"it matters not to me one whit; but as to my conduct towards the king,
my sovereign, your charges are false! If what you impute to me were
true, holding as I did at my command four ships and three hundred men,
by whom I am beloved, why should I not have gone straight to sea without
permitting anything to impede my purpose? Safe in the consciousness of
my innocence, I returned at your command; and little did I dream of
being treated so rigorously and with such enormous injustice. This is my
reward for trusting you: a dungeon, with slander, indignities, and
chains."
"Yea, traitor," rejoined Pedrarias, hotly, "a dungeon is truly your
merited reward for despising the alliance I would have made with you.
Truly, I shudder to think of what my family has escaped: of the foul
blot which the marriage of my daughter with one of your stamp would have
spread upon my proud escutcheon. And all the time you had an Indian
mistress, for whom you sent to accompany you on the expedition which
would have placed you well beyond my reach. But know, traitor and
scoundrel, that she has confessed, and thus the means by which you
would have covered my daughter's name with obloquy have been those for
encompassing your own destruction!"
"Who, Cacica, the pledge of amity between me and Careta? She has
confessed? Nothing had she to confess, for I sent her no message. After
my word was given to you that I would not see her, of a truth, I saw her
no more. You are a liar, Pedro Pedrarias, and were I but free, with my
good sword in hand, fain would I render you unable to utter more false
statements against me and those who were once true to me!"
"Ha! Would you, then? Here, jailer, double this fellow's irons, and if
he protest, weight him to the floor with them! My throat you would slit,
eh? Old as I am, you will find that when it comes to the cutting of
throats, Don Pedrarias de Avila needs not rely upon his own unaided
sword. There is one in my employ who wields a more potent weapon--mark
you--and that is Gomez, the headsman. 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 Munos, 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."
"They, my officers, condemned to die merely because they were friends,
and loyal to me," groaned Balboa as, left in the solitude of his cell,
he sank helpless to the floor. "Truly is this Pedrarias a fiend, an
intimate of the devil, and scarce human! And they will die, being my
friends, but no man's enemies."
Realizing that he had proceeded so far it was impossible to leave Balboa
alive in the same land with himself, Pedrarias left no stone unturned to
accomplish his death. Urged to activity by promise of the command of
Balboa's expedition in the event of his death, the vile lawyer,
Espinosa, found an indictment against the five which warranted his
master in proclaiming they were doomed to die for treason against the
king. The proclamation was made at Acla, and not in Antigua, where
resided most of the settlers, because, as Pedrarias knew, it would
provoke an uprising of the people.
While they were supremely loyal to the crown, and, in their timidity,
afraid to declare against its representative, Pedrarias, the people of
Darien were yet well inclined towards Vasco Nunez de Balboa, and most of
them his friends, because of his possessing many lovable qualities which
the governor lacked.
When, affrighted at the vindictiveness of Pedrarias, Espinosa explained
to him that the verdict against Balboa was technical only, and that on
account of his great services he should be inclined to mercy, the fiend
replied: "No, if he has merited death, let him suffer it. Die he must,
and shall, and on your head be his blood!"
XX
THE END OF VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA
1517
We are compelled, in this chapter, to narrate the details of a horrible
crime, to commit which the name of justice was invoked by its
perpetrator, Pedro Arias de Avila, the one-time governor of Darien. We
have followed the hero of this story, Vasco Nunez 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.
He was then scarcely forty-two years of age, in the prime of life, seven
long years of which had been passed in the wilderness of Darien. He had
labored, he had fought, he had committed crimes against humanity--all
that his sovereign might acquire a realm beyond the sea--and this was
his reward: to perish as a felon, to die as a traitor, "in the full
career of his glory, one of the most deserving of the Spanish
discoverers--a victim to the basest and most perfidious envy." He had,
indeed, deserved well of his king, for of all the Spaniards who explored
the regions of America, he was one of the greatest, the most persistent
in carrying the flag of his country into unknown lands, in compelling
the inhabitants to accept his religion and acknowledge the sovereignty
of Spain.
He was not the first of the Spanish explorers and conquistadores to
experience that king's ingratitude, nor the last to meet a violent
death. Columbus and Cortes died in their beds, but they were victims of
their sovereign's neglect. De Soto, worn out by his toils, perished on
the bank of the Mississippi, which became his grave. Ponce de Leon,
returning to Florida, the land he had discovered, received his
death-wound from an Indian arrow. Pizarro was assassinated, by men he
had reduced to poverty and exasperated by his taunts.
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 Nunez 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. But we have it from Gonzalo Fernandez
de Oviedo, a contemporary of the chief characters in this tragedy, who
was sent out by King Ferdinand as inspector of mines, and who
subsequently, as historiographer of the Indies, wrote a great work,
which first appeared in 1526. He was intimate with both Pedrarias and
Balboa, and after the death of the latter had access to his private
papers, from the perusal of which, and from his knowledge of our hero,
he drew conclusions as to his merits, which were long since sanctioned
by the voice of posterity.
The day arrived in which the sentence of death was to be carried out,
and found the little town of Acla overspread with gloom. The horrified
inhabitants moved about as in a dream, unable to wholly comprehend the
nature of their dread surroundings, hardly daring to allow their tears
to flow, much less their voices to be raised in protest. For they
realized that in Pedrarias, the governor, they had a man to deal with
not in his right mind, warped by envy, malice, jealousy, until he had
become a frenzied maniac. They dared not provoke his wrath by protest,
even in a whisper, for they were cowards all, rendered so by their
subserviency to the crown, which might commit any atrocity and yet be
accounted blameless.
Pedrarias had sentenced his prisoner to death in the name of the king,
yet he allowed him no appeal, either to the king or to the Council of
the Indies; for he knew that sentence would be reversed and the
discoverer set free should his voice reach the throne. It never reached
it, save as wafted across the sea and ocean in the indignant outcry of
the people--after the deed was done by which Balboa lost his head. Then
it did not avail to redress Balboa's wrongs nor to bring Pedrarias to
justice, for he continued in his crimes for years, and at the last died
in his bed, like many another wretch of lesser note.
But the day had arrived, Balboa's last on earth. The hot afternoon wore
away, and the sun sank towards the mountains which the prisoner had been
the first to explore, and touched with its rays the roofs of the
dwellings he himself had erected. The dungeon door was thrown open, and
forth came Balboa, preceded by his jailer and loaded with clanking
chains. But the burden of the chains was as naught to the armor he had
carried in the days of his great deeds, and he bore himself erect,
dauntless in mien as of yore.
He searched the village square with flashing eye, sweeping his glance
over the assembled crowd of cowards, held back by mailed soldiers under
the command of his former comrade and lieutenant, Francisco Pizarro. He
was no coward--that Balboa knew; but he had his own reasons for serving
Pedrarias, as already narrated. If Pizarro had but weakened, if he had
allowed his sense of justice to prevail over his lust for power and
lucre, and said one word for Balboa, all the men under him would have
joined in an effort to save the man they loved from him they loathed and
hated. But Pizarro was a clump, a stick, a stone--anything inanimate,
or, in other words, a soldier--and when Balboa's piercing glance fell on
him he looked to the ground and remained immovable.
Preceding the prisoner walked the public crier, who announced: "This is
the punishment inflicted by command of the king and his lieutenant, Don
Pedrarias de Avila, governor of this colony, upon this man, as a
traitor, and usurper of lands belonging to the crown."
"Nay, nay," exclaimed the still loyal Balboa when he heard this lie
proclaimed; "it is false! You, my former comrades, know it is false.
Never hath thought of such a crime entered my mind. I have ever served
my king with truth and loyalty, and ever sought to augment his
dominions!"
[Illustration: EXECUTION OF BALBOA]
He raised his eyes to heaven and stretched forth his manacled hands,
while a murmur of compassion went around the throng in the square of
Acla. But there was no demonstration in his favor, for there was no man
left in Darien, apparently, with a heart in his breast. The best of
Balboa's followers, the original conquerors of the territory, were
awaiting his return to Isla Rica, where lay the brigantines ready for
exploration, where were gathered the men for a voyage Balboa was never
to make, for a conquest he was never to achieve.
There was no man present capable of leading an uprising against the
tyrant, save Pizarro, and he was unready. There was no man in authority
who could resist the tyrant's authority, for Bishop Quevedo had returned
to Spain; but a priest was present, who offered Balboa the sacrament as
he ascended the scaffold, and whispered words of consolation. It is
doubtful if Balboa heeded them, for, coming from such a source, from a
man in the hire of Pedrarias, his words must have seemed meaningless and
a mockery.
The rude scaffold stood in the centre of the square, a platform erected
on posts, reached by a ladder, which, manacled as he was, Balboa climbed
with difficulty. Why he should have climbed at all, and why he so tamely
submitted to his fate, seems strange to those acquainted with his
courageous nature. But probably the spell of authority was on him, for
the magician who had enthralled him had invoked the name of a monster,
living afar, but held to be omnipotent. That monster was the king, at
mention of whose dread name the most valiant of fighters became servile
and abject.
So Vasco Nunez 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. But it was too late now to save them,
and, with a pang at his heart for those he had involved in deadly
perils, he sank to the platform and laid his neck on the block. The
headsman raised his axe--a thrill of horror ran through the spectators;
it fell, and, as the blood spurted from the headless trunk, their groans
and lamentations rent the air.
The executioner's work was not finished with Balboa, whose head was
held aloft, and then, by orders of the implacable Pedrarias, stuck on a
pole, where all might view the gory trophy. The three officers followed,
and the head of each was taken off at a stroke. The dusk of evening
gathered as the last one was beheaded. But there yet remained another
victim, one Arguello, whose sole offence lay in the writing of a letter
to Balboa warning him of what Pedrarias intended. The people assembled
about the scaffold had witnessed--with what feelings of grief and horror
may be imagined!--the execution of four gallant soldiers whose offences
were such Pedrarias would not pardon them. But now, overcome by their
sympathies, they entreated, with sighs and with tears, that this life
might be spared, "inasmuch as God had not given daylight for the
execution of his sentence." The stony-hearted governor, resentful and
relentless, replied: "Never! Rather would I die myself than permit one
of those traitors to escape unpunished!"
Chilled with horror, the people returned to the square, where the
scaffold was but dimly visible in the gloom of approaching night, and
where the last act of the horrible drama was being performed in
darkness. They heard the clank of Arguello's chains as he fell across
the block, and then, after an interval of breathless silence, the thud
of the axe, proclaiming all was over.
Pedrarias had witnessed all, hidden behind a palisade of reeds, through
the crevices of which he watched the doings on the scaffold, less than
twenty feet away. There he crouched, a demon in human semblance,
gloating over the anguish of the people, the groans of his victims, and
counting the strokes of the headsman's axe.
Beneath a tree on the verge of the forest cowered a fearsome watcher,
the Cacica, formerly beloved of Balboa. Peering through the screen of
leaves, she witnessed the dreadful ending of him whom she had both loved
and hated. But she did not exult, like the man-fiend Pedrarias.
Believing that her testimony had sealed Balboa's fate, by the reproaches
of conscience she was driven into the forest, where (as nothing more was
ever heard of her) she probably perished, an outcast from her tribe, and
forgotten by her family.
In Antigua del Darien, a broken-hearted woman mourned the gallant Vasco
Nunez de Balboa; for he had been betrothed to her daughter, who,
through her father's vengeful deed, was widowed ere she had been made a
bride.
INDEX
Abebeiba, Indian cacique, 103, 104.
Acla, port of, Darien, 247, 252;
scene of Balboa's arrest, 262, and execution, 269, 276.
Aerial dwellings, 101, 107.
Albitez, one of Balboa's men, 42.
Antigua del Darien, 37;
description of, 206;
famine in, 223, 224;
under Balboa and Pedrarias, compared, 225.
Arbolancha, Pedro, sent to King Ferdinand, 200, 207.
Areito, or areyto, Indian chant, 56.
Arguello, Hernan, condemned to death, 267;
executed, 277.
Armor of Spaniards, 96.
Atrato River, 100.
Avila, Pedro Arias de, sails for Darien, 203;
arrives, 206;
meets Balboa, 208-211;
his jealousy, 212;
entertained by Balboa, 213-216;
demands an accounting, 217;
at open enmity with Balboa, 220-222;
plots his destruction, 226;
blunders and crimes of, 237;
gives Balboa his daughter in marriage, 244;
makes peace with Balboa, 247, and sends him to the Pacific, 248;
frenzied by tales of Balboa's perfidy, 256, and schemes for revenge, 257;
orders him back to Antigua, 260;
sends Pizarro to arrest him, 262;
visits him in prison, 263;
consoles with and then denounces him, 264;
places him in double irons, 266;
causes sentence of death to be proclaimed, 268, and allows no appeal, 273;
orders him beheaded, 277;
exults over and witnesses his death, 278.
[Avila may be pursued further in the "Lives" of _Pizarro_ and _De Soto_
(of this series), with whose careers he was intimately identified.
He died at Leon, in Nicaragua, 1531, at the age of ninety.
His eldest daughter, Maria, to whom Balboa was affianced,
retired to a convent; the youngest, Isabel, married De Soto,
whom she accompanied to Cuba, where she died.]
Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, advent of, 8, 9, 10, 11;
farm and major-domo of, 11-14;
packed in a cask, 15;
appearance of before Enciso, 17-22;
his friends, 23-26;
advises Enciso, 29, 30;
becomes prominent, 34;
conspires against Enciso, 38;
saves the colony, 47;
fine qualities of, 48;
in supreme command, 49;
captures Careta, 56-60;
rescues an Indian girl, 64, with whom he falls in love, 67-69;
discovers treasure, 70;
spies upon his mistress, 72;
sacks Ponca's capital, 78;
invades Comogre's province, 79, 80, where he finds gold, 83;
first hears of the Pacific, 85;
sends gold to King Ferdinand, 88;
despatches Valdivia to Spain for reinforcements, 89;
invades Dobaybe province, 98, 99;
discovers tree-dwellers, 101;
in aerial dwellings, 107;
tortures Indians, 121;
sends Colmenares to Tichiri, 130-140;
retreats to forest to avoid dissensions, 143;
entreated to return to
Antigua, 144-146;
in disfavor with the King, 150;
commissioned captain-general, 152;
sends commissioners to Spain, 155;
his intrepidity, 157;
projects great expedition, 159;
sets out for Austral Ocean, 162;
treats with Chief Ponca, 163;
in Quaraqua's country, 165;
massacres Indians, 168;
on verge of discovery, 170;
his first sight of the Pacific, 171;
on its shores, 174;
compared with Columbus, 175;
takes possession of Pacific, 179, 180, and embarks on, 182-184;
discovers pearls, 189;
success with Indians, 196;
returns from expedition, 197;
popularity of, 198;
sovereign's opinion of, 201;
superseded by Pedrarias, 203, whom he receives at Antigua, 208-212;
his courtesy to Dona Isabel, 211, 212;
angers Pedrarias, 216, who demands an accounting, 217;
seeks Dobaybe, 227, and fails, 229;
appointed adelantado by the king, 230, 231;
ordered confined in a cage, 233;
protests to Bishop Quevedo, 240;
engages to marry the governor's daughter, 242, 246;
character of, 245;
builds brigantines, 248,
249, and sails them on Pacific, 250;
freed from Pedrarias, 251;
accused by Garabito, 253;
suffers for his crimes, 256;
flouts astrologer's prophecy, 259;
returns to Acla, 261, where he is arrested, 262;
imprisoned, 263;
visited in prison by Pedrarias, 263, whom he defies and denounces, 265;
his career reviewed, 269, 270;
scenes at his execution, 272-275;
beheaded, 276.
Balsa, river in Darien, 249.
Barbacoa, Indian structure, 54, 101.
Bastidas, Rodrigo de, explorer, 1-7.
Becerra, Francisco, lost in Zenu, 237.
Biru (Peru) described to Pizarro, 236.
Bobadilla, Francisco de, 3-7.
Bobadilla, Dona Isabel de, 205;
entertained by Balboa, 212-216, whom she befriends, 243;
mourns Balboa's death, 278.
Bohio, or Indian hut, 53.
Bonouvama, friendly Indian, 195.
Brigantines, building the, 248-250.
Cacica, the fair, Balboa's prisoner, 69;
entertains spies, 116;
betrays her people 119;
sought by
Garabito, 252;
seals Balboa's fate, 257;
witnesses his execution, 278.
Caciques of Darien, the, chap, v.;
dead, 71.
Caicedo, Juan de, 154, 200.
Calaboose, from Spanish _calabozo_, 141.
Caribs of Uraba, 52.
Carillo, Captain Luis, 227;
death of, 228.
Carita, Cacique, 50, 56;
capture of, 57;
speech of, 65;
bestows daughter upon Balboa, 66, and becomes his ally, 78.
Cartagena, harbor of, 26, 28.
Chiapes, native chief, 176-178, 181, 182, 188.
Chicha, fermented beverage, 108.
Colmenares, Diego de, rescues colonists, 39;
and Nicuesa, 40-42;
assists Balboa, 81, and invades Dobaybe with him, 98;
advises Balboa, 127;
captures Tichiri, 131;
kills chiefs, 132;
builds a fortress, 139;
sent to Spain by Balboa, 154, 155, 200.
Colombinos, followers of Columbus, 4.
Columbus, Christopher, allusion to, 1, 3, 4, 8, 10.
Columbus, Don Diego, governor of Santo Domingo, 10, 11.
Columbus, appeal to, by Balboa, 88.
Comogre, Cacique, 78, 79;
sons of, 81, 84-86;
baptized, 87;
death of, 194.
Companon, Francisco, 261.
Corral, companion of Balboa, 42;
in irons, 144.
Cortes, Hernando, never at Darien, 176.
Cosa, Juan de la, pilot, 1, 4, 7.
Coyba, province of, 50;
invasion of, 52.
Darien, Caciques of, chap. v;
gulf of, 33;
Indians of, 53-56;
river, 100.
Dobaybe, the golden, 92, 93;
expedition to, 95 et seq.;
second expedition to, 226-229.
Dragons of Dobaybe, 227, 228.
Enciso, Martin Fernandez De, Ojeda's partner, 11;
encounters Balboa, 19;
by whom he is outwitted, 20-22;
arrives at Cartagena, 26;
parleys with Indians, 30, 31;
sends Balboa and Pizarro to fight them, 32;
loses a vessel, 33;
unable to restrain his men, 35, who depose him,
electing Balboa and Zamudio to fill his place, 39;
expelled and sent to Spain, 45.
Encomiendas of Indians, 9.
Escary, Juan de, with Balboa, 178.
Espinosa, Gaspar de, lawyer, 205;
prosecutes Balboa, 221, and impoverishes him, 234;
finds indictment against, 267, which results in his execution, 268.
Explorers, fate of, 270, 271.
Famine in the colony, 223.
Fonseca, Bishop, allusion to, 203.
Garabito, Andres, 232;
turns against Balboa, 252, and plots his ruin, 253-257.
Gold, in nets, 29, 237;
in abundance, 185;
by thousand pieces, 198;
object of all explorations, 202;
sent to the king, 214.
Golden Castile, 202.
Golden sepulchres, 29.
Hurtado, Bartholomew, 113-115;
commands at Darien, 140.
Indian sepulchres, 71-73.
Indians of Darien, 53-56.
Isabel, Dona. See Bobadilla, Dona Isabel de.
Isla Rica (rich island), 250;
Balboa recreates in, 258.
Keats, the poet, mistake of, respecting Balboa and Cortes, 175.
Leoncico, Balboa's blood-hound, 16, 17, 24-26, 60-63;
great exploits of, 166, 167.
Lianas, 58.
Llamas, first description of, 186.
Martin, Alonzo, first Spaniard on Pacific (at Darien), 178.
Micer Codro, astrologer, predicts Balboa's end, 259.
Morales, Gaspar, expedition of, 235;
attacked and defeated, 237.
Munos, Hernan, condemned to die with Balboa, 267.
Nicuesa, Don Diego de, 23, 38;
sufferings of, 40;
character of, 41;
barbarous treatment and fate of, 43-45.
Nino, Pedro, 2.
Nombre de Dios, port of, 41.
Ocoa, Bay of, 2.
Ojeda, Alonzo, 11, 23, 26-28;
settlement founded by, 33, 38, 40, 100.
Olano, Lope de, 42.
Ovando, the atrocious, 10, 27.
Oviedo, Gonzalo Fernandez de, historian, 199;
intimately acquainted with Balboa and Pedrarias, 271.
Ozama River, 3.
Pacific Ocean, first information of, given to Balboa, 85, 86;
first sight
of, by Balboa, 170;
date of discovery, 174;
taken possession of, 179;
first brigantines on, at Darien, 249.
Pasamonte, Miguel de, 152, 153.
Pearl Islands, the, 187, 236.
Pearls, discovery of, 184, 185;
by the basketful, 236.
Pedrarias. See Avila, Pedro Arias de.
Perez, Alonzo de la Rua, 140, 141, 143, 144.
Peru, first mention of, to Spaniards, 86;
rumors regarding, 186.
Pizarro, Francisco, with Ojeda, 11, 28, 178;
leads an expedition, 235;
hears of Peru, 236;
sent to arrest Balboa, 262, whom he places in irons, 263;
commands guard at his execution, 273;
loyal to the tyrant, 275.
Poisoned arrows, 32, 52.
Ponca, Indian chief, 56, 76, 78, 162;
tortured and killed, 189.
Puertocarrero, Pedro, 8.
Quaraqua, Cacique, 115, 167, 177.
Quevedo, Bishop, 204;
guest of Balboa, 213;
absorbs his wealth, 221;
intercedes for him, 241, 242;
arranges marriage with daughter of Pedrarias, 243;
returns to Spain, 275.
Quintana, Don Manuel J., author of Balboa's biography, 158.
Rio Negro, or Black River, 100.
Salvatierra, town of, 12.
San Miguel, bay of, 181.
San Sebastian, settlement of, 33;
removal of colony to Darien, 47.
Sea of the South, or Pacific, 180.
Techoan, Cacique, 188.
_Te Deum Laudamus_, chanted, 173.