Julian Putley - The Virgins Treasure Isle

In 1492 a New World was discovered by Christopher Columbus. Lands of emerald isles rose out of a beautiful blue and turquoise sea and waving coconut palms and white sand beaches beckoned. On three sides of this tranquil sea were two continents, with the promise of great wealth.

When the banner of Spain was first planted in the New World, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella claimed the entire hemisphere for themselves. No-one disputed their claim until the Portuguese adventurer, Pedro Alvarez Cabral touched upon the coast of Brazil. The ensuing fight for belongership was initially decided by the Pope but this was altered by the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 and an imaginary line of longitude was drawn which effectively gave Spain the

whole of the Caribbean. To Portugal went Brazil.

Orders were spread throughout Europe that no other nation could trade in Spains new colonies and immediately there were cries of discontent from countries like England and France. Word was circulating that gold and silver and other valuable treasures were to be had and adventurers and explorers were anxious to sail west and seek their fortunes. In 1519 the conquistador Hernando Cortes landed on the coast of Mexico and was greeted by Indians wearing gold and silver ornaments. In 1531 Francisco Pizarro entered Peru and here too the Indians were adorned in gold and silver. This overjoyed the Spaniards who had dreamed of finding precious metals in the New World. The Indians were not only peaceful but regarded these strange white men with their big cannon-bearing ships as Gods. They were easily subjugated and turned into slaves to work the gold and silver mines. Working in appalling conditions in the heat and damp of the underground mines they died in their thousands.

There were four great mining centres in the New World: Guanajuato and Zacatecas in New Spain (now Mexico) and Potosi in the old viceroyalty of Peru, now Bolivia, and Huancavelica in Peru. The silver was smelted into bars or ingots sometimes weighing as much as seventy-five pounds, the gold in seven and ten pound bars. Coins were crudely cut from these bars and often crudely struck with the Spanish coat of arms. They were considered legal tender if any part of the design showed and as long as they were of the standard weight.

At least once a year two fleets of galleons would sail from Spain to the New World. They would bring much

needed supplies and personnel for the burgeoning new colonies: guns, powder and shot, tools, cartwheels, equestrian tack, equipment for the mining industry, clothing, weaponry, food and wine and so on. These cumbersome, heavy, three and four deckers with huge sterncastles were armed with cannon and swivel guns and although they were slow they carried large cargoes. The two fleets had different names: one was called the Galeones or Galleons, the other was the Flota. The Flota went to Mexico and the Galleons headed for Cartagena and then on to Portobelo on the Caribbean side of the isthmus of Panama. As early as 1537 these fleets were guarded by men o war to protect them from pirates as they sailed through the Caribbean.

When the galleons arrived at Portobelo a great trade fair was held with much revelry, drinking, singing and dancing. The ships were unloaded of their much needed cargoes and the wealth of Peru was loaded aboard from huge caches that had been stored in giant warehouses ashore. Often tons of silver was shipped up the Pacific coast from Peru to Panama and then loaded onto donkeys for the overland crossing of the isthmus to be deposited in the heavily guarded giant sheds. When the fair was over and the loading complete the galleons would head back to Cartagena for more cargo to be loaded: gold, pearls and emeralds, tobacco, vanilla, indigo and coffee from the Spanish Main.