mence his enterprize; the king was willing to grant a much larger force, which he resolved to place under Don Pedrarias Davila, a man of distinguished family, with the commission of governor of Darien. Fifteen stout vessels were prepared to carry out twelve hundred soldiers; but such was the ardour of the Spanish gentry to embark for a country where gold might be drawn, like fish, in nets from the ocean, that the number was increased to fifteen hundred, and would have been much greater, had not the popular ardour been restrained. With his usual attention to the propagation of the Christian faith, the king sent in the fleet, father John de Quevedo, a Franciscan friar, made bishop of Darien, with such other spiritual aids as he deemed necessary.

XXIX. In the mean time, Balboa was not idle. He sent expeditions to various parts of the country to collect gold, and subject the natives to the Spanish dominion. And that he might be the better prepared for his grand object, by a more thorough knowledge of the isthmus, he ordered Andres de Garabito, with eighty men, to make a second visit to the South Sea. Nunez himself, at the head of three hundred soldiers, ascended the river San Juan, which empties itself through seven mouths into the gulf of Darien. Within the distance of twelve leagues, he found many lagoons on both sides of the river, whose borders were covered with large canes and reeds. Further up, the stream spread into a lake, in the centre whereof was a large island, covered with palm-trees, on which the natives, in number exceeding four thousand, had constructed their habitations.* They assailed the Spaniards, on their approach, with bows, darts, and slings; and in despite of their targets, mortally

*See Note K. Appendix.

wounded many of them. A discharge of fire-arms drove them back; but observing their invaders to direct their course towards the inhabited trees, they returned, and with a courage and resolution which mocked at death, again attacked them, and drove them to their boats, wounding Balboa himself severely.

XXX. Pedrarias reached Darien about the middle of July. Balboa was deeply chagrined at being thus superseded, and his people not less vexed at beholding the fruits of their toil about to be divided with others; yet all readily submitted to the will of their sovereign, and received their governor with the respect due to his station. The conduct of Nunez was remarkable, differing from his deportment towards those who formerly claimed authority over him, more particularly as he now commanded a force of four hundred and fifty veterans, drawn principally from the islands by the fame of his discoveries, with whom he was an overmatch for the undisciplined and unannealed company of Pedrarias. Inquiries were eagerly made relative to the pearl fisheries and gold mines, of which such splendid accounts had been received in Spain; and many of the new adventurers as earnestly sought the favoured spots, where they might cast their nets for treasure. But joyous anticipation was succeeded by dismay, when they learned that the pearls must be brought from the bottom of the ocean, and the gold dug from the mines, with much labour and risk of life. Pursuant to instructions, Pedrarias instituted an inquiry into the administration of Balboa, and especially into his treatment of Nicuesa and Enciso; and imposed a fine upon him of several thousand dollars; at once gratifying his own jealousy, and filling the bosom of the humbled captain with burning resentment.

XXXI. The disproportion of the population to

the supply of food, the great evil common to the settlement of new countries, awaited the colony of Santa Maria. The stock, barely competent for the settlers under Nunez, and the stores brought from Spain by Pedrarias, were soon exhausted. Unfortunately, too, the late adventurers had arrived at the most sickly season of the year, and, unacclimated, were exposed, during the rainy months, to the deleterious exhalations of a marshy and uncultivated country, sweltering in unchangeable and tropical heat. Famine and pestilence did their office. In less than a month, more than seven hundred persons perished, in the utmost misery. The golden visions which had stimulated many of the principal cavaliers, faded away; and some willingly exchanged their bright hopes for permission to

return.

XXXII. That he might prevent the remainder from brooding over their misfortunes, Pedrarias sent parties into the interior of the country to establish stations on the route to the Southern ocean, and to plunder the natives. His nephew, of the same name, with four hundred men, entered the province of Zenu, situated thirty leagues eastward of Darien, and said to abound in gold. He spent here three months, but did not advance more than six leagues from the shore; declining to visit the mines which a friendly chief proffered to show him, although they were distant three days' journey only; preferring to wrest by open violence from the natives, whatever he desired. But the quantity of gold he obtained was inconsiderable, and he purchased it dearly, by the loss of forty-five soldiers, who were slain by the Indians. His prisoners, however, five hundred in number, produced a large sum, when sold as slaves in the islands. This expedition proving unsatisfactory, Enciso was selected to lead another party to Zenu, in confident ex

.

pectation that his experience would enable him to draw a great treasure from this province, which contained the sepulchres of many tribes, who were accustomed to bury with their dead, the ornaments which they wore whilst living. In becoming a soldier, Enciso could not at once divest himself of the habits of the lawyer. His regard for forms, prompted him to republish the proclamation which had been furnished to Ojeda. The Caciques, to whom this manifesto was read and explained, readily admitted the existence of a God, the creator of heaven and earth; but they could not comprehend that the pope could give, and the king take, the possessions of others; and they threatened, should his majesty make the attempt, to elevate his head upon a pole, as they did the heads of their enemies. Enciso then very formally and gravely assured them, that it became his duty to slay, or reduce them to slavery; and upon their reply, that they would treat him as they would his master, he had recourse to arms, from which he derived inconsiderable advantages, the Indians defending themselves with skill and courage.

Under the direction of the captain Bezarra, a new and shorter road was opened between the two seas. Juan Ayora, the governor's lieutenant, visited, with four hundred men, the districts of Comagre, Ponca, and Tubanama, and rewarded the kind hospitality of their chiefs, by enslaving the persons, plundering the property, and debauching the wives of their subjects; thus heedlessly casting away the advantages Nunez had gained in the friendship of the natives. He commenced the erection of a town upon a river, which he called Santa Cruz. And having learned that Secativa, a chieftain who resided some distance to the west, was one of the most wealthy princes of the country, he dispatched a party to his district, with orders to capture as

many of his people, and to pillage as widely as possible. But the Cacique, informed of this movement, placed his women and children in safety, and awaited in ambush the approach of the invaders; and suddenly springing upon them as they advanced, he wounded their leader, and the major part of his troops, and drove them back to their boats. Stung by this defeat, Ayora sought to gratify his vengeance by falling on the country of Pocorosa; commanding his soldiers to lay it waste, and to capture the Cacique, that he might extort from him a large ransom in gold. One of his soldiers, who had accompanied Nunez across the isthmus, remonstrated against this conduct, as contrary to good faith and the covenant of peace; and was rewarded for this rare instance of virtue, by instant death. On his arrival at Darien, Ayora paid into the treasury the king's fifth of his rapine; but contrived to secrete the remainder, which should have been divided with his band, and, by the connivance of Pedrarias, to return to Spain with his ill-gotten wealth. His town of Santa Cruz was left exposed to the rage of Pocorosa, who, at the head of the neighbouring Caciques, attacked it in the night, and slew all its inhabitants save five, who escaped to Santa Maria.*

XXXIII. To extenuate the unfortunate results of his administration, Pedrarias, in his letters to Spain, accused Nunez of having exaggerated his own services and the wealth of the country. Balboa refuted these misrepresentations, by contrasting the present wretched state of the colony with its late prosperous condition. Before the arrival of the governor, the colonists were cheerful, and comfortably clothed; had more than two hundred cottages, surrounded by extensive fields of grain; and

*Herrera, Dec. 2. lib. 1. A. D. 1515.