OLD ROADS TO A NEW ISLAND 7 



cities on the Atlantic side and not so well guarded. 

 His men nearly starved to death on the way, 

 although there were animals on every side that 

 would have made good eating, had the Englishmen 

 known it. But they did reach Panama, took the 

 city, and carried off much gold. For this and 

 other raids Henry Morgan was made an English 

 knight. 



Other pirates were encouraged by Morgan's 

 success. They attacked at sea, so that Spanish 

 ships never sailed alone. They made the Chagres 

 River unsafe for valuable goods, and the king's 

 road from Panama to Porto Bello was finally 

 ordered to be used only at fair times, when the 

 merchants and mule trains traveled with an 

 escort of Spanish soldiers. 



When after two hundred years peace came 

 between the two countries, Spanish trade and 

 Spanish power were broken. At that time the 

 Isthmus was no longer important to Spain or 

 to any other country. All the stored-up gold 

 of the Indians had been seized and sent back to 

 Europe. The gold left in the old mines and the 

 sand of the stream beds was so thinly scattered 

 that white men would not bother with it. No 

 one on the Isthmus was rich enough to buy cloth 

 and wine from Spain. English traders and 

 American whalers bound for the Pacific sailed 

 south around Cape Horn by the route shown on 

 the map (page 4). The long trip by sea was 



2 



