1 40 7 ?je Di/cover ies of the Spaniards- Book I, 
■v^ned- by ^ powetful Cazique •, where there were abun- 
dance of large Oyfters, which had Pearls in them as big, 
as Beans. Nunez ordered the Canoes to be imme- 
diately made ready to .go over to it. The Caziques in- 
treated him not to think of it at that time, but, to ftay till 
Summer, when the Sea was calm, and he might then go 
with eafe, and they would bear him company, and he 
approved of their Advice. The Cazique Nmaco alfo in- 
formed Balboa^ that the Goaft extended prodigioufly, 
pointing towards Peru \ that there was an immenfe 
Quantity of Gold, and that the Natives ufed certain 
Beafts to carry their Burdens, being the Sheep of that 
Country, and made a Figure of them with Earth to re- 
prefent them the better. The Spaniards were amazed i 
fome faid they were Camels, others that they were Stags 
‘ or Fallow Deer, of which there are many on the Continent 
about as big as fmall Calves, but their Legs fo fhort, that 
they are not above a Span in length,, and their Horns 
ftuall. This was the fecond Intimation Nunez had of 
and its Wealth. 
9. It was about the Middle of January that Nunez de 
Balboa returned back to Santa Maria, carrying with 
hirn Gold to a very great Value, and Pearls to a much 
greater •, of which he made a very fair Divifion, referving 
the fifth Part for the King, and diftributing the reft among 
the Soldiers in fuch a Manner, that they were perfe6tly 
:fetisfied with his Conduft. He judged now, and not 
without great Appearance of Reafon, that he had per- 
formed fo fignal a Service, that it was impoflible for the 
Minifters to deny that it made amends for any Indifcretions 
into which he had fallen. He refolved therefore to fend 
another Agent to Spain Nith. the King’s Money, and with 
more confiderable Prefents than it was in his Power to 
fend by the former. The Perfon he made choice of for 
this Negotiation was Peter Arbolanchos, a Man of Capa- 
city, and, which was of greater Confequence to him, a 
Perfon of great Integrity and unftiaken Fidelity. 
He applied himfelf, when he came to Court, to the 
famous Bifhop of Burgos •, who received his Letters with 
Civility, which changed into the greateft Kindnefs and 
Friend Ihip upon’ the Sight of the Gold and Pearls that 
Balboa had fent him •, for thefe fully convinced him that 
he was innocent, and a good Officer, and therefore he took 
Pains to fet him right in the Opinion of King Ferdinand, 
who was then, living, and who had hitherto a great 
Averfion to Nunez de Balboa ; but the Favours of this 
Prelate came too late, for he had already done this un- 
happy Man fuch an Injury as. he was not able to (repair. 
It was a Maxim with this Biffiop,^ that there was nothing 
fo dangerous as to fuffer the 'great Men who made Dil- 
coveries in the Indies to perfeft them ; and therefore as 
foon as they had opened the Road to new Countries, and 
had overcame the firft, which are always the greateft. 
Difficulties, it was his conftant Method to fent fome of 
his own Creatures to reap the Fruits of their Labours. 
The Perfon he had fixed upon, before the Arrival of 
.Balboa‘s Agent, to go Governor of Cafiilla del Oro, 
was one Don Pedro Arias d’ Avila, whom the Spanijh 
Writers, by joinmg his two firft Names, commonly call 
Pedr arias, a Man of Birth, of a Court Education, which 
had furniffied him with feveral Qualities very fuitable to 
the Climate oi' Spain,, but. not at all calculated for the 
King’s Service in the Indies-: He was haughty and proud 
to the laft Degree, naturally infmcere, and a very artificial 
Diflembler, barbaroufiy unjuft, and cruel beyond Expref- 
fion, one who thought the only Compenfation that could 
'be made for leaving his native Country, was to raife a vaft 
Fortune, which, as he wanted Talents to-do in an honeft 
Way, he refolved. to bring about by the Methods he 
underftood, ’ which were Violence, Fraud, and Op- 
preffion j in all of which he was a complete Mafter. 
We have his Chara6ter drawn to the Life by the Hand 
.of the: Bifhop of Chiapa,. who reprefents him as the 
.wickedeftMonfter that was eveident into thofe Parts ; but 
out of Refpedt to his Patron the Bifhop of Burgos, after 
giving fo true a Charader of him he does not name him. 
jSuch wasthc Perfon that was fent over to take Pofleffion 
•of - that Country which Balboa had difcovered. : 
10. This new Governor, Pedr arias, failed from Spain 
the 1 2 th of April, 1514,- with a Fleet of fifteen Sail, with 
two thoufand Soldiers on board, and a Fryar, one John 
de Fluevedo, who had been confecrated, before his Depar- 
ture, Bifhop of Darien, and many other Perfons, in 
other great Offices ; and amongft the reft Encifo, the 
mortal Enemy of Balboa, was his Provoft Marfnal. He 
arrived in the latter end of the Month of July, in the 
Gulph of Ur aba, and from, thence proceeded to SaMta 
Maria, where he was received with all imaginable Re- 
fpe6t, by the famous Nunez de Balboa, of whom he had 
heard fo much, and for whom he cared fo little. 
He was very much furprized at his Appearance, and 
at the State in which he found the Colony. There 
was indeed a very ftrong Fort, and four _ hundred 
and fifty brave Fellows to defend it-, but the Go- 
vernor’s Houfe, or if you will, his Palace, confifted but 
of three Rooms, and his Drefs correfponded with his 
Dwelling ; He had a Pair of Canvas Drawers, and a 
Cotton Waiftcoat over his Shirt, and that was all. His 
Diet was of a piece with the reft ; a Joint of roaft Pork, 
fome Greens and Fruit, was all his Table afforded ; at 
which no other Liquor was drank but good Spring- water. 
Such were the Manners of this Conqueror, who fared 
nothing better than the meaneft of his Soldiers ; but there 
was no Murmuring, no Complaints ; he maintained his Au- 
thority by the Means which had acquired it, his Merit j 
and his Soldiers loved him, and feared him as a Father. 
His foie Fault was his Ambition, that had led him to do 
fome unwarrantable things to obtain Power j but whea 
obtained, none ufed it better. 
His Accounts were clear he made good every Point 
he had written to Spain, and opened a Paffage to the 
South-Seas, and fubdued all the Country between them 
and his Colony in return for which good Services 
Pedrarias committed him clofe Prifoner to the Cuftody 
of Encifo, and did not fet him at Liberty till he had fined 
him in above half his Fortune. In order to juftify this 
Proceeding he fent over a very falfe Report to the Court 
of Spain, and expefted that this ffiould have procured him 
a Power of going greater Lengths ; but in this he was 
miftaken. He had brought over fome honeft Men with 
him, who ventured (which was ftrange) to fend the naked 
Truth to Court j and, which was ftranger ftill, it met 
with all the Credit that it deferved. 
When the King’s Letters came to be opened, his Ma- 
jefty declared in them, that he was perfe6Uy fatisfied with 
the Condu6l of Nunez de Balboa, that therefore he had 
created him Lord-Lieutenant of the Countries on the 
South-Seas that he expefted the Governor ffiould take his 
Advice ; and that the Meafure of his Obedience to his 
Orders would appear from the Refpeft he ffiewed to 
Balboa. Pedrarias, equally difpleafed and difappointed, 
took care to conceal both, and, like a true Courtier, re- 
folved to conform, in Appearance, to his Mafter’ s Orders, 
but to difobey them in e&6t, and to leave no Means un- 
tried, to work the Deftrucftion of the Man he hated, in 
which, as we ffiall fee, he fucceeded to the full. 
In order to leffen the Charader of his Predeceffor, and 
raife his own, the new Governor fent feveral of his Of- 
ficers to make Excurfions into the Country, which he 
thought muft produce new Difcoveries, as indeed they did, 
but not to the Advantage of the Colony or of the Crown 
oi Spain, fince they contributed only tofhew the Avarice 
and Cruelty of the Spaniards in the moft glaring Lights ; 
Flis Officers knew the only Method to obtain his Favour 
and Protedlion was to make him large Prefents, and to 
plunder all the Caziques without Mercy ; fo that in a few 
Months time, that Reputation for Honefty and kind 
Ufage which Nunez de Balboa had been at To much Pains 
to eftabliffi, was entirely loft, and War between them 
and the Natives broke out afreffi with greater Fury than 
.ever, fo that there were no great Hopes of his making 
anyProgrefs j which when he came ferioufly to confider, he 
entered upon a new Scheme, and, by the Affiftance of his 
Biffiop Eluevedo, reconciled himfelf to Balboa, who very 
fincerely applied himfelf, as he had done formerly, to the 
public Service, and that too vtith his ufual Succefs, 
which 
