[VIII-11] Peter Martyr, dec. ii. cap. iii., says this building measured 150 by 80 paces. See [Bancroft's Native Races, i. 758].
[VIII-12] 'Estas palabras célebres,' says Quintana, 'conservadas en todas las memorias del tiempo, y repetidas por todos los historiadores, fueron el primer anuncio que los españoles tuvieron del Perú.' Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, 13. To which I would remark, first, that it is not certain Panciaco referred to Peru; and secondly, that vague allusions of a similar kind were made to Columbus, which historians apply to Peru.
[VIII-13] This on the authority of Herrera. Gomara places the king's fifth at 20,000 ducats, and Bernal Diaz at 10,000 pesos de oro.
[VIII-14] The strange story of Aguilar is given by Gomara, Hist. Mex., 21-22; Torquemada, i. 371; Cogolludo, Hist. Yucathan, 24-9; and by Herrera, dec. ii. lib. vii. cap. v. He was kept seven years in this captivity.
[VIII-15] The name is variously rendered Dabaybe, Dabaibe, Davaive, Daibaba, Abibe, Abibeja, and d'abaibe. 'Auch der Rio Atrato wurde nicht selten Rio Dabeyba genannt. Das 'D' im Anfang dieses Namens ist nur eine Abbreviatur von 'de,' und das Wort sollte wohl eigentlich: d'Abaibe geschrieben werden.' Kohl, Beiden ältesten karten, 125. Maps mark the region, Colon and Ribero, dabaybe, at the southern extremity of the gulf, and De Laet gives the Montanas de Abibe.
[VIII-16] The Atrato discharges through several channels, one of which was called the Rio del Darien; one the Rio Grande de San Juan; one the Rio de las Redes, from the snares or nets found there for taking wild beasts; one the Rio Negro, from the color of its water. Often the Spaniards had scoured these parts in search of food and gold.
[IX-1] Galvano says 290, which for him is quite near the mark. Oviedo places the number at 800, which probably was intended to include the natives afterward added.
[IX-2] The Spaniards must have had quite accurate information from the natives as to the trend of the southern coast, though there was then little communication between the northern and southern seaboards. But, without such knowledge, Balboa naturally would have undertaken the ascent of the river Atrato, which flows directly from the south, rather than have sailed some distance to the north-west before attempting to cross. The direct march to the gulf of San Miguel, from which course a deviation would have almost doubled the distance, is another evidence of his having obtained the most reliable information before or during the march.
[IX-3] Enciso, Suma de Geographia, 57, calls the country 'tierra rasa y buena de muchos mãtenimientos y caças.' 'Experience had proved that moving a body of men sufficient to act as a protecting force and to carry the necessary provisions was attended with great risk and great delay.' Gisborne's Survey of Darien, in London Geog. Soc., Jour., xxvii. 193. 'Mr Hopkins was lately prevented by the Indians from ascending the Chepo river towards Mandinga, or San Blas Bay; and Dr Cullen was stopped likewise by the aborigines while endeavoring to ascend the Paya river.... Climate and natives are at present the only serious impediments to a regular survey.' Fitz-Roy's Isth. Cent. Am., in London Geog. Soc., Jour., xx. 161. 'The Panama railroad, a most stupendous work, considering the excessively swampy nature of the country over which it has been carried.' Cullen's Darien, 95. For obstacles overcome in surveying and constructing the Panamá railway, see Otis' Isthmus Panama, 15-36. The climate inclines 'to the wet extreme, for two thirds of the year, the Rains beginning in April.' Defence of the Scots Settlement at Darien, 64. On the Atrato 'the trees approach to the very edge of the stream, which their branches overhang. The trees are frequently concealed by dense masses of vines which entirely envelope them, and in certain lights present plays of color comparable only to those of the richest velvet.... But like the plumes and velvet of the funeral pageant, they serve but to conceal and adorn corruption. Behind them stretches, far away, the pestiferous swamp, through the dreary wilds of which even the birds refuse to sport; and whose silence is broken only by the sighing of the breeze, or the sullen growl of the roving tiger. Venomous reptiles often fall into the boats from the branches overhead; wasps' nests are frequent and troublesome; natural levees of soft mud stretch along the banks. Floods are common, and the houses are built on stilts.' Trautwine, in Franklin Inst., Jour., xxvii. 220-4. In 1853, Carl Scherzer, a German naturalist, travelling in Costa Rica with a civil engineer and a force of thirty-two men, attempted to make a survey for a road from Angostura to Limon Bay; but on account of scarcity of provisions, illness, and the difficulties of the route, they failed in their purpose; and after having penetrated to within eight leagues of their destination, they were obliged to return, having travelled only ten leagues in two weeks. See Wagner and Scherzer, Costa Rica, 358-407. In December of the same year, a party under J. C. Prevost, of H. M. S. Virago, set out with fourteen days' provisions from the gulf of San Miguel for Caledonia Bay, on the opposite side of the Isthmus. Their route was essentially that of Vasco Nuñez on his return. As he ascended the Sabana River, the attention of Captain Prevost was attracted by the débris on the overhanging branches, which marked the height of water attained during certain seasons. The dense foliage was enlivened by birds of gay plumage; brilliant flowers carpeted the ground; and the chattering monkeys, which they shot in great numbers, furnished the guides food. The country even then was as wild as when traversed by Vasco Nuñez; the natives, however, had exchanged their wooden weapons for fire-arms. Swamps and hills alternate, and 'dense was the forest we had cut our way through.' The flora then changed, and 'instead of the small underwood, we came on almost impenetrable thickets of the prickly palm or aloe, rather more than six feet in height, through which we with great difficulty cut our way.' They crossed 'deep ravines, whose steep and slippery sides caused many a tumble.' The attempt was finally abandoned. Returning, on arriving at one of their ranchos or encampments, where had been left three sailors to guard the provisions, they found the men murdered and the camp sacked. 'So toilsome was our journey,' says Captain Prevost, 'that we spent fifteen days in performing a distance of little more than twenty-six miles, having to force our slow and laborious path through forests that seemed to stretch from the Pacific to the Atlantic shores. The trees, of stupendous size, were matted with creepers and parasitical vines, which hung in festoons from tree to tree, forming an almost impenetrable net-work, and obliging us to hew open a passage with our axes every step we advanced.' London Geog. Soc., Jour., xxiv. 249. Nothing could more aptly illustrate the difficulties surmounted by the Spaniards than this narrative of failure, by a British officer of the nineteenth century, who operated under conditions far more favorable than those so successfully overcome by a company of ill-accoutred and poorly fed adventurers more than three hundred years before. With the material before me, these illustrations could be greatly multiplied; but I have given enough to show that the transit of the Isthmus, by a small party of Europeans, over an unknown or unexplored route, is even to-day esteemed a desperate undertaking.
[IX-4] Carta dirigida al Rey por Vasco Nuñez de Balboa desde Santa María del Darien, in Navarrete, Col. de Viages, iii. 368.