Letters

There was little sleep last night for having all sorts of thoughts about the article I read yesterday on your website. We happened to have been in Tampa, Florida in November and December, where my husband, Dick, underwent triple bypass surgery. We missed out on the breaking news, and the subsequent aftermath, until we returned to Panama and were presented with a stack of clippings about finding the remains of the Vizcaina at Nombre de Dios.

Always doubtful that this could be true, after reading your article I'm compelled to point out a few -- what I consider to be -- facts, before wiping out the scholarship of the twentieth century. Maybe what we are caught up in is millennium madness, or could it be (allow me to speculate) that just finding an ordinary 16th-century merchant ship is not enough reason to fund an expensive diving expedition? Why does it have to be the Vizcaina? Isn't there enough glory in having found something of value to preserve? Must it be something as monetarily valuable --- well, maybe --- as one of Christopher Columbus' ships?

When writing Portobelo Chronicles, there was no claim of having superior expertise. The collected writings of true scholars, was fashioned into a chronological narrative. Credit went to those scholars who performed the tedious task of diving into personal notes, ship's logs and charts to tell the story that originated in the Age of Discovery.

We used to grit our teeth every time the young lady appeared on SCN to say, as the music swelled: "Portobelo, founded by Columbus." You are correct in that Columbus (who was Genoese, rather than Italian ), was not the first to lay eyes on Portobelo Bay, He was, however, sailing under the permission of the Spanish crown, and therefore, Spain has a right to claim the European discoveries that Columbus made.

It may seem picky, but Columbus is usually linked with the Discovery. The Conquest with the infamous reading of the requerimiento and mass baptism of natives, took place later. In most cases, literature written about the Enterprise of the Indies has been full of comments about the friendliness of the natives, their willingness to trade and their curiosity about the explorers. Yes, there were those unfortunate bloody incidents in which both explorers and Indians lost their lives, however, it seems to me to be a crazy bit of conjecture to think that the reason Columbus did not sink his ship in Portobelo Bay is because of what took place in Veraguas.. All indications are that the Indians in Portobelo showed the Europeans nothing but friendliness. To the contrary, it was noted that in the area of Nombre de Dios, the sailors made sport of the Indians by taunting those who swam out to the ships. This recorded incident happened before the four ships sailed to rio Belen. I think it's more likely that the Indians in the area of Nombre de Dios would have shown themselves to be unfriendly toward the explorers, having been already provoked. They possibly would have turned bellicose. These speculations cause me to ask, "Why would the ship's log say that they sailed back to Portobelo to regroup, provision and make ready for a long passage home, if they didn't consider it a safe haven?"

And then, there's the matter of abandoning ship. You're correct in reporting that when a ship is scuttled, everything of value is taken off and stowed aboard the another ship. Sailors would not have let sails, rigging, iron fittings, and certainly not munitions, go down with the ship. And to add to that, the Vizcaina was so worm-eaten that she " ... leaked like a sieve."

Why would we think that anything would be left of a worm-eaten ship's hull. Mel Fisher --- of diving fame --- who visited Portobelo years ago speculated that there would be nothing left of a wooden vessel due to the nature of the bay. The bay is so badly silted that the hull of a sailing vessel of Columbus' time would be buried in --- who knows how many feet --- of mud, and furthermore, turbulence in the water during storms that occur in October and November would have churned up the water and abraded any wooden timbers.

Nombre de Dios, however, was the sight of numerous --- possibly more than a hundred --- sinkings. An entire fleet of twenty-five ships bringing trade goods sank there during a storm in 1565. Details are likely to be available in the Archives of the Indies in Seville. The number of ships lost and the unsuitability of an open roadsted, subject to winds from the north, was the very reason the site of the fairs was transferred to Portobelo Bay.

Let's get back to the matter of a ship's log. This is an account of every significant matter that takes place aboard a ship; position, sightings and matters of importance, like abandoning a ship, or how the Gallega couldn't cross the bar at the mouth of Rio Belen , therefore, they left her behind. Historical writings about ships of the 16th-century upon which to base our conclusions are readily available. It is not prehistoric times we're examining. The 16th century had the benefit of writing and there were copious accounts that have been stored in archives, libraries and on the shelves of historians, both amateur and professional.

Above all, I'm compelled to defend the historian, Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison. It's a matter of conscience, Morison, to quote the Encyclopedia Britannica, is considered to have written " ... two of the finest biographies of Columbus in the twentieth century." His reputation, to this point, has been untarnished. In his truly scholarly research, he read everything that Columbus wrote, that Fernando recorded in the log and that Christopher's brother, Bartholomew charted.

Now, let me ask those engaged in this highly-scientific diving effort, can you tell me why the man who gave Portobelo its melodious name, whose son recorded it in the log book and whose brother put it on the sailing charts, would not know where they sank the Vizcaina? Please, Eric, please! Let's not scuttle the scholarship of Samuel Eliot Morison, and a score of other Columbus scholars, until we are quite sure that the information we've relied on for so many years has holes in it!!!

Maybe the problem of losing sleep is that this Kansas City, Kansas girl lived too long in Kansas City, Missouri, for I'm certainly as stubborn as a Missouri mule. Missouri, you may know, is The Show Me State. Will somebody, show me the hard evidence before I'm willing to swallow lock, stock and barrel certain conclusions reported in your article!

Mr. Gore is a socialist. He believes that the strong country that is the United States is inherently bad and that we who have worked to build it and defend it, should give up what we have and share it with third world countries who are either too lazy or too corrupt to pull themselves up by the boot straps and use ingenuity and guts to make themselves educated and strong. The Kyoto conference is a concealed effort, sponsored by the UN, to take cash and power from the strong and wealthy countries in the form of fines for "greenhouse gas pollution"and give it to countries who feel entitled to the money and power.

I had the pleasure to visit and then live in Panama during the last decade. Panama is a third world country with serious pollution problems. As a country and population, you are, like the rest of the third world polluting far more than the more educated and developed countries. I do not accept the opposite claim by the Kyoto conference. We in the US are under far more environmental constraints than any other country. To claim otherwise is simply ignorance. Mr. Gore is, once again, spouting "green" just to further his own personal goals. He comes from one of the dirtiest states in the US and a state that has serious water quality problems in some areas. What has he done about this during his life of so-called public service? Virtually nothing. He took money for years from the corporations he now denounces, something he learned at Bill Clinton's side. This is defined has hypocrisy.

We would all benefit from an all out effort to clean and keep clean our world. The Kyoto conference method is just a power grab. The US should take a leadership role in accomplishing the goal of a cleaner world. Yes, we should all find alternate fuel and energy sources that do not injure our basic resources for life. In the current US administration, efforts are being made to make our country less dependent on foreign energy sources. What is needed is more education on how to use less energy --- worldwide!! Using solar, wind and water sources instead of fossil and nuclear fuel is the answer for the future. Putting constraints on the US and other advanced countries will only take us backward, away from the desired goal, not toward it.

I wished to thank all of you for your tremendous response to my article – Retiring to Paradise – Consider PANAMA. All of you have asked wonderful questions about relocating to Panama. In order to satisfy your concerns, I have suggested to Mr. Paul Martin, the developer of "Villa Concordia" near Panama City, that we host a focus virtual group to share our information, to which he has agreed. Therefore, I have arranged for Mr. Martin to be the co-host for a free telephone focus group on Monday, March 18, 2002 from 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

To join, simply e-mail me at nanbrehm@aol.com, and I will e-mail you the telephone bridge number to call. The cost for the telephone call is quite reasonable.

For those of you that are interested, I will continue the virtual group free of charge for six more sessions. I have found in my own life that to move to another location, especially a new country, it is wonderful to have likeminded comrades, with whom you can share the joys and frustrations of relocation.

Knowledge about the nuts and bolts of living in the country is the most helpful way to further a smooth adjustment to a new country. (I have lived abroad and traveled extensively.) Mr. Martin and I are researching the many topics you have asked questions about, to bring you the most up-to-date information about retirement in Panama. I have also asked Senor Pedro Adolfo Detresno from Pedros’ Real Estate Co. to join us for the last 15 minutes of the focus group. Senor Detresno speaks English fluently, having graduated from Bryant College in Rhode Island.

Please do join us for the focus group on Monday, March 18, 2002, at 8 pm. We can all share in our excitement about how to make dreams about retiring to Panama joyful realities. E-mail me at nanbrehm@aol.com.

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