Chapter Seven
Colon to Cartagena, Colombia
While waiting in Colon for my boat ride to San Andreas, I took a drive to visit the old colonial ruins of Portobello, Nombre de Dios, and the fortress of Chagres, all located nearby and all sacked, looted and plundered by pirates and privateers such as Henry Morgan and the renowned Sir Francis Drake. These historical places of interest represented immense wealth to the Spaniards in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in particular Portobello, with its treasure house still visible today. It housed all the silver that had made its way from the mines of Potosi in Bolivia. This silver was transported by mule across the Andes Mountains to Arica, now in Chile, then loaded onto Spanish galleons, to sail via Callao and Lima, Peru to Panama Vieja (old Panama City) situated on the Pacific Ocean side of Panama. It was then hauled by mules over the dangerously slippery malaria infested jungle paths across the narrow isthmus; in the 1500s to Nombre de Dios, then later in the 1600s and 1700s to Portobello; where it was guarded until the arrival of the Spanish treasure fleet. Twice a year the fleet would sail out of Seville, the heart of Spanish commerce and banking, down the Guadaquilvir River to San Lucar de Barrameda, located at the mouth of the river to the Atlantic Ocean. Then with freshly loaded supplies and any other goods of interest to South American colonists, the fleet would sail out across the Atlantic Ocean to arrive at Cartagena, New Granada, where it would offload most of the cargo for the colonists there. When hearing the news that the silver was on its way to Portobello, the Captain-General of the Fleet would order the ships to set sail for that port. For most of the year Portobello, due to the malaria and yellow fever infested jungle, would remain virtually unoccupied except for a few natives. However, upon arrival of the treasure fleet, merchants, traders, colonists, natives, sailors and soldiers, prostitutes and many others would descend on this fortress town to prepare for the arrival of the silver; its transfer to the fleet; and all other relevant trade pertaining to the successful departure of the fleet back to Spain.
The next challenge for the fleet would be to avoid the
hurricanes and northerlies in the Gulf of Mexico. These strong winds could play
havoc with a fleet of ships that relied totally on sail. In those days
navigational equipment was technologically useless compared to today's high
technology instruments, in terms of determining position and predicting storms.
Many treasure laden ships went to the bottom as a result of these fierce storms.
For example, in one year, in 1627, between the captures made by the Dutch and
the ravages of nature, the Spaniards and the Portuguese lost over 250 ships,
more than twice the number that both countries had built in the past ten years.
Some of these ships are today being salvaged with modern equipment. On a
previous trip along the keys of Florida, to Key West, I visited an impressive
museum that is devoted entirely to the wrecks of the "Nuestra Senora de
Atocha" and "La Margarita", two of six galleons sunk by a
hurricane in 1622 while on a voyage from Havana, Cuba to Seville, Spain.
According to the ships' manifestos which are kept in the archives building in
Seville, the Atocha was carrying 40 tons of treasure and the Margarita was
carrying 27 tons. They were discovered off the keys in the late 1970s by
treasure hunter Mel Fisher. Amongst the treasure there were bars of gold
weighing about 10 pounds (4 kg) each, silver bars weighing about 80 pounds (35
kg) each, crosses made of gold and silver, encrusted with emeralds, sapphires
and rubies, many exquisitely designed chains of solid gold, the longest more
than eleven feet (three metres), intricately designed gold discs, scores of
silver goblets, platters and other artefacts and of course thousands of Spanish
doubloons (gold coins) and pieces of eight (silver coins). Treasure salvors
claimed the wrecks could yield 400 million dollars (US) of treasure. Numerous
guns and cannon balls were also found.Another major obstacle for the treasure fleets remained; the
competition amongst the pirates and privateers of envious European nations to
capture the fleets for their treasure. On May 20, 1628, Piet Heyn, Admiral of
the Dutch fleet, sailed with a proud fleet of thirty one ships carrying 689
cannon and more than 4000 eager men. The fleet waited off the coast of Cuba,
anticipated the arrival of the New Spain Flota, under the command of the
incompetent Captain-General Don Juan de Benevides y Bázan, the same officer who
had skippered a galley on which Heyn had served as a brutalised galley slave.
The Dutch forced the fleet to go running into Matanzas Bay on the north coast of
Cuba, thirty kilometres east of Havana. So as not to have the treasure sink with
the ships, Heyn ordered that the cannon be used sparingly and that his men
attempt to board and take the galleons with hand to hand fighting. Heyn had a
burning personal grudge to settle with Benevides, which demanded revenge, and
nothing was going to interfere with this golden opportunity. He wanted the
glory, which he well deserved, of being the first to board the capitana (the
flag ship) and wanted to capture Benevides personally. Nobody, friend or foe,
was going to deprive him of this great moment. Unfortunately for Heyn, Benevides
managed to escape to Havana along with most of the officers and crew, leaving
the entire treasure fleet to the Dutch. Just one Dutch sailor was wounded as the
only casualty. Benevides eventually lost his head over this ignominious debacle..jpg)
For several more days I waited in Colon, and enjoyed the
surroundings of the Panama Yacht Club, watching many ships sailing in and out of
the canal including many recently built cruise ships. During this time I let it
be known around the yacht club that I was available to work as a linesman on any
yacht needing crew to sail through the Panama Canal. After a couple of days I
eventually found work on a magnificent luxury cabin cruiser. As we entered Gatun
Locks with another huge tanker which dwarfed us and tied up alongside a canal
tug I felt exhilarated by this unique opportunity. Another little task I
performed was painting the funnel of the tramp steamer, "Mary
Mitchell", which reduced the fare by US$100. It was a pleasant way to
become more acquainted with the Panamanian Captain and crew of the boat which
eventually transported me further along my journey..jpg)
After arriving at San Andreas Island it was necessary to
transfer the vehicle to the other tramp steamer which sailed to Cartagena,
Colombia. The paperwork took some time to arrange and more patience was
required! I was fortunate to have met a Mexican couple, Mario and his sixteen
year old wife, Elly, who were travelling to Rio de Janeiro in a VW Jetta sedan.
Their cultural similarities with Colombia facilitated this bureaucratic process.
We became friendly and decided to travel together in convoy as far as Rio de
Janeiro. Unfortunately, as we were not able to produce the required Carnet de
Passage (a document that ensures that the vehicle is not sold in the country
through which you travel) we had to pay extra to take a customs officer to the
border. He ensured that we drove our vehicles out of Colombia..jpg)
Before leaving, however, we managed to walk around the walls
of Cartagena and explore this old historical Spanish colonial city which pirates
and privateers besieged, firing their cannon into the city buildings and
demanding all treasure locked up within the fortress walls. Established in 1533
because of its superbly protected lagoon harbour that had only one entrance,
Boca Chica, Cartagena de las Indias grew to be one of the richest cities in the
Western Hemisphere. Gold and emeralds were transported down the Magdalena River
of New Granada and pearls came from the island of Margarita, both located close
to Cartagena. The city also became a centre for the dreaded Inquisition (the
Palace of the Inquisition still stands as a historical monument). The English
privateer, Sir Francis Drake, known as 'El Draque', scourge to the Spaniards,
boldly entered the harbour on a couple of occasions. In 1586 he held the city to
ransom, obtaining 110,000 ducats. He would have left a permanent garrison there
except for a tropical disease epidemic that was responsible for the deaths of
several of his men.
There were many interesting and fascinating fortresses to visit which provided a valuable insight to those perilous and raucous days, two of them being located at the entrance of the lagoon on which the city was situated, and another one on a hill overlooking the city. Cartagena has an interesting mix of people, due to the inter-racial intercourse of Spanish with the local indigenous peoples (known as mestizos) and the slaves (known as mulattoes) who were brought over in their thousands. Their music, which is a fusion of Spanish gipsy and African drums, brings a vibrancy of African rhythm to this colourful and alluring city.