464 THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY. 
CHAP. XXV. 
Vasco Nufiez de Balboa. — His Discovery of the Puacifie, and subsequent Fate. + 
Ferdinand Magellan. — Sebastian el Cano, the first Cireumnayigator of the 
Globe. — Discoveries of Pizarro and Cortez. — Urdaneta. — Juan Fernandez. — 
Mendoza. — Drake. — Discoveries of the Portuguese and Dutch in the Western 
Pacifie.—Attempts of the Dutch and English to discover North-East and North- 
West Passages to India. — Sir Hugh Willoughby and Chancellor.— Frobisher, — 
Dayis. — Barentz. — His Wintering in Nova Zembla. — Quiros.— Torres, — 
Schouten.— Le Maire.— Abel Tasman.— Hudson. —Baffin,— Dampier. —Anson. 
— Byron. — Wallis and Carteret. — Bougainville. 
Tne riches which the Indian trade had poured into the lap of 
Venice, and which at a later period fell to the share of the 
Portuguese, formed the chief incitement to the great maritime 
discoveries which illustrated the end of the fifteenth and the 
first half of the sixteenth century. 
The hope to discover a new road to India had not only 
animated the Portuguese navigators, but.also led Columbus 
and Cabot across the Atlantic. It caused the unfortunate 
Cortereal to sail into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, induced Juan de 
Solis to penetrate into the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, and 
was finally the chief end and aim of the wondrous expedition of 
Magellan. The time is now come when the barriers of the 
Pacific are to fall, but before crossing its vast bosom with the 
illustrious navigator who first traversed it from end to end, I 
shall detain the reader a few moments on the shores of the Gulf of 
Darien, where the wretched remains of the colony of Santa Maria 
el Antigua, founded by Ojeda in 1509, had, after the departure 
of that unfortunate adventurer, freely elected Vasco Nunez de 
Balboa to be their governor. This great man, who would have 
emulated the fame of a Cortez or Pizarro if his good fortune 
had been equal to his merit, omitted no opportunity of justifying 
the choice of his comrades by the unremitting zeal he displayed 
for their welfare. Making up for the scantiness of his resources 
by unceasing activity, he subdued the neighbouring caciques, 
