On his final voyage to the New World in 1502, Christopher Columbus came ashore on Costa Rica's Caribbean coastline (near Limon) and the indigenous Indians presented him with an offering of gold.
The lure of riches in the Americas was a strong magnet for European adventures of-the-day, but those that ventured to Costa Rica were confronted by an inhospitable landscape of coastal swamps and hostile Indians tribes - and most did not survive.
The Spanish persisted, and by the mid-16th century a few small settlements were successfully established; Cartago was declared the capital, and the colony was ruled by a governor appointed by the Spanish empire’s regional capital of Guatemala.
