Vasco Núñez de la Vega

“ Neither so bold as Vasco Nuñez, nor so cunning as Pedrarias, nor so cruel as Pizarro, nor so learned as Espinosa, he was a man of deeper and broader experience than any one of them, with a more evenly balanced mind, a cooler, sounder judgment, not always a warrant for greater success than with a more senseless recklessness, but on the whole much safer as a colleague, and more reliable as a friend. He was not a man easily diverted by hollow schemes, however brilliant or high-soaring ”

“ A young and statesmanlike ruler, instead of a cruel and passionate old dotard, would have settled the Isthmus of Panama; and the humane and enlightened Vasco Nuñez, instead of the ruthless and illiterate Pizarro, would have been the conqueror of Peru. But this was not to be. Vasco Nuñez returned to Darien, from the coast of that mighty ocean which he had discovered, only to receive the tidings that old Pedrarias, with fifteen hundred men, was coming out from Spain to supersede him. ”

“ So Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, mistakenly supposing himself bound by the will of a dastard king, went meekly to the scaffold. With a firm step he ascended to the platform, without a tremor viewed the block on which he was to lose his head, and looked calmly on while the grim headsman made it ready. "Now haste," growled the man with the axe, "for there are others, and the sun is low in the sky." Then Balboa gave a start—remembering the others. ”

“ Of the invariable poor but noble family, a native of Jerez de los Caballeros, Vasco Nuñez was reared in the service of Pedro Puertocarrero, the deaf lord of Moguer. Drawn with the crowd to the New World, upon the abrupt termination of the voyage of Bastidas, he obtained a repartimiento of Indians, and applied himself to agriculture at Salvatierra, 325 a town of Española. Becoming embarrassed by debts, and disgusted with the plodding life of a farmer, he determined to try fortune in the new colony of Alonso de Ojeda. ”

“ Full of his new project, Balboa broached it to his counsellors without delay, but to his surprise they would not hear of it, neither would any person whatever in the colony. "No, no," they all exclaimed. "You shall not leave us, Vasco Nuñez. You are not alone our governor, but our guide and leader. You, only, are respected by the soldiers, feared by the savages, and we cannot do without you. Stay here with us you must ”

“ To accomplish your enterprise, therefore, will require at least a thousand men armed like those who follow you."
The effect of this intelligence, on the enterprising spirit of Vasco Nuñez, may be well imagined. The Pacific ocean and its golden realms seemed to be at his feet. He beheld within his power an enterprise which would at once elevate him from a wandering and desperate man, to a rank among the great captains and discoverers of the earth. ”

“ On the other side were recognized talents of so exceptional an order as to make the possessor the most popular man in the colony. This is what kept his irascible adversary on nettles. Vasco Nuñez was the hero of this conquest. He was to Pedrarias as Loki to Baldur, or as Hyperion to a satyr; and in their strangely assorted friendship they were more unequally yoked than in their enmity they were divided. He was the mirror in which by comparison the governor most clearly saw his own infirmities. Like Othello he was of that free and open nature which thinks men honest that but seem so. ”

“ Ten or twelve years after Columbus had discovered the mainland, there was a Spanish settlement at the town of Darien on the isthmus. Prominent among the adventurers who prosecuted, from this centre of operations, the Spaniard’s eager and ruthless search for gold was Vasco Nuñez de Balboa—a man cruel and unscrupulous as the others, but giving evidence of wider views and larger powers of mind than almost any of his fellows. Vasco Nuñez visited one day a friendly chief, from whom he received in gift a large amount of gold. ”

“ Enjoining Tubanamá to gather gold, and ever 383 remain true to the Spaniards, Balboa returned in triumph to Pocorosa's town, with a long train of enslaved captives. About this time Vasco Nuñez fell sick; and no wonder when we consider the strain on mind and body during the past four months. First in every action, bearing exposure and privation in common with the poorest soldier, with the responsibility of the adventure resting wholly on him, he was a fit subject for fever. ”

“ Vasco Nuñez was now the ally of the governor, whose jealousy was lost sight of in his desire to further the interests of his daughter’s future husband. Nuñez was authorised to build brigantines and to make the necessary preparations for an expedition of discovery on the Southern Sea. A town named Acla was founded at a point to the west of Darien, whence there was supposed to be the most convenient route across the mountains.{59} Here Nuñez commenced his operations, having two hundred men placed under his command and being aided by an advance from the treasury. ”

“ NEW AMBITION
"Did you have a good time on your trip with Harlan and his father?" asked Lieutenant Barretas of Vasco.
"To be sure I did," was the answer. "I am not likely ever to forget the sights I have seen in this journey through our country."
"I hope you thanked your American friends for the pleasure you have enjoyed."
"I did, father."
"Our people are much indebted to the Americans for the prosperity into which we have come. I have some more good news to tell you now."
"What is it?" asked Vasco, his face aglow with eager anticipation. ”

“ In this manner did fate seem to play at cross-purposes with Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, sending him tidings by one messenger of the king's disfavor, and by another of his esteem; though, to tell the truth, Pasamonte had assumed his majesty's approbation of his act, without right to do so. He had received from Balboa a large sum of gold, by a previous remittance, and this was the manner in which he requited the favor.
"Gold is most powerful, of a truth," whispered Balboa to himself, smiling the while, as he thought of the title it had won from Miguel de Pasamonte. ”

“ They were only one-fourth the number of the new arrivals, but every man was a seasoned soldier, and there would have been little doubt as to the result of an encounter.
But fate played Vasco Nuñez false again, for Arbolancha had passed Pedrarias on the ocean and arrived in Spain too late to change the decision of the king, who then regretted that he had not rewarded Balboa with the governorship of Darien. He was the governor, in fact, elected to office by the votes of his adoring comrades; but Pedrarias came with royal authority, and Balboa bowed to the decree of the king. ”

“ The reward, then, of exploration and discovery mainly inheres in the accomplishment itself, for few of the world's great explorers have lived to receive the fruits of their labors, as witness Magellan and Hudson and Cook. Of them all, however, perhaps there was none who was so basely requited as Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. Were it not for the fact that there was in Darien, at the time Pedrarias wreaked his vengeance upon Balboa, a veracious chronicler of events, whose name has survived as author of a great history, we should be loath to accept as true this story of revenge, ingratitude, and crime. ”

“ Then he took the Spaniards to the place where they obtained the pearls, and made his people gather them, and remain at peace. Notwithstanding all this the captain without conscience gave away as slaves all the men and all the women whom he brought away from the Rich Island.' The statement may be taken with allowance as from a man smarting under wrong; and it is not a little amusing to see how suddenly tender becomes the conscience of the ingenuous Vasco, who never stole anything from the natives, or burned their houses, or made them slaves! ”

“ Vasco Nuñez reaches the, in his ships, 20; fisheries near Cabo de la Vela, 83 Peccaries, 17, and note; method of hunting, 24 Pedrarias de Avila, governor of Castilia del Oro, embarks at Seville, 1; his character, ib. note; lands at Darien, 3–6; imprisons Vasco Nuñez, 19; sends Vasco Nuñez to explore the South Sea, ib.; arrives at Acla, 21; sends for, and imprisons Vasco Nuñez, ib.; murders Vasco Nuñez, 22; founds Panama, 23; goes in search of Becera, 28; goes to Nicaragua, and beheads Hernandez, 37 ”

“ Give us again Vasco Nuñez as a leader, for he alone can pacify the Indians; he alone knows the secrets of the land."
The jealous and irritable Pedrarias was greatly incensed by the sneers and reproaches of Balboa's friends. "So they want that rebel and that assassin to lead them against Dobaybe? Inasmuch as there could not be another expedition so likely to be defeated as one against that province, thither shall he go—and may the devil catch him by the way, say I."
This the crafty old governor said to himself, by-the-way, and not to others ”

“ The Spanish leader next repaired to Coyba, to assist Careta against a neighbouring chief called Ponca, whom he obliged to take refuge in the mountains. Whilst on a friendly visit to the cacique of Comagre, Nuñez heard from the son of that chieftain of a region beyond the mountains, on the shores of a mighty sea, which might be discerned from their summits, where gold was as plentiful as was iron with the Spaniards. In reply to his anxious inquiries, Vasco Nuñez learned that the task of penetrating to this sea, and to the golden region by its shores, was difficult and dangerous. ”

“ The water-sellers, with their little carts drawn [24] by wobegone-looking donkeys, were always an object of interest to Vasco. He felt that it would be almost as much fun to ride about on a water-cart all day as to be a soldier.
Among the buildings within Vasco's vision as he sat in the plaza was the Cabildo, or town hall, which is the Independence Hall of Panama, for here was signed the Declaration of Independence from Spain. Naturally the place is an object of much reverence to the natives. ”

“ It proved to be an anteroom on the main floor of the cathedral into which the boys had come. Vasco immediately recognized their surroundings. No one else was about, and [15] the boys were able to make their way without challenge to the portico facing the plaza. Once mingled with the throng, there was no danger of any one interfering with their movements. It was taken for granted by the soldiers that Vasco and his friend had a right to be in the cathedral.
In truth, several of the guards were members of Lieutenant Barretas's company, and they knew Vasco, who had often visited their camp. ”

“ In the village of Quarequá was found much needed food, and some gold. So toilsome had been the march that eighteen days had passed since leaving Careta's town. And here Vasco Nuñez rested for the night, nursing his wounded, and cheering the sick and down-hearted. The guides whom Ponca had furnished, and who had proved of incalculable service to the explorers, were dismissed to their home with presents, and with hearts made glad by the destruction of Porque. So rolls round the planet inexorable nature, detested death giving hourly joy to universal life. ”

“ If I have applied strong terms of denunciation to Pedrarias Dávila, it is because he unquestionably deserves it. He is by far the worst man who came officially to the New World during its early government. In this all authorities agree. And all agree that Vasco Nuñez was not deserving of death. Andagoya, Relacion, in Navarrete, Col. de Viages, iii. 403-5, is an excellent authority. Says Las Casas, Hist. ”

“ Such thoughts as these kept Vasco Nuñez de Balboa awake while his soldiers slept. So absorbing were they that he hardly heard the groans of the wounded, the cries of anguish from the poor wretches on the battlefield. Wives, mothers, and children of the dead warriors were groping in the darkness for their loved ones, and when they found the objects of their search they rent the air with piteous lamentations. ”

“ Few traces of this wall now remain. As civilization has advanced, and life and property have become safer, it has gradually been torn down.
One day, not long after the great military review, Vasco was down at the water-front watching the fishermen unloading their boats. As it happened, he fell in with Enrique Mendoza, in whose father's boat he had witnessed the capture of the shark.
Enrique, as well as Vasco, was always looking for some new adventure. At this time he hailed his friend with a glad shout, and asked:
"What do you say, Vasco, to a trip over to Old Panama to-morrow? ”

“ Winning for the project a few staunch friends, Vasco Nuñez selected with great care one hundred and ninety men. [IX-1] More could have been taken, but he had determined on a rapid march of discovery rather than pacification and occupation. Hence he preferred only tried men, those inured to fatigue, men resolute and reckless, with heart and head hard, and sinews of steel. He also provided from among his captives and the neighboring nations one thousand natives, to serve as warriors and beasts of burden. ”

“ Vasco Nuñez sent this Fulvia to invite her brother to return, and he immediately responded to his sister's invitation. He was seized and forced to confess that the cacique Zemaco, his master, had sent those four uru for the massacre of the Spaniards, and that the plot had been conceived by him. Zemaco took upon himself the task of killing Vasco Nuñez, and forty of his people whom he had sent as an act of friendship to sow and cultivate Vasco's fields, had been ordered by him to kill the leader with their agricultural tools. ”