Rodrigo de Bastidas and the Discovery of Panama

PANAMA was discovered in part by Rodrigo de Bastidas in 1501 and in part by Christopher Columbus in 1502-1503. Their voyages, conjoined with the other Spanish explorations of northern South America between 1499 and 1501 and with the Portuguese-sponsored voyage of Amerigo Vespucci in 1502-1503, showed that no westward passage to the Orient existed from 16?N to as far south probably as 32?S. The knowledge of a landmass of continental proportions to the west of Europe dramatically shifted western European attention from the Orient to the newly found lands and fostered the idea of colonizing them. In spite of the important consequences of those changes, the record for many voyages is still confused and contradictory. The discovery of the Isthmus of Panama is in this category. The principal disagreement focuses on the documentary evidence to support the assertion that Bastidas reached Puerto Retrete, a site on the isthmus named by Columbus. The preponderant information on this controversy indicates that Bastidas did not reach Retrete but rather left the mainland from the western side of the Gulf of Uraba. If Bastidas did not reach Retrete, his voyage and that of Columbus did not conjoin, a circumstance that would preclude the possibility of certain knowledge by the explorers and persons in western Europe that the western Caribbean was a closed sea. It would make questionable many statements by participants and their contemporaries about these discoveries. For almost five centuries the contradictions have

Computer security · Geography · Panama · Computer Science · Cuban History and Society · Historical Studies in Central America · Historical Studies on Spain

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