612 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
which would be storehouses, so to speak, for the treasure on its way 
to Spain before being taken on board the ships. This resulted in the 
founding of Porto Bello and Nombre de Dios and the building of the 
Paved Road and the Royal Road to Cruces. Both cities, however, 
were soon destroyed by the buccaneers. 
Spain’s power in this part of the New World was of short duration, 
for, after a glorious few years of wealth and luxury, her cities were 
despoiled and left neglected. Spanish pride and lust of gold paved 
the way for the work of the pirates just as Spanish cruelty to the In- 
dians reaped its own reward. Before 1570 the natives had rebelled 
and negro slaves from the Guinea coast were imported to take their 
places, proving in many ways disastrous to the country, for they 
soon became the predominant factor, outnumbering the descendants 
of the Europeans. That the original colonists were a wonderful 
people in various respects can not be doubted, and they certainly 
seem to have possessed great physical endurance and vigor. It is 
truly marvelous that, without the aid of modern science, they could 
have withstood successfully the dangers of the tropical jungle and 
to have so early subdued many hostile tribes of the aborigines who 
resented the invasions of their land, and, above all, that they could 
have built such beautiful and well fortified cities within a short cen- 
tury and a half under such difficulties. 
After the period of piratical raids the Isthmus fell into a state of 
decay for more than a century, and has practically no recorded his- 
tory. In 1719 it was divided into the departments of Panama and 
Veraguas, forming a part of New Granada. At one time the Isthmus 
was placed under the captain-general of Cuba as a punishment for 
some unruly act. Panama took small part in the war of independ- 
ence and was the last province to be free of Spanish rule. The 
relation of this province to New Granada and later to Colombia 
was always a peculiar one. She submitted apparently at times to 
the authority of Bogota in military matters only, but retained con- 
trol in the main, though not always, of her internal administration, 
monetary affairs, customs, revenues, stamps, etc. Indeed, at one 
period she positively refused the paper money issued by Colombia, 
though a heavy penalty was imposed on those who declined to receive 
it. The Isthmus was undoubtedly much neglected by the central 
government until the canal schemes began to develop, when her 
potential importance was realized. Overtaxation kept the country 
pitifully poor, and numerous attempts to free itself from Colombia 
were the result, though independence was not finally accomplished 
until 1908. 
DEPARTMENT OF PANAMA. 
Of the seven divisions of the Republic the largest and in some 
respects the most interesting is that of Panama, including the famous 
