The disadvantages endured by the humble oversea strugglers, however, did not end here, for their own produce received the coldest of financial greetings in Europe, and the prices realized from these frequently left the agriculturalists in despairing wonder as to whether it was worth while to continue with their various industries.  Added to all these were further regulations which proved both irksome and costly to the men of the south.  Twice a year the Casa de Contratacion sent out a formidable fleet from Cadiz, escorted by men-of-war.  It was this fleet which carried the articles of which the colonials were in urgent need.  Now, the main settlements of the Spanish merchants and officials, as distinguished from the colonial, were in Panama and the north, and it was largely in order to benefit these privileged beings that the ridiculous regulations were brought into force which made the fleet of galleons touch at the Isthmus of Panama alone.  By this means it was insured that these goods should pass through the commercial head-quarters, and leave a purely artificial profit to the Spaniards concerned, instead of being sent direct to the various ports with which the coasts of the Continent were now provided.

[Illustration:  BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS.

“The Apostle of the Indies,” who took up the cause of the much afflicted natives of South America.

From the portrait in the Bibliotheque Nationale.

A.  Rischgitz.]

In these circumstances it was necessary for colonial merchants and traders from all parts of South America to journey to this far northern corner in order to carry out their negotiations, and to attend to the fresh transport of the wares.  The hardships and the added cost brought about by regulations such as these may be imagined, and, as was only to be expected, a system such as this recoiled upon the heads of those who were responsible for its adoption.

Occasionally circumstances arose in connection with these official fleets which bore with almost equal hardship upon Spaniard and colonial alike.  Thus, when the English, Dutch, and French buccaneers took to harassing the South American coast in earnest, there were periods when the galleons of the Indies were kept within their harbour for a year and more.  Then the Spaniards went perforce without the South American gold, and the colonial’s life was shorn of the few comforts which the wildly expensive imported articles had been wont to bring.

The home authorities invariably appeared loth to take into account the possibility of human enterprise.  It was not likely that the colonials would submit tamely to such tremendous deprivations as those intended by Spain.  Foreign traders, moreover, notwithstanding the ban and actual danger under which they worked, were keenly alive to the situation, and to the chances of effecting transactions in a Continent where so handsome a profit was attached to all commerce.  The result was the inception of smuggling on a scale which soon grew vast, and which ended in involving officials of almost all ranks.  The Governors of the various districts themselves were usually found perfectly willing to stand sponsors for all efforts of the kind, and, viewing the matter from the modern point of view, they are scarcely to be blamed for their complaisant attitude.