An Archaeology of the English Atlantic World, 1600 – 1700

Synopsis

On February 25, 1577, the first vestiges of daylight began to streak across the eastern horizon off the tiny island of Chapera, one of two hundred islets making up the Pearl Island archipelago in Panama Bay. As he rose and scanned the ocean as part of his morning ritual, 40-year old Diego de Sotomayor noticed an unfamiliar speck bobbing in the growing daylight. Observing the object as it grew closer, Sotomayor realized that one of his worse fears may have come true. Approaching in a small, open boat was a company of strangers. Sotomayor knew he could not protect his family--his wife, their children, and his wife's parents--if the visitors were English.--