companions, and saying he would kill them all if he only had them to fight with two by two. The greatest danger, however, which these Spaniards had to encounter as they made their way along the coast, was, not from the Indians, but from a horrible swamp, in which they floundered on day after day; the swamp extending as they marched along, and they, poor shipwrecked men, with wet clothes and damaged provisions, now sinking up to the armpits, now disappearing altogether in the mud.

Ojeda's courage had never failed him: his devotion was now to be made manifest. In his wallet he always carried an image of the Virgin Mary, a present from his patron, Bishop Fonseca, which he reverenced much, "for he was always a very devout servant of the Mother of God" (porque siempre fue muy devoto servidor de la Madre de Dios). When they rested on any spot where the mangrove trees, which love such swamps, were above the waters, Ojeda was wont to hang up his image on a bough, paying adoration to it himself, and exhorting the rest to do the like. So they journeyed through this dreadful swamp for a whole month, and not till they had left half their company buried in it did they arrive at an Indian town on the firm ground, called Cueyba. They were a wretched band, almost dead with fatigue, but the good Indians of Cueyba fed the Spaniards, washed them, and succored them in every way. There Ojeda left his image, having vowed to do so at the first Indian town he should arrive at. He also persuaded the cacique to build an oratory for the image, and endeavored to explain to him what it meant.

The friendly Indians furnished the Spaniards with guides into the province of Macaca; from thence the

shipwrecked men, remembering that there were Spaniards in Jamaica, sent one of their company, Diego Ordaz, in a canoe to inform their fellow-countrymen of their fate. Ordaz reached Jamaica safely; and, upon hearing his story, Juan de Esquivel, the governor of Jamaica, sent a vessel for Ojeda and his companions. The captain deputed to receive Ojeda was Pamphilo de Narvaez, who, when Ojeda's canoe reached the vessel, thus courteously addressed him: "Senor Ojeda, will your worship please to come hither; we have to take you on board;" but the shipwrecked governor of Urabá, as if conscious that honors scarcely belong to the unfortunate, replied with a proverb expressive of his ill fortune, "Mi remo no rema❞—my oar rows not. Narvaez, however, received the unfortunate man with all honor, and conducted him to Juan de Esquivel at Jamaica. This was the governor upon whose appointment Ojeda, much enraged that Jamaica had not been assigned to Nicuesa and himself for their provision grounds, had said that if he went to Jamaica, he would cut off the governor's head; but Juan de Esquivel, putting aside all remembrance of these threats, received Ojeda very kindly, and furnished him with the means of transport to St. Domingo. As for Bernardino de Talavera and his confederates, they fell into the clutches of the law on account of their act of piracy; but no notice was taken of any thing that they did to Ojeda, and he made no stir about it himself, for, as LAS CASAS says, Ojeda was not the man to accuse them (no era hombre Hojeda que los acusaria).

The fifty days agreed upon by Ojeda and his men as the term of their stay at San Sebastian had doubtless passed before he reached Hispaniola, and even if the time had not expired, the penniless Ojeda would

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not the less have been unable to fulfill his part of the contract. It appears that he lived for some time afterward at St. Domingo, and the only thing we hear of him is the characteristic one of his narrowly escaping assassination by his activity. He never regained power or influence; and this man, who had been engaged from the first discovery of the New World in so many great enterprises, and who was governor of Urabá, died in the extreme of poverty. It appears that he became a Franciscan monk for a few hours before his death, and was clad in the habit of that order when he died, making," as OVIEDO assures us, a more laudable end than other captains in these parts have done."* He was buried just beyond the threshold of the church in the monastery of St. Francisco, perhaps from a wish of his own that the multitude of passers-by might walk upon his tomb. He was a type of many men of that time, who, like himself, were reckless, valiant, devout, adventurous. So much does one love bravery, even of the coarsest kind, that many will echo the pious wish of LAS CASAS, that it may have pleased God to bless Ojeda before his death with a knowledge of his sins, and with repentance for his dealings with the Indians.†

*

"'E quando se vido al cabo de la vida, pidió el hábito de la 'Orden, en que no perseveró el conde Guido, por el qual dixo: 'Yo fuy hombre de armas y despues fuy cordelero,' significando la órden de Sanct Francisco, porque los religiosos se çiñen la cuerda. 'E assi Hojeda, de capitan é hombre guerrero, se convirtió en devoto frayle de la observançia; pero hízolo mejor que aquel conde Guido, puesto que perseveró en la Orden y se hizo frayle para pocas horas, y fué enterrado en el monasterio de Sanct Francisco de aquesta cibdad, en el qual hábito murió é acabó como cathólico, haçiendo mas loable fin que no han hecho otros capitanes en estas partes."-OVIEDO, Hist. Gen. y Nat., lib. xxvii., cap. 4.

+ "Plega ó haya placido á Dios de haberle dado conoscimiento antes de la muerte de haber sido pecador los males que hizo á Indios.”LAS CASAS, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. ii., cap. 61.

CHAPTER II.

ENCISO'S RE-ENFORCEMENTS.-ESTABLISHMENT AT DARIEN. -NICUESA'S MISFORTUNES WITH HIS OWN COLONY.-NICUESA REJECTED BY THE MEN OF DARIEN.

HE narrative now returns to Ojeda's men, who narrative at

had been left at San Sebastian, in the Gulf of Urabá. When the fifty days had expired, and there were no signs of their commander, who, indeed, at that moment was plunging through the dismal swamp upon the coast of Cuba, they resolved to dispeople the settlement and to sail away. But as the two brigantines would not hold them all, they were obliged to wait until hunger and the assaults of the Indians had reduced them to the proper number. Then they killed and salted the horses that were left; and, having thus provided themselves with some food for the voyage, they embarked, Pizarro commanding one of the brigantines, and a man named Valenzuela the other. Their sojourn at San Sebastian had lasted six months.

When they were twenty leagues from the shore, Valenzuela's brigantine, struck, as it was imagined, by some large fish, went down suddenly. Pizarro made for the port of Carthagena, and, as he entered, saw a ship and a brigantine coming in at the same time. These proved to contain the men and the supplies brought at last by the Bachiller Enciso, Ojeda's alcalde mayor. He had with him one hundred and fifty men, several horses, arms, powder, and provisions. A curious incident, fraught with great results, had occur

red early in Enciso's voyage. In the midst of his cargo, unknown to its owner, was a barrel containing no provisions, but a living man, of whom much will hereafter have to be said. His name was Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, a native of Xerez de Badajoz, an adventurer, a skillful master of the art of fencing,† who, as he was in debt, and as indebted people might not leave the island of Hispaniola without the permission of the authorities, had secretly, by the aid of a friend named Bartolomé Hurtado, contrived to get into this barrel, and to form part of Enciso's stores. When the vessel had got out to sea, Vasco Nuñez made his appearance, much to the dissatisfaction of Enciso, a precise lawyer, who must thoroughly have objected to aid in any breach of the law. He threatened to put Vasco Nuñez on a desert island, but suffered himself to be pacified at last. To those who know the part that Vasco Nuñez was about to play, it almost seems as if the Arabian story of the unfortunate man who freed a malignant spirit from durance, and found that it had sworn to destroy the person who should deliver it, was so far about to be acted over again.

On the meeting of the remnant of Ojeda's company, under Pizarro's command, with the re-enforcements brought by the Bachiller Enciso, the latter commander at once concluded that these people had fled away from their duty, and had deserted Ojeda. Indeed, Enciso was so convinced of this that he was inclined to put them into confinement, and at first would give

* OVIEDO says that Vasco Nuñez was concealed in the folds of a sail: "Escondido envuelto en la vela cogida en la entena de la nao.” -Hist., lib. xxix. Prohemio.

†This, at least, is the meaning that has been given to PETER MARTYR's word "digladiator."