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The Great Republic by the Master Historians
Spanish Exploration after Columbus
by Bancroft, Hubert H.
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[The discovery made by Columbus was followed up by the Spaniards with an
activity in marked contrast to the supineness displayed by other nations in
exploring and settling the American continent. Within twenty years from 1492 the
four largest islands of the West Indies were the seats of active colonies, while
more than a century passed ere any other nation founded a permanent colony on
the American shores, with the exception of the small settlements of the
Portuguese in Brazil. This was rapidly followed by the conquest of the two great
empires of Mexico and Peru, and the exploration of the region of the southern
United States, while yet other nations were contenting themselves with
occasional voyages of discovery along the coasts of the new continent. The great
fertility of the islands first settled by the Spaniards, the mildness of their
climates, and, above all, the frequent discovery of gold, pearls, and other rich
prizes, were the main causes of the Spanish activity, and served as inducements
to repeated exploring expeditions.
Columbus made four voyages in all to the New World, discovering the South
American continent near the mouth of the Orinoco in the third, and reaching
Honduras and the coast to the south of this region in the fourth. To the day of
his death he continued under the delusion that the land he had reached was the
eastern extremity of Asia. Other voyagers quickly followed. Ojeda, who had
already visited Hispaniola with Columbus, sailed on his own account and explored
four hundred leagues of the coast of South America in the region already
discovered by Columbus. He was accompanied by Amerigo Vespucci, who made three
subsequent voyages to America and wrote the first account of it that was
published. This was in a Latin work printed in 1507 and prepared by a German
scholar, Martin Waldseemuller, who proposed the name of America for the new
continent. The suggestion was universally accepted, and Columbus lost the honor
of giving his name to the New World.
Other voyagers were Pedro Alonzo Nigno, who sailed to the same region of South
America and passed from the Gulf of Paria to the shores of the present republic
of Colombia, and Vincent Yanez Pinzon, who had commanded one of the vessels of
Columbus on his first voyage, and who was the first Spaniard to cross the
equinoctial line. He discovered the mouth of the Amazon River, and from there
sailed north to the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. About the same time
(1499) Diego Lope reached the coast of South America at Cape St. Augustine,
which he doubled and sailed to the southwest for a considerable distance. In
1500, Rodrigo Bastides touched South America at Cape Vela, and coasted to the
present seaport of Nombre de Dios, a point which Columbus had reached in sailing
south from Honduras.
At a subsequent period the settled islands of the West Indies became centres of
exploration for the reckless or disappointed spirits who had failed to find
there the fortunes they sought. Among others, Ojeda, under a grant from the King
of Spain, founded the settlement of San Sebastian, in the Gulf of Uraba. With
him had engaged to sail Francisco Pizarro and Hernando Cortes. The latter was
detained by illness, but the former thus made the first step in his famous
career. The colony left by Ojeda was forced by the Indians to abandon the
settlement. One vessel foundered. The other, commanded by Pizarro, reached
Carthagena, where was found Enciso, a lawyer of San Domingo, who was conveying
men and provisions to the colony. With him was Vasco Nunez de Balboa, an
adventurer whose debts made him fly the town, and who managed to smuggle himself
on board the ship in what purported to be a cask of provisions. On leaving shore
he emerged from his cask, fell on his knees to Enciso, and begged pardon for his
trick and permission to accompany the expedition. The colony having been
deserted, Balboa proposed that they should sail for Darien, which coast he had
already visited with Bastides. This proposal was accepted, and a new town
established, which was named Santa Maria de la Antigua del Darien. Troubles
ensured among the colonists, which ended in the imprisonment of Enciso, and the
establishment of Balboa as alcalde of the colony. The subsequent story of this
able adventurer is told in detail in "The History of the Spanish Discoveries in
America," by Thomas F. Gordon, from which we make the following selection.]
In the mean time the natives of Darien, weary of their unbidden guests, and
calculating that the same passions which brought them to their shores would
tempt them to remove, represented that the neighboring district of Coyba was
richer than that of Santa Maria, both in provisions and gold. Balboa sent
Pizarro, with six men only, to explore the country. Whilst ascending the river,
they were surrounded by four hundred Indians, commanded by the cacique Zemaco,
with whom the Spaniards unhesitatingly engaged, and in a very short time slew on
hundred and fifty, and wounded many others. All the Spaniards were severely
hurt, and one, dangerously wounded, was left on the field. The others retreated
to Santa Maria. But Balboa, conceiving it to be a stain on his reputation that a
living man should be thus abandoned, compelled Pizarro, with another party, to
bring him off.
[Balboa soon after conquered Coyba, and formed a league with its cacique, who
became a useful ally.]
Adjacent to Coyba, at the foot of a range of high mountains, lay the district of
Comagre, governed by a cacique of the same name, who, struck with admiration of
the Spaniards, invited them into his territories, treated them with much
hospitality, and displayed greater civilization than they had yet seen in the
New World. His palace, one hundred and fifty paces in length and eighty in
breadth, was enclosed by a wall of timber of ingenious workmanship, and divided
into convenient apartments, stored with abundance of provisions. One of these
chambers was the receptacle of the dried and embalmed bodies of his ancestors of
many generations, which, clothed in mantles of cotton, embroidered with gold,
pearls, and precious stones, were suspended from the walls.
The eldest son of the cacique presented his guest with a rich offering of gold,
valued at four thousand pesos, and seventy slaves. A fifth of the metal was set
apart for the king; but in the division of the remainder a strife arose among
the Christians, which surprised and provoked the young Indian. "If," said he,
addressing the Spaniards, and indignantly striking over the balance, "if you are
so fond of gold as for its sake to desert your own country and disturb the peace
of others, I will lead you to a province where your utmost desires may be
gratified, -- where gold is more abundant than iron in Spain, and is used in the
fabric of ordinary domestic utensils. But to conquer this country you must
provide a larger force than you have here, since you will have to contend with
mighty chieftains, who will vigorously defend their possessions. When you shall
have passed these mountains," continued he, pointing to a range in the
southwest, "you will behold another ocean, on which are vessels inferior only to
those which brought you hither, equipped with sails and oars, but navigated by a
people naked like ourselves." It is supposed that the young chief alluded to the
people of Peru.
Balboa received with rapturous delight this first certain intimation of the
existence of another ocean. He exulted in the hope of discovering the East
Indies, which had been so dearly cherished by Columbus, and conjectured that the
country now described to him formed a part of that vast and opulent region. He
immediately set about preparation for this great enterprise, cultivating the
good will of Comagre and other chieftains, and administering to the former and
his sons the rite of Christian baptism.
[He sent the gold intended for the royal treasury to St. Domingo, and occupied
himself in subduing the neighboring tribes while waiting to obtain the sanction
of the king to his government of the colony. So much gold was obtained, and such
extravagant accounts of the riches of the country were carried to Spain, that
the region received the name of Golden Castile (Castilla del Oro), and Balboa
was sent the commission of captain-general by Passamonte, the king's treasurer
at St. Domingo.]
But the pleasure of Nunez, on this occasion, was not unmixed. Enciso had carried
his complaints to the foot of the throne, and Balboa was commanded to repair his
losses, to proceed immediately to court, and submit himself to the king's
pleasure. He might, therefore, hourly expect a successor, to deprive him of the
fame and wealth he anticipated from his intended enterprise. To prevent a
calamity greatly deprecated by his ambitious spirit, he determined to effect the
passage to the South Sea with the force then under his command.
The Isthmus of Darien is not above sixty miles in breadth, but a chain of lofty
mountains, a continuation of the Andes, covered with almost impenetrable
forests, runs through its whole extent. Its valleys, divided by large and
impetuous rivers, and inundated by rains which prevail near two-thirds of the
year, are marshy and unhealthy. Its inhabitants, advanced but a few degrees in
civilization, had done nothing to remove or alleviate the difficulties of the
passage from sea to sea; nor after a lapse of three hundred years has it become
more facile or commodious.
The attempt of Balboa may justly be considered the boldest which had been made
by the Spaniards in the New World; but he was in all respects fitted to insure
its success. The quality of courage he possessed, only, in common with the
meanest of his army; but his prudence, generosity, and affability, and those
nameless popular talents which inspire confidence and secure attachment, were
peculiarly his own. In battle his post was that of the greatest danger, and in
every labor that of the greatest fatigue; whilst his regard for the ease of his
troops was ever active and anxious. He desired for his undertaking a force of
one thousand soldiers, but he commenced it with one hundred and ninety only, and
some fierce blood-hounds, which were efficient auxiliaries. A thousand Indians,
who accompanied him, were chiefly useful in the transportation of the baggage.
Balboa set forth on the 1st of September (1513), after the rainy season had
passed. He proceeded by sea to the district of Coyba, and thence marched into
that of the cacique Ponca. At his approach, that chieftain fled to the deepest
recesses of his mountains; but, attracted by promises of favor, and a liberal
donation of Spanish implements and toys, he returned to his village, and gave
the Spaniards a small quantity of gold, some provisions, and guides. Further
progress was sternly opposed by a warlike tribe, armed with bows and arrows, and
a species of sling, by which they threw staves hardened in the fire with such
force as to pass through the body of a naked adversary. But the novel and
terrific effect of the firelock, the keen edge of the sword, and the ferocity of
the bloodhounds, scattered them in dismay, with the loss of their cacique and
six hundred of inferior note. Among the prisoners were the brother of the
cacique, and several chiefs, who were clothed in tunics of white cotton; and,
being accused of unnatural crimes by their enemies, they were torn to pieces by
the dogs, at the command of the Spaniards.
This defeat made the neighboring tribes fearful of provoking hostility, and
disposed them to render such assistance as the Christians required. But great
labor and patience were necessary to overcome the natural difficulties of the
way. Disease and fatigue broke down some of the hardy veterans, and they were
left behind to recruit their health. A journey estimated by the Indians to be of
six days only had already occupied twenty-five days, when Nunez approached the
summit of a mountain from which he was informed the great ocean might be seen.
He commanded the army to halt, and advanced alone to the apex, whence he beheld
the great South Sea opened before him, in boundless extent. Casting himself on
his knees, he poured forth his grateful thanks to heaven for conducting him in
safety to this glorious object. The army, beholding his transports, rushed
forward, and joined in his admiration, his exultation, and his gratitude. Then,
with formal ceremony, he took possession of land and sea, making a record
thereof, carefully attested, don. The design of the conquest of Peru, which he
was thus prevented from accomplishing, was finally carried out by Pizarro, as
able a man as Balboa, and a much more unscrupulous one. Three years after the
death of Balboa, a Spanish fleet, under Magellan, entered the South Sea after
sailing around the southern extremity of the continent. This great ocean, which
Magellan named the Pacific, from the pleasant weather with which he was steadily
favored, was crossed by his ships to the islands of the Indian archipelago.
Laden with spices, the fleet returned to Europe by way of the Cape of Good Hope,
having thus completed the circumnavigation of the globe.]
Thomas F. Gordon
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