CHAPTER XVIII
THE CASTLE OF GOLD
So marvelously rich was Panama, so vast were the quantities of gold wrested from the Indians and from the mines, that the Spaniards called the isthmus Castillo del Oro or Golden Castle. For years the precious metal flowed in a steady stream from the mines of Veraguas and of Darien, and rapidly accounts of these riches spread until Panama became known as the greatest gold-producing country in the world at that time. Hence the name “Costa Rica” then applied to all the country from Honduras to Darien. The quarter of a million dollars that Morgan looted from Porto Bello was but a drop in the bucket compared with the annual output of Panamanian mines.
No one can say how much gold was taken from the mines of Darien and Veraguas by the Dons, for most of the records, if any existed, disappeared with the burning of Old Panama; and others have been lost or destroyed in the revolutions and disturbances since then. But here and there, in the musty files of sleepy, half-forgotten old towns that [[314]]once were great and prosperous cities of the gold districts, one may find stray bits of information which throw some light on the gold output of Panama’s mines in early days.
Thus, in Veraguas we learn, from papers still preserved in Santiago, that it was customary for the Crown to receive a royalty of five per cent. or a quinto of all gold exported from the province. We also find from the age-yellowed treasury bills that in one year the Crown received over twenty thousand castellanos as its share of Veraguas gold. In other words, considerably over two tons of the yellow metal, or about two million dollars’ worth of gold, were annually exported from this one district! And this was only a fraction of the total amount mined. That which went into private pockets, that which was expended for supplies, transportation, et cetera, that which went to the Church did not enter into these figures at all. Going further into the records, we learn that in 1570 over two thousand slaves were employed in the Veraguas gold-mines, and contemporary writers state that a placer that did not yield at least a castellano of gold to a “common kneading-trough” was not considered worth working.
And Veraguas was not the only gold-producing district, by any means. The mines of Chiriqui [[315]]produced stupendous quantities; the mines of Darien were world-famed; there were mines in the present province of Cocle, in Los Santos, and in many other districts; and the total value produced staggers the imagination. It is stated in official documents that one small private mine produced enough gold in one year to build the college in Panama, a church, and several lordly mansions, and provided a comfortable fortune for the owner in addition! Moreover, incalculable sums were taken from the Indians and from the prehistoric graves.
No wonder, then, that Panama was the richest and most prosperous of Spain’s possessions in the New World; for in addition to its own wealth it was the receiving and shipping point for all the treasures from ports of Mexico, Central and South America on the Pacific, and the East Indies.
Besides all this, its wealth in cattle was enormous; vast quantities of valuable woods, dyes, and medicinal plants were obtained from the forests; the yield of pearls from the Pearl Islands and the waters of Panama Bay was worth a king’s ransom yearly, and the fertile lands produced great crops of sugar, tobacco, coffee, and cacao.
This being the case, we naturally wonder why Panama has fallen to its present state; why not a [[316]]single mine is being worked to-day; why the “Castle of Gold” has become an insignificant republic perpetually bordering on bankruptcy; why it has fallen from its former proud estate as the richest country in the New World to a poverty-stricken land that would find it impossible to make both ends meet if it were not for the revenue it derives from the canal and trade with Zone employees, the army and navy, and the annual influx of tourists.