with confiderable vigour, though the plan for this purpose was neither formed by the crown, nor executed at the expence of the nation, but carried on by the enterprifing fpirit of private adventurers. This fcheme took its rife from Alonfo de Ojeda, who had already made twọ voyages as a difcoverer, by which he acquired confiderable reputation, but no wealth, But his character for intrepidity and conduct eafily procured him affociates, who advanced the money requifite to defray the charges of the expedition. About the fame time, Diego de Nicueffa, who had acquired a large fortune in Hifpaniola, formed a fimilar defign. Ferdinand encouraged both; and though he refufed to advance the fmalleft fum, was extremely liberal of titles and patents. He erected two governments on the continent, one extending from Cape de Vela to the gulf of Darien, and the other from that to Cape Gracias as Dios. The former was given to Ojeda, the latter to Nicueffa. Ojeda fitted out a fhip and two brigantines, with three hundred men; Nicueffa, fix veffels, with feven hundred and eighty men. They failed about the fame time from St. Domingo for their respective governments. In order to give their title to thofe countries fome appearance of validity, feveral of the most eminent divines and lawyers in Spain were employed to prefcribe the mode in which they

fhould take poffeffion of them. s) There is not in the hiftory of mankind any thing more fingular or extravagant than the form which they devifed for this purpofe. They inftructed thofe invaders, as foon as they landed on the continent, to declare to the natives the principal articles of the Christian faith; to acquaint them, in particular, with the fupreme jurifdiction of the Pope over all the kingdoms of the earth; to inform them of the grant which this holy pontif had made of their country to the king of Spain; to require them to embrace the doctrines of that religion which the Spaniards made known to them; and to fubmit to the fovereign whofe authority they proclaimed. If the natives refused to comply with this requifition, the terms of which must have been utterly incomprehenfible to uninftructed Indians, then Ojeda and Nicueffa were authorised to attack them with fword and fire; to reduce them, their wives and children, to a ftate of fervitude; and to compel them by force to recognize the jurifdiction of the church, and the authority of the monarch, to which they would not voluntarily fubject themselves. t)

s) Herrera, dec. I. lib. vii. c. 15.

t) See NOTE XXIII.

The difafters attending it.

As the inhabitants of the continent could not at once yield affent to doctrines too refined for their uncultivated understandings, and explained to them by interpreters imperfectly acquainted with their language; as they did not conceive how a foreign prieft, of whom they had never heard, could have any right to difpofe of their country, or how an unknown prince fhould claim jurifdi&tion over them as his subjects, they fiercely oppofed the new invaders of their territories. Ojeda and Nicueffa endeavoured to effect by force what they could not accomplish by perfuafion. The contemporary writers enter into a very minute detail in relating their tranfactions; but as they made no discovery of importance, nor eftablifhed any permanent fettlement, their adventures are not intitled to any confiderable place in the general hiftory of a period, where romantick valour, ftruggling with incredible hardships, diftinguish every effort of the Spanish arms. They found the natives in thofe countries of which they went to affume the government, to be of a character very different from that of their countrymen in the iflands. They were fierce and warlike. Their arrows were dipped in a poison fo noxious, that every wound was followed with certain death. In one encounter they flew above seventy of Ojeda's followers, and

the Spaniards, for the first time, were taught to dread the inhabitants of the New World. Nicueffa was oppofed by people equally refolute in defence of their poffeffions. Nothing could foften their ferocity. Though the Spaniards employed every art to foothe them, and to gain their confidence, they refufed to hold any intercourfe, or to exchange any friendly office, with men whofe refidence among them they confidered as fatal to their liberty and independence. This implacable enmity of the natives, though it rendered it extremely difficult as well as dangerous to establish a fettlement in their country might have been furmounted at length by the perfeverance of the Spaniards, by the fuperiority of their arms, and their fkill in the art of war. But every difafter which can be accumulated upon the unfortunate, combined to complete their ruin. The lofs of their fhips by various accidents upon an unknown coaft, the difeafes peculiar to a climate the moft noxious in all America, the want of provifions, unavoidable in a country imperfectly cultivated, diffention among among themfelves, and the inceffant hoftilities of the natives, involved them in a fucceffion of calamities, the bare recital of which ftrikes one with horror. Though they received (1510.) two confiderable reinforcements from Hifpaniola, the greater part of those who had engaged in this unhappy expedition, perished, in less than

a year, in the most extreme mifery. A few who furvived, fettled as a feeble colony at Santa Maria el Antigua, on the gulf of Darien, under the command of Vafco Nugnez de Balboa, who, in the most defperate exigencies, difplayed. fuch courage and conduct, as first gained the confidence of his countrymen, and marked him out as their leader in more fplendid and fuc cefsful undertakings. Nor was he the only adventurer in this expedition who will appear with luftre in more important fcenes. Francifco Pizarro was one of Ojeda's companions, and in this fchool of adverfity acquired or improved the talents which fitted him for the extraordinary actions which he afterwards performed. Hernan Cortes, whofe name became ftill more famous, had likewise engaged early in this enterprize, which roufed all the active youth of Hifpaniola to arms; but the good fortune that accompanied him in his fubfequent adventures, interpofed to fave him from the difafters to which his companions were expofed. He was taken ill at St. Domingo before the departure of the fleet, and detained there by a tedious indifpofition. u)

Conqueft of Cuba.

Notwithstanding the unfortunate iffue of this expedition, the Spaniards were not de

terred

u) Herrera, dec. I. lib. vii. c. II, &c. Gomara Hift. c. 57, 58, 59, Benzon Hift. lib. i, c. 19-23. P. Martyr, decad. 122.