prepare for a journey of many days. Select your stoutest and bravest
soldiers, and provide them well with food and weapons. Then return to
us, and we will furnish you guides. My father's warriors will go with
you; but of yourselves, as I said, you should be a thousand strong--no
less than that--for we shall meet hosts of warriors, some of them
cannibals, who eat the flesh of men, and all of them fierce fighters,
such as those of the cacique Tubanama, in whose province is gold beyond
measure. Stay, I will send for one of my men who was once a captive to
Tubanama, and he will tell you the same."
The quick-witted cacique had seen distrust lurking in Balboa's eyes,
and, indeed, the Spanish commander conceived this might be but a scheme
to get him out of Comogre's country and into the mountains, where he
might be swallowed up in the wilderness and never return to the colony,
which would be attacked by the Indians and destroyed. But the former
captive of Tubanama, who was questioned separately from the young
cacique, confirmed the latter's story in every particular, and verified
his account of gold which might be found in all the streams, as well as
accumulated in the cacique's treasuries.
Then Balboa, says one who was near him and saw the journal he wrote with
his own hand, was transported by the prospect of glory and fortune which
opened before him. He believed himself already at the gates of the East
Indies, which was the desired object of the government and the
discoverers of that period. He resolved to return, in the first place,
to Darien, to raise the spirits of his companions there with these
brilliant hopes, and to make all possible preparations for realizing
them. He remained, nevertheless, yet a few days with the caciques, and
so warm was the friendship he contracted with them that they and their
families were baptized, Careta taking in baptism the name of Fernando,
and Comogre that of Carlos. Balboa then returned to Darien, rich in the
spoils of Ponca, rich in the presents of his friends, and still richer
in the golden hopes which the future offered him.
Darien was in sore straits when, elated with his several victories,
Balboa marched into the settlement at the head of his little army.
Notoriously improvident as they were, the Spaniards had planted,
notwithstanding, a large tract with maize, or Indian-corn, and were
looking forward to gathering a harvest, when down from the mountains
swept a torrent, accompanied by a tempest with thunder and lightning,
and in an hour their fields were totally ruined. Starvation stared them
in the face, but about this time the _regidor_, Valdivia, who had been
sent to Santo Domingo by Balboa, with gold for Diego Columbus, returned
in a small vessel well laden with provisions.
These stores were soon consumed, and Valdivia returned to the island,
bearing a rich present for Don Diego and fifteen thousand crowns in gold
for King Ferdinand. This amount of gold, it was estimated, was due the
sovereign as the royal fifth, which was exacted from all treasure
obtained in America. As there was frequent communication between Santo
Domingo and Spain, and as, moreover, Don Diego Columbus was viceroy
over the islands, and Terra Firma as well, it was proper and politic to
send the treasure by the hands of the admiral. The latter had sent
abundant promises of aid, but, though Balboa represented that it was
necessary for him to have at least a thousand men as a reinforcement, it
is not on record that he ever got them. He had in mind the invasion of
the country contiguous to the great sea, which, Comogre's son had told
him, would demand more than a thousand soldiers, fully armed and
equipped. Failing to interest Don Diego in the scheme, Valdivia was
instructed to sail from Santo Domingo for Spain and lay it before the
king, who, in view of the large amount of gold remitted, might feel
inclined to accede to his modest request.
Valdivia sailed from Antigua del Darien, bearing with him the king's
fifth, and charged with Balboa's message, which was emphasized by a
startling statement that unless the needed troops were despatched
without delay, he should be obliged, in self-defence, to exterminate all
the caciques on the isthmus. He had already, he wrote, slain thirty
caciques, mainly with his own hand, and "must in like manner destroy
every one he should capture, as the small number of his troops left him
no alternative." We may probably take this message as evidence, rather,
of Balboa's skill with the "long bow," already alluded to, than of the
slaughter he committed with more potent weapons, for he certainly
possessed a vivid imagination.
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. Greater opportunities were given him, perhaps, than to any man
then living since the days of Columbus, and it cannot be truly said that
he did not improve them to the utmost; but every great endeavor of his
came to naught. He was ardent and generous, and he was sane, save where
his passions were concerned. His command over men was a marvel to all
who knew him, and there was not a soldier in his command who would
hesitate to follow him anywhere. He never told his men to go, but always
asked them to _come_, for he was ever in the forefront of battle, and
the more desperate the enterprise, the more anxious was he to take part
in it and assume the leadership.
Life in the settlement irked him greatly, says his Spanish biographer,
and although it was essential to its peace and prosperity that he should
stay in it a certain length of time, in order to place the town in a
posture of defence and encourage the waning spirits of the settlers, his
active and enterprising disposition would allow him no rest. He had
desired to go in person to present his cause to the court, but his
fellow-settlers would not hear of it. They were already sadly distressed
by their losses, through the inimical effects of the climate and the
repeated attacks of the Indians, and there seemed to be no one but
Balboa who could hold them where they were. What they had really gained
was very little, since their harvests were washed away by the floods,
and the gold they had acquired was useless, without marts in which to
purchase the things they most required to sustain life.
In order to keep them from seizing a vessel and departing for more
attractive regions, Balboa conceived the plan of invading the dominions
of Dobaybe, which lay around the head of the gulf, and contiguous to the
cannibal country on its eastern boundary. He was obliged to await the
return of Valdivia with reinforcements, if he would invade the great and
opulent region beyond the mountains, but meanwhile there came to him
information of a character that fanned to a flame the slumbering desire
to achieve a great discovery. An Indian was brought to him one morning,
who said he was the subject of a great cacique living in a golden realm
of the interior about one hundred miles from Darien. Its capital was
situated on the bank of the very river that emptied itself, by many
mouths, into the Gulf of Uraba. Its riches were prodigious, and it
derived its name from a wondrous goddess of most ancient times, who,
according to Indian tradition, was the mother of the god who had created
the sun, the moon, and the stars. She also controlled the elements, he
said, sending great storms, with thunder and lightning, which destroyed
the habitations of those who did not worship her fervently, but
rewarding those who did with abundant crops and success in battle.
According to some, this goddess had been at one time an Indian princess,
whose capital was in the mountains of Dobaybe, and in whose memory,
after her death, a temple had been erected containing a golden idol,
which was still worshipped by the natives. Both temple and idol were
made of gold, and to the holy shrine it was the wont of Indians far and
near to make annual pilgrimages, for the purpose of making offerings of
their wealth. Thus, in the course of centuries, the golden temple had
become filled with treasure of inestimable value. Its walls were adorned
with plates of gold, and its vaults filled with the precious metal,
veins of which radiated from them to the various mines with which the
region abounded.
The idol and the temple were of themselves sufficient to arouse the
predatory instinct of the Spaniards; but not alone was their cupidity
appealed to, for Balboa was informed that his old enemy Zemaco had
retreated to the province of Dobaybe, and was engaged in arousing its
cacique to resistance. Inflamed, then, by a lust for gold and their
desire for revenge, the followers of Balboa volunteered so readily for
the desperate enterprise that he had difficulty in retaining any
able-bodied soldiers for the defence of the settlement. One hundred and
seventy were finally selected, and embarking them in two brigantines,
under command of himself and Colmenares, Balboa sailed up the gulf to
the mouth of the river draining the golden country.
While nothing more was ever heard of Balboa's friend, the regidor, yet
tidings indirectly came to the Spaniards, in the course of Cortes's
voyage to Yucatan, in the year 1519. When his fleet was off that coast,
a rumor reached him that two Spaniards were held captive by a cacique of
the interior. One of these was rescued, and proved of inestimable value
to Cortes in the conquest of Mexico, as an interpreter. His name was
Aguilar, and he informed his rescuers that he and another were the only
survivors of the shipwreck, all the rest, thirteen men and two women,
having been sacrificed, or killed by hard usage.
VII
A SEARCH FOR THE GOLDEN TEMPLE
1511
Nothing seemed impossible to the Spaniards of Balboa's time, nothing
seemed incredible, and thus it was that this small band of soldiers set
forth in full confidence that they could subdue any force they might
encounter, and trustfully accepting the wild story told them by the
Indian. They were the pick of the force at Darien, the hardiest and
stoutest-hearted, and they were armed with the best weapons known to
their age. These weapons, indeed, were not such as would satisfy a
soldier of the present day, for, besides pikes, swords, lances or
halberds, and cross-bows, they had as a fire-arm only the rude
arquebuse, or clumsy musket, which was a heavy burden to carry and
rarely did effective execution. It was so heavy as to demand a "rest,"
or support, which was usually afforded by a pronged upright of iron, or
a crotched stick; and besides being difficult to properly charge with
powder and ball, it required the musketeer to carry constantly a lighted
match, or fusee, with which to ignite the powder in the pan.
Most soldiers preferred the powerful cross-bow, with which the best of
them could drive nails almost as far as they could see them. But these
weapons were not so far superior to the bows possessed by the Indians
that they gave their owners great advantage, and besides, the savages
were generally more powerful of arm than the Spaniards, as well as
equally expert with bow and arrow. The chosen weapon of the Spaniard was
the sword, and the cavalier who possessed a good "Toledo," with blade
that could be bent double without breaking, and with an edge that
nothing could turn, considered himself more than the equal of any
warrior that might oppose him, whether armed with bow, spear, pike, or
war-club.
The vast superiority of the Spaniards over the savages consisted in
their armor, for protected as most of them were, by helmet, corselet,
gauntlets, cuishes for the thighs and greaves for the legs--arrows,
spears, and even war-clubs glanced harmlessly from their panoply of
steel. They were often wounded, some of them killed outright, in their
desperate encounters with the Indians; but the greater number of their
casualties were the result of carelessness or neglect to properly encase
themselves in defensive armor. Heavy and cumbersome as it was, few men
could support the weight of metal it was necessary for the armed soldier
to carry, and especially in the tropics was the burden found
intolerable. So it happened frequently that the soldiers were surprised
by the savages without their armor, which they may have doffed for
temporary relief, or have delivered over to a slave to carry for them.
At such times there was found to be little difference between savage and
civilized soldier, and the former fought his opponent on nearly equal
terms.
Balboa may have taken with him a few falconets, or light field-pieces,
but if so they were not used in conflict with the Indians on this
enterprise, and the prestige which the white men had derived from their
fire-arms was maintained by the arquebusiers, or musketeers, who
frightened the Indians with the loud reports of their guns and volumes
of sulphurous powder-smoke, but did little execution. The commander
himself carried as his only weapon his invincible sword, the blade of
which had been forged at Toledo, and brought to an exquisite temper in
the waters of the Tagus. For defence he relied upon the armor in which
he was encased, and the Saracenic shield, or buckler, which hung from
his shoulders or was carried on his left arm, the right wielding the
basket-hilted sword.
When Balboa reached the river, which came down from the mountains far
away, he knew not which branch of it to take, there were so many mouths,
and all navigable, so far as he could see. Taking his stand in the prow
of the brigantine, he guided his little fleet into the largest stream he
could find, and then, sending Colmenares to explore another branch, he
proceeded on his way to what he thought was Dobaybe province. After
threading his way through a perfect labyrinth of morasses, and without
getting a glimpse of a single Indian, he at last came to a deserted
village. The huts were empty, containing neither inhabitants or
provisions; but hanging from their rafters were many jewelled weapons
and golden ornaments, so that the Spaniards obtained booty from this
silent village to the estimated value of seven thousand castellanos.
This they stowed away in two large canoes, which had been picked up
along the river-bank, and then, discouraged at the gloomy outlook,
Balboa gave the order to return to the gulf. On the way a violent storm
assailed these invaders of the country ruled by Dobaybe's deity, sent,
the trembling Indians said, in revenge for this affront offered her by
the unbelieving white men. The brigantine was in such danger of sinking
that half her cargo was thrown overboard, to save her, while the two
canoes laden with the booty were overwhelmed by the waters of the gulf
and went down with all on board.
Thus far the expedition had proved worse than fruitless; but Balboa was
not the man to cry "enough" until every means had been exhausted to gain
what he was seeking. The river he had entered, and which he had the
honor of discovering, was far greater than he imagined, for it has its
source, say the geographers, nine or ten hundred miles distant from the
Gulf of Uraba, in the cordilleras of the Andes. The volume of its waters
was such as to freshen the sea for many leagues from the shore. It was
named by Balboa the St. John, but is now known as the Darien and the
Atrato. Working his way into the branch of the river ascended by
Colmenares, Balboa overtook his companion, and together they entered a
tributary of the main stream which, from the color of its waters, they
called the Rio Negro, or Black River. Its color was derived, they
ascertained, from the black mud of a submerged region through which it
ran, and where they discovered the most wonderful habitations of any
seen by the Spaniards since Vespucci and Ojeda brought to light the
lake-dwellers of Maracaibo, in 1499.
As the brigantines were slowly forced against the current of the river,
now beneath the overhanging branches of huge trees swarming with
parrots, and again crossing the placid surface of an eddied lake, the
excited soldiers caught occasional glimpses of large animals ahead
climbing the trunks of trees. At first they took them for monkeys, and
those of the band who had cross-bows got them ready to shoot; for the
flesh of the monkey was held by them in great repute, and their supply
of meat was exhausted. Suddenly one of the soldiers, who had climbed to
the mast-head for better observation, cried out: "Those are not
monkeys, but men! They are men and women and children; and behold, there
are their barbacoas, like nests, perched up in the palms above the
water!"
And it was as the soldier had said, for there was a veritable nest of
tree-dwellers, or rather a collection of nests, consisting of
wicker-work huts made of flexible reeds and vines, fifty or sixty feet
up in the air. They occupied the tops of the palm-trees, and each was
large enough to accommodate a family, being divided into compartments,
such as bedchamber, dining-room, and kitchen, or larder. They were
reached by ladders made of split reeds or bamboos, which the Indians
climbed with the agility of monkeys. Women and children, as well as men,
went up and down the fragile, shaking ladders, some of them with great
burdens on their backs, with as little inconvenience as if they were
walking on level ground.
All their provisions were kept in the aerial houses, which were well
filled, but the liquors they drank, consisting of palm-wine and beer,
were buried in earthen jars at the roots of the trees, as the rocking
of the habitations would cause them to become turbid. The trees grew in
or near the water, and the Indians kept canoes tied to their trunks, or
to the lower ends of the ladders, and thus could embark without touching
the earth. Their mode of life, in fact, was aerial and aquatic, rather
than terrestrial, for they perched in the trees like birds, and sported
in the water like fish, upon which latter they almost entirely
subsisted. They rarely hunted the big game of the forest, and their
chief reason for living up in the trees was that it afforded them
security from wild beasts, especially the jaguars, which nightly roamed
the woods in search of prey.
Balboa was greatly diverted by these barbacoas up in the air and their
agile inhabitants. He endeavored to capture some of the latter, but they
were too spry for him and his clumsy companions in armor, for, before
they succeeded in landing, every member of the community was safely
ensconced aloft. After the frightened Indians had scampered up the
ladders they drew them into the tree-tops also, and, considering
themselves secure, began to pelt the Spaniards with stones. This was
more than their leader could endure, and, sheltering himself behind his
buckler, he advanced to the tree in which, as he was told, the cacique's
hut was built, and demanded that he descend immediately. The only answer
was a shower of stones, some of which struck his shield, and one of
them, glancing, wounded a companion. Becoming then enraged, Balboa
ordered an arquebuse to be fired into the tree, and when the cacique,
whose name was Abebeiba, heard the loud report and saw the cloud of
smoke ascending, as from a volcano, he nearly fell from his lofty perch.
"Hold!" he cried, "I will descend"; but when his wives and family
entreated him not to do so, he wavered, and finally refused to budge.
"What have I done to thee?" he asked of Balboa. "In nothing have I
offended thee and thine; now leave me in peace."
The grim commander said nothing in reply, but commanded his axemen to
attack the tree. "When the old scoundrel sees the chips fly," he
remarked, "perhaps he may change his mind." Protected by the soldiers
with their shields, the axemen vigorously set their blades into the
palm-tree, and then the cacique seemed disposed to capitulate. Down
rattled the long ladder, and it had scarcely struck the ground ere the
cacique was there beside it, shaking with fear and chattering like a
parrot. After him also came his wives and their children, in a long and
rapidly descending procession, and soon they were grouped around the
palm-tree, which, by their swift compliance with Balboa's demand, they
had saved from destruction.
"We want gold," said Balboa, threateningly. "If you have any up in that
tree, go back and get it at once."
The cacique replied: "I have no gold in the tree nor in any other place.
I have no occasion for gold; but, great lord, if you will allow me to
search in yonder sierras, I will soon return with a vast quantity, for
there it exists and I know its hiding-place. Behold these wives of mine
and these sons; they will be hostages for me against my return."
"It is well," answered Balboa. "Go, but return within two days.
Meanwhile, we will hold your family as hostages, and enjoy the
provisions you have so bountifully supplied against our coming, as it
seems."
The wily Abebeiba departed for the sierras, and the Spaniards watched
him out of sight. They saw him cross the river in his canoe, then plunge
into a thicket on the opposite bank; but they saw him no more, for he
never came back.
VIII
CONSPIRACY OF THE CACIQUES
1512
Balboa waited three days for the return of the cacique, with his
brigantine, meanwhile, moored in a bend of the stream, where the dense
vegetation of the banks met in leafy arches overhead. Great trees, their
roots in the earth of opposite banks, mingled their verdant crowns
together, and over their trunks (as though formed by nature for this
purpose) climbed the natives of the region when they wished to cross the
stream. One of these arboreal giants bent above Balboa's brigantine,
with its branches screening the deck so effectually that the soldiers
were nearly always in refreshing shade, even with the sun shining
brightly at noonday.
The heat of that region was intense, and a shade was ever grateful, so
it was with feelings of disgust that the sailors and soldiers heard
Balboa, one day, give the order to proceed up the river. They had
become attached to the spot containing the palm-trees and the dwellings
in the air, for the habitations afforded them pleasant retreats when off
duty, and their occupants received them with smiles and offers of good
cheer. Balboa and his officers had taken possession of a group of huts
consisting of the cacique's and others, nestled together in a clump of
palms hung with great bunches of nuts and flowers amid their leafy
crowns. There their hammocks were hung, there they were waited on by
nut-brown boys and maidens, who took them fruits and beverages, the
latter so often that soon the big earthen jars at the roots of the trees
were drained of their contents.
It was when apprised of this fact that Balboa decided he would proceed
with the exploration. "By all the saints!" he said to Colmenares, as the
two reclined lazily in their hammocks, watching the smoke-wreaths
drifting upward, mingled with most appetizing odors from their breakfast
simmering in earthen vessels on the fires beneath the trees. "By the
saints, Rodrigo, this is a pleasurable life to lead!"
"_De veras_--Of a truth," answered Colmenares. "But, my commander, have
we not other things than pleasure to consider?"
"As thou sayest, Rodrigo, we have. And, now the _chicha_ is gone, the
jars are empty, and the temptation removed for the old cacique to
indulge in drunkenness--peradventure he ever return, which I doubt--it
seemeth to me we had best move on."
It was not often that Balboa allowed himself to relax, as he had done
here, especially when in the enemies' country, and his conscience smote
him. Then he gathered himself together and gave the order which produced
such discontent among his men. He met their sour looks blithely, giving
them no heed, and they were too well trained to oppose him, even for a
moment. Such as were by duty compelled, bent themselves to the oars,
while others cast off the moorings, and soon the brigantine was on its
way again up the stream. Just as it was slipping out from beneath the
overhanging trees, there was a sudden commotion in the vines and
branches above the deck, and through the tangled mass of vegetation
dropped a naked savage. He was evidently a warrior, for in one hand he
grasped a bow and bunch of arrows, and in the other held a shield of
jaguar-skin.