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was highly delighted. The Spaniards then returned to Antigua, carrying with them 40,000 pesos in gold, which on account of the immense yield from Peru is worth at this time, A. D. 1600, says Herrera, more than 300,000.°

It appears from the narratives of Vasco Nuñez and others, that upon the Isthmus at this time gold was held by the natives in about the same estimation that copper, iron, or any base metal is regarded by primitive nations. It was usually found wrought into ornaments, such as breastplates, anklets, wristlets, as well as vessels for domestic purposes. In fact, when the use of iron became known to the natives, they valued that metal above anything on earth, and thought themselves extremely fortunate if they could obtain a hatchet, a knife, or even a piece of old hoop iron, for an equal weight of gold.

Mining for gold on the continent of America was first attempted by Europeans in the year 1514. Three leagues from the settlement of Santa María de la Antigua del Darien was found a spot where the hill-sides, plains, and river-banks were so richly impregnated as to attract the attention of the colonists. It was their custom to first elect a mining superintendent, or surveyor, under whose direction plots of ground were measured off twelve paces square, the location of which was at the option of the claimant, only avoiding preoccupied ground. Indian slaves were then set to work, and if the spot chosen proved barren, it might be abandoned and another selected.

About this time were started among the colonists of Darien stories of the golden temple of Dabaiba, inland from them a little south of west sixty or eighty leagues. The colonists sought to find the place and

'Acordó de partirse para el Darien, con mas de quarenta mil pesos de oro, que valian entonces mas que aora trecientos mil, lo qual ha sido causa la infinidad que dello ha dado el Pirú.' Herrera, dec. i. lib. x. cap. 5. See also Peter Martyr, dec. iii. cap. 3; Oviedo, lib. xxix. cap. 5; Gomara Hist. Ind., 80.

failed. Two subsequent attempts, both equally unsuccessful were made to capture the golden temple, one by Vasco Nuñez and Luis Carrillo conjointly, and the other by the factor of Pedrarias, Juan de Tabira. A priest of the priory of Darien named Jacobo Alvarez Osorio spent many years searching for the golden temple, during which time he endured great hardships and experienced many dangers.

Tello de Guzman with one hundred men penetrated to the South Sea in 1515. He discovered the site of ancient Panamá, a country famous for its richness, but where he found only some fishermen's huts. From the province of Chagre he obtained gold to the value of 12,000 castellanos, and from Chepo 12,000. He returned to Antigua loaded with gold, but almost famished from hunger and thirst. Gonzalo de Badajoz, another captain of Pedrarias, crossed the Isthmus in 1515 from Nombre de Dios to the bay of Panamá with one hundred and thirty men. Upon the summit of the cordilleras Badajoz surprised a chief named Totonagua, from whom he obtained gold valued in all at 12,000 castellanos. From a neighboring cacique he received in return for his friendship 8,000. They found this mountain region exceedingly rich in gold. Wherever they digged," says Peter Martyr, "whether on the dry land or in the wet channels of the rivers, they found the sand which they cast forth mixed with gold." At the village of Natá, on the western border of the gulf of Panamá, the Spaniards found gold to the value of 10,000 castellanos; south-west of Natá from a cacique named Escolia they obtained 9,000, and at other provinces from two to ten thousand castellanos. Thus far Badajoz had secured gold to the value of 80,000 castellanos, "which was worth more in those days," says Herrera, "500,000 after the discovery of Peru."

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The whole country in the vicinity of the bay of Panamá, and for two hundred leagues above and below Darien, according to the last mentioned chron

icler, was found to be exceedingly rich in gold. That in the possession of the natives, however, was usually found wrought into breastplates, and utensils of various sorts. Such as was found in a native state must have been quite fine, as Herrera mentions several pieces of extraordinary size found by Badajoz, which weighed two castellanos. While in this vicinity Badajoz entered the province of a cacique named Cutará, but whom the Spaniards called Paris. The chieftain fled at their approach, but upon being threatened with the bloodhounds, he sent them, in four baskets, gold to the value of 50,000 pesos. The ungrateful Spaniards, flushed with their success, entered his village by night and secured nearly as much more. This base treachery so exasperated the savages that they attacked Badajoz with an army of 4,000 warriors, killed seventy of his men, and captured all the gold which he had taken, amounting to over 160,000 castellanos, equivalent to at least one million of dollars at the present time. Subsequently he visited the island of Tabogá, where he obtained a small quantity of gold. He then returned to Antigua.

"When I was superintendent of the mint in Castilla del Oro," says Oviedo, "I have often melted gold from Veragua, and am well convinced of the existence of rich mines in that province." The colonists at Natá established a considerable traffic with the natives of Veragua, sending thither their Indian servants with cotton cloth and hammocks to exchange for gold.

The Pearl Islands were first visited by Gaspar de Morales and Francisco Pizarro. After the cacique was pacified by the arms of the Spaniards, he took Morales up into a tower which stood upon the roof of his house, whence an unbroken view was presented, and pointing to the islands on either side said, "Behold the infinite sea, extending even beyond the sunbeams; behold the islands, all are subject to my sway. They contain but little gold; but the deep places in

all these seas and about all these islands are full of pearls, of which you shall have as many as you will, so that you continue your friendship to me." He brought a basket of pearls of one hundred marks weight, and agreed to pay annually to the king of Spain one hundred pounds of pearls, as though it was a very light matter.

In 1516 the licentiate Gaspar de Espinosa traversed the Isthmus, and recaptured the greater part of the gold which had been taken from Badajoz; but the natives fled to the mountains at his approach, and although he found the country at large well drained by former raids, the large amount which he recovered was sufficient to enrich every man of his company.

In 1522 Gil Gonzales and Andrés Niño discovered the north-western coast from Panamá to the bay of Fonseca, taking possession of the province of Nicaragua. During the seventeen months of their absence they journeyed 640 leagues, and with 100 men went inland 244 leagues, begging bread and gold. Of the latter they obtained the value of 112,500 pesos, a portion of which was of inferior quality, and worth twelve or thirteen dollars an ounce. They also obtained pearls to the value of 145 pesos. This inferior gold they found wrought into hatchets and other useful implements, and bells the purity and value of which were tested by the sound, as the purer the gold the more dull and flat would be the sound. Of the 112,500 pesos thus obtained, 40,000 were found between the bay of David and the bay of San Vicente; 14,000, thirteen carats fine, were donated by the cacique Nicoya in return for the baptism of 6,000 of his subjects. The cacique Nicaragua cheerfully gave the Spaniards 25,000 pesos.

Hernando de Soto, one of the captains of Francisco Hernandez de Córdoba, who was sent to Nicaragua by Pedrarias after the return of Gil Gonzales, collected an inferior quality of gold to the value of

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130,000 pesos, which was taken from him by Gil Gonzales in an affray between the Spaniards for supremacy in that country.

Diego Lopez de Salcedo, governor of Honduras, journeyed from Trujillo near Cape Honduras, to the city of Leon in Nicaragua. He reported that in the valley of Olancho, about twenty-five leagues south of Trujillo, were mines so rich that with proper tools gold twenty-two carats fine to the value of 200,000 castellanos might be taken out in two months.

In the year 1528 Martin Estete and Gabriel de Rojas were sent from New Leon by Pedrarias to the River San Juan in order to ascertain the character of the stream which drains the lake of Nicaragua and Managua. Taking a circuitous route for the purpose of examining the country they reached the ocean at Cape Gracias a Dios, and such was the richness of the country in that vicinity that they founded a colony at that point, and Gabriel de Rojas remained to work the mines. About this time a large quantity of gold was taken from the River Guayape in the valley of Olancho. The first silver mines of which I find mention, were opened in a beautiful valley of Honduras, at a place called New Valladolid, about thirty leagues from Trujillo."

The colonists at Trujillo up to June 1533, took from the mines in their vicinity 3,532 pesos. They reported many mines rich in gold and other metals in the neighborhood, but such was the continued hostility of the natives that they were obliged to abandon not only their mining camps but the larger settlements. But after the pacification of the country by Pedro de Alvarado the yield of the mines during six months of 1535 was 60,000 pesos, and as early as 1538 the reputation of Honduras as a rich mining country was established.

7'Esta assimismo en esta provincia la nueva Valladolid, con un valle, con gentil disposicion, y vista, y de ayre sano; en la compaña ay multitud de ganados, y buenas minas de plata.' Herrera, Hist. Ind., dec. iv. lib. viii. cap. 3. * They begged Pedro de Alvarado, governor of Guatemala, to grant them

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