VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA, THE DISCOVERER OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
Among the many adventurers who found their way to the New World after
its discovery was one named Balboa. He was a very bold, brave man,
always ready for adventure and eager for gold and fame, as were all the
Spaniards of that time. But Nunez de Balboa, besides being bold and
brave, was also very cruel when he had the chance, and sometimes
dishonest. Whenever he could he robbed the Indians of their gold, and
often cruelly murdered them; and if he thought he could steal from his
fellow-soldiers and friends, he was ready to do that, too. So,
altogether, he was a man not very much liked among the people with whom
he lived in Hispaniola, and because of this, and also because he owed a
great deal of money that he did not wish to pay, he thought it would be
a fine thing to run away and let his friends get back the money they had
lent him as best they might.
There were always ships touching and leaving Hispaniola, and Balboa
thought nothing would be easier than to go on one of these ships some
fine day and sail away to some new place where he would have better
chances for borrowing and stealing than where he was so well known. But
he found it much harder to get away from Hispaniola than he had thought.
Either he had no money to pay for his passage, or the captain would not
take such a troublesome character on his ship, or the people whom he
owed would not let him go without their money, or all three of these
reasons together, for at any rate at the last moment he slipped on board
a vessel that was just going to sail, and hid himself in a big empty
cask, and had to lie there hardly daring to breathe lest he should be
heard and put on shore again. But every one was busy trying to get the
ship under way, and no one thought of looking into empty casks to see if
there were men hiding there, and it was not until they were far, far
from land that Balboa ventured to put his trembling head out of the cask
and look fearfully around. All the sailors and passengers crowded
around, very much surprised to see a man's head sticking out of what
they had supposed to be an empty cask, and the captain was very angry
indeed at the cheat that had been practised upon him, and vowed he would
stop the ship at the first desert island he came to and put Balboa
ashore and leave him there to starve to death.
And then the bold runaway quite lost his brave heart and fell upon his
knees and begged with tears that the captain would not treat him so
cruelly, quite forgetting that he himself had often done things just as
cruel, and the captain, moved by the wretched man's tears and prayers,
or perhaps because there was no desert island in sight, or even a
passing ship that might be hailed to take the runaway back, said that he
might finish the voyage with them. Balboa thanked the captain and
promised good behavior, but in his heart he was very angry because of
the threat to put him on a desert island, and determined to be
revenged on the captain if possible.
[Illustration: BALBOA IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN SEA.]
Before very long his chance came. A terrible storm came up and the
vessel was dashed to pieces upon a strange coast. Encisco, the captain,
felt very glad now that he had kept Balboa on the ship, for, although
the country was unknown to the captain and his crew, it was not unknown
to Balboa. He had been there before, and said that he knew of an Indian
village not far away, where they could find food and shelter. Encisco
was very glad to hear this, and they all started off under the
leadership of Balboa to find the river Darien, on which the Indian
village stood.
They had been wrecked on the coast of Darien, and although neither
Encisco nor any of his men had ever been there before, yet other
Spaniards had, and had treated the natives cruelly and unjustly, as was
their usual way of dealing with them. So when Encisco and his followers
tried to march through this strange country they found it very hard
work, as the natives attacked them at all times, day and night, killing
some, wounding others, and keeping them all from getting food. But
Balboa was a skilful leader and knew how to deal with Indians, and after
a time they reached the village, though weary and foot-sore and almost
starved.
Balboa's boldness made him very much admired by some of the shipwrecked
sailors, and soon a large party of them, attracted by his stories of
bravery and adventure, declared that they would much rather have him for
a captain than Encisco. This was just what Balboa wanted, and as his
party grew larger and larger, and Encisco's friends fewer and fewer,
Balboa at last declared that Encisco should no longer govern the little
colony, as he himself was much more fit to be governor. Most of the
party agreed to this, and so Balboa became governor, and a very cruel,
bloody tyrant he proved. All the Indians around feared and hated him,
and even his own men could not love him, and only respected his courage.
One day the son of an Indian chief came to Balboa and told him that some
days' journey away there lay a great sea, and on the other side of it a
country so rich that the people ate and drank out of gold and silver
dishes. The Spaniards in those days were ready to believe anything that
the Indians said, and if Balboa had heard that the new sea was full of
golden islands, and that the clouds rained diamonds and rubies into its
depths, and that its waves threw pearls and corals on its beach, he
would almost have believed it all; and when he heard this wonderful news
he immediately gathered his men together and started off to find the new
sea.
Again they had to fight tribe after tribe of Indians, who constantly
tried to make them turn back, but the Spaniards pushed on, and after a
hard journey, which took them quite across the Isthmus of Darien, came
one day to a high mountain, from whose top the guide said the great sea
could be seen.
Balboa ordered all his men to stay below, while he climbed up the
mountain alone, as he wished to be the first Spaniard to look upon the
great ocean that so many brave adventurers had tried to find. So Balboa
went alone up on the mountain peak, and, looking down on the other
side, saw a vast body of water stretching away and away. The Indian's
story had been true. Here was a great new ocean that no European had
ever looked upon before. Balboa looked north and south and west, and saw
only this blue sea, shining and peaceful, as if its waves had gone to
sleep.
Balboa knelt down on the mountain-top and thanked God that he had been
permitted to make this great discovery, and then he beckoned to his
followers, who came rushing up and stood looking in wonder at the great
sight beneath them.
The men piled up heaps of stone in token that they had taken possession
of the country and ocean, and as they went down the slopes of the
mountain, Balboa carved the name of Ferdinand upon the trunks of trees.
Then twelve men were sent on ahead to find the shortest path to the
shore, and Balboa, cruel as ever, gave orders that all the natives they
should meet should be tortured and killed unless they would tell them
where their stores of gold were hidden. The twelve men went on, and
reaching the shore, saw two Indian canoes that had been washed up on the
beach by the waves, and as the tide crept up and floated them off, two
of the men--Alonzo Martin and Blaze de Atienza--stepped into them, thus
being the first Spaniards to sail upon the new ocean which Balboa had
named the South Sea. A few days after, Balboa arrived at the shore, and
wading into the water, waved his sword solemnly, and took possession of
all the great ocean, and the islands that might be in it, and the
countries that bordered it, in the name of the King of Spain, and vowed
to defend them against all other European adventurers.
This was in the year 1513, one year after the discovery of Florida. And
so Spain claimed the Pacific as well as the Atlantic coast of North
America.
The news of this great discovery at once made Balboa famous. All over
Europe men talked of the bold man who had been the means of adding still
more glory to the Spanish name, and as a reward for his services, the
king made him Adelantado, or chief ruler, over all the great sea he had
discovered.
But among the Spaniards in Darien, Balboa was very much feared, and now
that he was in such great favor at the Spanish court, every one dreaded
that he would be more cruel and heartless than before, because he had so
much more power. And besides, his companions were jealous of his fame,
and thought that the honor of discovering the South Sea belonged quite
as much to them as to him, quite forgetting that but for his courage and
perseverance they would have turned back long before the sea came in
sight.
The man who disliked and feared Balboa the most was Peter Anias, the
Governor of Darien, and about five years after the great discovery, he
managed to get Balboa into his power, and ordered him to be beheaded.
This was done, and thus perished one of the greatest of the Spanish
discoverers.