to give nearly all his Indians, who were required to till the
ground and build houses, and as those that remained were
taken off to the mines, where they died, in a short time
neither chiefs nor Indians were to be found in all the
land.1
Panama was founded in the year 1519, on the day of
Nuestra Sefiora de Agosto, and at the end of that year a
captain named Diego Alvites founded Nombre de Dios, by
order of Pedrarias.2 In Nombre de Dios there was a certain '8
race of people called Chuchures, with a language different
from that of the other Indians. They came to settle in this
place in canoes from Honduras, and as the country was un-
healthy their numbers decreased, and there were few of
them. Of these few none survived the treatment they re-
ceived after Nombre de Dios w>as founded.
Having founded Panama in this year, the governor sent
the licentiate Espinosa in command of the ships, with as
many men as they would hold, to the westward.3 The
licentiate arrived at the province of Burica, on the coast of
Nicaragua, some hundred leagues from Panama. Thence
1 This hideous picture of the devastation caused by the Spaniards,
within a few years after their first arrival, is but too true.
2 The town of Nombre de Dios was abandoned in the reign of Philip II,
on account of its extreme unhealthiness, and Porto Bello became the chief
Atlantic port of the isthmus. In later times Porto Bello was abandoned
for Chagres, and now Colon or Aspinwall is the Atlantic terminus of the
Panama railway.
3 These were the vessels constructed with such immense toil and dif-
ficulty by Vasco Nunez.
24
«NARRATIVE OF
he turned to come back by land, sending a ship to explore
a gulf which they called San Lucar, in Nicaragua. The
ship brought back news respecting that land; and the
Licentiate, returning by land to Panama from the province
of Burica, came, with as many men as he could spare, to the
province of Huista. Here he remained for some time,
loading the ships with maize, and sending it to Panama,
because there was great scarcity and little land that was
inhabited.
The people of this province and of that of Burica, were
almost exactly the same in the fashion of their clothes, and
in their customs. The women wore a truss round their
loins, as their clothing; and the men were naked. The
country is fertile, with plentiful supplies of fish, and a great
quantity of swine, which were caught with large nets of
stuff like hemp, called by the Indians nequen, the meshes
being a finger in breadth. These nets were fastened at the
entrance of a wood where there was a herd of swine, who
came against the nets and were unable to get through the
meshes. Then the people called out, the nets fell over the
swine, and they were killed with lances, so that none
escaped, of those that fell into the nets.1
Leaving this province on our way to Panama by land, we
arrived at a mountainous district, with a cold climate, where
we found some forests of very beautiful oaks covered with
acorns. There were three or four chiefs in this province,
and their villages were well fortified with pallisades made of
very strong thorny plants, intertwined, >and forming a thick
wall. Throughout these districts the Indians were seized
and bound. From Burica to this province, which is called
Tobreytrota, nearly every chief has a different language
from the others. From this hilly country we turned to
descend towards the sea, and came to the province of Nata,
1 This account of the manner of hunting peccaries is quoted by
Herrera. Dec. ii, lib. i, cap. 3.
where the town was founded which is now called Nata.1 At
first it received the name of Santiago, and it is 30 leagues
from Panama. This was a very populous province, in-
habited by a very good, hard working people. The chief
of this land continually led his men of war against his
neighbours. His chief enemy was a lord named Escoria,
who had his villages on the banks of a great river, eight
leagues from Meta. Here he had very large deposits of
salt, which are made naturally by the water which flows into
the sea, in certain lakes formed by the increase of fresh
water, where it crystallises in the summer. Eight leagues'
further on, in the direction of Panama, there was another
chief called Chiru, whose people have a different language,
although their appearance, dress, and way of living is the
same as that of their neighbours. Seven leagues from Chiru,
towards Panama, is the province of Chame, which is the
point to which the language of Coiba extends.
In the year 1516, a captain named Gonzalo de Badajos set
out with a small force which was placed under his command
by Pedrarias, and, going by sea, disembarked at Nombre
de Dios.2 Thence he went along the skirts of the moun-
tains, through the territory of certain chiefs, until he came
out at Chiru, which we shall describe further on. From
Chiru he went to the province of Nata. The Indians had
1 William Funnel thus describes Nata in 1703. u The town of Nata
is a large and well compacted town, situated upon the banks of a river
of the same name. It has great trade with Panama, selling them pro-
visions, as cows, hogs, fowls, and maize. From Nata the coast stretches
in mountains and hills, and the water is so shoal that there is scarcely
any coming in for a ship; but if there were, here is never a port. Along
this coast ships ought to keep two or three leagues off shore, or else they
will meet with broken ground and sunk rocks ; but the coast has many
fresh water rivers, full of several sorts of very good fish.» Collection of
Voyages (London, 1729), iv, p. 95.
2 Herrera says he had a force of 130 men, and that his orders were to
conquer all the country between Nombre de Dios and the South Sea...
This expedition took place during the lifetime of Vasco Nunez.
26
NARRATIVE OF
never seen Spaniards, and held such people to have fallen
from the skies, and they would not attack them until they
knew whether they would die. Thus the Spaniards went
from Nata and Escoria, without having recourse to war,
and came to the province of Paris, which is twelve leagues
from Nata to the westward ; for nearly all this land, as far
as Nicaragua, trends to the westward. The chief of Paris,
with his people, concealed himself from the Spaniards, who
had brought two principal men from Nata as guides and
interpreters. These men, seeing that no natives appeared,
proposed to go in search of them, and get speech with the
chief. They started one morning, and came back in the
afternoon with a boy, who said that the chief was in a vil-
lage three or four leagues off, with all his household and
wives. They were sent with the boy to ask him to come, as
the strangers only desired peace and friendship. The chief,
whose name was Quitatara, sent back eleven castellanos of
good gold, saying that his women sent them, and asking
the Spaniards to leave his country, as he did not wish to
see them. The captain, moved to avarice at the sight of
this gold, sent back to summon him, saying that if he did
not come, he would go in search of him. The chief had
spies to watch when the Christians should set out from the
camp. When the captain took one road and the Indians
another, the chief fell upon those who remained in the
camp with such fury that the Spaniards were defeated, and
fled to a height, with the loss of some killed and others
wounded. The flight was so hurried that the Indians took
the hut where there were fifty and more thousand pesos of
gold, which up to that time had been collected. It was set
on fire before all the. gold could be taken out, and, the fire
reaching it, a bag containing eight pesos was burnt, for which
reason they left it there. The captain, as he was travelling
by land in the morning, met the Indians coming in war-
like array, towards the place where the Christians re-
27
mained; and on inquiring for the chief, they said that he
was at the Christian camp. On hearing this, the captain
returned with great speed, and when he arrived, he found
his people all wounded and maltreated.1 As his own party^
was fresh, he defeated the Indians, and, not wishing to
wait for a battle on the following day, he embarked on a
river that flowed near the village, in certain canoes, and
went out to sea; proceeding to Nata with the chief of that
place, who had come with him. Having heard the news of
the defeat of the Christians, the Indians prepared for war;
and the Christians, entering Nata without precaution, be-
cause they had left the place at peace, were met by the
Indians, who came out to fight them with great fury. They
fought almost all day, without either one side or the other
being defeated. Not wishing to wait another day, the
Christians went down to the place where they had left the
canoes, during the night, and went in them to the province
of Comogre, which is adjoining to Acla.
In the same year, six months after this captain departed,
Pedrarias left Darien with all the troops he had with him,
and went over to the other coast of Carthagena, below
C'enu, to obtain tidings of a captain named Becerra, who
had set out from Darien with one hundred and seventy
men, and had not been heard of since. Marching inland
we came to a very high hill, where there was a small village.
The Indians defended themselves with their arrows, and
wounded the Spaniards, but at last the heights were gained,
and it was gathered from the few people who were captured,
that Becerra and all his men had been killed by Indians,
while crossing a river. After receiving this news the
governor returned to the coast, embarked, and went to the
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