PKEFACE. 



(TO THE FIBST EDITION.) 



THE original pioneers of the Pacific were exceptionally unfor- 

 tunate. 



In the church of St. Francis, in the town of Nombre de 

 Dios, on the Darien isthmus, is a painting of Yasco Nunez de 

 Balboa. With infinite labour he has dragged the timbers of 

 his vessel across the mountains of America, and now, clad in 

 complete armour and standing up to the waist in salt water, 

 with a sword in one hand and the Papal flag in the other, he 

 is depicted as taking formal possession of the islands of the 

 Pacific on behalf of the Apostolic See of Eome. He died 

 under the headsman's axe in 1517, for an unjust charge of 

 treason, four years after his great discovery. 



Magalhaens, who passed, in November, 1520, through the 

 straits which bear his name, died the next year in a miserable 

 skirmish with some Indians. Alvaro de Saavedra died upon 

 his return voyage from Mexico to Manilla. It was Saavedra 



