Portobelo, Panama
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This article refers to the town in Panama.
- For other uses, see Portobello.
Portobelo (formerly Puerto Bello, also Porto Belo) is a port town in Colón Province, Panama. It is located on the northern part of the Isthmus at .
Portobelo port was founded by Christopher Columbus in 1502, on his fourth expedition.
Francis Drake died of dysentery in 1596, and was buried at sea in a lead coffin near Portobelo bay.
Portobelo was founded in 1597, and called "San Felipe de Portobelo" (referring to King Philip II of Spain). From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries it was an important silver-exporting port in New Granada on the Spanish Main and one of the ports on the route of the Spanish treasure fleets.
The city was also involved in one of Captain Henry Morgan's famous adventures. In 1668, Morgan led a fleet of privateers and 450 men against Portobelo, which, in spite of its good fortifications, he captured and plundered for 14 days, stripping it of nearly all its wealth. This daring endeavour, although successful, also proved particularly brutal as it involved rape, torture, and murder on a grand scale.
On November 21, 1739, the port was again attacked and captured by a British fleet, commanded this time by Admiral Edward Vernon during the War of Jenkins' Ear. The battle demonstrated the vulnerability of Spanish trading practices, and led to a fundamental change in them. The Spanish switched from large fleets calling at few ports to small fleets trading at a wide variety of ports. They also began to travel around Cape Horn to trade on the West coast. Portobelo's economy was severely damaged, and did not recover until the building of the Panama Canal.
Today, Portobelo is a sleepy town with a population of fewer than 5,000. It has a deep natural harbor. In 1980 the ruins of the fortification, along with nearby Fort San Lorenzo, were declared a World Heritage Site.
