At length we find on the Pacific seaboard a European settlement, in the aboriginal fishing-station of Panamá the germ of a Spanish city, the first on the western side of the American continent from Patagonia to Alaska, the first on the Isthmus which remains to the present day. And there was much about it which the befogged but in many respects far-seeing adventurers of the time could foretell. There was wealth on this shore, but to what extent they knew not, as Peru stood yet unrevealed. Unless some strait should be found, or some narrower thread of Tierra Firme offering superior advantages, Panamá would become the great entrepôt of South Sea traffic; but wild as were their speculations in some respects, in others the imagination was as far behind the facts. Even in their wildest dreams they had not seen resting on their broad-stretching beach ships from the north and the south, and the far western east, laden with the wealth of half a world, and in the streets of their sun-beaten city gold and silver stacked in bricks; and spices, and precious merchandise waiting transportation over the cordillera to Nombre de Dios, where cargoes of European goods in like manner waited carriage southward.
THE SOUTH SEA METROPOLIS.
To the importance of this city, even at this early day, the Council of the Indies was by no means blind; and beside the regulations[XV-1] of a general nature regarding settlement and city-building which began now to be enacted, Panamá was the recipient of special royal favors.
We have seen how Pedrarias, by fair means and foul, labored to depopulate Antigua; and it was a good work, though at the time he was not fully aware of it. Fortune had favored him in many ways of late, and the rewards of his rascalities were truly gratifying. Not to mention the deaths of Vasco Nuñez and Lope de Sosa, the successes of Espinosa and other gold-hunting captains, or the discomfiture of Gil Gonzalez, it was a fine stroke of policy making the licenciado Alarconcillo his lieutenant at Antigua; for the fraudulent residencias taken by him, under the artful management of the governor's wife in Spain, did Pedrarias and Espinosa good service at court. Nor was there any practical inconvenience to the governor in the royal orders prohibiting complex legal proceedings, that the truth might be simply and inexpensively arrived at in cases of dispute, and permitting appeals from Castilla del Oro to the audiencia of Santo Domingo; for the one gave his power a wider range, while the other could be easily regulated so as to work him no prejudice. Las Casas likewise had failed in his effort to displace Pedrarias, the privileges granted in Tierra Firme limiting him to territory outside of the jurisdiction of this governor.
ABANDONMENT OF ANTIGUA.
The abandonment of Antigua began in 1521, and was consummated in September, 1524, Diego Ribero, the last survivor, being massacred with his entire family by his own Indians, who afterward burned the town. Thus the streets wherein had been acted so many stirring scenes were vacant, and the country, after a struggle of fifteen years and the loss of thousands of lives, lapsed into its original savagism. By royal decree issued at Búrgos September 15, 1521, Panamá was made a city, and received royal privileges and a coat of arms, in further ennoblement.[XV-2] The regidores should enjoy the title of veinticuatros, as in Seville and Córdova. For the first ten years the city had to pay only a tithe on gold; the eleventh year, one ninth; the twelfth, one eighth, and so on to the fifteenth when the usual fifth would be due. Hitherto the currency consisted of pieces of gold cut into various weights; now silver and copper money were employed.
GOVERNMENT.
The first regidores of Panamá were Gonzalo de Badajoz, Rodrigo Enriquez de Colmenares, Rogel de Loris, Pascual de Andagoya, Martin Estete, Benito Hurtado, Luis de la Rocha, and Francisco Gonzalez. The alcalde mayor, Hernando de Salaya, was made lieutenant of Pedrarias in Panamá, with a salary of 150,000 maravedís, Espinosa having turned his attention almost exclusively to military matters. The royal officers formerly at Antigua as a rule held their places in Panamá. These were Alonso de la Puente, the treasurer; Diego Marquez, the contador; Miguel Juan de Ribas, factor. To some of these Pedrarias was obliged to give repartimientos as an inducement to move.
More difficulty was experienced in having the episcopal see transferred to Panamá, but it was finally accomplished; the royal order to move it, with the clergy and paraphernalia of the church as well as the vecinos and the hospital, bearing date the same as the order making Panamá a city, namely, September 15, 1521. On the death of the first bishop of Darien, Juan de Quevedo, a successor was appointed in the person of Fray Vicente de Peraza. Salaya and the Archdeacon Perez came out together in 1522; Peraza came later, Salaya being commissioned to superintend ecclesiastical affairs until the bishop's arrival. And when he did arrive he appeared in no haste to move, and was still at Antigua in 1524. There, finally, Pedrarias went and exercised upon him his softest blandishments. The governor could make himself quite pleasing to one who did not know him. The bishop had not been long in Panamá before his eyes were opened, and then, indeed, forever closed; for one day, while the bishop and the governor were at cards, they had a quarrel, during which the latter was treated badly with words, and soon after the bishop died. Then with Salaya the governor employed sharp words, saying, if he did not mind he would cut off his head. "More than one head you have wrongfully cut off," Salaya retorted, "but he who cuts off my head must have a better head than mine, and that you have not." Then they were friends again. Nevertheless Salaya died. Both these men were poisoned; suspicion pointed to Pedrarias, though he was never formally charged with the crime.