Africans never accepted their status as slaves. There desire for freedom lived in there souls, and they never missed a chance to flee in the jungles of the West Indies, North, South & Central Americas. There they could live according to their laws and customs. The Spanish called them cimarrones or maroons. In 1552 a group of about 400-500 Africans arrived on the Atlantic coast of Panama where they escaped from a sinking ship. This group did not arrive on the mainland as slaves. They elected one of their members called BAYANO to be their leader. Bayano became King of a community of over 2000 maroons named Ronconcholon near modern-day Chepo River. He organized attacks against Spanish plantations and the mule-trains traveling the Camino Real. Great quantities of gold, silver and precious stones were captured. The Spanish sent many expeditions against him and his people but none were successful. He had built a palisaded fortress on top of a hill overlooking the Caribbean, far from where the Spaniards could discover it. It was mostly populated with his guards and his army. Farther away was a second village for the communities women, children and elderly. The communities were a mixture of Indians from Peru and Nicaragua and Africans from a dozen different tribes. The Spanish infuriated by King Bayano established a fund to hire an anti-maroon force. Nobody accepted the offer. Finally they went to the prisons and told the inmates they would become slaves themselves if they didn’t wage war against the maroons. 70 armed ex convicts led by Panama’s colonial governor, Pedro de Ursua accepted. Guided by a captured maroon who had become a informer they hiked 25 days trying to reach King Bayanos hilltop. Realizing they could not capture the place Pedro de Ursua negotiated with King Bayano. He offered to split Panama into 2 kingdoms one ruled by Felipe II of Spain and King Bayano of Panama. King Bayano accepted and just before leaving the Spanish threw a feast. King Bayano and 40 others attended . The Spanish drugged their wine, incapacitating them and hauled them off to enslavement. Bayano was brought to Peru to the viceroy as a trophy and finally to Spain where he died in prison.The Bayano community did regroup and others sprung up after it.