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Herman Cortez having heard of the rebellious de Olid decided to take a trip to the Rio Dulce and reclaim his land, this makes Hernan Cortez the first tourist to the Rio Dulce. Unfortunately in those days traveling in the area was not as pleasant as it is today so it took him some six month to get here from Mexico and tend to his business. His travels are described in his 5th letter to King Carlos V of Spain. Cortez found only a few survivors in San Gil. It seems that the colonists did not get along with the natives of the lost city of Nito. Cortez describes his arrival to this city and rescuing the survivors. Later that century and for the nest two hundred years other settlements were established and eventually the Rio Dulce became the most important waterway connecting the kingdom of Guatemala to the Spanish crown. A Port was built and a road to Antigua Guatemala by these means were transported most of the goods to and from Guatemala to the rest of the world. All this business attracted Pirates. Again in those days pirates had more important things other than making illegal copies of videos such as: pillage and plunder. There were at least 49 recorded pirate attacks in the area between 1558 and 1822. Some of these pirates stayed in the region and terrified the inhabitants for long stretches of time. Many of them are pretty colorful characters such as; "Pata de Palo", Diego "El Mulato", Gareubec the "Enemy", Master "Cocle", Jeremias, "El Sambo", Count "Mauricio of Nassau" and William Walker being the most known. The most recent pirate is the author of this document since I'm stealing this information from The Archaeological Survey produced for Shell Oil Corp. and the Ruta Maya Foundation. The group of Archaeologists, led by my friend and neighbor Richard Bronson and Clive Carruthers. And thanks to the gals that did most of the work; Rebecca Orozco and Elsa Chang. Sorry folks but I know you won't mind...So all this pirating for many centuries forced the Spanish and later the Republic of Guatemla (we became independent from Spain in 1821) to fortify the entrance to the lake Izabal. |
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The Fort of San Felipe de Lara: This fort is one of the favored spots for visitors from all over the world since the Tourist Commission of Guatemala rebuilt it. The Fort was first just a bastion of 20 soldiers called "Bastion de Bustamante" later King Phillip II had it enlarged, added a few cannons and had it named after him. From the wall of the fort one can imagine the pirate ships being held at bay with cannon shot and chains as well as musket fire, Oh, what fun. From the Hilltop of Tijax the fort can be seen, as a matter of fact we think that on that hill was the "lookout" that is described in the history of the attacks of the fort and the plans of it when it was built called for lookouts. We have found piles of rocks, which would be ideal for a lookout, since the view from there also goes upstream many miles. An enemy ship could be spotted and advanced warnings are made with mirrors of via messenger a few hours early, before the arrival of the ships to Fronteras. By the way, the modern town of "Fronteras" where Tijax is located used to be the frontier where one had to clear customs in order to clear into colonial Guatemala. |
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