Columbus to C o r t e s’j Expedition. 
Chap. IIL 
tecUon *, which, however, did not efface from his Me- 
mory the Ufage he had met with, as we fhall fee in its 
proper Place. 
This Man, obferving that the Company were in a 
down-right Defpair, and knew not which way to turn 
themfelves, took upon him to encourage them, by affert- 
ing, that they were not in fo defperate a Condition as 
they imagined ; for that, when he was upon this Coaft 
before, with BaJHdas^ they had failed to the Bottom of 
the Gulph, where they had feen a very large fine Town, 
fituated in a fruitful Soil, in a fine Climate, and which 
was inhabited by warlike Indians indeed ; but fuch as did 
not make ufe of poifoned Darts. He therefore advifed 
them to get off their Brigantines which were ftranded, 
and endeavour to purfue their Voyage. 
They approved Nunez’s Advice, failed to the Ri- 
ver which the Indians call Darien.^ and, having viewed 
the Place, found all according as he had defcribed it. 
The Inhabitants and their Cazique, whofe Name was 
Cemano.^ tinderflanding that the Spaniards were comiing, 
fecured their Wives and Children, and with Five hun- 
dred Men v/aited for the Spaniards on a little Hill, who 
having performed their Devotions fell upon them, and 
foon put them to the Rout. They went to the Town, 
and, as they wifhed, found it full of Provifions. Hie 
next Day they marched up the Country and the Moun- 
tains thereabouts, where they found many Houfes with- 
out Inhabitants, they being all fled, but there were Vef- 
fels, Houfliold Goods, and Cotton Things like fliort Pet- 
ticoats for Women, as alfo mmch Cotton fpun and un- 
fpun, and Plates of Gold, fuch as they hung on their 
Breafls, and other Things, amounting in the whole to 
Ten thoufand Pieces of fine Gold. Encifo being overjoy- 
ed at this Succefs, fent for the Men that had been left on 
the other Side of the Bay, becaufe the Brigantines could 
not carry them at once. Nunez gained much Reputation 
by the Succefs of this Enterprife, and began to be in 
very high Efteem. 
They all ageeed to eftablifli a Colony there, and to 
call it Santa Maria el Antiqua del Darien., or S. Mary the 
Antient of Darien ; the firfl: being the Name of a Church 
at Seville, and the latter, the Indian Name of the River. 
Nunez, being now in great Credit, fecretly contrived 
with his Friends to depofe Encifo from the Command, 
alkdging, that fince they were out of the Limits of 
Hojeda’s Government, he had no longer any Authority. 
Whilft thefc Things were in Agitation Encifo thought 
fit to order that no Man, upon Pain of Death, fhould 
trade with t\it Indians for Gold j and they, fufpedling he 
did it to draw all to his own Advantage, unanimoufly 
threw off all SubjedHon to him, faying his Authority was 
expired on the Account above mentioned, and for other 
Reafons. Encifo thus deprived of the Government, they 
refolved to chufe Alcaldes and Regidores, which are the 
Titles of the chief Magiftrates in Spanifh Towns; and 
accordingly Nunez de Balboa, and Zamadio, were eledled 
Alcaldes, and Valdibia was appointed Regidore. How- 
ever, the Men, not being pleafed with this Government, 
and repenting that they had excluded Encifo, begun to 
fall at variance about it ; fbme alledging that it was not 
proper to be without a Commander in chief, and by 
this means they divided into three Parties. One of them 
demanding that Encifo fhould be reftored till the King 
appointed another Governor ; the fecond faid they ought 
to fubmit themfelves to Nicuejfa, becaufe that Country 
was within his Diftrid; the third confifted oS Nunez’s 
Friends, who would have the prefent Government ftand, 
but, in cafe they would have a Angle Commander, in- 
filled it fhould be Nunez de Balboa. 
In the Midfl of ail thefe Debates, Roderic Enriques de 
Colmenares arrived with two Ships, having on Board Pro- 
vifions, military Stores, and feventy Men. This Captain, 
meeting a great Storm by the Way, put into the Port 
pf Santa Maria, fifty or fixty Leagues from Carthagena, 
by the Indians called Ciayra ; tiie Boats going there to 
water, the F,ord of that Country came out with twenty 
of his FoIIow^ers, cloathed in a fort of Cotton Cloaks, 
though^ all Indians in thole Parts go naked, and, drawing 
near, bid them not take of that Water, becaufe it was 
not good, fhevfing them another River. Not being able 
Yol. II. Numb. jq. 
S3 
to come at it by the beating of the Sea, they returned to 
the firfl Place ; and, as they were filling their Cafics, on 
a fudden about feventy Indians ruflied out, and, before 
the Spaniards could ftand upon their Guard, wounded 
forty-five of them with their poifoned Arrov/s : The 
wounded Men fwam away, becaufe the Natives ftaved the 
Imng-boat, and, when they got to the Ships, they all 
died except one. Seven Spatiiards hid themfelves in a great 
hollow Tree, in order to fwim to the Ship at Night. 
But the Men on board, fuppofing them to be killed, 
failed away very melancholy, for the Bay of Uraba, to 
enquire after Nicueffa-, and, finding no body on the 
Eall-fide of the Bay, where they thought Ilojeda’s Men, 
or their own, might be, Colmenares was much furprized, 
fufpeding they were all dead, or gone to fome other 
Place ; but thought fit to fire fome Pieces of Cannon, that 
they might hear him if they were thereabouts ; and to 
make Fires at Night, and Smokes by Day, on the aclja- 
cent high Rocks. They that were at Santa Maria el An- 
tiqua del Darien heard the Gun, which made ail the Bay 
roar to the Wellv/ard, and made Signals, and he came to 
them about the middle of He diflributed 
the Provifions he had among them all, and, by that Ge- 
nerofity, gained the Affeclions of the greater Part of 
thofe who oppofed the calling of Nicuejfa ; fo that they 
agreed he fhould be fent for, in order to take upon him 
the Government. 
8. It is requifite for us, nov/, to turn to Don Diego 
Nicuejfa, in order to fee how he paffed his time after leav- 
in^ Alonfo Hojeda, whom he had fo generoully aflifted. 
A fevv Days after, he met with as great Mifehiefs at Sea, 
as Hojeda had done on Shore ; for he was tofled by a 
dreadful Tempell from without, and betrayed within 
by Lopez de (Slam ; who, perceiving the Squadron fepa- 
rate, followed one of the largeft Ships into the River 
Chagre, in order to fet up for himfelf, and left his Pa- 
tron to fhift as he could. After fome very unlucky Ad- 
ventures, he arrived at Veragua, which was their gene- 
ral Rendezvous ; and there he laboured to perfuade the 
People to abandon their original Defign as impradicable, 
and to fail away to Hifpaniola, there to make the moft of 
what they had left ; alledging, that without all doubt, 
Nicuejfa was periflied with all his Men. 
While they were meditating this Projed, there came 
a Shallop into the Port, with four Men on Board, \vho 
brought Advice that the Governor Nictiejfa was not 
far off; that he had been fliranded upon an unknown 
Coaft, and marched a great Way with incredible Fatigue 
by Land, and was, with his Followers, in a moft mife- 
rable Condition. Upon hearing this News, Olano’s Heart 
relented, and he immediately difpatched the Shallop with 
Provifions and Refrefhments, which came fo opportunely, 
as to fave Nicuejfa and his Men from ftarvihg, which 
otherwife muft have been their Fate. Yet this did not, 
in the leaft, foften his Refentments againft his Lieute- 
nant ; whom., if it had not been for fear of the Men, 
he would have hanged ; and, as it was, he put him in 
lions, and threatened to fend him in that Condition to 
Spam. It was not long, however, that this Authority 
remained in his Hands ; for, endeavouring to fettle a Co- 
lony on the River Bethlehem, he found himfelf fo 
ftreightened for Provifions, that he was conftrained to 
leave a Part of his Men there, and to fail with the reft 
to Puerto Bello •, but tht Indians not fuffering them to 
land, he was conftrained to proceed four or five Leagues 
farther to that Port, which, for Reafons before mention- 
ed, Columbus called the Bajiimentos ; and, as foon as he 
entered it, he cried out Paremos aqui en el nombre de Dios, 
that is. Let us flay here in the Nam.e of God. 
There debarking his Men, he began to ereft a For- 
trefs, which, from the Expreflion before mentioned, was 
called Nombre de Dios. He had not been long there be- 
fore he found himfelf in the fame Plight as in the for- 
mer Colony ; fo that he was obliged to fend one of his 
Veflels to Santo Domingo, to beleech the Governor to 
grant him fome Afliftance. This Veffei v/as fcarce out 
oftne Poit, htSovt thztNithi Colmenares on board arrived 
in the River of Darien, on the Meflage that has been be- 
fore related from tlie Spafpjh Colony fettled there; . Col- 
R , menares^ 
