BALBOA, Vasco Nunez de, Spanish
discoverer, born in Xeres de los Caballeros, Extremadura, Spain, in 1475; died
in Castilla de Ore, Darien, in 1517. He was a bankrupt nobleman who escaped from
his creditors to Hispaniola and afterward joined an expedition under Martin
Fernandez do Enciso, one of Ojeda's lieutenants, to the latter's Darien
colony of San Sebastian. After meeting with misfortune through shipwreck and
hostile natives, and learning of the destruction and abandonment of the colony,
they finally founded a town, which they called Santa Maria de la Antigua de
Darien. Enciso forbade his men to trade with the natives, and was deposed by
Balboa, who claimed that they were no longer within the boundaries of Ojeda's
province, and hence owed his lieutenant no obedience. The settlement split into
factions, and finally Enciso and Zamudio, tile latter as Balboa's
representative, were sent to Spain to lay their grievances before the king.
In the meanwhile Balboa explored the country, gained the good will of the
natives by his treatment of them, and was told of a sea that lay southward, and
of a land where gold abounded (Peru). tie was now commissioned as governor of
Antigua by Admiral Diego Columbus; but, hearing from Spain that the king
inclined to side with Enciso, he determined to discover the new sea of which he
had heard, mid so atone for his faults, lie left Antigua for this purpose on I
Sept., 1513, and after laboring on for many days amid tangled forests, up rugged
heights, fighting the natives continually, until the explorers were exhausted,
foot-sore, and famished, they ascended a mountain on the morning of the 25th,
whence he saw the new sea. Balboa named it "Mar del Sur," and took
possession of it and all its coasts in the name of his royal master and
mistress. Three days later he reached the beach at a place still known by the
name he gave it, the gulf of San Miguel. After a short voyage of exploration and
the collection of tribute from neighboring tribes, he set out for home, and
reached Antigua in safety in January, 1514, after what must be considered a
wonderful exploit when we take into account his small force and the almost
insurmountable difficulties of the route. But Balboa's exploit was in vain.
A new governor, Pedrarias, arrived at Antigua in the following June, and
his predecessor was put on trial on various charges, He was acquitted of the
most serious, but was sentenced to pay a large fine. Soon after this the king of
Spain, hearing of Balboa's great discovery, gave him a special commission to
explore the shore of the "southern sea," and made him governor of
Panama and Coyba.
Pedrarias with held this commission at first, but, becoming reconciled to
Balboa, finally allowed him to begin preparations for his voyage, and promised
him his daughter in marriage. Vessels were built, though with difficulty, on the
Pacific side-of the isthmus, and Balboa, after making a few unimportant
discoveries, sent his friend Garabito to investigate a rumor that Pedrarias had
been superseded. The rumor was untrue, and Garabito, proving a false friend,
told the governor that Balboa had no idea of marrying his daughter, but intended
to found for himself a government on the shores of the Pacific. Pedrarias was
enraged at this, enticed Balboa within his grasp, and secured his conviction on
a charge of treason, together with charges on which he had previously been
acquitted.
The next day Balboa with four of his companions were executed, protesting
to the last his innocence and loyalty. See Quintana's "Vidas de Espafioles
celebres" (3 vols., 1807-'34); Irving's "Voyages and Discoveries of
the Companions of Columbus" (New York, 1831); and Winsor's "Narrative
and Critical History of America" (Boston, 1884).
Edited Appleton's American
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