12 



THE OPAL SEA 



The new 

 world. 



Balboa and 

 the Pacific. 



week after week into the unknown with nothing 

 to support him but his own stout heart ! 



Success came when defeat was almost an 

 accomplished fact. A new world had been dis- 

 covered and given to Castile and Leon, but 

 Columbus never for a moment imagined it was 

 anything other than the western portion of the 

 old world. The most that he sought was a 

 shorter route to India by way of China. He 

 thought he had discovered the outlying islands 

 of Asia. No one had so much as imagined the 

 presence of the two Americas or the infinity 

 of waters that far beyond reached to the sun- 

 set lands of Cathay. 



A few years later what must have been Bal- 

 boa's wonder 



"when with eagle eyes 



He stared at the Pacific — and all his men 

 Looked at each other with a wild surmise 



Silent, upon a peak in Darien." 



The Pacific was before him — the Pacific, whose 

 farthest limits are mystery even to this day, 

 lay shimmering in the sunshine. It would be 

 strange, indeed, if such a sight had not given 

 him pause. There is that in immensity which 

 commands respect and something in vast ex- 

 panses of light and color that makes for rever- 

 ence. Certain it is that if one have any finer 



