6 A STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



Vasco Nunez jewels of gold weighing six hundred and fourteen crowns, and two 

 hundred pearls of great size and beauty." Tumaco also told Balboa " that far to 

 the south there was a country abounding in gold, where the inhabitants made use 

 of certain quadrupeds to carry burdens. He moulded a figure of clay to represent 

 these animals, which some of the Spaniards supposed to be a deer, others a 

 camel, others a tapir; for as yet they knew nothing of the lama, the native beast 

 of burden of South America." 1 



The last cacique on the Pacific coast to pay tribute to Balboa was Teaochan, 

 from whom he received gold, pearls and an abundant supply of provisions. Re- 

 crossing the Isthmus to the Gulf of Darien, the Spaniards passed through the 

 territory of a rich and powerful chief, called Poncra, whose village was ransacked 

 and gold obtained to the value of three thousand crowns. Here they remained 

 thirty days until rejoined by a detachment that had been left at the village of 

 Chiapes. From the cacique who accompanied this party presents were received 

 to the value of two thousand crowns in gold. 



Balboa and his men next faced the redoubtable Tubanama, the most powerful 

 of the mountain chieftains and the one of whom the son of Comagre had spoken. 

 In a midnight attack, Tubanama was captured. The price of his ransom was gold 

 ornaments to the value of nine thousand crowns. Nothing, however, would induce 

 him to tell where the mines that produced this treasure were located. Balboa 

 instituted a secret survey which disclosed the presence of gold in such quantities 

 that he planned to found two settlements in the neighborhood. 



Balboa's brilliant career was soon cut off by the arrival of the newly appointed 

 governor of Castilla del Oro, Pedrarias Davila, who did not cease to thwart and 

 persecute his gifted and highly successful predecessor, and who finally had him 

 beheaded on a false charge of treason ; but not until Balboa with incredible energy 

 and resourcefulness had caused to be transported over the mountains materials 

 and stores for two brigantines in which he was to sail over the waters of the 

 Pacific to the land of the Incas about which Tumaco had informed him. 



After founding Panama in 1519, Pedrarias sent Espinosa to explore the Pacific 

 coast to the westward, placing at his command the very ships that had been 

 constructed under almost insuperable difficulties by Balboa. Arriving at the prov- 

 ince of Burica, west of the present Chiriquian boundary, Espinosa set out on his 

 return journey by land and was presumably the first Spaniard to cross that part 

 of Chiriqui now celebrated for its antiquities. One ship was sent farther up the 

 coast to a gulf called San Lucar, in Nicaragua. Espinosa first traversed the prov- 

 ince of Huista, evidently on Chiriquian territory. Here the Spaniards remained 

 for some time loading their ships with maize before sending them back to Panama. 

 These may have been anchored in the present port of David. They observed 

 that the people of "this province and of that of Burica, were almost exactly the 

 same in the fashion of their clothes, and in their customs. The women wore a 

 truss round their loins, as their clothing ; and the men were naked. The country 

 is fertile, with plentiful supplies of fish," and a great quantity of swine, 2 which 



1 Op. cit, 148. 



2 They mistook peccaries for swine. 



