[XIV‑18] For a description of the organization and jurisdiction of audiencias see [Hist. Cent. Am., i. 270-3], this series, and of the supreme council of the Indies, [280-2] of the same vol.
[XIV‑19] The version given in Prescott's Peru, ii. 260-1, is that the viceroy found a ship, laden with silver from the Peruvian mines, ready to sail for Spain, and that he laid an embargo on the vessel as containing the proceeds of slave labor. There is, however, no absolute prohibition in the new code against the employment of Indians in working the mines, although, as mentioned in Herrera, dec. vi. lib. v. cap. iv., a cédula issued in 1538, forbade that natives be so engaged, and authorized the substitution of negro slave labor for such purposes.
[XIV‑20] The emperor was memorialized by the clergy and by the civil authorities, each party sending its petition without the other's knowledge, each slandering its adversary and using such falsehoods as would be most likely to injure the opposite cause. Abreo, in Cent. Am.; Extr. Sueltos, in Squier's MSS., xxii. 48.
[XV‑1] Gasca, Carta al Consejo, in Col. Doc. Inéd., l. 107; see also Herrera, dec. vi. lib. v. cap. iii.
[XV‑2] In Garella, Isthme de Panama, 4, it is stated that Andagoya made his survey in obedience to a cédula issued 20th February 1534. Some authorities state that Philip first suggested the idea of uniting the two oceans by means of a canal; but when the survey was ordered he was not over seven years of age. In [Hist. Cent. Am., i. 360-1], this series, there is a description of the difficulties overcome in constructing the first road across the Isthmus about 1520, and an account of the obstacles encountered by surveying expeditions even in the middle of the nineteenth century.
[XV‑3] Almagro, Informacion, Col. Doc. Inéd., xxvi. 265, and Herrera, dec. iv. lib. x. cap. vii.
[XV‑4] Benzoni goes somewhat out of his way to make Panamá appear in a contemptible light. He says that it contained about 4,000 inhabitants and had about 120 houses built of reeds or wood and roofed with shingles, but he does not explain how such a population contrived to crowd themselves into that number of dwellings.
[XV‑5] In his description of a journey from Acla to Panamá by way of Nombre de Dios, Benzoni mentions that his party was accompanied by 20 negro slaves, whose business it was to cut away the undergrowth and branches of trees that barred their path. The same writer also alludes to the danger incurred by travellers during the rainy season through the frequent crossing of the Chagres en route across the Isthmus. He relates a story of a Spaniard, who while fording the last branch of the river, mounted on a mule, and with gold and jewels in his possession to the value of 4,000 ducats, was carried down stream, lost everything, and was saved only by tying himself to the branch of a tree, arriving at Nombre de Dios with only his waistcoat.
[XV‑6] In commenting on the statements then current as to the commerce of Panamá, Benzoni remarks: 'Senza dubio dieci Mercatanti Venetiani basteriano à comprare tutte le mercantie che vi entrano vna volta l'anno, con la istessa città.' Mondo Nvovo, lib. ii. 79.
[XV‑7] Pizarro sent 20,000 gold castellanos to Panamá and thus enlisted in his service a number of recruits which he could not otherwise have obtained. Naharro, Descubr. y Conq., MS.