Stones were found in the river, which, on being broken, shone with sparks of gold. These stones, they were told, were driven down from the neighbouring mountains by torrents during the rainy season. The next morning, at sunrise, they proceeded on their journey, 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 Captain Andreas told them ran into the South Sea, and was the same by which the town of Santa Maria was situated." This was the Chuquanaqua which they reached by crossing the steep hill, called Loma Deseada, behind Carreto Bay (see p. 54), a hill considerably higher than that behind Caledonia Bay and Port Escoscés. It will be seen, by reference to the map, that the buccaneers took a course eastward of the route to the Savana, and got upon higher ground.

In 1681, Surgeon Lionel Wafer, who was one of the original party of the Buccaneers, that crossed the Isthmus from Caledonia Bay, by the Chuquanaqua into the Gulf of San Miguel, having scorched his knee by the accidental explosion of some gunpowder, and being left behind, on his return back, again crossed the Isthmus from the mouth of the Congo, in the Gulf of San Miguel, to the mouth of Concepcion river, near San Blas Bay.

In 1685, the gold mines of Darien were closed by Royal Decree (see p. 58.)

The following is the translation of the decree:

"Year 1685. Royal decree. March 12th.-That the President of Panama break up and destroy the mines of gold that exist in the vicinity of the rivers of the province of Darien, because the coveting of them has induced the pirates to undertake the transit from the sea of the north to the sea

of the south by those rivers, to the prejudice of the public cause-and that the Viceroy of Peru co-operate in it" (vid. t. iii. n.7 of the Archives of the viceroyalty of Peru, at Lima).

DECREES AGAINST BUCCANEERS.-There are most stringent Decrees in the above Archives against Buccaneers on this Isthmus, dated 27th September, 1663; 31st December, 1672; 31st July, 1683; 26th September, 1686; and 14th November, 1690.

In 1698, the Scotch colony settled on the promontory outside of Port Escoscés, and was starved out in 1699, by the infamous orders of William III., actuated by jealousy, and influenced by Spanish and Dutch intrigues. The project of colonization was started by Paterson, the founder of the Bank of England, from information given him by Surgeon Lionel Wafer.

In 1719, the Indians rose against the Spaniards, and the few doctrinas, or missions that had been established were broken up. I find in Don Antonio de Ulloa and Don Juan Jorge, the Spanish Academicians' " Viaje," that previous to this date there were doctrinas in Matumaganti and Aglaseniqua.

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In 1740, peace was made with the Indians by Lieut.-Gen. Don Dionisio Martinez de la Vega: and Don Sebastian de Eslaba, viceroy of Santa Fé, sent to North Darien two Jesuits, Fathers Salvador Grande, and Pedro Fabro; and the President of Panama sent to the south, Fathers Matias Alvarez, and Claudio Escobar, who formed the settlements of Molineca, Balsas, Tucuti, Chuquanaqua, Cupe, and Yavisa; but had scarcely succeeded in forming these missions, when the Indians deserted them, and the fathers with difficulty escaped with their lives.

In 1784, a junta was convened in Bogota by the viceroy and archbishop, Don Antonio Caballero y Gongora, when instructions were issued to establish forts at Mandinga, Concepcion, Carolina (in Caledonia Bay), and Cayman. The command was entrusted to De la Torre, and with him were associated Brigadier General Don Antonio de Arebalo, and Garcia de Villalba; these forts were established in 1785, and the same year Lieut.-Colonel Don Andres de Arisa, governor of Darien, founded Fuerte del Principe with 200 men.

DON ARISA'S PROJECTED ROAD.-Arisa projected a road from Principe to the mouth of the Sucubti, on the east bank of the Chuquanaqua, and thence to Carolina. He procured with much difficulty the consent of the Indians to the opening of the road, through the aid of Captain Suspani, or Urruchurchu, the chief of Sucubti. Carrera was sent with 300 men of the Princesa regiment (white soldiers), to open the road, but went to Panama, leaving the work unfinished; and it appears that the road never was actually made. The only person who ever crossed the Isthmus from Carolina to Principe was adjutant Milla;28 but only once, as, subsequent to his crossing, he had to go to Panama and Portobello, to get a passage to Carolina.

The route proposed by Arisa, from information given him by Suspani, and the same by which Suspani guided Milla, was, to ascend the Aglatomate or Aglaseniqua, one hour; then to ascend the ravine of the Cordilleras, to the head-waters of the Sucubti, an eight hours' journey; then to go down the Chuquanaqua, half a day by water, or one day by land, and turning to the right for six hours, over

28 See his Diary in the Appendix.

E

ground quite level, to reach Principe. The Spaniards endeavoured to found Miraflores at the mouth of the Sucubti, where Suspani resided; and on the plain between the Chuquanaqua and the Savana, they proposed to found Betanzas es a central station.

Matos, governor of Darien in Arisa's absence, and the engineer Donoso, were the only persons who held a second opinion on the subject. They recommended descending the Chuquanaqua to Yavisa, and then crossing to Principe, evidently a much longer route than that of Arisa.

None of them had any idea of a direct route from Fuerte del Principe to Carolina, and any further progress in the knowledge of the country was stopped by the withdrawal of all the establishments in 1790, in consequence of the treaty of peace (see p. 63); since when, the Isthmus of Darien has sunk into such utter oblivion, that previous to my first visit to it in 1849, though I made very extensive enquiries in Panama, I could not find a single person who had the slightest knowledgeof it, except the governor, Don José de Obaldìa,29 now Vice-President of the Republic, who strongly recommended me to make explorations in that isthmus, and was fully of my opinion that somewhere there 1 should find a canal route.

The old people in Darien have a perfect recollection of the attempts made by Arisa, Donoso, and Matos to open a road to the Atlantic; and one of them, Eulalio Arva, of Chapigana, now dead, informed me that he accompanied his father, who was a barqueano, or boatman of Donoso's, when he and five engineers from Spain surveyed the Chuquanaqua, and afterwards ascended the Savana as far as Principe, the Indians having prevented their further pro

29 Who, however, never was in Darien.

gress, He also saw Suspani when he came to Yavisa, to make peace with the Spaniards and be baptised, and further stated that the people at Principe could hear the gun fired at Carolina.

Mr. Vincent, a gentleman of great talents, who has cooperated with me for two years in the promotion of this project, and accompanied me to Bogota, remained there after I left, copying documents, relative to the history of Darien, existing in the archives of that city, and collected a vast amount of interesting information, which he will no doubt publish on his return.

ITS

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ISTHMUS COASTS AND RIVERS.-It will be necessary here to give a short description of the Isthmus of Darien, generally, in order to convey some idea of a country of which so very little is known.

The Isthmus of Darien, according to old Spanish maps, is separated from that of Panama by a line drawn from Cape San Blas to the mouth of Chepo river, in the Bay of Panama, and may be regarded as divided from the province of Choco, by a line drawn from the mouth of Suriguilla river, which falls into the Culata del Golfo, or bottom of the Gulf of Darien, to the mouth of the Rio Jurador, or Rio de Hambre, which falls into the Port of Pines, forty miles S.S.E. of Garachiné. In the time of the old Spaniards, it formed a province, and was a distinct territory of the Republic of New Granada, until June 22, 1850, when it was reduced to be a canton of the province of Panama, in that Republic.

COAST OF DARIEN ON THE PACIFIC. Between Chepo, or Ballano river, and the Gulf of San Miguel, the rivers Chiman, Hondo, Corotu, Peñado, Gonzalo