Mining towns were not, however, the only ones to retrograde. The town of Acla, which it will be remembered was founded by Pedrarias in 1515, and rebuilt by Vasco Nuñez two years later,[XXII‑24] had in 1580 dropped out of existence. And so it was with several settlements that at different times had risen with hopeful prospects. Either the climate killed or drove off the inhabitants, or rival towns sprang up under the patronage of some governor, and with real or fancied advantages lured away the citizens. Nombre de Dios had maintained its position as the leading town and port on the Atlantic side, in the face of objections which ere this would have doomed many another place. The climate was pestilential, so much so that the place was generally deserted at the close of the business season, and it contained only sixty wooden houses. It was subject to floods, and yet destitute during the greater part of the year of fresh water. Its harbor was exceedingly bad, exposed to severe northerly and easterly gales, by which, despite every precaution, vessels of large size were frequently driven ashore, and pirates could readily assail it. These and other disadvantages led many merchants to advocate the removal of the port of entry to one of the harbors on the coast of Honduras. Although the distance from Nombre de Dios to Panamá was only eighteen leagues, while that from Puerto de Caballos to the gulf of Fonseca was fully fifty, yet the cost of a single trip by mule over the former route was thirty pesos, and over the latter but nine. [Sidenote: ROUTES BETWEEN OCEANS.] Juan García de Hermosillo was commissioned by the king in 1554 to inquire into the merits of the respective routes, and two years later made a voluminous but partial report,[XXII‑25] showing the practicability of changing the course of vessels going to Tierra Firme so as to proceed direct to the port of Trujillo, and recommending that ships from New Spain, Vera Cruz, Pánuco, and the Golfo Dulce should touch at the same port, and thus allow goods to be carried overland to Realejo or the bay of Fonseca, and thence shipped to Peru and elsewhere. A cédula was thereupon addressed, in October 1556, to the audiencias of Española and the Confines, the governor of Tierra Firme, and the officers of the India House at Seville, directing that the opinions of experts should be taken, and information obtained from all familiar with the coast and its harbors. Testimony concerning the facts and views advanced in Hermosillo's report was taken in 1558, and among those who pronounced in favor of the transfer as recommended were Oviedo the chronicler, Luis Gutierrez the cosmographer, and Juan de Barbosa, then governor of Tierra Firme. The cabildo of Santiago also bestirred themselves in behalf of the change, as one apt to improve communication with Peru, and, as they temptingly added, likely to increase largely the royal revenue.[XXII‑26]