The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-13 00:00:00

The History of Darien.

Terra Firma, or the mainland of New Granada, was
discovered by Columbus in 1498, and he visited Chagres
and Navy Bay on the 2d of November, 150'2, on his fourth
voyage. Six years afterwards King Ferdinand commis-
sioned Don Alonzo de Ojeda and Don Diego de Nicuesa to
make discoveries and conquests in Terra Firma, giving to
the former jurisdiction over the country from the Gulf of
Uraba, or Darien, eastward to Cape de la Yela, and assign-
ing to the latter the Government over the country from the
Gulf of Darien westward to Cape Graciasa Dios. A dispute
which arose between them as to the boundary line of their
respective provinces was referred to the pilot, Juan de la
Cosa, by whom it was arranged that the River Atrato
should form the boundary. Alonzo do Ojeda went to Car-
thagena and Turbaco, and was killed by the Indians.
Nicuesa went to Veraguas, where he was vigorously opposed
by the Indians, and thence proceeded to Nombre do Dios,
between Portobello and Cape San Blas. One of the vessels
of Nicuesa's small squadron was commanded by the licen
tiate or bachelor-in -laws, Enciso, who sailed from the city
of Santo Domingo, on the Ozama, in 1509, and proceeded to
the Gulf of Darien. Previous to his sailing, a young but
penniless cavallero, named Vasco Nunez de Balbao, was
smuggled on board, concealed in an empty wine cask. To
this stratagem he was obliged to have recourse in order to
get a passage, in consequence of the great animosity borne to
him by Enciso, whose rival he was in the affections of La
Zenorita Teresa Davila, by whose father he was beheaded a
few years afterwards. Upon discovering him a few days
after sailing Enciso ordered him to be killed, but the crew,
with whom Vasco Nunez was a favourite, refused to obey
his order. Melting with unexpected difficulties and obsta-
cles in the Gulf of Darien, he consented to take the advice
of Vasco, ire accordance with which he selected a place on
the west side of the Atrato mouth for the site of a town, to
which was given the name of Santa Maria el Antigua del
Darien. This town, being the first actual settlement formed
on the continent of America, was declared to be the capital
of New Andalusia, and W 29 governed by Encisa, and next
by Vasco Nunez, who was elected by the people in pleco of
Enciso, whom they deposed. From this place he sent to the
King of Spain 300 mares of gold, which occasioned the
name of Castilla del Oro, or Golden Castile, to be given
to Terra Firma. Soon after Enciso had settled at Santa
Maria, a party despatched from thence to the westward
found Nicuesa and his men in a famishing condition at a
place called afterwards Nombre de Dios, because on landing
there and finding no Indians, Nicuesa, who had been
severely harassed by the Indians cf. Veraguas, said,
" Quedamos aqui en el nombre do Dio" (let U 3 stop here,
in the name of God).
On St. Michael's day, Sept. 29, 1513, Vasco Nunez dis-
covered the Pacific Ocean, at the Gulf of San Miguel,
having sailed from Santa Maria to Carreto, and thence to
Caledonia Harbour, from whence he crossed, fighting a
battle on the way with the Indian chief Quarequa.
In July, 1614, Don Pedro Arias Davila, surnamed El
Justador, succeeded him as governor of Santa Maria, hav-
ing been sent out to supersede him, in consequence of com-
plaints carried to Spain by Ends°. He was afterwards be-
headed by Davila, at Panama, upon an unfounded charge
of treason to the king. Wi.h Davila came Juan de Quevedo,
as Bishop of Darien, with the usual authority from Pope
Leo X., so that Santa Maria was the first episcopal city in
America.

In 1514, Agla, or Acta, in Caledonia B ty, probably at the
mouth o f the Aglatumati, was founded by Gabriel de Rojas,
as the most convenient point from whence to cross to the
Pacific.

In 1515, King Ferdinand granted to the town of Santa
Maria the privilege of bearing as its arms—gules, a golden
castle, surmounted by a sun of the same, supported on the
right by a tiger, and on the left by a crocodile, with these
word—" La imagen de Nuestra Senora del Antigua,"
In 1516, Agla was fortified by Davila. In 1518 Panama
was founded by Davila, after the conquest of Tubanama,
its cac'que, by Vasco Nunez. The word Panama, it may be
observed, means "plenty of fish." in 1532 Agla and the
whole Isthmus of Darien were abandoned for Nombrede
Dios and Panama, a road having been opened from the
former place to San Juan and thence to Panama. Most
probably the hostility of the Indians of Darien obliged the
Spaniards to seek a transit route elsewhere ; for, although
Vasco Nunez conquered the Cacique of Carreto, whose
daughter he married, and caciques of Comagre, Ponca,
Quarequa, Chiapes, Zumaco, and Pocorosa, no settlements
were effected in Darien except those of Santa Maria and
Agla, which were so EOM abandoned.
From 1532 to the days of the filibustieros, or buccaneers,
there is a complete hiatus in the history of Darien.
In 1572, indeed, Nombre de Dios was taken by Sir
Francis Drake, who plundered it of specie and commodities
of immense value ; but that place, being to the westward
of Cape Sans B!as, is included in the Isthmus of Panama.
After the sacking of Nombre de Dios, which is now a
hamlet with a population of about 100 negroes, it was aban-
doned for Portrbello, which was selected as being a more
defensible position and having a better harbour. Its insa-
lubrity, however, was so great the Spaniards removed from
thence to Chagres, whence passengers and goods were con-
♦eyed in canoes up the Chagres river to Gorgona in the
dry, and Cruces in the rainy season. From each of these
places there is a most execrable mule road to Panama,which
is 23 miles distant from the former and 21 from the latter,
In the lower course of the river, the canoes were propelled
by paddles (canatetas), and higher up they were shoved
along by poles (pa'ancas). Chagres has lately been deserted,
and the Atlantic terminus of the Panama Railroad at
Aspinwall or Colon, on the island of Manzanillo, Navy Bay,
is now the point c f departure for the Pacific.
In 1680 the buccaneers crossed the isthmus by the Chu-
guanaqua, and took the fort and town of Real de Santa
Maria, on the Turfra, in the south of Darien. The follow.
ing is the account given in the MS. of basil Ringrose, one
of the buccaneers, which is in the Ayscough Collection, in
the British Museum :—" On April 5, 1680, 331 buccaneers,
most of them English, passed over from Golden Island, and
landed in Darien, each man provided with four
cakes of bread, called doughboys, with a pistol,
a fusil, and a hanger, They began their jour-
ney, marshalled in divisions with distinguishing
flags, under their several commanders, Bartholomew Sharp
and his men taking the lead. Many Darien Indians kept
them company as their confederates, and supplied them with
fruit, plantains, and venison, for which payment was made
in axes, hatchets, knives, needles. beads, and trinkets; all
of which the buccaneers had taken care to come well pro•
vided with. Among the Darien Indians in company were
two chiefs, who went by the names of Captain Andreas and
Captain Antonio. The commencement of their march was
through the skirt of a wood, which, having passed, they
proceeded about a league by the aide of a bay, and after-
wards about two leagues directly up a woody valley, where
there was an Indian house and plantation by the side of a
river. Here they took up their lodgings for the night, those
wno could not be received in the house building huts. The
Indiana were earnest in cautioning theta not to sleep on the
grass on account of adders. Thie first day's journey dis-
couraged four of the buccaneers, and they returned to the
ships. Stones were found in the river which, on being
broken, shone with sparks of gold. These stones, they
were told, were drives down from the neighbauring
mountains by torrents during the rainy season. The next
marnmg at sunrise they proceeded on their way,
labouring up a steep hill, which they surmounted
about three in the afternoon, and at the foot on the
other side they rested on the bank of a river which Capt.
Andreas told them ran into the South Sea, and was the
same by which the town of Santa Maria was situated."
It was, in fact, the Sucubti, which rises from the Pacific
side of Mount Agla. By descending it and the Chuqua-
nava, of which it is a tributary, they reached the Tuyra,
into which the latter falls, and on which Santa Maria, the
nearest town to the Mine of Cana, was situated. After
taking Santa Maria they proceeded to the Gulf of San
Migue and Panama.

to 1681, Surgical L'onel Wafer, with a party of the
buccaneers, when approaching the mouth of the Tuyra
with the intention of returning the way they had come,
observed a Spanish gunboat anchored off it. To avoid
being taken by the Spaniards they landed at the mouth of
the Congo, in the Gulf of San Miguel, whence the Indians
guided the buccaneers to the Atlantic. Wafer, having
scorched his knee by the accidental explosion of some gun-
powder, was left behind at a hut on the bank of the Congo,
and after a residence of some months with the Indians,who
treated him well, was by them conducted to the mouth of
Conception River, in San Blas Bay. On his return to I.ln-
don he wrote a most interesting account of his journey._He
afterwards went to Edinburgh with Patterson to give infor-
mation concerning Darien to the company which organised
the Scotch colony.

In 1685 the gold mines of Darien were ordered to be
closed by royal decree, dated March the 12th,
In 1698 the Scotch colony settled on the extremity of the
promontory outside of Port Eecoces, and began to build the
town of New Edinburgh and the Fort of St. Andrew. The
colonists were starved out, in 1699, by the infamous order
of King William the Third, who was influenced in his
opposition to them by the remonstrances of the Spanish
Ambassador, and the intrigues of the Dutch East Indian
Company. The project of colonization was started by
Patterson from information given to him by Wafer.
In 1719 the Indians rose against the Spaniards, and the
few doctrinae, or missions, that had been established,
were broken up. It appears from a passage in tho " Vidgo"
of Don Antonio de Ulloa and Don Juan Jorge, the Spanish
academicians, who went to the vicinity of Quito to measure
the length of a degree on the equator, th tt, previous to
1719, there were doctrinaa at Matumaganti (a branch of
the Sevens) and Aglascniqua, in Caledonia Bay.
In 1740 peace was concluded with the Indians by Lieu-
tenant-General Don Dionisio Martinez do la Vega, in con-
sequence of which Don Sebastian do Eslaba, Viceroy of
Santa Ft':, sent to North Darien two Jesuits, Padres Salva-
dor Grande and Pedro Fabro ; and the Fresident of
Panama sent to the South Padres Matias Alvarez and
Claudio Escobar, who formed the settlements of Mo.
lineca, Balsas, Matti, Chuquanaqua, Cups, and Yavisa.
But they Lad scarcely succeeded in establishing those
missions when the Indians deserted them, and the fathers
with difficuly escaped with their lives.
In 1784 a junta, convened at Santa F. 6 de Bogota, by the
viceroy and archbishop, Don Antonio Caballero y Gon-
gcra, for the purpose of devising measures for the reduction
and pacification of the Indians, decreed the establishment
of forts at Alandinga, Concepcion, Carolina, in Caledonia

Bay, and Cayman, in the Gulf of Darien. The command
of the forts was entrusted to De la Torre, and with him
were associated Brigadier General Don Antonio de Arebalo
and Garcia de Villalba.

The forts were established in 1785, and in the same year
Lieutenant Colonel Don Andres de Arisa founded Puerto
del Principe, on the Savaca, above the Lava mouth, and
placed in it a garrison of 200.
Arisa was very anxious to establish a communication be-
tween the fort of Carolina, in Caledonia Bay, and that of
Principe, on the Savana. To promote that object he made
a trea'y of friendship with Sulpani, or Urruchurchu, the
chief of Sucubti, who gave his consent to the clearing of a
road across the Isthmus, but the other chiefs decidedly re-
fused to let any Spaniard cross, or even to permit one of
Suspani's Indians to convey letters from one fort to the
other. After several fruitless attempts at negotiation on
the subject, Don Luis de la Carrera was sent with 300 man
of the Princesa Regiment (white soldiers) to open a read,
and had succeeded in clearing a path through the bush as
far as the bank of the Chuquan3qua, opposite the mouth
of the Sucubti, when the hostile attitude of the Indians
obliged him to abandon the work.

The route by which Arisa proposed to open a communi-
cation between the forts, in accordance with the informa-
tion which he received from Suspani, was, first, to ascend
the Aglatumati, one hour's journey from its mouth in
Caledonia Bay; then_to cross the Cordillera to the head-
waters of the Sucubti, an eight hours' journey ; next, to
descend that river, half a day by water, or one day by land,
to its confluence with the Chiquanaqua, from the opposite
bank of which to Principe was a journey of six hours.
Arisa proposed forming a settlement, to be called Mira-
fibres, at the mouth of Sucubti, and another, to be called
Betanzas, between the Savana and the Chuquanaqua, but,
as the road never was made, those plans fell to the
ground.

Matos, who was governor in Arisa's absence, and
Donoso, an engineer, who was sent from Spain, with five
assistants, to survey the Sawana and Chuquanaqua, re-
commended descending the Chuquanaqua to Yavisa, and
crossing thence to Principa, evidently a much longer route
than Arisa's.

It is worthy of note that, as appears from documents
existing in the archives of Bogota, from which I gleaned
the above scanty memoranda, no sickness of any kind oc-
curred amongst the Spanish soldiers, although they fre-
quently made expeditions into the forest, and sometimes
remained in the bush for a fortnight. Amongst the docu-
ments I found the diary of Sergeant Gabriel Morales, who
went from Principe with a party of soldiers with the object
of catching a stray Indian, and sending him with pacific
overtures to the chiefs. It concludes by stating that all his
party returned in perfect health. He advanced as far as
the Moreti mouth, and then returned, having seen no traces
of Indians anywhere, although doubtless his movements
had been watched by them. Arisa had gone previous'y
with 200 men to the confluence of the Sucubti with the
Chuquanaqua, and remained there several days without
seeing any sign of an Indian. He then put a letter con-
taining an offer of peace in a bottle, which he suspended
from a tree, and returned to Principe. Immediately after
his arrival there a messenger came from the Indians to in-
quire what was the meaning of the paper in the bottle.
Arias, in his report to the Viceroy, states that none of the
men fell sick, although they had but recently arrived from
Spain.

I found that the old Granadians in the south had a per-
fect recollection of the attempts made by Arisa, Donoso, and
Mates to open a way to the Atlantic. One of them, a very
aged negro, named Eulalio Alva, of Chapigana, who was a
patient of mine, informed me that he accompanied his
lather, who was a barqueano, or boatman, of Donoso's,
when that engineer was surveying the Chuquanaqua and
Savana. He stated that he saw Suspani when he came to
Yav!sa to make peace and be baptised. He also told me
that the people at Principe could hear the gun fired at
Carolina.—" The Isthmus of Darien," by Dr. Cullen.

(To be continued.)

Ironmasters' Quarterly Meeting.

WOLVERHAMPTON, Wednesday Evening.

The meetings of the ironmasters of this district
for the current quarter commenced in this town to-
day, under circumstances more unsatisfactory and
depressing perhaps than was before experienced.
The collier's strike has had a most damaging effect
upon the trade; the mischief arising from it is in-
creasingly felt daily, and even under the most
favourable circumstances it will be a very long
time before the district recovers from the shock.
The attendance to-day was not large, and very little
business was transacted, the iron masters not being
particularly anxious to take orders while there is
so much of uncertainty about their execution, which
must necessarily be the case if the strike continues.
In this state of things it is most likely that this
will be a very quiet quarter day, but whatever con-
tracts are to be entered into were reserved for the
meeting at Birmingham on Thursday.
It was stated to-day that the principal iron-
masters are moderately supplied with orders; but
it was thought that if the colliers were all in there
would not be sufficient to keep the works in full
operation, the demand on account of the export
trade being limited.
The market for pig-iron is extremely dull ; few
sales were reported to-day, and, notwithstanding
the reduction which hes taken place, prices have
not materially improved. It appears that in the
district west of Dudley there are 14 furnaces only
in blast out of 56.

The colliers' strike was much discussed to-day ;
the prevailing opinion was that it will soon be over.
A good number of the men in this—the thin
coal district—have gone in ; on the Dudley side
also the men are dropping in at Lord Dudley's
pits, and some other of the collieries in that
locality. The town was perfectly quiet to-day, the
colliers not having made their appearance.
Soon after the trade had assembled a very gloomy
feeling was produced by the announcement that M►
Williams, the chairman of the Association, had died
at his residence, Wednesbury OA, at half-past one
o'clock. As head of the firm of Phillip Williams
and Sons, the deceased had been largely engaged in
the iron and coal trade of South Staffordshire all
his life ; he was very highly respected, possessed
considerable influence, and having been looked up
to by all classes he will be much missed in the lout.
lity. Mr Williams was also a banker at Wednes-
bury, deputy-chairman of the Birmingham Canal
Company, and a director of the London and North
Western Railway Company. He was a magistrate
of the county of Stafford.