The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1913-09-19
By WILLIAM R. SCOTT
Continued from last week.

mere VIII NOT be the slightest diff
Guilty in living near the equator.
CHAPTER III.
The Spanish In Panama.
AN the fourth attempt Columbus
made to find passage to the
w East Indies he cruised along
~ the isthmian coast from Sep
,..bor 1902. to January, 1903, enter
,nr and naming the harbor Of Porto
peIo on Nov. 2. 1902, and visiting
yombre de Dios on Nov. 8, in what is
nav the republic Of Panama.
rolumbus, however, was not the dis
,,vprer of Panama. as Spaniard,
named Rodrigo de Bastides, had pre-
coded him to this coast, in 1901, so that
be period of the Spanish in Panama
dates from that year. Bastides visited
Nonbre de Dios, where eight years la
tel the first Spanish settlement on the
isthmus was planted, in 1909, as
base for the search for gold.
yasco Nunez de Balboa had been
with Bastides on his trip Of exploration,
and he became the head of the new
colony at Panama. For a few years
the mountains with their dense jungle
growth stood as barrier to eXplora
tons farther inland, but the stories of
The marvellous wealth of the inhabi-
tants on the other side, told to Balboa
BY the Indians, so excited his cupidity
that in 1913, he gathered band Of 100
men and started across.
Balboa discovered the Pacific on
Sept. %, 1913. Calling his men to him,
they had religious ceremony, claim
ing all they surveyed as the dominions
Of his majesty the king of Spain.
Gold he found in abundance and
pearls of fabulous size and value. Aft
er FIVE months absence he returned to
NOmbre de Dios by a more direct
course and found that he had been sue
ceeded as governor at Nombre de Dios
by soldier named Pedrarias. Be-
tween them hatred sprang up which,
In 1911, resulted In the untimely and
unjust execution of Balboa on trumped
up charges. Prior to this, Balboa had
made other trips to the Pacific, carry
Ing across with Incredible labor the
parts of ships which were rebuilt in
fhn DnniRn n 101I thn nc
found cannon of immense weight
about halfway across. which evidently
had been abandoned by Balboa, and
an anchor of great size also has been
found.
Pedrarias in 1915 had sent exploring
parties to the Pacific side to select a
site for a settlement on that coast.
The San Francisco exposition there
fore in 1915 will be exactly 400 years
after this event. 1t was not until 1919
that the settlement was started. and
the founding Of the city of Panama
dates historically from that year.
With the founding of town on the
Pacific side began the interoceanic
traffic which ever since has empha-
sized the need of easier and swifter
communication between the Atlantic
and Pacific. At huge expense of la
Dor and life a paved road was con-
structed from Nombre de Dios to Pan
ANA, portions Of which may be seen in
the canal zone today.
1t may be noted that Panama was
founded asful hundred years before
the landing of the pilgrims at Plym-
Outh Nombre de Dios was a town
nnety-eight years before the first Eng
Hsh settlement in North America, at
jamestown, in 1907. st. Augustine,
Fla, the oldest town in North America,
was not founded until forty-six years
after Panama
After nearly century at Nombre de
Dos the Spanish in the year 1884
found Porto Bello a healthier site for
settlement and moved bag and bag
gage to that Incompatible port.
Porto Bello at once became the depot
Of Spanish treasure accumulated from
rern or other South and Central Amer