Vicente Yáñez Balboa

“ Suffice it that, when at last his rage and his vocabulary were seemingly exhausted, he was somewhat mollified by Balboa's single remark: "Well, Señor Bachelor, after all, the island, it seemeth, has lost a bad citizen, while you have gained a good soldier. Yea, two good soldiers, for here behold my hound, Leoncico, who will do more than one man's work, I ween." ”

“ 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. ”

“ Valdivia, the regidor, sailed for the island and Spain, but was never heard of more, and it is probable that his ship went down with all on board. With him, also, went the fifteen thousand pieces of gold, besides other sums, sent by Balboa and his men to satisfy their creditors in Santo Domingo. Truly, an evil genius pursued him, he was prone to say, for, labor as he might, he could not make head against his adverse fortune. ”

“ Distressed by the silence with which his appeal had been received, the cacique added:
"Dost thou doubt my faith? Behold my daughter. I give her to thee, provided she shall be restored, as a pledge of friendship. Thou mayst take her for thy wife, and be thus assured of the friendship of her family and her people."
Balboa then awoke, as from a trance, and, grasping Careta's right hand, exclaimed: "I accept her, if she will but ratify thy offer, and henceforth there shall be no enmity between us. Men, cast off the chains from these people. Set them free ”

“ Perceiving the condition of the delegates, Balboa, who had been watching them narrowly from the corner of his eye, hastily leaped from his hammock and exclaimed: "Not a word, Don Pedro, not a word, until you and your friends have slaked your thirst with draughts of our native wine. ”

“ He had emigrated to the new Spanish colony of Hayti, where he had got into debt. No debtor was allowed to leave the island, but Balboa, the gentleman of good family, yearned for further exploration; he "yearned beyond the sky-line where the strange roads go down." And one day the yearning grew so great that he concealed himself in a bread cask on board a ship leaving the shores of Hayti. For some days he remained hidden. When the ship was well out to sea he made his appearance. Angry, indeed, was the captain—so angry that he threatened to land the stowaway on a desert island. ”

“ He is a son of Ponce de Leon's dog, Becerrico, who performed such feats in the island San Juan, and well worthy of his sire. And, inasmuch as Becerrico received a soldier's full share, yielding his master more than two thousand pesos in gold, as prize-money for those he captured, I see not why Leoncico should not be received among us on the same terms."
"You shall never regret it!" exclaimed Balboa, eagerly, "for on occasions he can render the service of a dozen men. He is a sentinel that never sleeps. By day and by night, he is ever on the watch. ”

“ Pedrarias was possessed of a crabbed disposition that made him envy every man who had done something worthy of renown, and hate him who stood in the pathway of his own ambition. Hence he hated Balboa with a bitter, unreasoning hatred, and, as his wife had divined, was already scheming to deprive him of his laurels. ”

“ He then conceived an intense admiration for the beings, like his son-in-law, who could mount and control those wonderful animals, and never tired of sounding their praises. As he had disclosed to Balboa the hiding-places of his provisions and treasure, and as the latter had lost no time in transferring them to Darien, he was instrumental in keeping starvation from the colony until supplies arrived from Spain or Santo Domingo, and also of enriching every man in the army. ”

“ Shown into the presence of Captain Balboa, they eagerly offered to lead him to Coyba, where, they said, he would find an immense booty in gold as well as vast quantities of provisions.
"And this cacique Careta, you say, treated you well?" he asked.
"As well as he could, being a savage," answered one of the men. "He is naught but an Indian, half the time going naked, and with manners not of the best; but such as he had he freely gave us, and saved us both from death by starvation, most likely." ”

“ With the weight of my armor upon me, I should be suffocated, methinks."
"Nay, master, turned over thou shalt not be, for I shall give instructions to the crew to keep the top-end uppermost."
"But they may not observe them," groaned Balboa, as he clambered into the cask and settled himself in position.
"They will, master; trust me," said the faithful Miguel. "In the lading, they may roll thee about a bit, to be sure. Still, it will be better than to be squeezed by thy creditors." ”

“ Having captured a son of Tumaco, he loaded him with gifts, such as a shirt made in Castile, and other trifles valued by the savages, and sent him in search of his father. The chief had sought refuge in a wild den among the rocks, deep in the forest; but he was very much impressed by the beautiful presents brought by his son, and consented to emerge from his retreat. When he appeared before Balboa he had with him six hundred pieces of gold, and pearls to the number of two hundred and forty. ”

“ 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 ”

“ I go to tell him now to sharpen his axe for four!"
"For four?" exclaimed Balboa, as the old man retreated from the cell. "Who else have you enmeshed in your net, base wretch? Will not one victim suffice you? Who are they? Tell me."
"Who?" repeated the old man, mockingly, peering at his victim through the bars. "Why, who but Hernan de Arguello, Hernan Muños, Valderrabano, and Botello. Were they simply your friends, it were enough; but they are more: they are traitors to the king, and to me, Pedrarias de Avila, governor-in-chief of Darien, whose authority you have endeavored to usurp." ”

“ When they saw them, however, they smiled significantly, being well assured that they could defeat them in open encounter, and by no means afraid to essay it.
"They are our guests and our brothers, remember," remarked Balboa, as the veterans seemed disposed to murmur at his lack of precaution. "They come as we once came, hopeful, and expectant of wealth. Think, then, of the disappointment in store for them, and not of their arrogance. And, too, forget not the governor's lady. Ah, here they come! We must be at the boats to greet them, comrades. ”

“ Rodrigo and I will go forth, the one by water and the other by land; but there must perforce be a great gap of forest between us, through which the savages may come by stealth and fall upon the town. So, I say, keep watch by night and by day; and inasmuch as all are engaged in a common defence, and all entitled to equal shares in the spoils, even so shall it be."
Balboa was moved thus to deliver himself, because of ten thousand pieces of gold in the treasury, remaining undivided, which his enemies declared he intended to seize for himself and send as a donative to 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. ”

“ This conversation, at the frugal repast spread by Balboa for his guests, will show the trend of occurrences at and during the first week after the arrival of Pedrarias. He landed at Darien already prejudiced against its original settlers, and especially their leader, whom he was not satisfied to have superseded, but determined to degrade, bring to ruin, and if possible to an ignominious ending. The plot of this story will henceforth contain five principal characters: Pedrarias, Balboa, Bishop Quevedo, Espinosa the lawyer, and Doña Isabel. ”

“ 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. ”

“ So many perished daily that it was impossible to give them Christian burial, and carts were used for carrying away the dead, as in times of pestilence."
Pedrarias himself was taken with a fever, and, with his wife, was carried to a salubrious spot among the hills, where he soon recovered. Thence he sent orders for the old soldiers to set out, under his second in command, Juan de Ayora, to visit the caciques with whom Balboa had negotiated treaties when on his journey to the sea. ”

“ When threatened that unless he gave up his gold he should be tortured and thrown to the dogs, or bound hand and foot and cast into the river, he approached Balboa and, pointing to his naked sword, exclaimed: "Who that hath not lost his senses would think of prevailing against that weapon, which can cleave a man at a stroke? ”

“ As for those who went with him: being all of them gallant souls, and generous to a fault, more disposed to fight for treasure than to quarrel over its division afterwards, they acquiesced without a murmur. Colmenares had already embarked his force of sixty men, when Balboa set off and lost himself in the forest with his seventy, so that the settlement appeared quite deserted. ”

“ To march across an unknown and perilous country like this, led by treacherous Indian guides, was a bold and desperate enterprise, surpassing any which the Spaniards had yet attempted. But Balboa was one of the most daring and intrepid of them all, and to win the favor of his sovereign there was no danger he was not ready to face.
[pg 038] For the perilous expedition he could muster only one hundred and ninety men. But these were veterans, hardened to the climate of the isthmus, and ready to follow him whatever the peril. ”

“ May He who gives us the fruits of the earth, and who creates the thunder and the lightning, preserve thee and them, my lord!"
Balboa was deeply affected by the cacique's speech and meritorious actions. He graciously replied that they should arrange a perpetual friendship and alliance, as he hoped to do with all the caciques of Darien, and after bestowing upon him some beads, toys, and a Spanish shirt, sent him back to his province greatly rejoicing. ”

“ Pedrarias, however, did not lack courage. He sent the survivors hunting for treasures. Under different captains he dispatched them far and wide through the Isthmus to gather gold, pearls, and food. They turned its pleasant valleys and its noble hills into earthly hells. Murder, outrage and rapine flourished unchecked, even encouraged and rewarded. All the good work of Balboa in pacifying the natives and laying the foundation for a wise and kindly rule was undone in a few months.
Such cruelties had never before been practised in any part of the New World settled by the Spaniards. ”

“ We have followed the hero of this story, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, through the various stages of his career: a penniless adventurer, self-elected governor of Darien, savior of the settlement when on the point of dissolution, subjugator of the caciques, discoverer of the Pacific, faithful servant of the king, builder of the first brigantines that ploughed the waters of the great Southern Ocean. We are now to behold him led forth from his prison cell as a criminal, a traitor to his sovereign, and executed in the very town which was founded, through his unwearied efforts, in chief Careta's province. ”

“ Salvador Gonzalez and a few other soldier-settlers, who had enlisted for the voyage and a year thereafter of service on land, then informed Balboa of the nature of the expedition in which he had engaged. They had turned the empty cask bottom up, and, gathered around Balboa's erstwhile domicile of the night before, regaled themselves upon viands brought from their Dominican farms. ”

“ The young Indian warned him of the dangers he would meet with from the fierce race of Indians inhabiting these mountains, who were cannibals, or eaters of human flesh, but Balboa was not to be deterred by accounts of difficulties and dangers.
He was, besides, desirous of getting possession of the gold, and of obtaining, by the merits of the discovery, the pardon of the King of Spain, for taking from Enciso the command of the settlement. ”