464 THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY. 



CHAP. XXV. 



Vaseo Nunez de Balboa. — His Discovery of the Pacific, and subsequent Fate. 



Ferdinand Magellan. — Sebastian el Cano, the first Circumnavigator of the 



Globe. — Discoveries of Pizarro and Cortez. — Urdaneta. — Juan Fernandez. 



Mendoza. — Drake. — Discoveries of the Portuguese and Dutch in the Western 

 Pacific. — Attempts of the Dutch and English to discover North-East and North- 

 West Passages to India. — Sir Hugh Willoughby and Chancellor. — Frobisher. 



Davis. — Barentz. — His Wintering in Nova Zembla. — Quiros. — Torres. 



Schouten. — Le Maire. — Abel Tasman. — Hudson. — Baffin. — Dampier. — Anson. 

 — Byron. — Wallis and Carteret. — Bougainville. 



The 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 Eio 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 merits 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, 



