Toward the close of the century the raids of buccaneers, of which a description will be given in its place, coupled with the restrictions on trade imposed by the home government, were sore afflictions to Nicaragua and Costa Rica, both of which territories were rich in natural resources. The governor of the latter province, writing to the king at the opening of the eighteenth century, reports that Costa Rica does not yield enough for the support of the priests and the secular officials. [Sidenote: OBSERVATIONS OF THOMAS GAGE.] There are no reliable records of the condition of affairs in Esparza until, as we shall see later, the settlement was several times sacked by buccaneers toward the close of the century, its site being changed in 1688. Of the capital of Costa Rica, Gage, who sojourned there four days during his journey to England, writes: "We came at last through thousand dangers to the City of Carthago, which we found not to be so poor, as in richer places, as Guatemala and Nicaragua it was reported to be. For there we had occasion to inquire after some Merchants for exchange of gold and silver, and we found that some were very rich, who traded by land and sea with Panamá and by sea with Portobello, Cartagena, and Havana, and from thence with Spain. The City may consist of four hundred Families, and is governed by a Spanish Governour. It is a Bishops See, and hath in it three Cloisters, two of Fryers, and one of Nuns." Calle, whose work was published in 1646, states that Cartago had sixty vecinos, and that in the entire province there were but a hundred and twenty vecinos and fifteen thousand peaceable Indians. The capital, he says, had two judges, and among other officials a high constable, with a salary of a thousand pesos a year.[XXV‑16] * * * * * [Sidenote: TALAMANCA AND TOLOGALPA.] The district of Talamanca, which lay on the coast of the North Sea and within the province of Costa Rica, was not fully explored until 1601, in which year the city of Concepcion was founded on the Rio de la Estrella. The establishment of this colony was quickly followed by an insurrection of the natives who, incited by the rapacity and cruelty of the Spaniards, rose en masse on the 10th of August 1610, and massacred the inhabitants of that settlement and of Santiago de Talamanca, which had been built on the left bank of the river, slaughtering indiscriminately men, women, children, and priests. Nothing else worthy of record occurred in this district until the year 1660, when Rodrigo Arias Maldonado, being governor and captain-general of Costa Rica,[XXV‑17] resolved upon the subjugation of the natives of Talamanca, then consisting of some twenty-six tribes. Maldonado proposed to carry the gospel in one hand and the sword in the other; but his ambition was rather to represent the church militant than to follow the example of previous conquerors.