at Darien, as did all the rest who were brought Book VI. there."* This statement is inconsistent with Ch. 2. that of Tovilla, just referred to: but I have no doubt that the contradiction between these two witnesses is but one of place; and that the truth is, that all the slaves in question perished rapidly, some at Darien and some at Hispaniola.

The

in a name.

Throughout these expeditions in the Terrafirma, which would else perhaps be as interesting as they are important, the reader is vexed and distracted by new and uncouth names of people and of places. The very words Rome, Constan- attraction tinople, London, Genoa, Venice, stir the blood, and arrest the attention: any small incident in their fortunes enjoys some of the accumulated interest which is bound up with these timehonoured names; while it requires an effort of imagination to care about what may happen to Comogra, Dabaybe, Poncha, or Pocorosa. It is only on perceiving the immense importance of those events which happen in the early days of new-found countries, that we can sufficiently arouse our attention to consider such events at all.

Then, however, we may see that the fate of future empires, and the distribution of races over the face of the earth depend upon the painful deeds of a few adventurers and unrenowned native chieftains-they themselves being like

* "La cual con toda la demas que al Darien fué, acabó allí sus dias."-NAV., Col., tom. 3, p. 413.

BOOK VI. players, whose names and private fortunes we Ch. 2. do not care much about, but who are acting in some great drama, the story of which concerns the whole world.

CHAPTER III.

THE FATE OF VASCO NUÑEZ.

WHILE narrating the melancholy results of Book VI.

these various expeditions, nothing has Ch. 3. been said of Vasco Nuñez, and of the dealings of Pedrarias with one whom he was naturally inclined to look upon as a rival, and to treat as an enemy. Many and severe must have been the comparisons made by the men who had served under Vasco Nuñez, between the successful mode in which he had alternately soothed and terrified the Indian caciques, and the unsuccessful manner in which the captains of Pedrarias had prosecuted their disastrous adventures. For some time it appears that Vasco Nuñez remained an Vasco unemployed man, and, as may be seen from his neglected letters to the King, a very discontented and Governor. critical observer. He resolved to undertake an expedition of his own, and sent secretly to Cuba for men to accompany him in peopling the coasts of the Southern Sea.

It was, perhaps, at the solicitation of the Bishop of Darien, or it might have been from motives of policy, that the Governor resolved at this period to employ Vasco Nuñez in making an entrance (a favourite phrase of the Spaniards)

Nuñez

by the new

BOOK VI. into the country of Dabaybe, of which Vasco had Ch. 3. written great accounts to the court of Spain. If he succeeded in this enterprize, the Governor would share in his success: if he failed, the Governor would gain, at least in credit, by any failure of an undertaking conducted by Vasco Nuñez is. Nuñez. And fail he did, for the very same Dabaybe. reason alluded to in the notice of a recent

Vasco

defeated in

expedition; namely, that he encountered the Indians on an element in which they were naturally the masters. Attacking him on the water they were completely successful, and Vasco Nuñez himself was wounded and escaped with difficulty. The scarcity, also, of provisions prevented him from making any stay in Dabaybe's country, which had recently been stripped by locusts." Vasco Nuñez could not induce Dabaybe, whose principal town he had seized upon, to come near him, and he had nothing to do but to return to Darien with confirmed intelligence of the mineral wealth of the country he had traversed, but with no visible signs of treasure. It may be imagined what joy this ill success must have given to the captains of Pedrarias, and probably to the Governor himself.

It was mentioned some time back that Vasco Nuñez, soon after his discovery of the South Sea, had sent a man named Arbolanche to the court of Spain with the good news, and with rich presents. This messenger did not come in time to stop the appointment of Pedrarias, but the tidings which

* See his letter to the King.-NAV., Col., tom. 3, p. 381.

Ch. 3.

Arbolanche brought were well received; and the Book VI. King not only pardoned Vasco Nuñez, but conferred upon him the title of Adelantado. Hitherto it had been the fashion at the court of Spain to speak very slightingly of Vasco Nuñez, but this intelligence of the discovery of the South Sea, the greatest that had reached the mother country since Columbus had brought back the tidings and the signs of a new world, must have changed in great measure the opinions of the King and of the court respecting Vasco Nuñez. And the good opinion they now entertained of him would be likely to increase rather than to diminish, when men came to reflect upon the nature of his discoveries, and the mode in which he had followed them out.

Nuñez in

court.

It was probably about the time that Pedrarias had sent the Bachiller Enciso to Cenú, that Vasco the title of Adelantado came out for Vasco Nuñez. favour at Joined with this title, the government of Coyva and Panamá was also granted to him. Coyva is a small island where Vasco Nuñez thought that there were pearls. The King did not omit to endeavour to make Pedrarias and Vasco Nuñez act harmoniously together, recommending the Governor to show all kindness to so useful a servant of the Crown as Vasco Nuñez, and Vasco Nuñez to endeavour to please Pedrarias as much as possible. But, as one of Vasco Nuñez's biographers observes, "that which was easy at court was impossible at Darien, where factions prevented it."

Not long after this time, Andres Garavito, the