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resolved that a messenger should be sent to the Book VI. King in Spain, to inform His Highness of what Ch. 1. had happened, to tell him of the speech of Comogre's son, and to seek for countenance and succour. Vasco Nuñez wished to go himself, thinking probably that he should plead his own cause best at court; but his companions would not hear of this. They chose Quicedo and Col- Quicedo menares as their deputies, who were well fur- and Colnished with funds for their important mission; sent as but their means of transport were of the most to Spain. miserable description. One of the old brigantines, which had been set aside for six months as unfit for use, was now repaired, and all the tackle for it manufactured out of the bark of trees. With a very scanty stock of provisions, and with not a soul on board who knew anything of navigation, in this crazy vessel, the deputies from Darien left that colony in October, 1512. As was to be expected, they made a very bad passage, and, being driven to Cuba, and afterwards going to Hispaniola, which was in accordance with their Deputies instructions, they did not arrive in Spain until Darien May, 1513. PETER MARTYR, who says he fre- Spain. quently entertained these deputies from Darien, gives an account of their appearance, in which he mentions that "they are as yellow as people in the jaundice, and are swollen." This he attributed to the bad air of Darien, which was situated in a most unhealthy spot; but they accounted for their appearance by the starvation they had undergone.

One part of their intelligence seems particu

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from

arrive in

1513.

Ch. I.

Fishing for gold.

BOOK VI. larly to have caught the fancy of their countrymen at home. An Indian had mentioned that there was a river where the natives fished for gold with nets; the deputies repeated this story; and, as all persons, from the weakest to the strongest, thought that this was a kind of fishing at which they would be singularly expert and fortunate, all Spain became anxious to fish in those waters.

Unfortunately for Vasco Nuñez, the deputies from Darien were not the only persons of that colony at this time present at the court of Spain. The Bachiller Enciso was there too, and no doubt loud and bitter in making his complaints of Vasco Nuñez. Besides, there was the intelligence of what had happened to Nicuesa; and, as it appeared that Vasco Nuñez had been the greatest gainer from Nicuesa's repulse, he had also to bear the greatest part of the blame for that transaction. The King ordered him to be proceeded proceeded against criminally; and in the civil courts he was cast in all the expenses which Enciso had by his means been put to.

Vasco Nuñez

against in the law courts of Spain.

It

Meanwhile Vasco Nuñez had no easy time at Darien, where factiousness reigned supreme. seems as if this spirit of faction exists in a new colony in amount almost equal to that in which it is found in a village, or a small town, at home; and that this spirit is still further developed by the general activity which is necessary, and the sharper way in which men come against each other, in such a colony. It appears that there was a man named Bartholomew Hurtado, whom

Ch. I.

Vasco Nuñez favoured much, and to whom, as Book VI. we have seen, he entrusted authority. This man, for some reason or other, became particularly obnoxious to several of his comrades. Their faction, uniting under a person of the name of Alonso Perez and another called the Bachiller

Factions

Corral, sought to take prisoners both Hurtado and his Chief; but Vasco Nuñez, who was always alert, made the first move, seizing Alonso Perez and putting him in prison. The Bachiller's party at once drew out in battle array in the at Darien. centre square of the town; Vasco Nuñez and his faction did the same; and the contending parties would have come to blows but for the prudence of some of them, who saw that, whichever gained the day, the Indians would probably destroy the victors. The dispute, therefore, was suppressed for the moment, on Vasco Nuñez agreeing to release Alonso Perez, the ringleader on the other side. The ill-feeling, however, was not in the least subdued; and a second time the opposite party resolved to seize upon Vasco Nuñez. The cause of this outbreak was as follows. The division of gold naturally formed a pregnant source of dispute amongst those rude men who composed the remnant of the forces of Ojeda and Nicuesa, and who were now under the unauthorized command of Vasco Nuñez. They accused their Commander of unfairness in this division, and, as there was a sum of ten thousand castellanos just about to be divided, this was the cause, or they made it the pretext, of their intention to seize upon him. The way in which he sur

BOOK VI. mounted this difficulty may serve to show the Ch. 1. abilities of the man for command. Far from seek

ing to be the great personage in this important business, on the very evening of the day of partition, or the day before, the politic Vasco Nuñez went out to hunt, and left his enemies to seize upon the gold and divide it. They, as was to be expected, made enemies in doing so, and loosened the bands of their own faction, while those who were injured, or who thought they were, made a great tumult, recalled Vasco Nuñez to full power, and put his enemies, Alonso Perez and the Bachiller Corral,* in prison. There they probably consoled themselves by drawing up papers of accusation against their enemies.

About this time there arrived at Darien two vessels, with a hundred and fifty men in them, laden with provisions which had been sent from Hispaniola by the Spanish authorities in that island. These ships also brought something which was very welcome to Vasco Nuñez, namely, his appointed appointment as Captain-general. This was done general. by Pasamonte the Treasurer, whose power,

Vasco
Nuñez

Captain

* Bachelors of law were al-
ways odious to Vasco Nuñez.
In a letter to the King, in
which he is very sparing indeed
in making any claim for himself,
he says,-"
-“One thing I suppli-
cate your Highness, for it is
much to your service, and that
is, that you would give orders
under a great penalty, that no
bachelor of law, or of anything
else, except medicine, should
be allowed to come to these

it was

parts of the Terra-firma, for no bachelor comes here who is not a devil, and who does not lead the life of a devil; and not only are they bad themselves, but they also make and contrive a thousand law-suits and iniquities. This regulation would be greatly for your Highness's service, for the land is new.”Carta al REY, Jan. 20, 1513. NAV., Col., tom. 3, p. 374.

said, stretched to this extent; and certain it is, Book VI.· that he was always in favour with King Ferdi- Ch. 1. nand, and was regarded as one of the King's especial servants, in contradistinction to those of the Admiral. Any show of authority must have been very welcome to Vasco Nuñez; and in his joy, as if it had been a birthday, he willingly consented to let loose all the prisoners, as an act of grace upon the receipt of good news.

Nuñez

his dis

However, amidst all these flowers of rejoicing, there came (it is conjectured in the same ships, certainly soon afterwards), some adder-like news, which must have filled the heart of Vasco Nuñez with apprehension; and that was, the Vasco report of his own disfavour at court, caused by hears of the complaints of the Bachiller Enciso,* and by favour at the intelligence of Nicuesa's fate. I should court. think that the rumour of the King's intention to appoint a governor of Darien was very likely to have accompanied this news, which came in a letter from Zamudio, a former colleague of Vasco Nuñez.

His position was now most perilous. The maxim, confugiendum est ad imperium, must have occurred to him, not exactly in the words of the original, for Vasco Nuñez had little learning, but only by that intuitive knowledge which great peril, coming upon great resources of mind,

* The error of Vasco Nuñez in his treatment of Enciso followed him throughout his career. But, indeed, this is a common case in ordinary life; as a large

part of the best time in many
men's lives is spent in extri-
cating themselves from the con-
sequences (or in enduring them)
of one or two thoughtless blunders.

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