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In May 1514, Pedro Arias de Avila was sent out from St Lucar, as governor of Castilia del Oro, or the Golden Castile, for so the Spaniards named the countries of Darien, Carthagena, and Uraba. He carried with him fifteen hundred men and seven ships; and Vasco Nunnes de Balboa, who discovered the South Seas, was sent out at the same time as admiral of the coasts of that newly discovered sea.
The Spaniards decided to name Veragua, Castilla del Oro, and Uraba, Nueva Andalusia. As Hispaniola had been chosen to be the capital of all the colonies of the islands, so likewise were the vast regions of Paria divided into two parts, Uraba and Veragua, where two colonies were established to serve as refuges and places of rest and reprovisionment for all those who traversed those countries.
The chief colonists of Uraba and all the friends of order decided to recall Nicuesa from wherever he was, and as the judge, Enciso, was opposed to this measure, they deprived him of the brigantine he had built at his own expense.
They left the entire country of Caramaira behind them, without approaching it. They were driven by a tempest upon an island which we have already mentioned as Fuerte, and which is about fifty leagues distant from the entrance of the gulf of Uraba. In this island they found, standing in the houses of the islanders, a number of baskets made out of marine plants and filled with salt.
The fact of his being chosen by Hojeda to act as governor was not enough. He succeeded in impeding Enciso in his functions, and the colonists of Uraba chose some of their own men to administer the colony; but dissension was not long in dividing them, especially when their leader Hojeda did not return.
Several towns were founded at the mouth of the Rio Atrato, by the names of Antigua del Darien, Uraba or San Sebastian de Buenavista.
From the northern bank of the Rio Nare, near its confluence with the Samana, a spur stretches out, known by the name of La Simitarra, and the Mountains of San Lucar. We may call it the first branch of the group of Antioquia. A third advances towards the gulf of Uraba or Darien, between the Rio San Jorge and the Atrato.
But we have strayed, O Most Holy Father, rather far from the regions of Veragua and Uraba, which are the chief themes of our discourse. Shall we not first treat of the immensity and the depth of the rivers of Uraba, and of the products of the countries washed by their waters?
The first territories to which the Spaniards made their way were those which gave on the Gulf of Darien. Here a companion of Columbus in his second voyage, Alonso de Ojeda, was given the district extending from the Cape de la Vela to the Gulf of Uraba, and this territory was termed the Land of New Andalusia.
Going a little farther along the coast, they entered the Gulf of Uraba, where they found sand mingled with gold, being the first of that kind which was brought to Spain. From thence they sailed for St Domingo, loaded with slaves, but almost famished for want of victuals, as the natives refused to traffic with them for any. In the end of this year Isabella, queen of Castile, died.
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