When a ship arrived at Nombre de Dios the cargo was discharged into flat-bottomed boats, and carried by way of the Chagre as far as Cruces, about six leagues from the South Sea. Here the merchandise was delivered to muleteers, who conveyed it to Panamá, whence it was shipped in various directions, though the greater part of the trade was with Peru.[XV‑6] * * * * * [Sidenote: IMPORTANCE OF PANAMÁ.] About the middle of the sixteenth century the isthmus of Darien had become the gate-way between the two seas, and Panamá the most important city of America. Situated upon the world's highway and in the very centre of the Spanish colonial possessions, through its portals must flow the treasures of Peru from the south, the products of Mexico, Nicaragua, and Guatemala from the north, and the trans-oceanic traffic of the Spice Islands from the west. Thus Panamá became not only the metropolis of the two Americas, but the half-way house and toll-gate between western Europe and eastern Asia. There the raw adventurer who at the opening of his career pressed forward with eager expectation into a dark uncertain future met the returned fortune-seeker elated with success or broken-spirited through failure. Into the lap of this great central city poured untold wealth. Her merchants were princes; her warerooms were filled with rich merchandise of every kind and from every quarter of the globe. There were to be seen stacks of yellow and white ingots from the mines of Peru, the cochineal and dye-woods of Mexico, the richest wines of Spain and Portugal, the silks, velvets, and laces of France and Italy.