Four blooming daughters Pedrarias had left in Spain. The health of the governor seemed to be yielding before the combined influence of temper and climate. Who could be a more fitting successor in the government, and who a more suitable son-in-law? Let Balboa take to wife Doña María, eldest daughter of Pedrarias, and so bind the North Sea to the South by cords of love. Such was the plan of the prelate. Vasco Nuñez, nothing loath, assented, for the daughter was as amiable as the father was malicious. Doña Isabel was not the mother to look coldly on so gallant a proposal; as for the daughter, then dreaming her maiden days away in a convent at Seville, her own consent to the betrothal was a question which gave parents little concern in those days; the chief difficulty was the splenetic father. Approaching the governor, not without misgivings, Quevedo said: "Time passes, Señor Pedrarias, and with time, all flesh. Those who shall take our places follow close at our heels. A powerful rival converted into a firm ally is double compensation, and the father of four daughters has not the opportunity every day to refuse a governor for a son-in-law. Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, a man of no mean parts, well-born and famous, asks your daughter in marriage. Grant him his desire, and so heal discord and fortify your declining years."
Notwithstanding the obvious advantages, Pedrarias hesitated. It was no easy matter at once to purify the poisoned stream of thought. But the offer was too tempting to be declined, although Pedrarias would have much preferred for his adviser a Thrasybulus, who counselled Periander to cut off the tallest heads if he would maintain his power. The old man, still hugging his suspicions, signed the marriage contract, and ordered fair Doña María to appear and accept marital honors. But even the gift of the daughter was like the gifts of Medea—envenomed.
Now surely might Vasco Nuñez walk the firm earth, his fortune ascendant. Adelantado, captain-general of the Southern Sea, son-in-law of Pedrarias, and in favor with the royal authorities, though Ferdinand, poor king, was dead. The clouds which had so long obscured Balboa's rising fame were by this masterly invocation of the bishop forever dissipated. There was no longer any fear from the unclean ghosts of entombed mistakes, while his good deeds would shine with steadier and ever-increasing lustre. He might now prosecute adventure to the uttermost of his ambition, while his friend and counsellor, the bishop, carried the happy tidings of reconciliation to court.[XII-2]
The year 1516 was advancing toward its middle term. Vasco Nuñez craved permission from his father-in-law—for betrothal was equivalent to marriage so far as the political aspect of the case was concerned—to proceed to Acla and continue the business there begun, which was indeed none other than part of his original scheme. Pedrarias assented, placing every requisite at the command of his dear son. The South Sea expeditions had drained the colony of most of its available men, yet so esteemed was Vasco Nuñez that all who were at Antigua eagerly flocked to his standard. Fernando de Argüello, a notary, formerly the opponent of Nicuesa, but always a partisan of Vasco Nuñez, having accumulated wealth placed it at the disposal of his friend, and soon after Balboa embarked with eighty men.
SOUTH SEA EXPEDITION.
Arrived at Acla he found the post destroyed and the comandante Olano, the successor of Gabriel de Rojas, together with twelve soldiers, had been massacred by the men of Careta, in retaliation for the act of Hurtado which consigned one hundred of their number to slavery. For this outrage the people of the province were declared outlaws. Balboa immediately organized a municipality, appointed an alcalde and a regidor, laid out a new town, and began to build. Each citizen, either in person or by slaves, was required to plant sufficient for his sustenance. Requiring more men, Balboa accompanied Espinosa to Antigua, early in 1517, and returned with two hundred recruits. The restoration of Acla was intended only as preliminary to further South Sea discoveries; but this accomplished, an obstacle interposed itself, at first glance insurmountable. In order to navigate the new ocean ships were necessary. The short voyages hitherto undertaken in native canoes had been perilous in the extreme. Herein lay the difficulty. The cordillera here rises abruptly from the northern side of the Isthmus, undulating gently on the opposite side toward the Southern Sea. On the northern slope grew trees suitable for ship-building; on the southern side vegetation was more diminutive. But of what avail were trees on the border of one ocean, for the purposes of navigation on the other?
The true standard of greatness is in the application of means to ends. The magnitude of the means has no more to do with it than the results, which may or may not prove successful. With a few hundred Spaniards, and such savages as could be whipped into the service, Vasco Nuñez dared conceive and execute the project of building ships on one side of a chain of mountains for use on the other side; to navigate his vessels in pieces or sections, on the backs of Indians, over hills and swamps, and that under a sun so hot, in an atmosphere so poisoned, and through vegetation so rank and tangled as successfully to have defied the efforts of science for centuries thereafter. "No living man in all the Indies," testifies the moderate Herrera, "dared attempt such an enterprise, or would have succeeded in it, save Vasco Nuñez de Balboa."
The plan of Vasco Nuñez was to prepare his timber as near as possible to some navigable point on one of the many streams flowing into the South Sea, which are generally torrents on the mountain-side, but which become broad and calm before reaching the ocean. The stream chosen for the purpose was called the Rio de las Balsas,[XII-3] or River of the Rafts. Carpenters and builders are sent out in search of trees suitable for the purpose, and the preparation of the timber is begun. With fifty men Francisco Compañon passes over the cordillera and selects a place upon the river, twenty-two leagues from Acla, from which to launch the ships. Likewise on the summit of the sierra, twelve leagues from Acla, he builds a fort, to serve as a half-way house for rest and protection, beside stations established at other points. All is bustle and activity at Acla and in the neighboring forests; some are felling trees, some measuring and hewing timber; some preparing anchors, rigging, and stores. "In all labors," says Las Casas, "Vasco Nuñez took the foremost part, working with his own hands and giving aid and encouragement everywhere."
CARRIES SHIPS ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS.
Materials for four brigantines being at length prepared, the herculean task of transportation across the mountains is next to be performed. Thirty negroes have been secured from Antigua, but these are not a tenth part of the force required. Squads of soldiers are therefore sent out in every direction, and natives are driven in to the number of several thousand. Upon their naked backs the heavy timbers are laid, and goaded forward by merciless overseers, among whom is the black African as well as the white European, they are forced through the marshy thicket and up the rocky steep until they sink exhausted beneath their burden. Unused to labor, ill-fed, made desperate by their distress, some attempt escape, but the bloodhound is quickly on their track; some kill themselves, but more sink lifeless under their heavy loads. All along those terrible leagues the newly cut path is strewed with dead savages, and soon the air is rank from putrid carcasses. "More than five hundred Indians perished in the transportation of these ships," affirmed Bishop Quevedo before the court of Spain, and Las Casas says the deaths were nearer two thousand in number.[XII-4] To take the places of the dead, recruits are caught in the forest; the work goes bravely on, and the stupendous feat is finally accomplished. The wild bank of the Balsas was strewed with materials for this new sea navigation. But on putting the pieces together it is found that after all the toil there is timber enough for only two vessels instead of four; the rest has been lost by the way. And this is not the worst of it. That which has been brought over at such cruel cost, cut near the coast and hewed green as it was, is so full of worms that it cannot be used. All must be thrown away and the work begun anew.[XII-5]