South American Fights and Fighters, and Other Tales of Adventure

by Cyrus Townsend Brady

  {3}

  PART I

  SOUTH AMERICAN FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS

  I

  Panama and the Knights-Errant of Colonization

  I. The Spanish Main

  One of the commonly misunderstood phrases in the language is "theSpanish Main." To the ordinary individual it suggests the CaribbeanSea. Although Shakespeare in "Othello," makes one of the gentlemen ofCyprus say that he "cannot 'twixt heaven and main descry a sail," and,therefore, with other poets, gives warrant to the application of theword to the ocean, "main" really refers to the other element. TheSpanish Main was that portion of South American territory distinguishedfrom Cuba, Hispaniola and the other islands, because it was on the mainland.

  When the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea were a Spanish lake, thewhole circle of territory, bordering thereon was the Spanish Main, butof late the title has been restricted to Central and South America.The buccaneers are those who made it famous. So the word brings upwhite-hot stories of battle, murder and sudden death.

  The history of the Spanish Main begins in 1509, with the voyages ofOjeda and Nicuesa, which were the first definite and authorizedattempts to colonize the mainland of South America.

  The honor of being the first of the fifteenth-century {4} navigators toset foot upon either of the two American continents, indisputablybelongs to John Cabot, on June 24, 1497. Who was next to make acontinental landfall, and in the more southerly latitudes, is aquestion which lies between Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci.

  Fiske, in a very convincing argument awards the honor to Vespucci,whose first voyage (May 1497 to October 1498) carried him from thenorth coast of Honduras along the Gulf coast around Florida, andpossibly as far north as the Chesapeake Bay, and to the Bahamas on hisreturn.

  Markham scouts this claim. Winsor neither agrees nor dissents. Hisverdict in the case is a Scottish one, "Not proven." Who shall decidewhen the doctors disagree? Let every one choose for himself. As forme, I am inclined to agree with Fiske.

  If it were not Vespucci, it certainly was Columbus on his third voyage(1498-1500). On this voyage, the chief of the navigators struck theSouth American shore off the mouth of the Orinoco and sailed westwardalong it for a short distance before turning to the northward. Therehe found so many pearls that he called it the "Pearl Coast." It isinteresting to note that, however the question may be decided, all thehonors go to Italy. Columbus was a Genoese. Cabot, although born inGenoa, had lived many years in Venice and had been made a citizenthere; while Vespucci was a Florentine.

  The first important expedition along the northern coast of SouthAmerica was that of Ojeda in 1499-1500, in company with Juan de laCosa, next to Columbus the most expert navigator and pilot of the age,and Vespucci, perhaps his equal in nautical science as he {5} was hissuperior in other departments of polite learning. There were severalother explorations of the Gulf coast, and its continuations on everyside, during the same year, by one of the Pizons, who had accompaniedColumbus on his first voyage; by Lepe; by Cabral, a Portuguese, and byBastidas and La Cosa, who went for the first time as far to thewestward as Porto Rico on the Isthmus of Darien.

  On the fourth and last voyage of Columbus, he reached Honduras andthence sailed eastward and southward to the Gulf of Darien, having notthe least idea that the shore line which he called Veragua was in factthe border of the famous Isthmus of Panama. There were a number ofother voyages, including a further exploration by La Cosa and Vespucci,and a second by Ojeda in which an abortive attempt was made to found acolony; but most of the voyages were mere trading expeditions,slave-hunting enterprises or searches, generally fruitless, for goldand pearls. Ojeda reported after one of these voyages that the Englishwere on the coast. Who these English were is unknown. The news,however, was sufficiently disquieting to Ferdinand, the Catholic--andalso the Crafty!--who now ruled alone in Spain, and he determined tofrustrate any possible English movement by planting colonies on theSpanish Main.

  II. The Don Quixote of Discoveries and His Rival

  Instantly two claimants for the honor of leading such an expeditionpresented themselves. The first Alonzo de Ojeda, the other Diego deNicuesa. Two more extraordinary characters never went knight-errantingupon the seas. Ojeda was one of the {6} prodigious men of a time whichwas fertile in notable characters. Although small in stature, he was aman of phenomenal strength and vigor. He could stand at the foot ofthe Giralda in Seville and throw an orange over it, a distance of twohundred and fifty feet from the earth![1]

  Wishing to show his contempt for danger, on one occasion he ran out ona narrow beam projecting some twenty feet from the top of the sametower and there, in full view of Queen Isabella and her court,performed various gymnastic exercises, such as standing on one leg, _etcetera_, for the edification of the spectators, returning calmly andcomposedly to the tower when he had finished the exhibition.

  He was a magnificent horseman, an accomplished knight and an ablesoldier. There was no limit to his daring. He went with Columbus onhis second voyage, and, single-handed, effected the capture of apowerful Indian cacique named Caonabo, by a mixture of adroitness,audacity and courage.

  Professing amity, he got access to the Indian, and, exhibiting somepolished manacles, which he declared were badges of royalty, he offeredto put them on the fierce but unsophisticated savage and then mount thechief on his own horse to show him off like a Spanish monarch to hissubjects. The daring programme was carried out just exactly as it hadbeen planned. When Ojeda had got the forest king safely fettered andmounted on his horse, he sprang up behind him, held him there firmly inspite of his efforts, and galloped off to Columbus with his astonishedand disgusted captive.

  "Ojeda Galloped Off with His Astonished Captive"]

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  Neither of the voyages was successful. With all of his personalprowess, he was an unsuccessful administrator. He was poor, not to saypenniless. He had two powerful friends, however. One was BishopFonseca, who was charged with the administration of affairs in theIndies, and the other was stout old Juan de la Cosa. These two menmade a very efficient combination at the Spanish court, especially asLa Cosa had some money and was quite willing to put it up, a primerequisite for the mercenary and niggardly Ferdinand's favor.

  "The Indians Poured a Rain of Poisoned Arrows"]

  The other claimant for the honor of leading the colony happened to beanother man small in stature, but also of great bodily strength,although he scarcely equalled his rival in that particular. Nicuesahad made a successful voyage to the Indies with Ovando, and had amplecommand of means. He was a gentleman by birth and station--Ojeda wasthat also--and was grand carver-in-chief to the King's uncle! Amonghis other qualities for successful colonization were a beautiful voice,a masterly touch on the guitar and an exquisite skill in equitation.He had even taught his horse to keep time to music. Whether or not heplayed that music himself on the back of the performing steed is notrecorded.

  Ferdinand was unable to decide between the rival claimants. Finally hedetermined to send out two expeditions. The Gulf of Uraba, now calledthe Gulf of Darien, was to be the dividing line between the twoallotments of territory. Ojeda was to have that portion extending fromthe Gulf to the Cape de la Vela, which is just west of the Gulf ofVenezuela. This territory was named new Andalusia. Nicuesa was totake that between the Gulf and the Cape Gracias a Dios off {8}Honduras. This section was denominated Golden Castile. Each governorwas to fit out his expedition at his own charges. Jamaica was given toboth in common as a point of departure and a base of supplies.

  The resources of Ojeda were small, but when he arrived at Santo Domingowith what he had been able to secure in the way of ships and men, hesucceeded in inducing a lawyer named Encisco, commonly called theBachelor[2] Encisco, to embark his fortune of several thousand goldcastellanos, which he had gained in successful pleadings in the courtin the litigious West Indies, in the enterprise. In it he was given ahigh position, something like that of District Judge.

 
With this reenforcement, Ojeda and La Cosa equipped two small ships andtwo brigantines containing three hundred men and twelve horses.[3]

  They were greatly chagrined when the imposing armada of Nicuesa,comprising four ships of different sizes, but much larger than any ofOjeda's, and two brigantines carrying seven hundred and fifty men,sailed into the harbor of Santo Domingo.

  The two governors immediately began to quarrel. Ojeda finallychallenged Nicuesa to a duel which should determine the whole affair.Nicuesa, who had everything to lose and nothing to gain by fighting,but who could not well decline the challenge, said that he was willingto fight him if Ojeda would put up what would popularly be known to-dayin the pugilistic {9} circles as "a side bet" of five thousandcastellanos to make the fight worth while.[4]

  Poor Ojeda could not raise another maravedi, and as nobody would stakehim, the duel was off. Diego Columbus, governor of Hispaniola, alsointerfered in the game to a certain extent by declaring that the Islandof Jamaica was his, and that he would not allow anybody to make use ofit. He sent there one Juan de Esquivel, with a party of men to takepossession of it. Whereupon Ojeda stoutly declared that when he hadtime he would stop at that island and if Esquivel were there, he wouldcut off his head.

  Finally on the 10th of November, 1509, Ojeda set sail, leaving Enciscoto bring after him another ship with needed supplies. With Ojeda wasFrancisco Pizarro, a middle-aged soldier of fortune, who had nothitherto distinguished himself in any way. Hernando Cortez was to havegone along also, but fortunately for him, an inflammation of the kneekept him at home. Ojeda was in such a hurry to get to El Dorado--forit was in the territory to the southward of his allotment, that themysterious city was supposed to be located--that he did not stop atJamaica to take off Esquivel's head--a good thing for him, as itsubsequently turned out.

  Nicuesa would have followed Ojeda immediately, but his prodigalgenerosity had exhausted even his large resources, and he was detainedby clamorous creditors, the law of the island being that no one couldleave it in debt. The gallant little meat-carver labored with successto settle various suits pending, and thought {10} he had everythingcompounded; but just as he was about to sail he was arrested foranother debt of five hundred ducats. A friend at last advanced themoney for him and he got away ten days after Ojeda. It would have beena good thing if no friend had ever interfered and he had been detainedindefinitely at Hispaniola.

  III. The Adventures of Ojeda

  Ojeda made a landfall at what is known now as Cartagena. It was not aparticularly good place for a settlement. There was no reason on earthwhy they should stay there at all. La Cosa, who had been along thecoast several times and knew it thoroughly, warned his youthfulcaptain--to whom he was blindly and devotedly attached, by theway--that the place was extremely dangerous; that the inhabitants werefierce, brave and warlike, and that they had a weapon almost aseffectual as the Spanish guns. That was the poisoned arrow. Ojedathought he knew everything and he turned a deaf ear to allremonstrances. He hoped he might chance upon an opportunity ofsurprising an Indian village and capturing a lot of inoffensiveinhabitants for slaves, already a very profitable part of voyaging tothe Indies.

  He landed without much difficulty, assembled the natives and read tothem a perfectly absurd manifesto, which had been prepared in Spain foruse in similar contingencies, summoning them to change their religionand to acknowledge the supremacy of Spain. Not one word of this didthe natives understand and to it they responded with a volley ofpoisoned arrows. The Spanish considered this paper a most {11}valuable document, and always went through the formality of having thepublication of it attested by a notary public.

  Ojeda seized some seventy-five captives, male and female, as slaves.They were sent on board the ships. The Indian warriors, infuriatedbeyond measure, now attacked in earnest the shore party, comprisingseventy men, among whom were Ojeda and La Cosa. The latter, unable toprevent him, had considered it proper to go ashore with the hot-headedgovernor to restrain him so far as was possible. Ojeda impetuouslyattacked the Indians and, with part of his men, pursued them severalmiles inland to their town, of which he took possession.

  The savages, in constantly increasing numbers, clustered around thetown and attacked the Spaniards with terrible persistence. Ojeda andhis followers took refuge in huts and enclosures and fought valiantly.Finally all were killed, or fatally wounded by the envenomed dartsexcept Ojeda himself and a few men, who retreated to a small palisadedenclosure. Into this improvised fort the Indians poured a rain ofpoisoned arrows which soon struck down every one but the governorhimself. Being small of stature and extremely agile, and beingprovided with a large target or shield, he was able successfully tofend off the deadly arrows from his person. It was only a question oftime before the Indians would get him and he would die in the frightfulagony which his men experienced after being infected with the poisonupon the arrow-points. In his extremity, he was rescued by La Cosa whohad kept in hand a moiety of the shore party.

  The advent of La Cosa saved Ojeda. Infuriated at the slaughter of hismen, Ojeda rashly and {12} intemperately threw himself upon thesavages, at once disappearing from the view of La Cosa and his men, whowere soon surrounded and engaged in a desperate battle on their ownaccount. They, too, took refuge in the building, from which they wereforced to tear away the thatched roof that might have shielded themfrom the poisoned arrows, in fear lest the Indians might set it onfire. And they in turn were also reduced to the direst of straits.One after another was killed, and finally La Cosa himself, who had beendesperately wounded before, received a mortal hurt; while but one manremained on his feet.

  Possibly thinking that they had killed the whole party, and withdrawingto turn their attention to Ojeda, furiously ranging the forest alone,the Indians left the two surviving Spaniards unmolested, whereupon thedying La Cosa bade his comrade leave him, and if possible get word toOjeda of the fate which had overtaken him. This man succeeded ingetting back to the shore and apprised the men there of the frightfuldisaster.

  The ships cruised along the shore, sending parties into the bay atdifferent points looking for Ojeda and any others who might havesurvived. A day or two after the battle they came across theirunfortunate commander. He was lying on his back in a grove ofmangroves, upheld from the water by the gnarled and twisted roots ofone of the huge trees. He had his naked sword in his hand and histarget on his arm, but he was completely prostrated and speechless.The men took him to a fire, revived him and finally brought him back tothe ship.

  Marvelous to relate, he had not a single wound upon him!

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  Great was the grief of the little squadron at this dolorous state ofaffairs. In the middle of it, the ships of Nicuesa hove in sight.Mindful of their previous quarrels, Ojeda decided to stay ashore untilhe found out what were Nicuesa's intentions toward him. Cautiously hismen broke the news to Nicuesa. With magnanimity and courtesydelightful to contemplate, he at once declared that he had forgottenthe quarrel and offered every assistance to Ojeda to enable him toavenge himself. Ojeda thereupon rejoined the squadron, and the tworivals embraced with many protestations of friendship amid the acclaimof their followers.

  The next night, four hundred men were secretly assembled. They landedand marched to the Indian town, surrounded it and put it to the flames.The defenders fought with their usual resolution, and many of theSpaniards were killed by the poisonous arrows, but to no avail. TheIndians were doomed, and the whole village perished then and there.

  Nicuesa had landed some of his horses, and such was the terror inspiredby those remarkable and unknown animals that several of the women whohad escaped from the fire, when they caught sight of the frightfulmonsters, rushed back into the flames, preferring this horrible deathrather than to meet the horses. The value of the plunder amounted toeighteen thousand dollars in modern money, the most of which Nicuesatook.

  The two adventurers separated, Nicuesa bidding Ojeda farewell andstriking boldly across the Caribbean for Veragua
, which was the nameColumbus had given to the Isthmian coast below Honduras; while Ojedacrept along the shore seeking a convenient {14} spot to plant hiscolony. Finally he established himself at a place which he named SanSebastian. One of his ships was wrecked and many of his men were lost.Another was sent back to Santo Domingo with what little treasure theyhad gathered and with an appeal to Encisco to hurry up.

  They made a rude fort on the shore, from which to prosecute theirsearch for gold and slaves. The Indians, who also belonged to thepoisoned-arrow fraternity, kept the fort in constant anxiety. Manywere the conflicts between the Spaniards and the savages, and terriblewere the losses inflicted by the invaders; but there seemed to be nolimit to the number of Indians, while every Spaniard killed was aserious drain upon the little party. Man after man succumbed to theeffects of the dreadful poison. Ojeda, who never spared himself in anyway, never received a wound.

  From their constant fighting, the savages got to recognize him as theleader and they used all their skill to compass destruction. Finally,they succeeded in decoying him into an ambush where four of their bestmen had been posted. Recklessly exposing themselves, the Indians atclose range opened fire upon their prisoner with arrows. Three of thearrows he caught on his buckler, but the fourth pierced his thigh. Itis surmised that Ojeda attended to the four Indians before takingcognizance of his wound. The arrow, of course, was poisoned, andunless something could be done, it meant death.

  He resorted to a truly heroic expedient. He caused two iron plates tobe heated white-hot and then directed the surgeon to apply the platesto the wound, one at the entrance and the other at the exit of thearrow. {15} The surgeon, appalled by the idea of such torture, refusedto do so, and it was not until Ojeda threatened to hang him with hisown hands that he consented. Ojeda bore the frightful agony without amurmur or a quiver, such was his extraordinary endurance. It was thecustom in that day to bind patients who were operated upon surgically,that their involuntary movements might not disconcert the doctors andcause them to wound where they hoped to cure. Ojeda refused even to bebound. The remedy was efficacious, although the heat of the iron, inthe language of the ancient chronicler, so entered his system that theyused a barrel of vinegar to cool him off.

  Ojeda was very much dejected by the fact that he had been wounded. Itseemed to him that the Virgin, his patron, had deserted him. Thelittle band, by this time reduced to less than one hundred people, wasin desperate straits. Starvation stared it in the face whenfortunately assistance came. One Bernardino de Talavera, with seventycongenial cut-throats, absconding debtors and escaped criminals, fromHispaniola, had seized a Genoese trading-ship loaded with provisionsand had luckily reached San Sebastian in her. They sold theseprovisions to Ojeda and his men at exorbitant prices, for some of thehard-earned treasure which they had amassed with their greatexpenditure of life and health.

  There was no place else for Talavera and his gang to go, so they stayedat San Sebastian. The supply of provisions was soon exhausted, andfinally it was evident that, as Encisco had not appeared with anyreenforcements or supplies, some one must go back to Hispaniola tobring rescue to the party. Ojeda offered to do this himself. Givingthe charge of affairs at {16} San Sebastian to Francisco Pizarro, whopromised to remain there for fifty days for the expected help, heembarked with Talavera.

  Naturally Ojeda considered himself in charge of the ship; naturallyTalavera did not. Ojeda, endeavoring to direct things, was seized andput in chains by the crew. He promptly challenged the whole crew to aduel, offering to fight them two at a time in succession until he hadgone through the ship, of which he expected thereby to become themaster; although what he would have done with seventy dead pirates onthe ship is hard to see. The men refused this wager of battle, butfortune favored this doughty little cavalier, for presently a greatstorm arose. As neither Talavera nor any of the men were navigators orseamen, they had to release Ojeda. He took charge. Once he was incharge, they never succeeded in ousting him.

  In spite of his seamanship, the caravel was wrecked on the island ofCuba. They were forced to make their way along the shore, which wasthen unsettled by Spain. Under the leadership of Ojeda the partystruggled eastward under conditions of extreme hardship. When theywere most desperate, Ojeda, who had appealed daily to his littlepicture of the Virgin, which he always carried with him, and had notceased to urge the others to do likewise, made a vow to establish ashrine and leave the picture at the first Indian village they came toif they got succor there.

  Sure enough, they did reach a place called Cueyabos, where they werehospitably received by the Indians, and where Ojeda, fulfilling hisvow, erected a log hut, or shrine, in the recess of which he left, withmuch regret, the picture of the Virgin which had accompanied {17} himon his wanderings and adventures. Means were found to send word toJamaica, still under the governorship of Esquivel, whose head Ojeda hadthreatened to cut off when he met him. Magnanimously forgetting thepurpose of the broken adventurer, Esquivel despatched a ship to bringhim to Jamaica. We may be perfectly sure that Ojeda said nothing aboutthe decapitation when the generous hearted Esquivel received him withopen arms. Ojeda with Talavera and his comrades were sent back toSanto Domingo. There Talavera and the principal men of his crew weretried for piracy and executed.

  Ojeda found that Encisco had gone. He was penniless, discredited andthoroughly downcast by his ill fortune. No one would advance himanything to send succor to San Sebastian. His indomitable spirit wasat last broken by his misfortunes. He lingered for a short time inconstantly increasing ill health, being taken care of by the goodFranciscans, until he died in the monastery. Some authorities say hebecame a monk; others deny it; it certainly is quite possible. At anyrate, before he died he put on the habit of the order, and after hisdeath, by his own direction, his body was buried before the gate, sothat those who passed through it would have to step over his remains.Such was the tardy humility with which he endeavoured to make up forthe arrogance and pride of his exciting life.

  IV. Enter One Vasco Nunez de Balboa

  Encisco, coasting along the shore with a large ship, carryingreenforcements and loaded with provisions for the party, easilyfollowed the course of Ojeda's {18} wanderings, and finally ran acrossthe final remnants of his expedition in the harbor of Cartagena. Theremnant was crowded into a single small, unseaworthy brigantine underthe command of Francisco Pizarro.

  Pizarro had scrupulously kept faith with Ojeda. He had done more. Hehad waited fifty days, and then, finding that the two brigantines leftto him were not large enough to contain his whole party, by mutualagreement of the survivors clung to the death-laden spot until asufficient number had been killed or had died to enable them to getaway in the two ships. They did not have to wait long, for death wasbusy, and a few weeks after the expiration of the appointed time theywere all on board.

  There is something terrific to the imagination in the thought of thatbody of men sitting down and grimly waiting until enough of them shoulddie to enable the rest to get away! What must have been the emotionsthat filled their breasts as the days dragged on? No one knew whetherthe result of the delay would enable him to leave, or cause his bonesto rot on the shore. Cruel, fierce, implacable as were theseSpaniards, there is something Homeric about them in such crises asthese.

  That was not the end of their misfortunes, for one of the twobrigantines was capsized. The old chroniclers say that the boat wasstruck by a great fish. That is a fish story, which, like most fishstories, it is difficult to credit. At any rate, sink it did, with allon board, and Pizarro and about thirty men were all that were left ofthe gallant three hundred who had followed the doughty Ojeda in thefirst attempt to colonize South America.

  Encisco was for hanging them at once, believing that {19} they hadmurdered and deserted Ojeda, but they were able to convince him at lastof the strict legality of their proceedings. Taking command of theexpedition himself, as being next in rank to Ojeda, the Bachelor ledthem back to San Sebastian. Unfor
tunately, before the unloading of hisship could be begun, she struck a rock and was lost; and the last stateof the men, therefore, was as bad as the first.

  Among the men who had come with Encisco was a certain Vasco Nunez,commonly called Balboa. He had been with Bastidas and La Cosa on theirvoyage to the Isthmus nine years before. The voyage had been aprofitable one and Balboa had made money out of it. He had lost allhis money, however, and had eked out a scanty living on a farm atHispaniola, which he had been unable to leave because he was in debt toeverybody. The authorities were very strict in searching every vesselthat cleared from Santo Domingo, for absconders. The search wasusually conducted after the vessel had got to sea, too!

  Balboa caused himself to be conveyed aboard the ship in a provisioncask. No one suspected anything, and when the officers of the boat hadwithdrawn from the ship and Hispaniola was well down astern, he cameforth. Encisco, who was a pettifogger of the most pronounced type,would have dealt harshly with him, but there was nothing to do afterall. Balboa could not be sent back, and besides, he was considered avery valuable reenforcement on account of his known experience andcourage.

  It was he who now came to the rescue of the wretched colonists at SanSebastian by telling them that across the Gulf of Darien there was anIndian tribe with many villages and much gold. Furthermore, these {20}Indians, unfortunately for them, were not acquainted with the use ofpoisoned arrows. Balboa urged them to go there. His suggestion wasreceived with cheers. The brigantines, and such other vessels as theycould construct quickly, were got ready and the whole party tookadvantage of the favorable season to cross the Gulf of Darien to theother side, to the present territory of Panama which has been soprominent in the public eye of late. This was Nicuesa's domain, butnobody considered that at the time.

  They found the Indian villages which Balboa had mentioned, fought adesperate battle with Cacique Cemaco, captured the place, anddiscovered quantities of gold castellanos (upward of twenty-fivethousand dollars). They built a fort, and laid out a town called Mariade la Antigua del Darien--the name being almost bigger than the town!Balboa was in high favor by this time, and when Encisco got intotrouble by decreeing various oppressive regulations and vexatiousrestrictions, attending to things in general with a high hand, theycalmly deposed him on the ground that he had no authority to act, sincethey were on the territory of Nicuesa. To this logic, which wasirrefutable, poor Encisco could make no reply. Pending the arrival ofNicuesa they elected Balboa and one Zamudio, a Biscayan, to take chargeof affairs.

  The time passed in hunting and gathering treasure, not unprofitablyand, as they had plenty to eat, not unpleasantly.

  V. The Desperate Straits of Nicuesa

  Now let us return to Nicuesa. Making a landfall, Nicuesa, with a smallcaravel, attended by the two {21} brigantines, coasted along the shoreseeking a favorable point for settlement. The large ships, by hisorders, kept well out to sea. During a storm, Nicuesa put out to seahimself, imagining that the brigantines under the charge of Lope deOlano, second in command would follow him. When morning broke and thestorm disappeared there were no signs of the ships or brigantines.

  Nicuesa ran along the shore to search for them, got himself embayed inthe mouth of a small river, swollen by recent rains, and upon thesudden subsidence of the water coincident with the ebb of the tide, hisship took ground, fell over on her bilge and was completely wrecked.The men on board barely escaped with their lives to the shore. Theyhad saved nothing except what they wore, the few arms they carried andone small boat.

  Putting Diego de Ribero and three sailors in the boat and directingthem to coast along the shore, Nicuesa with the rest struggled westwardin search of the two brigantines and the other three ships. Theytoiled through interminable forests and morasses for several days,living on what they could pick up in the way of roots and grasses,without discovering any signs of the missing vessels. Coming to an armof the sea, supposed to be Chiriqui Lagoon off Costa Rica, in thecourse of their journeyings, they decided to cross it in a small boatrather than make the long detour necessary to get to what they believedto be the other side. They were ferried over to the opposite shore inthe boat, and to their dismay discovered that they were upon an almostdesert island.

  It was too late and they were too tired, to go farther that night, sothey resolved to pass the night on the {22} island. In the morningthey were appalled to find that the little boat, with Ribero and thethree sailors, was gone. They were marooned on a desert island withpractically nothing to eat and nothing but brackish swamp water todrink. The sailors they believed to have abandoned them. They gaveway to transports of despair. Some in their grief threw themselvesdown and died forthwith. Others sought to prolong life by eatingherbs, roots and the like.

  They were reduced to the condition of wild animals, when a sailwhitened the horizon, and presently the two brigantines dropped anchornear the island. Ribero was no recreant. He had been convinced thatNicuesa was going farther and farther from the ships with every stepthat he took, and, unable to persuade him of that fact, he deliberatelytook matters into his own hands and retraced his course. The eventjustified his decision, for he soon found the brigantines and the otherships. Olano does not seem to have bestirred himself very vigorouslyto seek for Nicuesa, perhaps because he hoped to command himself; butwhen Ribero made his report he at once made for the island, which hereached just in time to save the miserable remnant from dying ofstarvation.

  As soon as he could command himself, Nicuesa, whose easy temper andgenerous disposition had left him under the hardships and misfortuneshe had sustained, sentenced Olano to death. By the pleas of hiscomrades, the sentence was mitigated, and the wretched man was bound inchains and forced to grind corn for the rest of the party--when therewas any to grind.

  To follow Nicuesa's career further would be simply to chronicle thestory of increasing disaster. He lost {23} ship after ship and manafter man. Finally reduced in number to one hundred men, one of thesailors, which had been with Columbus remembered the location of PortoRico as being a haven where they might establish themselves in afertile and beautiful country, well-watered and healthy. Columbus hadleft an anchor under the tree to mark the place, and when they reachedit they found that the anchor had remained undisturbed all the years.They were attacked by the Indians there, and after losing twentykilled, were forced to put to sea in two small brigantines and acaravel, which they had made from the wrecks of their ships. Coastingalong the shore, they came at last to an open roadstead where theycould debark.

  "In the name of God," said the disheartened Nicuesa, "let us stop here."

  There they landed, called the place after their leader's exclamation,Nombre de Dios. The caravel, with a crew of the strongest, wasdespatched for succour, and was never heard of again.

  One day, the colonists of Antigua were surprised by the sound of acannon shot. They fired their own weapons in reply, and soon two shipscarrying reenforcements for Nicuesa under Rodrigo de Colmenares,dropped anchor in front of the town.

  By this time the colonists had divided into factions, some favoring theexisting regime, others inclining toward the still busy Encisco, othersdesirous of putting themselves under the command of Nicuesa, whosegenerosity and sunny disposition were still affectionately remembered.The arrival of Colmenares and his party, gave the Nicuesa faction adecided preponderance; and, taking things in their own hands, theydetermined to despatch one of the ships, with two {24} representativesof the colony, up the coast in search of the governor. This expeditionfound Nicuesa without much difficulty. Again the rescuing ship arrivedjust in time. In a few days more, the miserable body of men, reducednow to less than sixty, would have perished of starvation.

  Nicuesa's spirit had not been chastened by his unparalleledmisfortunes. He not only accepted the proffered command of thecolony--which was no more than his right, since it was established onhis own territory--but he did more. When he heard that the colonistshad amassed a great amount of gold by trading and
thieving, he harshlydeclared that, as they had no legitimate right there, he would taketheir portion for himself; that he would stop further enterprises ontheir part--in short, he boastfully declared his intention of carryingthings with a high hand in a way well calculated to infuriate hisvoluntary subjects. So arrogant was his bearing and so tactless andinjudicious his talk, that the envoys from Antigua fled in the nightwith one of the ships and reported the situation to the colony. Olano,still in chains, found means to communicate with his friends in theother party. Naturally he painted the probable conduct of the governorin anything but flattering colors.

  All this was most impolitic in Nicuesa. He seemed to have forgottenthat profound political principle which suggests that a firm seat inthe saddle should be acquired before any attempts should be made tolead the procession. The fable of "King Stork and the Frogs" wasapplicable to the situation of the colonists.

  In this contingency they did not know quite what to do. It was Balboawho came to their rescue again. {25} He suggested that, although theyhad invited him, they need not permit Nicuesa to land. Accordingly,when Nicuesa hove in sight in the other ship, full of determination tocarry things in his own way, they prevented him from coming ashore.

  Greatly astonished, he modified his tone somewhat, but to no avail. Itwas finally decided among the colonists to allow him to land in orderto seize his person. Arrangements were made accordingly, and theunsuspicious Nicuesa debarked from his ship the day after his arrival.He was immediately surrounded by a crowd of excited soldiers menacingand threatening him. It was impossible for him to make headway againstthem.

  He turned and fled. Among his other gubernatorial accomplishments wasa remarkable fleetness of foot. The poor little governor scamperedover the sands at a great pace. He distanced his fierce pursuers atlast and escaped to the temporary shelter of the woods.

  Balboa, a gentleman by birth and by inclination as well--who had,according to some accounts, endeavored to compose the differencesbetween Nicuesa and the colonists--was greatly touched and mortified atseeing so brave a cavalier reduced to such an undignified and desperateextremity. He secretly sought Nicuesa that night and profferred himhis services. Then he strove valiantly to bring about an adjustmentbetween the fugitive and the brutal soldiery, but in vain.

  Nicuesa, abandoning all his pretensions, at last begged them to receivehim, if not as a governor, at least as a companion-at-arms, avolunteer. But nothing, neither the influence of Balboa nor theentreaties {26} of Nicuesa, could mitigate the anger of the colonists.They would not have the little governor with them on any terms. Theywould have killed him then and there, but Balboa, by resorting to harshmeasures, even causing one man to be flogged for his insolence, at lastchanged that purpose into another--which, to be sure, was scarcely lesshazardous for Nicuesa.

  He was to be given a ship and sent away forever from the Isthmus.Seventeen adherents offered manfully to share his fate. Protestingagainst the legality of the action, appealing to them to give him achance for humanity's sake, poor Nicuesa was hurried aboard a small,crazy bark, the weakest of the wretched brigantines in the harbor.This was a boat so carelessly constructed that the calking of the seamshad been done with a blunt iron. With little or no provisions, Nicuesaand his faithful seventeen were forced to put to sea amid the jeers andmockery of the men on shore. The date was March 1, 1511. According tothe chroniclers, the last words that those left on the island heardNicuesa say were, "Show thy face, O Lord, and we shall be saved." [5]

  A pathetic and noble departure!

  Into the misty deep then vanished poor Nicuesa and his faithfulfollowers on that bright sunny spring morning. And none of them evercame back to tell the tale of what became of them. Did they die ofstarvation in their crazy brigantine, drifting on and on while theyrotted in the blazing sun, until her seams opened and she sank? Didthey founder in one of the sudden and fierce storms which sometimesswept {27} that coast? Did the deadly teredo bore the ship's timbersfull of holes, until she went down with all on board? Were they caston shore to become the prey of Indians whose enmity they had provokedby their own conduct? No one ever knew.

  It was reported that years afterward on the coast of Veragua somewandering adventurers found this legend, almost undecipherable, cut inthe bark of a tree, "_Aqui anduvo el desdichado Diego de Nicuesa_,"which may be translated, "Here was lost the unfortunate Diego deNicuesa." But the statement is not credited. The fate of the gallantlittle gentleman is one of the mysteries of the sea.

  Of the original eleven hundred men who sailed with the two governorsthere remained perhaps thirty of Ojeda's and forty of Nicuesa's atAntigua with Encisco's command. This was the net result of the firsttwo years of effort at the beginning of government in South America onthe Isthmus of Panama, with its ocean on the other side still undreamedof. What these men did there, and how Balboa rose to furtherprominence, his great exploits, and finally how unkind Fate alsoovertook him, will form the subject of the next paper.