PEDRO DE LOS RIOS.
Mention has already been made of the appointment of Pedro de los Rios as governor of Castilla del Oro in place of Pedrarias Dávila, of the arrival of his fleet at Nombre de Dios in 1526, and of the death of Pedrarias at Leon in 1530. The new governor was instructed that the conversion of the natives rather than their conquest should be his main purpose; they were to be treated indeed as vassals of the crown but not as slaves; and his Majesty the emperor Charles V. was pleased to declare that in the foundation of new colonies he had less regard for his own aggrandizement than for the spread of the holy Catholic faith. Pedro de los Rios was a man unfit to govern a community of wild and turbulent adventurers in a strange and half-settled territory. Instead of pursuing the right course at the right moment, he seemed to go out of his way to commit blunders. As occurred at his meeting with Salcedo in Nicaragua, when the mere threat of a fine made him beat a hasty retreat to Panamá, he was often found wanting in the hour of trial. His lack of ambition and ever-present regard for his own personal ease and safety, caused his administration to prove tame and uneventful.
The auri sacra fames was a vice so prevalent among the rulers of Castilla del Oro that it is but a tiresome iteration again to allude to it; but Rios' thirst for riches far surpassed the greed of all his predecessors. His avarice was only exceeded by that of his wife, who, as Oviedo tells us, held him under complete control and governed the province through the governor. He appropriated all that he could lay hands on, whether public or private property, and his malefeasance in office soon became so notorious as to attract the attention of the emperor. He was enjoined from crossing the boundaries of his province, ordered to surrender to the royal treasurer the Pearl Islands, the revenues of which, it will be remembered, were placed under his control by the crown, and to give all needful aid to Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro in the prosecution of their exploring expeditions.
But it was no part of the policy of Rios to build up other territories at the expense of his own, and his neglect of these instructions, united with the malign influence of the crafty Pedrarias, whom the slender-witted Rios never ceased to persecute, soon wrought his downfall.[II‑1] Such, finally, were the complaints laid before the council of the Indies, that some time before the expiration of his three years' term of office, the licentiate Antonio de la Gama was sent to take his residencia, and the governor, dissatisfied with the result, proceeded to Spain and demanded justice. His cause came up before the council of the Indies, Oviedo acting as attorney for the city of Panamá, and Pedro de los Rios was fined, despoiled of office, ordered home, and forbidden ever to return to the Indies.[II‑2] His wife, whom he had left behind, refused to make the journey to Spain without the company of her husband, and as he declined to return for her, she remained at Panamá to the day of her death.
After the condemnation of Rios in 1529, the licentiate refused to surrender his badge of office, retaining his post as governor for about five years. Notwithstanding some complaints of his summary method of dealing with judicial matters, a few even going so far as to say that if Rios chose to return he might do so with impunity, the general verdict of the colonists was in his favor, and during his administration many public improvements were made. An inordinate craving for wealth was, as usual, the cause of his removal,[II‑3] and in the spring of 1534 he was superseded by Captain Francisco de Barrionuevo, a soldier who had gained some distinction at Cartagena. Barrionuevo had received his commission nearly two years before, and set sail from Spain in command of a force of two hundred men, furnished at the expense of the crown. He was ordered to touch at Española, where the governor was instructed to furnish all needed supplies; and the expedition arrived at Nombre de Dios with ranks somewhat thinned by disease, and by casualties incurred through rendering assistance in quelling an Indian revolt in Santo Domingo.
NUEVA ANDALUCÍA.
Amidst the throng of adventurers who, dazzled by marvellous reports of the wealth of the incas and of the fabled treasures of Dabaiba, petitioned the emperor for grants of territory south of Castilla del Oro was Pedro de Heredia, who had already done good service at the settlement of Santa Marta and elsewhere in the Indies. To him was assigned in Nueva Andalucía a province whose limits extended from the River Atrato to the Magdalena, and from the North Sea to the equator. Sailing from Spain in 1532 with three vessels and about one hundred men, he landed at a port then called Calamari, but to which he gave the name of Cartagena.[II‑4] It was hereabout that Ojeda's command was annihilated in 1509, and here that Nicuesa avenged the defeat of his late rival by putting to the sword the people.
After a brief rest the Spaniards marched inland and came ere long to a town where they met with stout resistance. The natives made good use of their poisoned arrows and clubs of hard wood, man, matron, and maid fighting side by side, and though all destitute of clothing or any defensive armor, confronted the fire-arms and swords of the Europeans without flinching. A few prisoners were taken during the skirmish, one of whom, on the return of the party to Cartagena, offered to act as guide to some of the largest towns in that vicinity, thinking that his captors must surely be there overpowered and exterminated. On the way they were attacked by a large body of natives who, after a sharp contest, were driven into a neighboring stronghold, enclosed with several thickly planted rows of trees. In hot pursuit the Spaniards followed, and forced their way into the enclosure side by side with the fugitives. Fresh bands of Indians soon arrived and, turning the scale, drove out the invaders, and in the plain beyond, where was room for the use of artillery and cavalry, even here pressed them so hard that they held their ground with difficulty. During the fight Heredia, becoming separated from his men, was surrounded, and would surely have been killed had not one of his soldiers forced his way through the enemy's ranks, and thrusting his sword through the body of one, and cutting the bowstring of another, held the foe in check till others could come to his assistance. Finally the savages were driven back, leaving their town in the hands of the captors, who found there provisions and a little gold.
Returning to Cartagena, Heredia fell in with a vessel newly arrived from Española with troops on board that raised his command to one hundred foot and as many horse. Thus reënforced, he penetrated the province as far as the town of Cenú, in the valley of a river which still bears that name. Here was found in two boxes or chests gold to the value of 20,000 pesos, and in a place which went by the name of "El bohío del diablo,"[II‑5] a pit with three compartments, each about two hundred and fifty feet in length, was a hammock supported by four human figures, and containing gold to the value of 15,000 pesos, amid which, according to Indian tradition, his sable majesty was wont to repose. In a sepulchre near by, gold-dust was unearthed to the amount of 10,000 pesos.
Well satisfied with the results of his expedition Heredia returned to head-quarters, and was soon afterward joined by a fresh reënforcement of three hundred men. The tidings of his success soon attracted numbers of dissatisfied colonists from Castilla del Oro, and toward the close of the sixteenth century Cartagena became a place of considerable note,[II‑6] the fleet that supplied the New World with the merchandise of Spain touching there on the way to Portobello. The latter was but a small village, tenanted chiefly by negroes, and possessing, next to Nombre de Dios, the most sickly climate of all the settlements in Tierra Firme. So deadly were the exhalations from its rank and steaming soil that a small garrison maintained there to guard the fleet was changed four times a year. Notwithstanding its unwholesome atmosphere an annual fair was held there lasting forty days, during which time its streets were crowded with merchants from every quarter of the Indies. Not many years afterward the Peruvian herder, climbing the mountain side in quest of his stray llama, discovered the silver-mines of Potosí,[II‑7] and the place became, for a few weeks in the year, the most redundant mart of commerce in the world. A fleet, freighted with all that was required to supply the real and artificial wants of an opulent community, called there once a year, and as soon as it appeared in sight the treasures of the mines and pearl-fisheries were conveyed by land from Panamá to Cruces, and thence down the Rio Chagre to Portobello.