d with traditional
treasure ships, and to this day remnants of doubloons or "pieces of
eight" and bits of bullion and jewelry are washed up on the shining
beaches of Panama and northern Colombia as grim memorials of his
lawless activities.

The expenditure of energy necessary to transport the gold, silver and
precious stones from the New World to the bottomless treasury of Spain
was stupendous. Yet not less stupendous was the amount of treasure
transported. From the distant mines of Potosi, from the Pilcomayo,
from the almost inaccessible fastnesses of what are now Bolivia and
Ecuador, a precious stream poured into the leaking treasure box of
Spain that totalled a value of no less than ten billion dollars. Much
of the wealth which came from Peru was shipped up to the isthmus of
Panama, and thence transferred to plate-fleets. But the buccaneers
became so active along the Pacific coast that water shipment was
finally abandoned, and from that time transportation had to be made
overland by way of the Andean plateau, sometimes a distance of two
thousand miles, to the strongholds which were built to receive and
protect the treasure until the plate-fleets could be made up. Of these
strongholds there were two of the first importance, the old city of
Panama, on the isthmus, and the almost equally old city of Cartagena,
on the northern coast of what is now the Republic of Colombia.

The spirit of ancient Carthage must have breathed upon this "Very
Royal and Loyal City" which Pedro de Heredia in the sixteenth century
founded on the north coast of New Granada, and bequeathed to it a
portion of its own romance and tragedy. Superbly placed upon a narrow,
tongue-shaped islet, one of a group that shield an ample harbor from
the sharp tropical storms which burst unheralded over the sea without;
girdled by huge, battlemented walls, and guarded by frowning
fortresses, Cartagena commanded the gateway to the exhaustless wealth
of the _Cordilleras_, at whose feet she still nestles, bathed in
perpetual sunshine, and kissed by cool ocean breezes which temper the
winds blowing hot from the steaming _llanos_ of the interior. By the
middle of the sixteenth century she offered all that the adventurous
seeker of fame and fortune could desire, and attracted to herself not
only the chivalry, but the beauty, wealth and learning which, mingled
with rougher elements, poured into the New World so freely in the
opening scenes of the great drama inaugura