Before very long his chance came. A terrible storm came up and the vessel was dashed to pieces upon a strange coast. Encisco, the captain, felt very glad now that he had kept Balboa on the ship, for, although the country was unknown to the captain and his crew, it was not unknown to Balboa. He had been there before, and said that he knew of an Indian village not far away, where they could find food and shelter. Encisco was very glad to hear this, and they all started off under the leadership of Balboa to find the river Darien, on which the Indian village stood.
They had been wrecked on the coast of Darien, and although neither Encisco nor any of his men had ever been there before, yet other Spaniards had, and had treated the natives cruelly and unjustly, as was their usual way of dealing with them. So when Encisco and his followers tried to march through this strange country they found it very hard work, as the natives attacked them at all times, day and night, killing some, wounding others, and keeping them all from getting food. But Balboa was a skilful leader and knew how to deal with Indians, and after a time they reached the village, though weary and foot-sore and almost starved.
Balboa's boldness made him very much admired by some of the shipwrecked sailors, and soon a large party of them, attracted by his stories of bravery and adventure, declared that they would much rather have him for a captain than Encisco. This was just what Balboa wanted, and as his party grew larger and larger, and Encisco's friends fewer and fewer, Balboa at last declared that Encisco should no longer govern the little colony, as he himself was much more fit to be governor. Most of the party agreed to this, and so Balboa became governor, and a very cruel, bloody tyrant he proved. All the Indians around feared and hated him, and even his own men could not love him, and only respected his courage.
One day the son of an Indian chief came to Balboa and told him that some days' journey away there lay a great sea, and on the other side of it a country so rich that the people ate and drank out of gold and silver dishes. The Spaniards in those days were ready to believe anything that the Indians said, and if Balboa had heard that the new sea was full of golden islands, and that the clouds rained diamonds and rubies into its depths, and that its waves threw pearls and corals on its beach, he would almost have believed it all; and when he heard this wonderful news he immediately gathered his men together and started off to find the new sea.
Again they had to fight tribe after tribe of Indians, who constantly tried to make them turn back, but the Spaniards pushed on, and after a hard journey, which took them quite across the Isthmus of Darien, came one day to a high mountain, from whose top the guide said the great sea could be seen.
Balboa ordered all his men to stay below, while he climbed up the mountain alone, as he wished to be the first Spaniard to look upon the great ocean that so many brave adventurers had tried to find. So Balboa went alone up on the mountain peak, and, looking down on the other side, saw a vast body of water stretching away and away. The Indian's story had been true. Here was a great new ocean that no European had ever looked upon before. Balboa looked north and south and west, and saw only this blue sea, shining and peaceful, as if its waves had gone to sleep.
Balboa knelt down on the mountain-top and thanked God that he had been permitted to make this great discovery, and then he beckoned to his followers, who came rushing up and stood looking in wonder at the great sight beneath them.
The men piled up heaps of stone in token that they had taken possession of the country and ocean, and as they went down the slopes of the mountain, Balboa carved the name of Ferdinand upon the trunks of trees. Then twelve men were sent on ahead to find the shortest path to the shore, and Balboa, cruel as ever, gave orders that all the natives they should meet should be tortured and killed unless they would tell them where their stores of gold were hidden. The twelve men went on, and reaching the shore, saw two Indian canoes that had been washed up on the beach by the waves, and as the tide crept up and floated them off, two of the men—Alonzo Martin and Blaze de Atienza—stepped into them, thus being the first Spaniards to sail upon the new ocean which Balboa had named the South Sea. A few days after, Balboa arrived at the shore, and wading into the water, waved his sword solemnly, and took possession of all the great ocean, and the islands that might be in it, and the countries that bordered it, in the name of the King of Spain, and vowed to defend them against all other European adventurers.
This was in the year 1513, one year after the discovery of Florida. And so Spain claimed the Pacific as well as the Atlantic coast of North America.
The news of this great discovery at once made Balboa famous. All over Europe men talked of the bold man who had been the means of adding still more glory to the Spanish name, and as a reward for his services, the king made him Adelantado, or chief ruler, over all the great sea he had discovered.