Nombre de Dios () is a city and

corregimiento ''Corregimiento'' (; ca, Corregiment, ) is a Spanish term used for country subdivisions for royal administrative purposes, ensuring districts were under crown control as opposed to local elites. A ''corregimiento'' was usually headed by a ''corre ...

Santa Isabel District Santa Isabel District () is a district (''distrito'') of Colón Province in Panama. The population according to the 2000 census was 3,323; the latest official estimate (for 2019) is 3,973.Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo, Panama. The d ...

Colón Province Colón () is a province of Panama. The capital is the city of Colón. It covers an area of 4,575.5 sq.km, and the latest estimate of population (for 2019) is 294,060.Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo, Panama. Overview This province h ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

, on the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coast of

in the

. Founded as a

Spanish colony The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...

in 1510 by

Diego de Nicuesa Diego de Nicuesa (; died 1511) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer. Background Diego arrived Santo Domingo in April 1502, with Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres' flotilla. In 1506, Nicuesa was given the job of governing Costa Rica, but ran agrou ...

, it was one of the first European settlements on the Isthmus of Panama. As of 2010 it had a population of 1,130 people.

History

Nombre de Dios is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the continental

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

. Originally a major port of call for the

Spanish treasure fleet The Spanish treasure fleet, or West Indies Fleet ( es, Flota de Indias, also called silver fleet or plate fleet; from the es, label=Spanish, plata meaning "silver"), was a convoy system of sea routes organized by the Spanish Empire from 1566 to ...

, Nombre de Dios was the most significant port for shipping in the Americas between 1540 and 1580. After the opening of

Potosí Potosí, known as Villa Imperial de Potosí in the colonial period, is the capital city and a municipality of the Department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world at a nominal . For centuries, it was the location o ...

in 1546, silver was shipped north to

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

and carried by

mule train "Mule Train" is a popular song written by Johnny Lange, Hy Heath, Ramblin' Tommy Scott and Fred Glickman. It is a cowboy song, with the singer filling the role of an Old West wagon driver, spurring on his team of mules pulling a delivery wagon. ...

across the isthmus to Nombre de Dios for shipment to Havana and Spain. As Nombre de Dios was situated near an unhealthy

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

and was nearly impossible to fortify, it declined in importance. In June 1572 the English privateer Francis Drake sacked the colony and in April of the following year he ambushed the

Spanish Silver Train The Spanish Silver Train was an improvised trail used to transport silver from Potosí, Peru across the isthmus of Panama in order to ship it to Spain via the Spanish treasure fleet. The silver was usually unloaded in Panama City, then put in mule ...

, a mule convoy carrying a fortune in

precious metal Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high economic value. Chemically, the precious metals tend to be less reactive than most elements (see noble metal). They are usually ductile and have a high lustre. ...

s. Drake captured the town again in 1595 but found little treasure, thereby missing 5 million pesos waiting off the Pacific side. After that date the Spanish preferred to use Portobelo as their Caribbean port.Timothy R Walton,"The Spanish Treasure Fleets", 1974, page 103 By 1580,

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

in present-day Mexico became a more important port. Mexican silver production increased steadily while South American production declined sharply after 1700. By 1600, Nombre de Dios had been all but abandoned by the Spanish. The town still exists, though it is much less populous than in the 16th century. Its population as of 1990 was 1,028 and of 2000 was 1,053.

Culture

Nombre de Dios is mentioned by the poet

Derek Walcott Sir Derek Alton Walcott (23 January 1930 – 17 March 2017) was a Saint Lucian poet and playwright. He received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works include the Homeric epic poem ''Omeros'' (1990), which many critics view "as Walcot ...

in ''The Prodigal'': The bay is also mentioned in Sir

Henry Newbolt Sir Henry John Newbolt, CH (6 June 1862 – 19 April 1938) was an English poet, novelist and historian. He also had a role as a government adviser with regard to the study of English in England. He is perhaps best remembered for his poems "Vit ...

's poem "Drake's Drum", about a legend of Sir Francis Drake:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nombre De Dios, Colon Colonial Panama Populated places established in 1510 Populated places in Colón Province Corregimientos of Colón Province

History

Culture

See also

References