Portobelo was founded in 1597 by Spanish explorer Francisco Velarde y
Mercado and quickly replaced Nombre de Dios as a Caribean port for Peruvian
silver. Legend has it that Christopher Columbus originally named the port
"Puerto Bello", meaning "Beautiful Port", in 1502. It is
also said that after Francis Drake died of dysentery in 1596 at sea, he was
buried in a lead coffin near Portobelo Bay. From the 16th to the 18th
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
Spanish built defensive fortifications
