Note XIII-5 — Chapter XIII · DECLINE OF SPANISH SETTLEMENT ON THE NORTH COAST. 1517-1523.

In fact, neither Nombre de Dios nor Panamá, as at this time located, remained; the former, by order of Philip II., being removed five leagues to the westward, to Portobello, and the city of Panamá being refounded two leagues west of the original site, each port, at the time of its depopulation, claiming over 40,000 Spaniards as victims to the unwholesomeness of the climate, during a period of twenty-eight years. It was not until after these places had become the entrepôts for a large traffic with Peru and the north-western coast that the changes were made.