Spanish America, Vol. 1 (of 2)

by Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle

Ojeda, and Amerigo Vespucci, as well as many other adventurers, followed Columbus in exploring parts of the coast of New Granada, and Amerigo gave the first regular description of the people who inhabited its shores. In the year 1508, Alonzo de Ojeda and Diego Nicuessa obtained from the Spanish crown, extensive grants in the territories now known by the names of Guatimala and New Granada; Ojeda had the country from Cape de la Vela to the Gulf of Uraba, or Gulf of Darien, included in his charter, which tract was to be styled New Andalusia; and Nicuessa was appointed to govern from the Gulf of Darien to Cape Gracias à Dios; the territory included between these points, to be named Golden Castile, and they left Hispaniola in the latter end of the year 1510, to assume the functions assigned to them. Soon after the arrival of Ojeda at Carthagena, (then called Caramari by the Indians,) he imprudently attacked the natives, and after a severe action, lost the greater part of his men, but was fortunately relieved by the arrival of the fleet of Nicuessa; he then went to the gulf of Darien, and established a colony on the eastern promontory, which place was named St. Sebastian; but being soon reduced to great extremity for want of provision, Ojeda sailed for Hispaniola, having dispatched another vessel before him to procure supplies and reinforcements for his new establishment; suffering shipwreck on the voyage, and losing all his property, he died shortly after of want.

The colony being reduced to great distress, went back to Carthagena, to endeavour to fall in with the reinforcements; by great good fortune they met two vessels with their supplies, and returning to St. Sebastian, found their town destroyed by the natives; to augment their misfortunes, they run their ships ashore, but by dint of great exertion they were at last floated, when the whole colony, by the advice of Vasco Nunez de Balboa, sailed to the river of Darien, where they attacked and conquered an Indian tribe, and founded a town which was named Santa Maria el Antigua del Darien, where they received a further reinforcement by accident, in November 1510.

In the mean time, Nicuessa, who also suffered great misfortunes, had endeavoured to establish a colony at Nombre de Dios; a deputation was sent to him here, to request him to come and assume the government of Santa Maria; he accordingly departed, but on his arrival, found that great dissensions had arisen amongst the colonists, who, instead of appointing him to the government, put him into a rotten vessel, and sent him to sea, where it is conjectured, that himself and his crew perished. The province of Tierra Firme, including both the grants of Nicuessa, and Ojeda, was given by a subsequent charter, in the year 1514, to Pedro Arias de Avila, under whose government Vasco Nunez de Balboa was beheaded on account of a revolt. It was this man who, in 1513 on the 25th of September, first descried the Pacific Ocean, from the mountains of Terra Firma, and embarking on its waters in a canoe, explored part of its shores, on his return making known to the Spanish nation, the existence of another sea beyond the Atlantic. The first discoveries of Ojeda in New Granada took place in 1502; in 1503, Roderigo Bastidas of Seville visited the coast from Santa Marta to the river of Darien. Thus in these years, the whole shore from the Gulf of Venezuela to Cape Honduras, had been explored by different navigators and adventurers.

In 1504, Bastidas resumed his discoveries, and proceeded to the gulf of Darien to procure gold and slaves; he here found grains of gold in the sands, which was the first time the metal had been sent in that state to Spain.

In 1515, the western coast of Panama, Veragua, and Darien, was explored under the orders of Avila, as far north as Cape Blanco; and the town of Panama was founded; from this city issued the conquerors of Peru, Francisco Pizarro, and Diego Almagro, of whom we shall have occasion to speak at length in the description of that country; they are mentioned at present, because the discovery, the conquest, and the colonization of most of the internal provinces of New Granada was achieved under their orders, by Sebastian de Benalcazar, one of the officers of the army who accompanied Pizarro and Almagro in their expedition.

In 1536, Benalcazar attacked the southern provinces from Quito, whilst Gonzalo Ximenes de Quesada, who had been sent by Lugo, the admiral of the Canaries, over-run the northern districts from Santa Marta; they met with considerable opposition from the natives, but finally succeeded in reducing the country, and the whole was formed into a kingdom, and governed by a captain-general, in the year 1547; to check whose power, the royal audience was established, of which he was made president.

In the year 1718, a viceroy was appointed; this office was suppressed in 1724, and again finally established in 1740.

In the viceroyalty of New Granada, at present, there are two royal audiences, or supreme courts of judicature. The audience of Santa Fé has jurisdiction over Veragua, Panama, Santa Marta, Maracaybo in Venezuela; Antioquia, Choco, and the Llanos, with some others. The royal audience of Quito has all the southern provinces of New Granada under its superintendance.

The power of the viceroy is as great as that of the same officer in New Spain, but his revenue only amounts to the annual sum of 8400l. sterling. In the kingdom he governs, the population has been estimated at 1,800,000, of which there are upwards of 200,000 souls more in the audience of Santa Fé, than in the audience of Quito. The value of the gold and silver produced in the mines, annually amounts to 650,000l. sterling.