31.8 America: a.d. 1601 to 1700  (Page 15/16)

Masses of goods were shipped from Seville to Central - America and the responsible merchants expected to be paid in silver bullion. In 1637 there were allegedly heaps of silver wedges lying in the street in Porto Belo, Panama. Most of this, of course, had been brought up from the Potosi mines of South America. (Ref. 292 ) The silver was landed at the port of Panama and then moved by mules and boats (on the Chagres River) across the isthmus to Porto Belo on the Caribbean. But the muleteers and boatmen had to be fed maize, which itself was imported from Nicaragua or Chile. The year 1626 was a barren year and 100 to 150 tons of maize had to be obtained from Peru to keep the silver going. (Ref. 260 ) The Welch buccaneer, Henry Morgan, captured Panama City in a treaty violation with Spain, but although at first put on trial, he eventually was made Lt. Governor of Jamaica and put in charge of ending piracy. (Ref. 222 ) In 1695 the Spanish started to build a road from Campeche to Guatemala and encountered many ancient buildings on deserted, overgrown terraces, the remnants of the previous Indian civilizations. (Ref. 205 ) Yucatec-speaking Indians, fleeing disease and general disruption, went from the rain forests of Guatemala, with their bows and arrows into the region of Chiapas, Mexico, where they were subsequently known as the "Lacandon Maya". (Ref. 283 )

The society of New Spain was dominated by the clerical heirarchy. Beneath an archbishop were 8 other bishops and members of the Inquisition. The Indians became Catholics while still remaining pagan; the clergy rapidly became degenerate, while growing richer. The ideal of the New World Church - or at least that of many of its clergy - was a despotic government, a privileged priesthood and an ignorant laity. (Ref. 166 )

Every European major power was interested in the "sugar islands" of the Caribbean and there were many possessions and trading of island territories between Spain, France, England and Holland. (Ref. 8 ) The Dutch had brought the cane from Brazil when they were expelled from Recife in 1654 and it soon reached Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dutch Curacao, Jamaica and Santo Domingo. After 1685 production showed an uninterrupted increase and this sugar production required a tremendous labor force, this resulting in the black slave importation. But cane left little space for food crops and edibles had to be imported from Europe or North America. The same could be said about the lack of skilled craftsmen and engineers

England established colonies on Bermuda in 1612, Barbados in 1627, and Jamaica in 1655. By 1676 some 400 ships, each carrying about 180 tons of sugar, left Jamaica.

By 1690 there were an estimated 40,000 slaves on that island, working the sugar estates and their revolts and desertions resulted in almost continuous military action throughout the last decades of this century. (Ref. 249 ) The British from Bermuda began settling the Bahamas in mid-century but were subject to pirate raids by Spanish and French and they did not establish real sovereignty until late in the next century. (Ref. 274 ) It was not until 1680 that sugar spread to the western half of the island of St. Domingue, which had been French until the middle of the century.