Until 1718 the three provinces of the Isthmus were subject to the viceroy of Peru, but after that they were incorporated with New Granada, the viceroy of which resided at Santa Fé de Bogotá. The latter was endowed with the prerogatives of royalty, the only checks upon his authority being the residencia and the right of appeal to the audiencia of Panamá. The audiencia enjoyed the privilege of direct communication with the sovereign, and with the council of the Indies. Any beneficial effect which that institution might have had was counteracted largely by the vast powers of the viceroy and their consequent means of influencing any and every subordinate.
In 1774 there was instituted at Panamá a new audiencia real y chancillería, having for its limits the province of Castilla del Oro as far as Portobello, the province of Veragua, and toward Peru as far as the ports of Buenavista and the river Darien, the territory under its control being bounded on the east and south by that under the jurisdiction of the audiencias of Granada and Quito; on the west by that of Guatemala; and on the north and south by the two oceans.
PEARLS AND GOLD.
It has already been stated that about the close of the sixteenth century the fisheries of the Pearl Islands became exhausted, and that they were abandoned for several decades thereafter. In 1697 the Italian traveller Gemelli Careri visited Panamá, and according to his report the fisheries then yielded pearls equal to those found near Ceylon. He mentions one belonging to a Jesuit priest that weighed sixty grains, and for which the owner refused seventy thousand pesos.[XXXI‑19]
About the same time the industry of gold-mining was revived on the Isthmus. In Darien and Veragua, but especially in the former province, mines which had been abandoned were again worked, and new ones discovered. The operatives were slaves, free negroes, sambos, and mulattoes, who received for their wages a certain amount of pay-dirt, and often pilfered gold dust enough to make them as rich as their masters. It was the delight of the negroes to give fancy balls to their inamoratas, at which they would appear with their hair glistening with golden trinkets, sometimes sprinkling the ball-room floor with gold dust.
A slave of Antonio de Sosa discovered a pocket of gold which is said to have yielded sixty thousand castellanos; and making this known to his master, was rewarded with his freedom and that of his wife, and presented with a house and lot in Panamá and a moderate income wherewith to enjoy his liberty. Of a vagabond mulatto it is related that he suddenly reappeared in the church of Santo Domingo, and attracted the gaze of all by a remarkably brilliant rosary formed of large nuggets of purest gold. The place of discovery was subsequently known as the Rosario mining district. Among other nuggets unearthed was one found at the mines of Santa María, weighing, according to Dampier, a hundred and twenty pounds. Instances like these might be multiplied, but enough has been said to show the value of the mines from which at this time more gold was sent to Panamá than from all the others in the Spanish provinces. As late as 1720 they yielded a handsome revenue to the Spanish crown.
MINES AND MERCHANDISE.
The mines of Cana in the mountains of Espíritu Santo were especially rich, and in the early part of the eighteenth century were so frequently exposed to the raids of robbers that for a season they were abandoned. In 1702 and 1712, at the former of which dates the town of Cana contained nine hundred houses, the place was sacked by the English; in 1724 by the French; and in 1727 by the Indians. During these and later years other parts of the Isthmus were several times invaded by corsairs, or by the armaments of England ostensibly by way of reprisal for injuries inflicted on British commerce.
In 1713 Great Britain obtained an asiento for supplying the Spanish colonies with negro slaves,[XXXI‑20] and also the privilege of sending annually to Portobello a five-hundred-ton vessel laden with European merchandise. British factories were soon established at Cartagena and Panamá. And British merchants, prompt to take advantage of this license, poured in goods without limitation or restraint. Instead of a vessel of five hundred tons they usually sent one of nearly double that capacity, accompanied by two or three smaller ships, which, mooring in some neighboring creek, supplied fresh bales of goods when the stock on board the larger vessel became exhausted. The inspectors of the fair and the officers of the revenue were bribed, and gradually the immense commerce of the merchants of Seville was diverted, and the squadrons that were wont to be the pride of Spain and the envy of the nations sank to insignificant proportions, the galleons having little other freight than that furnished by the mines and the royal tribute. In 1719 an effort was made to regain this lost ground, foreign commerce being interdicted and increased facilities being given for domestic trade by a cédula of December 1st.[XXXI‑21]
After the treaty of Seville was concluded between Spain and England, complaints were frequently made of the depredations committed by Spanish guarda costas on British commerce in the West Indies. The English of course retaliated. Whereupon the Spaniards, not satisfied with plundering British merchant-ships, maltreated their crews. A squadron of four twenty-gun ships and two sloops was despatched to the Indies, and accounts of the atrocities inflicted or permitted by the captains of Spanish vessels were continually brought by vessels arriving from the New World. In 1738 the house of commons determined to investigate the matter, and to ascertain the number of ships that had been seized by the Spaniards, the value of their cargoes, and the nature of the alleged cruelties. An instance which was related before a committee of inquiry appointed by the commons aroused a feeling of resentment throughout Great Britain. One Captain Jenkins, master of a brig trading from Glasgow, stated that his craft had been boarded by a guarda costa, that his crew had been ill used, and one of his own ears cut off, the captain of the vessel placing it in his hand and bidding him carry it home to the king, whom he declared he would treat in the same manner if he had him in his power. Discredit was afterward thrown on this story; but whether it were true or false it was at the time believed by the commons and the people of England. On the 14th of January 1739 a convention was signed between the two countries, wherein Spain agreed to indemnify British merchants for their losses, but the Spaniards afterward refused to pay the stipulated sum. In consequence of which, and of the maltreatment of British subjects, letters of marque and reprisal were issued by the admiralty in July of that year, but not until October following was war formally declared.