BALBOA AND THE ISTHMUS
In the Spanish conquest of America there are three great generals:
Cortes, Balbao, and Pizarro. The third may to many readers seem
immeasurably superior as explorer and conqueror to the second, but it
must be remembered that Pizarro's scheme of discovering and invading
Peru was precisely that which Balboa had already prepared. Pizarro
could afford to say, "Others have labored, and I have merely entered
into their labors."
What, then, was the work done by Balboa, and what prevented him from
taking Peru? In 1510, the year before the conquest of Cuba, Balboa was
glad to escape from Hispaniola, not to avoid the Spanish cruelties, like
Hatuey, the luckless cazique, but to escape from his Spanish creditors.
So anxious was he to get on board that he concealed himself in a cask to
avoid observation. Balboa, however, had administrative qualities, and
after taking possession of the uncleared district of Darien in the name
of the King of Spain, he was appointed governor of the new province. He
built the town Santa Maria on the coast of the Darien Gulf; but so
pestilential was the district (and still is) that the settlers were glad
after a short time to remove to the other side of the isthmus.
It was by mere accident that Balboa first heard of a great ocean beyond
the mountains of Darien, and of the enormous wealth of Peru, a country
hitherto unknown to Spain or Europe. As several soldiers were one day
disputing about the division of some gold-dust, an Indian cazique called
out:
"Why quarrel about such a trifle? I can show you a region where the
commonest pots and pans are made of that metal."
To the inquiries of Balboa and his companions, the cazique replied that
by traveling six days to the south they should see another ocean, near
which lay the wealthy kingdom.
Resolving to cross the isthmus, notwithstanding a thousand formidable
obstructions, Balboa formed a party consisting of 190 veterans,
accompanied by 1,000 Indians, and several fierce dogs trained to hunt
the naked natives. Such were the difficulties that the "six days'
journey" occupied twenty-five before the ridge of the isthmus range was
reached.
Balboa commanded his men to halt, and advanced alone to the summit,
that he might be the first who should enjoy a spectacle which he
had so long desired. As soon as he beheld the sea stretching in
endless prospect below him he fell on his knees; ... his followers
observing his transports of joy rushed forward to join in his
wonder, exultation, and gratitude.
That was the moment, September 25, 1513, immortalized in Keats's sonnet:
When with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific, and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise,
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
Balboa hurried down the western slope of the isthmus range to take
formal possession in the name of the Spanish monarch. He found a fishing
village there which had been named Panama (i. e., "plenty fish") by the
Indians, but had also a reputation for the pearls found in its bay.
In his letter to Spain, Balboa said, to illustrate the difficulties of
the expedition, that of all the 190 men in his party there were never
more than eighty fit for service at one time. Notwithstanding the
wonderful news of the discovery of the "great southern ocean," as the
Pacific was then called, Ferdinand overlooked the great services of
Balboa, and appointed a new Governor of Darien called Pedrarias, who
instituted a judicial inquiry into some previous transactions of Balboa,
imposing a heavy fine as punishment. The new governor committed other
acts of great imprudence, and at length Ferdinand felt that he had only
superseded the most active and experienced officer he had in the New
World. To make amends to Balboa, he was appointed "Lieutenant-Governor
of the Countries upon the South Sea," with great privileges and
authority. At the same time Pedrarias was commanded to "support Balboa
in all his operations, and to consult with him concerning every measure
which he himself pursued."
Balboa, in 1517, began his preparations for entering the South Sea and
conveying troops to the country which he proposed to invade. With four
small brigantines and 300 chosen soldiers (a force superior to that with
which Pizarro afterward undertook the same expedition), he was on the
point of sailing toward the coasts of which they had such expectations,
when a message arrived from Pedrarias. Balboa being unconscious of
crime, agreed to delay the expedition, and meet Pedrarias for
conference. On entering the palace Balboa was arrested and immediately
tried on the charge of disloyalty to the King and intention of revolt
against the governor. He was speedily sentenced to death, although the
accusation was so absurd that the judges who pronounced the sentence
"seconded by the whole colony, interceded warmly for his pardon." "The
Spaniards beheld with astonishment and sorrow the public execution of a
man whom they universally deemed more capable than any who had borne
command in America, of forming and accomplishing great designs." This
gross injustice amounting to a public scandal was accounted for by the
malignant influence of the Bishop of Burgos, in Spain, who was the
original cause of Balboa being superseded as Governor of Darien.
The expedition designed by Balboa was now relinquished; but the removal
of the colony soon afterward to the Pacific side of the isthmus may be
considered a step toward the realization of an exactly similar attempt
by Pizzaro.
To some historical readers the word "Darien" only recalls the bitter
prejudice entertained against William III, our "Dutch King,"
notwithstanding the special pleading of Lord Macaulay and others. Some
Scottish merchants had adopted a scheme recommended by the most reliable
authorities[23] of that age, viz., the settlement of a half-commercial,
half-military colony on the Atlantic coast of the isthmus. Such a
company, in the words of Paterson, would be masters of the "door of the
seas," and the "key of the universe." The East India Companies both of
England and Holland showed an envious jealousy of the Scottish
merchants, and therefore no assistance was to be expected from the King,
although he had given his royal sanction to the Scots Act of Parliament
creating the company. The Scottish people, however, zealously continued
the scheme. Some 1,200 men "set sail from Leith amid the blessings of
many thousands of their assembled countrymen. They reached the Gulf of
Darien in safety, and established themselves on the coast in localities
to which they gave the names of New Caledonia and New St. Andrews." The
Government of Spain (secretly instigated, it was believed, by the
English King) resolved to attack the embryo colony. The shipwreck of
the whole scheme soon followed, due undoubtedly more to the jealousy of
the English merchants (who believed that any increase of trade in
Scotland or Ireland was a positive loss to England) and the bad faith of
our Dutch King, than to all other causes whatever. Of the colony,
according to Dalrymple (ii, 103), not more than thirty ever saw their
own country again.
[Footnote 23: E.g., Paterson, founder of the Bank of England, Fletcher
of Saltoun, the Marquis of Tweeddale, then chief Minister of Scotland,
Sir John Dalrymple, etc.]
In 1526 a company of English merchants was formed to trade with the West
Indies and the "Spanish Main," and commanded great success. Other
merchants did the same. Soon after the Spanish court instituted a
coast-guard to make war upon these traders; and as they had full power
to capture and slay all who did not bear the King of Spain's commission,
there were terrible tales told in Europe of mutilation, torture, and
revenge. The Windward Islands having been gradually settled by French
and English adventurers, Frederick of Toledo was sent with a large fleet
to destroy those petty colonies. This harsh treatment rendered the
planters desperate, and under the name of buccaneers,[24] they continued
"a retaliation so horribly savage [_v._ Notes to Rokeby] that the
perusal makes the reader shudder. From piracy at sea, they advanced to
making predatory descents on the Spanish territories; in which they
displayed the same furious and irresistible valor, the same thirst of
spoil, and the same brutal inhumanity to their captives." The pride and
presumption of Spain were partly resisted by the English monarchs, but
not with real effect before the time of Cromwell, strongest of all the
rulers of Britain. Under his government of the seas Spain was deprived
of the island of Jamaica; and the buccaneers to their disgust found that
the flag of the great Protector was a check against all piracy and
injustice.
[Footnote 24: Named from _boucan_, a kind of preserved meat, used by
those rovers. They had learned this peculiar art of preserving from the
native Caribs.]
Under Charles II, however, the buccaneers resumed their conflict with
the Spanish, and in 1670, Henry Morgan, with 1,500 English and French
ruffians resolved to cross the isthmus like Balboa, to plunder the
depositories of gold and silver which lay in the city of Panama and
other places on the Pacific coast. Having stormed a strong fortress at
the mouth of the Chagres River, they forced their way through the
entangled forests for ten days, and after much hardship reached Panama,
to find it defended by a regular army of twice their number. The
Spaniards, however, were beaten, and Morgan thoroughly sacked and
plundered the city, taking captive all the chief citizens in order to
extort afterward large ransoms.
Ten years afterward the Isthmus of Darien was crossed by Dampier,
another celebrated buccaneer, but his party was too small to attack
Panama. They seized some Spanish vessels in the bay and plundered all
the coast for some distance. The following description by the bold
buccaneer is not without interest to those who consider the present
importance of the place:
Near the riverside stands New Panama, a very handsome city, in a
spacious bay of the same name, into which disembogue many long and
navigable rivers, some whereof are not without gold; besides that
it is beautified by many pleasant isles, the country about it
affording a delightful prospect to the sea.... The houses are
chiefly of brick and pretty lofty, especially the president's, the
churches, the monasteries, and other public structures, which make
the best show I have seen in the West Indies.
The present prosperity of Panama is due to its large transit trade,
which was recently estimated at L15,000,000 a year. The pearl-fisheries,
famous at the time of Balboa's visit, have now little value. The
narrowest breadth of the isthmus being only thirty miles, there have
naturally been many engineering proposals to connect the Pacific and
Atlantic oceans by a canal. M. de Lesseps founded a French company in
1881 for the construction of a ship-canal with eight locks, and over
forty-six miles in length; but in 1889, the excavations stopped after
some 48-1/2 millions of cubic meters of earth and rock had been removed.
Meanwhile a railway 47-1/2 miles long connects Colon on the Atlantic
with Panama on the Pacific.
The Mexican Isthmus of Tehuantepec, only 140 miles across, separates the
Bay of Campeachy from the Pacific, and failing the Panama Canal some
engineers were in favor of a _ship-railway_ for conveying large vessels
_bodily_ from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The scheme met with great
favor in the United States, but has not yet been carried out.
The third proposal for connecting the two great oceans is probably the
most feasible because it follows the most deeply marked depression of
the isthmus. The Nicaraguan Ship-canal will, if the scheme be carried
out, pass from Greytown on the Atlantic to Brito on the Pacific, about
170 miles apart, through the republic of Nicaragua, which lies north of
Panama and south of Guatemala. One obvious advantage of this ship-canal
is that the great lake is utilized, affording already about one-third of
the waterway; only twenty-eight miles, in fact, being actual canal, and
the rest river, lake, and lagoon navigation. In the latest
specifications the engineers proposed to dam up the river (San Juan) by
a stone wall seventy feet high and 1,900 feet long, thus raising the
water to a level of 106 feet above the sea. Only three locks will be
required to work the Nicaraguan Ship-canal.