History of Central America, Volume 2, 1530-1800: The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 7Bancroft, Hubert Howe
History
History of Central America, Volume 2, 1530-1800: The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 7
Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Central America -- History
In 1647 Bazan was again censured by the crown for a proceeding which,
after due investigation by the fiscal of the audiencia, caused his
downfall. Acting under the advice of the licentiate Pedro Chacon,
he had caused to be driven from their homes eighteen friars of the
order of San José, appointing in their places others of bad repute.
The ecclesiastics took refuge in the San Cristóbal hills, but were
soon afterward reinstated, and at the close of the following year the
governor was superseded by Juan Bitrian de Biamonte y Navarra.[XXVII‑43]
The latter died in 1651 while superintending the despatch of a fleet
from Portobello, and in the parish church of that city a marble monument
was erected to his memory.
Panamá appears to have recovered quickly from the prostration caused
by the fire of 1644. An annual fair was held there until the year
1671, at which date the city was destroyed during the raid of Morgan
and his buccaneers, as will be presently related. In 1655 the value of
merchandise that changed hands during the fair is officially reported
at five millions of pesos, and this sum probably represents but a
small portion of the business actually done, for, as we have seen,
the quantity of goods that found their way into the provinces through
contraband trading was often three or four fold greater than that on
which duty was paid.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: BIBLIOGRAPHICAL.]
A rare and valuable manuscript and one indispensable to the history
of the district of Darien is the report of its governor, Don Andrés de
Ariza, of April 5, 1774, addressed to the viceroy, Don Manuel Guirior,
entitled _Comentas de la Rica y Fertilísima Provincia de el Darien_. The
original report, accompanied by a map, exists in the National Library
of Bogotá, whence the present copy was made for the author. Three
separate documents compose the report; a letter describing the generally
ruined condition of the province, causes, and proposed remedies; a
detailed description of the towns, military posts, and inhabitants,
and a condensed account of the actual condition of the province, its
inhabitants, resources, and history. These documents review in brief the
history of the province for the previous sixty-two years, describing
more fully the latest Indian revolts. The manuscript forms one volume
in folio of forty closely written pages.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
MORGAN'S RAIDS ON THE ISTHMUS.
1664-1671.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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