though the system was eventually abolished in 1720, it did not spell the end of intense hard-
ships for many of the rural population.
Balboa and the Mar del Sur
There's little in
Vasco Núñez de Balboa
's inauspicious early life to suggest he would rise
to prominence. After setting foot on the isthmus as a member of Bastidas's expedition, he
settled on Hispaniola, where, failing as a pig-farmer, he fled his creditors by stowing away on
a boat bound for the mainland. Upon discovery, he was saved from being thrown off the ship
thanks to his knowledge of the isthmus. As the incipient Spanish settlements struggled to sur-
vive, including the new regional centre
San Sebastián de Urabá
founded by Ojeda, Balboa
recommended relocating across the gulf.
Santa María de la Antigua del Darién
(located
just on the other side of the current Panama-Colombia border) was thus established on a site
