The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-02-17

master much.
Twelve days it took those mail-clad
warriors, preceded by maroons cutting
the way, to reach the peak. Some
died, from the most pestilential cli-
mate in the world;' and there were
skirmishes with the Indians, the same
tribes who are now supposed to be
allies Of the United States, in spite of
the fact that one great chief, Inana-
quina, has gone to Cathagena to- be
entertained by Colombian officers On
September %, 1913, Balboa saw the
sea beyond, the sea that really reached
to the East of Marco Polo, and he sent
Pizarro ahead with scouts. following
himself, wading' waist deep into the
surf to draw his sword and take pos
session for CASTLE and Leon. Very
near the same spot at ,Acla, a settle
ment he founded. Balboa was put
to death for treason. His treason was
that long before he had started he
had usurped the governors place, and
Spain did not hear of his marvellous
discoveries till new governor with
orders to execute Balboa had been sent
to the Isthmus and had fulfilled the
mission. Pizarro went on down the
Pacific to the conquest of Peru; and
the gold of the Incas presently came
streaming back and over seas to Spain.
At Porto Bello and at NoInbre de Dios
are the two split ends Of the only path,
except the fifty-year-old Panama Rail-
road, which even to this day exists
across this junction of two continents.
The road, though paved with stone,
is thick with bush now. Two years
ago mine owner had forty machete
men so ahead of him and clear a
trail, and then by means of many re-
lays of mules he made the journey to
Panama in twenty hours. Drake
heard of this road in 1910. He heard
Of the gold, silver and pearls that came
over it for Spain. At that time the
port Of departure was Nombre de Dios,
just above here, and for that port
Drake left Plymouth, England, with
two ships and seventy-three men, and,
it is believed, the sanction of Queen
Elizabeth. Leaving his ships out of
sight, he used his pinnaces in scouting,
and found the plate-feet in the harbor,
with her escortof three armed galleons,
waiting for the cargo. One night he
rushed the town, old John Oxenham,
who was afterwards hanged in Lima
as pirate, his lieutenant. The Spanish
fed. Silver was abundant; but Drake
wanted gold and pearls The Spanish
returned, for the church bell ringer
was still faithfully pealing the alarm.
and they took courage. Drake was
wounded in the leg, and his men
carried him away in retreat. For three
years he waited his chance on the Isle
of Pines, taking, meantime, with his
pinnaces, several old ships. cutting out
treasure ship from her escort at
Carthagena; and then got word of q
rich train coming down the Panama
road. Yellow fever had killed off all
but forty-eight of his men; his surgeon
had died. too, "of his own medicines"
The Notifications of Porto Bello are
beautiful. In the style which Vauban
brought to climax. in the days Of
Louis le Soleil Of France, they have
the rampant, the esplanade, the glacis,
and the rest in lovely line and sym
metry. Every point commands some
other point; and underneath them is
Of historical romance. We found the
walls, of course, scribbled with the
breads and wishes and farewells of in.
Vulnerable prisoners. Ramparts scarce
ly reached to the waistline of a man;
and the sentry boxes, decorative little
round-topped towers placed for archi-
tectural no less than for military effect,
were hardly big enough for a man to
turn around in. Red flowers, long and
slim, like a folded morning glory,
grew in the rifle slits. Small orchids
thrived under the dislocated iron guns
so old that none of the marks telling
the date Of manufacture can be deciph-
cred. People who fancy that ancient
ruins are only to be encountered in the
Old World should see these of Spanish
America. They are European in char
acter, with story that seems almost
Asiatic in age. At the other end of the
towns waterfront stands the walls of
the castle which Morgan sacked and
raped Of its gold and pearls-making
the priests and nuns Of the place 60
ahead to put up scaling ladders and
take the brunt of the arquebuses.-New
York Evening Post.