Portobelo was
founded in 1597 by Spanish explorer
Francisco Velarde y Mercado and quickly replaced
Nombre de Dios as the major local port for Peruvian silver. Legend has it that
Christopher Columbus originally named the port "Puerto Bello", meaning "Beautiful Port", in 1502. After the English
privateer Francis Drake died of
dysentery in 1596, he was buried at sea in a lead coffin off Portobelo, memorialised by the present
Isla Drake ("Drake Island") at the mouth of the harbour. During the 16th to the 18th centuries it was an important silver-exporting port in
New Granada on the
Spanish Main and one of the two Atlantic ports on the route of the
Spanish treasure fleet. The Spanish built defensive fortifications at Portobelo to protect it from attacks by other European powers. In 1601, English privateers led by
William Parker captured Portobelo from the Spanish. The Welsh privateer
Henry Morgan repeated the feat in 1668, having led a force of 450 privateers and
overcame its strong fortifications. His forces plundered it for 14 days before withdrawing. It was captured again in 1680 by the English pirate
John Coxon. 's attack on the Castillo de San Jerónimo, Porto Bello in 1669 In 1726, the
Royal Navy initiated a
blockade of Porto Bello under
Admiral Francis Hosier in an attempt to prevent the Spanish treasure fleet returning to Spain. Hosier's fleet spent an extended period of time moored at
Bastimentos to the northeast, during which time Hosier and many of his fleet's sailors died from tropical diseases. 13 years later, the port
was captured on 21 November 1739 by a British squadron under Admiral
Edward Vernon during the
War of Jenkins' Ear. The victory created an outburst of popular acclaim throughout the British Empire. More medals were struck for Vernon than for any other 18th-century British figure and across the
British Isles the name of "Portobello" was given to places and streets in honor of the victory, most notably
Portobello Road in London, the district of
Portobello in Edinburgh and the
Portobello Barracks in Dublin. The Spanish eventually recovered Portobelo in 1741 after their victory at the
Battle of Cartagena de Indias. British efforts to gain a foothold on the Spanish Main and disrupt the galleon trade were ultimately fruitless. Following the War of Jenkins' Ear, the Spanish switched from using large fleets calling at few ports to small fleets trading at a wide variety of ports, developing a flexibility that made them less subject to attack. Ships also began to travel around
Cape Horn to trade directly at ports on the western coast. ==Today==