"They fight among themselves too much. They need the man with the whip."
"_Bough! wough!_"
"_Yar-r-rh! arrh!--agh!_"
A spirited and entertaining dog-fight was going on just outside the
house of the governor of Darien. The deep sullen roar of Balboa's big
hound Leoncico was as unmistakable as the snarling, snapping, furious
bark of Cacafuego, who belonged to the Bachelor Enciso. The two hated
each other at sight, months ago. Now they were having it out. The man
with the whip evidently came on the scene, for there was a final
crescendo of barks, yelps and growls, followed by silence.
Pizarro's remark, however, did not refer to the dogs but to the
settlers, who had been rioting over the governorship of the colony. The
outcome of this disturbance had been the practical seizure of the office
of captain-general by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. Pizarro himself, and Juan
de Saavedra, to whom he addressed his comment, had supported Balboa.
Saavedra did not commit himself further than to answer, with a shrug,
"Balboa can use the whip on occasion, we all know that. Ah, here he
comes now."
The man and the dog would have attracted attention anywhere, separately
or together. The man was well-made and vigorous, with red-brown hair and
beard, and clear merry eyes, a leader who would rather lead than
command. The dog was of medium size but very powerful, tawny in color
with a black muzzle, and the scars on his compact body recorded many
battles, not with other dogs but with hostile Indians. He had been his
master's body-guard in several fights, and Balboa sometimes lent him to
his friends, the dog receiving the same share of plunder that would have
been due to an armed man. Leoncico is said to have brought his captain
in this way more than a thousand crowns.
"You called him off, eh, General?" Saavedra asked, bending to stroke the
terrible head. He and Vasco Nuñez had been friends for years; in fact it
was Saavedra who had managed the smuggling of Balboa on board the ship
in a cask, to escape his creditors, when the expedition set out. They
were intimate, as men are intimate who are different in character but
alike in feeling and tradition. Pizarro was an outsider and knew it.
"Yes; Enciso's dog would be better for a whipping, perhaps, but I had no
mind to make the Bachelor any more an enemy than he is. Pizarro,--" he
turned to the soldier of fortune, with a frank smile, "I have work for
you to do. It is dangerous, but I know that you do not care for that.
Pick out six good men, and be ready to see if there is any truth in
those stories about the Coyba gold mines."
Pizarro's black brows unbent. Nothing could have suited him better than
just these orders. He was, like Balboa, a native of the province of
Estremadura in Spain, and being shut out by his low birth from
advancement in his own land, had come to the colonies in the hope of
gaining wealth and position by the sword. His reckless courage, iron
muscle, and a certain cold stubbornness had given him the reputation of
an able man, but though nearly ten years older than Balboa, he had never
held any but a subordinate position. He had nearly made up his mind that
his chance would never come. These hidalgos wanted all the glory as well
as all the power for themselves. He could not see why Balboa should turn
the possible discovery of a rich new province over to him, but if the
gold should be there, Pizarro would get it. He bowed, thanked the
general, and took his leave.
"General," said Saavedra, "I never like to put my neck in a noose, but
if you were only Vasco Nuñez I would ask you why you made exactly that
choice."
Balboa laughed and pulled the ears of Leoncico, who had laid his head in
full content on his master's knee. "I am always Vasco Nuñez to you,
_amigo_," he said easily, "as you very well know. Pizarro is a bulldog
for bravery, and he has a head on his shoulders. Also he is ambitious,
and this will give him a chance to win renown."
"And keeps him out of mischief for the time being," put in Saavedra
dryly.
Balboa laughed again. "Why do you ask me questions when you know my mind
almost as well as I do? You see, now that Enciso is about to go, we
shall have some freedom to do something besides quarrel among ourselves.
Gold is an apology for whatever one does, out here. If there is as much
of it as they say, in this Coyba, the King may be able to gild the walls
of another salon, and if he puts Pizarro's portrait in it in the place
of honor I shall not weep over that. There is glory enough for all of
us, who choose to earn it."
Pizarro and his men had not gone ten miles from Darien before they ran
into an ambush of Indians armed with slings. The seven Spaniards
charged instantly, and actually put the enemy to flight, then beat a
quick retreat. Every man of them despite their body armor had wounds and
bruises, and one was left disabled upon the field. Balboa met them as
they limped painfully in. His quick eye took in the situation.
"Only six of you? Where is Francisco Hernan?"
"He was crippled and could not walk," answered Pizarro sulkily; he saw
what was coming. Balboa's eyes blazed.
"What! You--Spaniards--ran away from savages and left a comrade to die?
Go back and bring him in!"
Pizarro turned in silence, took his men back over the road just
traversed, and brought Hernan safely in.
This was one of the many incidents by which the colony learned the
mettle of the new captain-general. Under his direction exploration of
the neighboring provinces was undertaken. Balboa with eighty men made a
friendly visit to Comagre, a cacique who could put three thousand
fighting men in the field. Comagre and his seven sons entertained the
white men in a house larger and more like a palace of the Orient than
any they had before seen. It was one hundred and fifty paces long by
eighty paces broad, the lower part of the walls built of logs, the
floors and upper walls of beautiful and ingenious wood-work. The son of
this cacique presented to Balboa seventy slaves, captives taken by
himself, and golden ornaments weighing altogether four thousand ounces.
The gold was at once melted into ingots, or bars of uniform size, for
purposes of division. One-fifth of it was weighed out for the Crown, the
rest divided among the members of the expedition. The young cacique
stood by watching with scornful curiosity as the Spaniards argued and
squabbled over the allotment. Suddenly he struck up the scales with his
fist, and the shining treasure tumbled over the porch floor like spilt
corn.
"Why do you quarrel over this trash?" he asked. "If this gold is so
precious to you that you leave your homes, invade the land of peaceable
nations and endure desperate perils, I will tell you where there is
plenty of it."
The Spaniards' attention was instantly caught and held. The young Indian
went on, with the same careless contempt, "You see those mountains over
there? Beyond them is a great sea. The people who dwell on the border of
that sea have ships almost as big as yours, with sails and oars as yours
have. The streams in their country are full of gold. The King eats from
golden dishes, for gold is as common there as iron is among you,"--he
glanced at the cumbrous armor and weapons of his guests. Indeed the
panoply of the Spaniards, made necessary by the constant possibility of
attack, and the weight of their cross-bows and other weapons, was a
source of continual wonder to the light and nimble Indians, and of much
weariness and suffering to themselves. Many in time adopted the quilted
cotton body armor of the natives, and used pikes when they could in
place of the musketoun, which was like a hand-cannon.
This was not the first time that Balboa and many of the others had heard
of the Lord of the Golden House, but no one else had told the story with
such boldness. The young cacique said that to invade this land, a
thousand warriors would be none too many. He offered to accompany Balboa
with his own troops, if the white men would go.
Here indeed was an enterprise with glory enough for all. Balboa returned
to Darien and began preparations. Valdivia, the regidor of the colony,
had been sent to Hispaniola for provisions, but the supply he brought
back was absurdly small. One of the serious difficulties encountered by
all the first settlers in the New World was this matter of provisioning
the camps. For the Indians the natural fruits and produce of the country
were sufficient, and they seldom laid up any great store. The small
surplus of any one chief was soon exhausted by a large body of guests.
Moreover, the country had no cattle, swine, fowls, goats, no domestic
food animals whatever, no grain but the maize. The supply of meat and
grain was thus very small until Spanish planters could clear and
cultivate their estates. On the march the troops could and did live off
the country with less trouble.
Balboa decided to send Valdivia back to Hispaniola for more supplies. He
also sent by him a letter to Diego Colón, son of the great Admiral and
governor of the island, explaining his need for more troops in view of
what he had just learned about a new and wealthy kingdom not far away.
He frankly requested the Governor to use his influence with the King to
make this discovery possible without delay.
Weeks passed, and Valdivia did not come back. Provisions again became
scarce. Then a letter from Balboa's friend Zamudio, who had gone to
Spain in the same ship with the Bachelor Enciso, in order to defend
Balboa's course. Everything, it seemed, had gone wrong. The King had
listened to the eloquence of the Bachelor, and would probably send for
Balboa to come to Spain to answer criminal charges. It was said that he
meant to send out as governor of Darien, in the place of Balboa, an old
and wily courtier, one of Fonseca's favorites, named Pedro Arias de
Avila, and usually called Pedrarias.
"That," said Balboa, handing the letter over to Saavedra to read, "seems
to mean that the fat has gone into the fire."
"What shall you do?"
"If the King's summons arrives," said Balboa reflectively, "I think I
will be on the top of that mountain range looking for the sea the
cacique spoke of."
"I will go at once and make my preparations," assented the other. "Did
you know that Pizarro has adopted that dog--the Spitfire--Enciso's
brute?"
"Has the dog adopted him?" laughed Balboa, extracting a thorn with the
utmost care from the paw of Leoncico.
"That is a shrewd question. You know I have a theory that a man is known
by his dog. This beast seems to have changed character when he changed
masters. When Enciso had him he was little more than a puppy, and then
he was thievish and cowardly. Now he will attack an Indian as savagely
as Leoncico himself. Pizarro must have put the iron into him."
"Pizarro can," said Balboa carelessly. "He does it with his men. I think
there is more in that fellow than we have supposed. We shall see--this
expedition will be a kind of test."
Saavedra, as he went to his own quarters, wondered whether Balboa were
really as unconscious and unsuspicious as he seemed.
"Like dog, like master," he said to himself. "Cacafuego shifted collars
as easily as any mongrel does--as readily as Pizarro himself would. I
think that Leoncico, left here without Balboa, would die. Neither a dog
or a man has any business with two masters. I wonder whether in the end
we shall conquer this land, or find that the land has conquered us?"
Balboa set forth with one hundred and ninety picked men and a few
bloodhounds. Half the company remained on shore at Coyba to guard the
brigantine and canoes, and with the others Balboa began the ascent of
the range of mountains from whose heights he hoped to view the sea.
In no other time and country have discoverers encountered the obstacles
and dangers which confronted the Spaniards who first explored Central
America. Precipitous mountains, matted jungles, barren deserts, deep and
swift streams, malarious bogs, and hostile natives often armed with
poisoned weapons, all were in their way, and they had to make their
overland journeys on foot, fully armed and often in tropical heat. Even
when accompanied by Indians familiar with the country, they could count
on little or nothing in the way of game or other provisions. Balboa's
friendly ways with the natives had secured him Indian guides and
porters, but it was difficult work, even so. In four days they traveled
no more than ten leagues, and it took them from the sixth to the
twenty-fifth of September to cover the ground between the coast of
Darien and the foot of the last mountain they must climb. One-third of
the men had been sent back from time to time, because of illness and
exhaustion. The party remained for the night in the village of Quaraqua
at the foot of the mountain, and at dawn they began their ascent, hoping
to reach the summit before the hottest time of the day. About ten
o'clock they came out of the thick forest on a high and airy slope of
the mountain, and the Indians pointed out a hill, from which they said
the sea was visible.
Then Balboa commanded the others to rest, while he went alone to the
top.
"And this," muttered Pizarro to the man next him, "is the man who is
always saying that there is enough glory for all!"
Saavedra's quick ear caught the remark. He smiled rather satirically.
He, and he alone, knew the true reason for this action of Balboa's.
"Juan," the commander had said to him while they were wading through
their last swamp, "when we are somewhere near the summit I shall go on
alone. I want no one with me when I look down the other side of that
range. Whether I see a mere lake, which these savages may call a sea,
or--something greater, I am not sure I shall be able to command my
feelings. I will not be a fool before the men."
Balboa's heart was thumping as he climbed, more with excitement than
exertion. No one but Saavedra had so much as an inkling of the
importance his success or failure would have for him personally. The
whole of his future lay on the unknown other side of that hill. He shut
his eyes as he reached the top--then opened them upon a glorious view.
A vast blue sea sparkled in the sunshine, only a few leagues away. From
the mountain top to the shore of this great body of water sloped a wild
landscape of forest, rock, savanna and winding river. Balboa knelt and
gave thanks to God.
Then he sprang to his feet and beckoned to his followers, who rushed up
the hill, the great hound Leoncico bounding far ahead. When all had
reached the summit Father Andreas de Varo, motioning them to kneel,
began the chant of Te Deum Laudamus, in which the company joined. The
notary of the expedition then wrote out a testimonial witnessing that
Balboa took possession of the sea, all its islands and surrounding
lands, in the name of the sovereign of Castile; and each man signed it.
Balboa had a tall tree cut down and made into a cross, which was planted
on the exact spot where he had stood when he first looked upon the sea.
A mound of stones was piled up for an additional monument, and the names
of the sovereigns were carved on neighboring trees. Then Balboa, leading
his men down the southern slope of the mountain, sent out three scouting
parties under Francisco Pizarro, Juan de Escaray and Alonso Martin to
discover the best route to the shore. Martin's party were first to reach
it, after two days' journey, and found there two large canoes. Martin
stepped into one of them, calling his companions to witness that he was
the first European who had ever embarked upon those waters; Blas de
Etienza, who followed, was the second. They reported their success to
Balboa, and with twenty-six men the commander set out for the sea-coast.
The Indian chief Chiapes, whom Balboa had fought and then made his ally,
accompanied the party with some of his followers. On Michaelmas they
reached the shore of a great bay, which in honor of the day was
christened Bay de San Miguel. The tide was out, leaving a beach half a
league wide covered with mud, and the Spaniards sat down to rest and
wait. When it turned, it came in so fast that some who had dropped
asleep found it lapping the bank at their feet, before they were fairly
roused.
Balboa stood up, and taking a banner which displayed the arms of
Castile and Leon, and the figure of the Madonna and Child, he drew his
sword and marched into the sea. In a formal speech he again took
possession, in the names of the sovereigns, of the seas and lands and
coasts and ports, the islands of the south, and all kingdoms and
provinces thereunto appertaining. These rights he declared himself ready
to maintain "until the day of judgment."
While another document was receiving the signatures of the members of
the expedition, Saavedra, who was standing near the margin of the bay,
took up a little water in his hand and tasted it. It was salt.
In the excitement of actually reaching the coast of so broad and
beautiful a sea, no one had happened to think of finding out whether the
water was fresh or salt. This discovery made it certain that they had
found, not a great inland lake, but the ocean itself.
Pizarro scowled; he wished that he had not missed this last chance of
fame. Since he had discovered nothing it was not likely that his name
should be mentioned in Balboa's report to the King, at all. But Balboa,
high in expectation of the change which this fortunate adventure would
make in his career, went on triumphantly exploring the neighboring
country, gaining here and there considerable quantities of gold and
pearls. Saavedra, who had inherited an estate in Spain just before the
expedition started, and expected on his return to Darien to go home to
look after it, watched Pizarro with growing distrust and anxiety.
"I think you are ready to accuse him of witchcraft," said Balboa lightly
when Saavedra hinted at his suspicions. "You have not given me one
positive proof that the man is anything but a rather sulky, unhappy
brute who has had ill luck."
"He is ill-bred, I tell you," said Saavedra stubbornly. "He is making up
to the Indians, and that is not like him. We shall have trouble there
yet."
Balboa laughed and went to his hut, there to fling himself into a
hammock and take a much-needed nap. Saavedra, coming back in the
twilight, spied an Indian creeping through the forest toward a window in
the rear of the hut. He was about to challenge the man when there was a
yelp from the bushes, and Cacafuego leaped upon the prowler and bore him
to earth, tearing savagely at his throat and receiving half a dozen
wounds from the arrows the Indian carried in his hand and in his belt.
He had been trained by Pizarro to fly at an Indian, and made no
distinctions. Within an hour or two the poison in the arrow-points began
to take effect, and the dog died. Whether he had been prowling about in
search of food--for Pizarro kept him hungry with a view to making his
temper more touchy--or was looking for his old enemy Leoncico, no one
would ever know. Balboa looked grave and said nothing.
"The dog is dead--that is all that is absolutely certain," said Saavedra
grimly. "I wish it had been his master."