South American Fights and Fighters, and Other Tales of Adventure

by Cyrus Townsend Brady

  {31}

  II

  Panama, Balboa and a Forgotten Romance

  I. The Coming of the Devastator

  This is the romantic history of Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the mostknightly and gentle of the Spanish discoverers, and one who would fainhave been true to the humble Indian girl who had won his heart, eventhough his life and liberty were at stake. It is almost the only lovestory in early Spanish-American history, and the account of it,veracious though it is, reads like a novel or a play.

  After Diego de Nicuesa had sailed away from Antigua on that enforcedvoyage from which he never returned, Vasco Nunez de Balboa was supremeon the Isthmus. Encisco, however, remained to make trouble. In orderto secure internal peace before prosecuting some further expeditions,Balboa determined to send him back to Spain, as the easiest way ofgetting rid of his importunities and complaints.

  A more truculent commander would have no difficulty in inventing apretext for taking off his head. A more prudent captain would haverealized that Encisco with his trained mouth could do very much moreharm to him in Spain than he could in Darien. Balboa thought tonullify that possibility, however, by sending Valdivia, with a present,to Hispaniola, and Zamudio {32} with the Bachelor to Spain to lay thestate of affairs before the King. Encisco was a much better advocatethan Balboa's friend Zamudio, and the King of Spain credited the oneand disbelieved the other. He determined to appoint a new governor forthe Isthmus, and decided that Balboa should be proceeded againstrigorously for nearly all the crimes in the decalogue, the most seriousaccusation being that to him was due the death of poor Nicuesa. For bythis time everybody was sure that the poor little meat-carver was nomore.

  An enterprise against the French which had been declared off filledSpain with needy cavaliers who had started out for an adventure andwere greatly desirous of having one. Encisco and Zamudio had bothenflamed the minds of the Spanish people with fabulous stories of theriches of Darien. It was curiously believed that gold was so plentifulthat it could be fished up in nets from the rivers. Such a piscatorialprospect was enough to unlock the coffers of a prince as selfish asFerdinand. He was willing to risk fifty thousand ducats in theadventure, which was to be conducted on a grand scale. No suchexpedition to America had ever been prepared before as that destinedfor Darien.

  Among the many claimants for its command, he picked out an old cavaliernamed Pedro Arias de Avila, called by the Spaniards Pedrarias.[1]

  This Pedrarias was seventy-two years old. He was of good birth andrich, and was the father of a large and interesting family, which heprudently left behind him in Spain. His wife, however, insisted ongoing {33} with him to the New World. Whether or not this was a proofof wifely devotion--and if it was, it is the only thing in history tohis credit--or of an unwillingness to trust Pedrarias out of her sight,which is more likely, is not known. At any rate, she went along.

  Pedrarias, up to the time of his departure from Spain, had enjoyed twonick-names, El Galan and El Justador. He had been a bold and dashingcavalier in his youth, a famous tilter in tournaments in his middleage, and a hard-fighting soldier all his life. His patron was BishopFonseca. Whatever qualities he might possess for the important workabout to be devolved upon him would be developed later.

  His expedition included from fifteen hundred to two thousand souls, andthere were at least as many more who wanted to go and could not forlack of accommodations. The number of ships varies in differentaccounts from nineteen to twenty-five. The appointments both of thegeneral expedition and the cavaliers themselves were magnificent in theextreme. Many afterward distinguished in America went in Pedrarias'scommand, chief among them being De Soto. Among others were Quevedo,the newly appointed Bishop of Darien, and Espinosa, the judge.

  The first fleet set sail on the 11th of April, 1514, and arrived atAntigua without mishap on the 29th of June in the same year. Thecolony at that place, which had been regularly laid out as a town withfortifications and with some degree at least of European comfort,numbered some three hundred hard-bitten soldiers. The principle of thesurvival of the fittest had resulted in the selection of the best menfrom all the previous expeditions. They would have been a {34}dangerous body to antagonize. Pedrarias was in some doubt as to howBalboa would receive him. He dissembled his intentions toward him,therefore, and sent an officer ashore to announce the meaning of theflotilla which whitened the waters of the bay.

  The officer found Balboa, dressed in a suit of pajamas engaged insuperintending the roofing of a house. The officer, brilliant in silkand satin and polished armour, was astonished at the simplicity ofVasco Nunez's appearance. He courteously delivered his message,however, to the effect that yonder was the fleet of Don Pedro Arias deAvila, the new Governor of Darien.

  "Balboa . . . Engaged in Superintending the Roofing of aHouse"]

  Balboa calmly bade the messenger tell Pedrarias that he could comeashore in safety and that he was very welcome. Balboa was something ofa dissembler himself on occasion, as you will see. Pedrarias thereupondebarked in great state with his men, and, as soon as he firmly gothimself established on shore, arrested Balboa and presented him fortrial before Espinosa for the death of Nicuesa.

  II. The Greatest Exploit since Columbus's Voyage

  During all this long interval, Balboa had not been idle. A singularchange had taken place in his character. He had entered upon theadventure in his famous barrel on Encisco's ship as a reckless,improvident, roisterous, careless, hare-brained scapegrace.Responsibility and opportunity had sobered and elevated him. While hehad lost none of his dash and daring and brilliancy, yet he had becomea wise, a prudent and a most successful captain. Judged by the highstandard of the modern times, Balboa was {35} cruel and ruthless enoughto merit our severe condemnation. Judged by his environments andcontrasted with any other of the Spanish conquistadores he was an angelof light.

  "The Expedition Had to Fight Its Way Through Tribes ofWarlike and Ferocious Mountaineers"]

  He seems to have remained always a generous, affectionate, open-heartedsoldier. He had conducted a number of expeditions after the departureof Nicuesa to different parts of the Isthmus, and he amassed muchtreasure thereby, but he always so managed affairs that he left theIndian chiefs in possession of their territory and firmly attached tohim personally. There was no indiscriminate murder, outrage or plunderin his train, and the Isthmus was fairly peaceable. Balboa had tamedthe tempers of the fierce soldiery under him to a remarkable degree,and they had actually descended to cultivating the soil between periodsof gold-hunting and pearl-fishing. The men under him were devotedlyattached to him as a rule, although here and there a malcontent, unrulysoldier, restless under the iron discipline, hated his captain.

  Fortunately he had been warned by a letter from Zamudio, who had foundmeans to send it via Hispaniola, of the threatening purpose ofPedrarias and the great expedition. Balboa stood well with theauthorities in Hispaniola. Diego Columbus had given him a commissionas Vice-Governor of Darien, so that as Darien was clearly within DiegoColumbus's jurisdiction, Balboa was strictly under authority. The newsin Zamudio's letter was very disconcerting. Like every Spaniard, VascoNunez knew that he could expect little mercy and scant justice from atrial conducted under such auspices as Pedrarias's. He determined,therefore, to secure himself in his position by some splendidachievement, which would so work upon the {36} feelings of the Kingthat he would be unable, for very gratitude, to press hard upon him.

  The exploit that he meditated and proposed to accomplish was thediscovery of the ocean upon the other side of the Isthmus. WhenNicuesa came down from Nombre de Dios, he left there a little handfulof men. Balboa sent an expedition to rescue them and brought them downto Antigua. Either on that expedition or on another shortly afterward,two white men painted as Indians discovered themselves to Balboa in theforest. They proved to be Spaniards who had fled from Nicuesa toescape punishment for some fault they had committed and had soughtsafety in the territory of an Indian chief named C
areta, the Cacique ofCueva. They had been hospitably received and adopted into the tribe.In requital for their entertainment, they offered to betray the Indiansif Vasco Nunez, the new governor, would condone their past offenses.They filled the minds of the Spaniards, alike covetous and hungry, withstories of great treasures and what was equally valuable, abundantprovisions, in Coreta's village.

  Balboa immediately consented. The act of treachery was consummated andthe chief captured. All that, of course, was very bad, but thedifference between Balboa and the men of his time is seen in his afterconduct. Instead of putting the unfortunate chieftain to death andtaking his people for slaves, Balboa released him. The reason hereleased him was because of a woman--a woman who enters vitally intothe subsequent history of Vasco Nunez, and indeed of the whole of SouthAmerica. This was the beautiful daughter of the chief. Anxious topropitiate his captor, Careta offered Balboa this flower of the family{37} to wife. Balboa saw her, loved her and took her to himself. Theywere married in accordance with the Indian custom; which, of course,was not considered in the least degree binding by the Spaniards of thattime. But it is to Balboa's credit that he remained faithful to thisIndian girl. Indeed, if he had not been so much attached to her it isprobable that he might have lived to do even greater things than he did.

  In his excursions throughout the Isthmus, Balboa had met a chief calledComagre. As everywhere, the first desire of the Spanish was gold. Themetal had no commercial value to the Indians. They used it simply tomake ornaments, and when it was not taken from them by force, they werecheerfully willing to exchange it for beads, trinkets, hawks' bells,and any other petty trifles. Comagre was the father of a numerousfamily of stalwart sons. The oldest, observing the Spaniards brawlingand fighting--"brabbling," Peter Martyr calls it--about the division ofgold, with an astonishing degree of intrepidity knocked over the scalesat last and dashed the stuff on the ground in contempt. He made amendsfor his action by telling them of a country where gold, like Falstaff'sreasons, was as plenty as blackberries. Incidentally he gave them thenews that Darien was an isthmus, and that the other side was swept by avaster sea than that which washed its eastern shore.

  These tidings inspired Balboa and his men. They talked long andearnestly with the Indians and fully satisfied themselves of theexistence of a great sea and of a far-off country abounding in treasureon the other side. Could it be that mysterious Cipango of Marco Polo,search for which had been the object of Columbus's voyage? The waythere was discussed and the {38} difficulties of the journey estimated,and it was finally decided that at least one thousand Spaniards wouldbe required safely to cross the Isthmus.

  Balboa had sent an account of this conversation to Spain, asking forthe one thousand men. The account reached there long before Pedrariassailed, and to it, in fact, was largely due the extensive expedition.Now when Balboa learned from Zamudio of what was intended toward him inSpain, he determined to undertake the discovery himself. He set forthfrom Antigua the 1st of September, 1513, with a hundred and ninetychosen men, accompanied by a pack of bloodhounds, very useful infighting savages, and a train of Indian slaves. Francisco Pizarro washis second in command. All this in lieu of the one thousand Spaniardsfor which he had asked, which was not thought to be too great a number.

  The difficulties to be overcome were almost incredible. The expeditionhad to fight its way through tribes of warlike and ferociousmountaineers. If it was not to be dogged by a trail of pestilenthatreds, the antagonisms evoked by its advance must be composed inevery Indian village or tribe before it progressed farther. Aside fromthese things, the topographical difficulties were immense. TheSpaniards were armour-clad, as usual, and heavily burdened. Their wayled through thick and overgrown and pathless jungles or across loftyand broken mountain-ranges, which could be surmounted only after themost exhausting labor. The distance as the crow flies, was short, lessthan fifty miles, but nearly a month elapsed before they approached theend of their journey.

  Balboa's enthusiasm and courage had surmounted every obstacle. He madefriends with the chiefs {39} through whose territories he passed, ifthey were willing to be friends. If they chose to be enemies, hefought them, he conquered them and then made friends with them then.Such a singular mixture of courage, adroitness and statesmanship was hethat everywhere he prevailed by one method or another. Finally, in theterritory of a chief named Quarequa, he reached the foot of themountain range from the summit of which his guides advised him that hecould see the object of his expedition.

  There were but sixty-seven men capable of ascending that mountain. Thetoil and hardship of the journey had incapacitated the others. Next toBalboa, among the sixty-seven, was Francisco Pizarro. Early on themorning of the 25th of September, 1513, the little company began theascent of the Sierra. It was still morning when they surmounted it andreached the top. Before them rose a little cone, or crest, which hidthe view toward the south. "There," said the guides, "from the top ofyon rock, you can see the ocean." Bidding his men halt where theywere, Vasco Nunez went forward alone and surmounted the littleelevation.

  A magnificent prospect was embraced in his view. The tree-cladmountains sloped gently away from his feet, and on the far horizonglittered a line of silver which attested the accuracy of the claim ofthe Indians as to the existence of a great sea on the other side ofwhat he knew now to be an isthmus. Balboa named the body of water thathe could see far away, flashing in the sunlight of that bright morning,"the Sea of the South," or "the South Sea." [2]

  Drawing his sword, he took possession of it in the {40} name of Castileand Leon. Then he summoned his soldiers. Pizarro in the lead theywere soon assembled at his side. In silent awe they gazed, as if theywere looking upon a vision. Finally some one broke into the words of achant, and on that peak in Darien those men sang the "Te Deum Laudamus."

  "He Took Possession of the Sea in the Name of Castileand Leon"]

  Somehow the dramatic quality of that supreme moment in the life ofBalboa has impressed itself upon the minds of the successivegenerations that have read of it since that day. It stands as one ofthe great episodes of history. That little band of ragged,weather-beaten, hard-bitten soldiers, under the leadership of the mostlovable and gallant of the Spaniards of his time, on that lonelymountain peak rising above the almost limitless sea of tracklessverdure, gazing upon the great ocean whose waters extended before themfor thousands and thousands of miles, attracts the attention and firesthe imagination.

  Your truly great man may disguise his imaginative qualities from theunthinking public eye, but his greatness is in proportion to hisimagination. Balboa, with the centuries behind him, shading his eyeand staring at the water:

  ----Dipt into the future far as human eye could see, Saw the visions of the world, and all the wonder that would be.

  He saw Peru with its riches; he saw fabled Cathay; he saw the uttermostisles of the distant sea. His imagination took the wings of themorning and soared over worlds and countries that no one but he hadever dreamed of, all to be the fiefs of the King of Castile. It isinteresting to note that it must have been to Balboa, of all men, thatsome adequate idea of the real size of the earth first came.

  {41}

  Well, they gazed their fill; then, with much toil, they cut down trees,dragged them to the top of the mountain and erected a huge cross whichthey stayed by piles of stones. Then they went down the mountain-sideand sought the beach. It was no easy task to find it, either. It wasnot until some days had passed that one of the several parties brokethrough the jungle and stood upon the shore. When they were allassembled, the tide was at low ebb. A long space of muddy beach laybetween them and the water. They sat down under the trees and waiteduntil the tide was at flood, and then, on the 29th of September, with abanner displaying the Virgin and Child above the arms of Spain in onehand and with drawn sword in the other, Balboa marched solemnly intothe rolling surf that broke about his waist and took formal possessionof the ocean, and all the shores, wheresoever they m
ight be, which werewashed by its waters, for Ferdinand of Aragon, and his daughter Joannaof Castile, and their successors in Spain. Truly a prodigious claim,but one which for a time Spain came perilously near establishing andmaintaining.[3]

  "He Threw the Sacred Volume to the Ground in a ViolentRage"]

  Before they left the shore they found some canoes and voyaged over to alittle island in the bay, which they called San Miguel, since it wasthat saint's day, and where they were nearly all swept away by therising tide. They went back to Antigua by another route, somewhat lessdifficult, fighting and making peace as before, and amassing treasurethe while. Great was the joy of the colonists who had been leftbehind, when Balboa and his men rejoined them. {42} Those who hadstayed behind shared equally with those who had gone. The King's royalfifth was scrupulously set aside and Balboa at once dispatched a ship,under a trusted adherent named Arbolancha, to acquaint the King withhis marvelous discovery, and to bring back reenforcements andpermission to venture upon the great sea in quest of the fabled goldenland toward the south.

  III. "Furor Domini"

  Unfortunately for Vasco Nunez, Arbolancha arrived just two months afterPedrarias had sailed. The discovery of the Pacific was the greatestsingle exploit since the voyage of Columbus. It was impossible for theKing to proceed further against Balboa under such circumstances.Arbolancha was graciously received, therefore, and after his story hadbeen heard a ship was sent back to Darien instructing Pedrarias to letBalboa alone, appointing him an adelantado, or governor of the islandshe had discovered in the South Sea, and all such countries as he mightdiscover beyond.

  All this, however took time, and Balboa was having a hard time withPedrarias. In spite of all the skill of the envenomed Encisco, who hadbeen appointed the public prosecutor in Pedrarias's administration,Balboa was at last acquitted of having been concerned in the death ofNicuesa. Pedrarias, furious at the verdict, made living a burden topoor Vasco Nunez by civil suits which ate up all his property.

  It had not fared well with the expedition of Pedrarias, either, for insix weeks after they landed, over seven hundred of his unacclimated menwere dead of fever and other diseases, incident to their lack of {43}precaution and the unhealthy climate of the Isthmus. They had beenburied in their brocades, as has been pithily remarked, and forgotten.The condition of the survivors was also precarious. They were starvingin their silks and satins.

  Pedrarias, however, did not lack courage. He sent the survivorshunting for treasures. Under different captains he dispatched them farand wide through the Isthmus to gather gold, pearls, and food. Theyturned its pleasant valleys and its noble hills into earthly hells.Murder, outrage and rapine flourished unchecked, even encouraged andrewarded. All the good work of Balboa in pacifying the natives andlaying the foundation for a wise and kindly rule was undone in a fewmonths.

  Such cruelties had never before been practised in any part of the NewWorld settled by the Spaniards. I do not suppose the men underPedrarias were any worse than others. Indeed, they were better thansome of them, but they took their cue from their terrible commander.Fiske calls him "a two-legged tiger." That he was an old man seems toadd to the horror which the story of his course inspires. Therecklessness of an unthinking young man may be better understood thanthe cold, calculating fury and ferocity of threescore and ten. To hisprevious appellations, a third was added. Men called him, "_FurorDomini_"--"The Scourge of God." Not Attila himself, to whom the titlewas originally applied, was more ruthless and more terrible.

  Balboa remonstrated, but to no avail. He wrote letter after letter tothe king, depicting the results of Pedrarias' actions, and some tidingsof his successive communications, came trickling back to the {44}governor, who had been especially cautioned by the King to dealmercifully with the inhabitants and set them an example of Christiankindness and gentleness that they might be won to the religion of Jesusthereby! Pedrarias was furious against Balboa, and would have withheldthe King's dispatches acknowledging the discovery of the South Sea byappointing him adelantado; but the Bishop of Darien, whose friendshipBalboa had gained, protested and the dispatches were finally delivered.The good Bishop did more. He brought about a composition of the bitterquarrel between Balboa and Pedrarias. A marriage was arranged betweenthe eldest daughter of Pedrarias and Balboa. Balboa still loved hisIndian wife; it is evident that he never intended to marry the daughterof Pedrarias, and that he entered upon the engagement simply to quietthe old man and secure his countenance and assistance for theundertaking he projected to the mysterious golden land toward thesouth. There was a public betrothal which effected the reconciliation.And now Pedrarias could not do enough for Balboa, whom he called his"dear son."

  IV. The End of Balboa

  Balboa, therefore, proposed to Pedrarias that he should immediately setforth upon the South Sea voyage. Inasmuch as Pedrarias was to besupreme in the New World and as Balboa was only a provincial governorunder him, the old reprobate at last consented.

  Balboa decided that four ships, brigantines, would be needed for hisexpedition. The only timber fit for shipping, of which the Spaniardswere aware, {45} grew on the eastern side of the Isthmus. It would benecessary, therefore, to cut and work up the frames and timbers of theships on the eastern side, then carry the material across the Isthmus,and there put it together. Vasco Nunez reconnoitered the ground anddecided to start his ship-building operations at a new settlementcalled Ada. The timber when cut and worked had to be carried sixteenmiles away to the top of the mountain, then down the other slope, to aconvenient spot on the river Valsa, where the keels were to be laid,the frames put together, the shipbuilding completed, and the boatslaunched on the river, which was navigable to the sea.

  This amazing undertaking was carried out as planned. There were twosetbacks before the work was completed. In one case, after the frameshad been made and carried with prodigious toil to the other side of themountain, they were discovered to be full of worms and had to be thrownaway. After they had been replaced, and while the men were buildingthe brigantines, a flood washed every vestige of their labor into theriver. But, as before, nothing could daunt Balboa. Finally, afterlabors and disappointments enough to crush the heart of an ordinaryman, two of the brigantines were launched in the river. Most of thecarrying had been done by Indians, over two thousand of whom died underthe tremendous exactions of the work.

  Embarking upon the two brigantines, Balboa soon reached the Pacific,where he was presently joined by the two remaining boats as they werecompleted. He had now four fairly serviceable ships and three hundredof the best men of the New World under his command. He was wellequipped and well provisioned {46} for the voyage and lacked only alittle iron and a little pitch, which, of course, would have to bebrought to him from Ada on the other side of the Isthmus. The lack ofthat little iron and that little pitch proved the undoing of VascoNunez. If he had been able to obtain them or if he had sailed awaywithout them, he might have been the conqueror of Peru; in which casethat unhappy country would have been spared the hideous excesses andthe frightful internal brawls and revolutions which afterward almostruined it under the long rule of the ferocious Pizarros. Balboa wouldhave done better from a military standpoint than his successors, and asa statesman as well as a soldier the results of his policy would havebeen felt for generations.

  History goes on to state that while he was waiting for the pitch andiron, word was brought to him that Pedrarias was to be superseded inhis government. This would have been delightful tidings under anyother circumstances, but now that a reconciliation had been patched upbetween him and the governor, he rightly felt that the arrival of a newgovernor might materially alter the existing state of affairs.Therefore, he determined to send a party of four adherents across themountains to Ada to find out if the rumours were true.

  If Pedrarias was supplanted the messengers were to return immediately,and without further delay they would at once set sail. If Pedrariaswas still there, well and good. There would be no occa
sion for suchprecipitate action and they could wait for the pitch and iron. He wasdiscussing this matter with some friends on a rainy day in 1517--themonth and the date not being determinable now. The sentry attached tothe governor's quarters, driven to the shelter of the {47} house by thestorm, overheard a part of this harmless conversation. There isnothing so dangerous as a half-truth; it is worse than a whole lie.The soldier who had aforetime felt the weight of Balboa's heavy handfor some dereliction of duty, catching sentences here and there,fancied he detected treachery to Pedrarias and thought he saw anopportunity of revenging himself, and of currying favor with thegovernor, by reporting it at the first convenient opportunity.

  Now, there lived at Ada at the time one Andres Garavito. This man wasBalboa's bitter enemy. He had presumed to make dishonorable overturesto Balboa's Indian wife. The woman had indignantly repulsed hisadvances and had made them known to her husband. Balboa had sternlyreproved Garavito and threatened him with death. Garavito hadnourished his hatred, and had sought opportunity to injure his formercaptain. The men sent by Balboa to Ada to find out the state ofaffairs were very maladroit in their manoeuvres, and their peculiaractions awakened the suspicions of Pedrarias. The first one whoentered the town was seized and cast into prison. The others thereuponcame openly to Ada and declared their purposes. This seems to havequieted, temporarily, the suspicions of Pedrarias; but the implacableGaravito, taking opportunity, when the governor's mind was unsettledand hesitant, assured him that Balboa had not the slightest intentionwhatever of marrying Pedrarias's daughter; that he was devoted to hisIndian wife, and intended to remain true to her; that it was hispurpose to sail to the South Sea, establish a kingdom and make himselfindependent of Pedrarias.

  {48} The old animosity and anger of the governor awoke on the instant.There was no truth in the accusations except in so far as it regardedVasco Nunez's attachment to his Indian wife, and indeed Balboa hadnever given any public refusal to abide by the marital engagement whichhe had entered into; but there was just enough probability inGaravito's tale to carry conviction to the ferocious tyrant. Heinstantly determined upon Balboa's death. Detaining his envoys, hesent him a very courteous and affectionate letter, entreating him tocome to Ada to receive some further instructions before he set forth onthe South Sea.

  Among the many friends of Balboa was the notary Arguello who hadembarked his fortune in the projected expedition. He prepared awarning to Vasco Nunez, which unfortunately fell into the hands ofPedrarias and resulted in his being clapped into prison with the rest.Balboa unsuspiciously complied with the governor's request, and,attended by a small escort, immediately set forth for Ada.

  He was arrested on the way by a company of soldiers headed by FranciscoPizarro, who had nothing to do with the subsequent transactions, andsimply acted under orders, as any other soldier would have done.Balboa was thrown into prison and heavily ironed; he was tried fortreason against the King and Pedrarias. The testimony of the soldierwho had listened in the rainstorm was brought forward, and, in spite ofa noble defense, Balboa was declared guilty.

  Espinosa, who was his judge, was so dissatisfied with the verdict,however, that he personally besought Pedrarias to mitigate thesentence. The stern old tyrant refused to interfere, nor would heentertain {49} Balboa's appeal to Spain. "He has sinned," he saidtersely; "death to him!" Four of his companions--three of them men whohad been imprisoned at Ada, and the notary who had endeavored to warnhim--were sentenced to death.

  It was evening before the preparations for the execution werecompleted. Balboa faced death as dauntlessly as he had faced life.Pedrarias was hated in Ada and Darien; Balboa was loved. If theveterans of Antigua had not been on the other side of the Isthmus,Balboa would have been rescued. As it was, the troops of Pedrariasawed the people of Ada and the judicial murder went forward.

  Balboa was as composed when he mounted the scaffold as he had been whenhe welcomed Pedrarias. A proclamation was made that he was a traitor,and with his last breath he denied this and asserted his innocence.When the axe fell that severed his head, the noblest Spaniard of thetime, and one who ranks with those of any time, was judiciallymurdered. One after the other, the three companions, equally asdauntless, suffered the unjust penalty. The fourth execution had takenplace in the swift twilight of the tropical latitude and the darknesswas already closing down upon the town when the last man mounted thescaffold. This was the notary, Arguello, who had interfered to saveBalboa. He seems to have been beloved by the inhabitants of the town,for they awakened from their horror, and some of consideration amongthem appealed personally to Pedrarias, who had watched the executionfrom a latticed window, to reprieve the last victim. "He shall die,"said the governor sternly, "if I have to kill him with my own hand."

  So, to the future sorrow of America, and to the {50} great diminutionof the glory and peace of Spain, and the world, passed to his death thegallant, the dauntless, the noble-hearted Balboa. Pedrarias liveduntil his eighty-ninth year, and died in his bed at Panama; which townhad been first visited by one of his captains, Tello de Guzman, foundedby Espinosa and upbuilt by himself.

  There are times when a belief in an old-fashioned Calvinistic hell offire and brimstone is an extremely comforting doctrine, irrespective oftheological bias. Else how should we dispose of Nero, Tiberius,Torquemada, and gentlemen of their stripe? Wherever such a company maybe congregated, Pedro Arias de Avila is entitled to a high andexclusive place.

  [1] In the English chronicles he is often spoken of as Davila, which isnear enough to Diabolo to make one wish that the latter sobriquet hadbeen his own. It would have been much more apposite.

  [2] It was Magellan who gave it the inappropriate name of "Pacific."

  [3] To-day not one foot of territory bordering on that sea belongs toSpain. The American flag flies over the Philippines--shall I sayforever?