Early reconnaissance

Native groups of the territory that was to become known as ‘El Chocó’ were among the first indigenous peoples of the South American mainland to make contact with Spanish explorers searching for gold and booty in the early sixteenth century. Santa María la Antigua de Darién, founded in 1510 on the western side of the Gulf of Urabá, became Spain's first permanent settlement in this part of South America and an important base for further exploration. From Darién, expeditions fanned out in several directions: towards the isthmian region that lay to the north of Santa María; towards the Pacific Ocean that lay to the west of the serranía de Darién; and towards the Atrato river, which empties into the Gulf of Urabá and opened access to the Colombian interior and the lands of the Chocó.By settling at Darién, Spaniards gained a ‘most favourable position’ for reconnaissance – ‘a gateway’, as Sauer described it, ‘to the unknown south and west’.But the principal attraction of the Gulf of Urabá, and the reason it was chosen as a base for Spanish settlement, lay in the early discovery of gold and treasure among the Indian villages of the region.

First contacts were established in 1501, when an expedition conducted by Rodrigo de Bastidas and Juan de la Cosa voyaged along the Colombian coast and penetrated the Gulf of Urabá. No firm attempt at settlement was made on that occasion, but as Spaniards had engaged in peaceful and profitable trade with Indians in Urabá, in 1503 the Crown signalled its intention to found a government in the gulf. In 1504, Juan de la Cosa was selected to lead a new expedition to Urabá where he was authorised to found a settlement. But nothing came of these plans during La Cosa's eighteenth-month stay there. Far from seeking peacefully to colonise, La Cosa's intention was to obtain more treasure, and instead of building a settlement, the members of his expedition looted the town of Urabá, sacked and plundered the town of Darién, on the opposite side of the gulf, and raided the countryside surrounding both settlements in search of food and gold.