[X-8] Or as Oviedo, iii. 22, has it, 'con título de obispo de Sancta Maria de la Antigua é de Castilla del Oro.'
[X-9] Gonzalo Fernandez writing from Santo Domingo the 25th of October, 1537, to the Council of the Indies, Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., i. 522-9, says that this order proved inoperative, 'pues que los que lo habian de ejecutar lo disimulaban,' since those who should have executed it dissembled. For a time, however, no lawyer was allowed to plead in the Indies, the alcalde mayor speaking on both sides, and finally deciding according to the evidence; 'sentenciaba por aquel por quien en el pleito habia mejor hablado.'
[X-10] Instruccion dada por el Rey á Pedrarias Dávila para su viage á la provincia de Castilla del Oro, que iba á poblar y pacificar con la gente que llevaba, in Navarrete, Col. de Viages, iii. 342-55; Las Casas, Hist. Gen., iv. 139-42; Herrera, ii. i. xiii.
[X-11] Helps, Span. Conq., i. 385, and Irving, iii. 230, say 12th April. Robertson, Hist. Am., i. 207, stigmatizes Ferdinand for elevating Pedrarias, and abasing Vasco Nuñez; in which the learned historian is wholly wrong. We who know the merits of Vasco Nuñez may be disposed to excuse his faults, but the king could not do otherwise, from a ruler's standpoint, than depose the unknown adventurer guilty of unlawful excesses.
[X-12] Five or six months later Pedrarias instituted formal proceedings to prove his insubordination. The people murmured against that hasty justice, and attributed it to some former displeasure of the governor against the man. Oviedo, iii. 25. Part of the vessels returned to Spain; several of the old and worm-eaten were sunk in Urabá Gulf; one foundered at sea, on the voyage back, the crew escaping to Española. Oviedo, iv. 471-3; Herrera, ii. i. vii.; Andagoya's Nar., 1-3; Ramusio, Viaggi, iii. 208.
[X-13] It was a desperate game Vasco Nuñez had been playing; and although success up to this time had been varied, it was sure in the end to be against him. According to the Licenciado Zuazo, al muy ilustre señor Monsieur de Xevres, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., i. 312-13, Pasamonte was guilty of double-dealing, now receiving Balboa's presents and writing the king in his favor, and at another time seconding the persistent efforts of Enciso against him.
[X-14] Capitulo de casta escrita por el Rey-Católico á Pedrarias Dávila, sobre los medios de facilitar la comunicacion entre la costa del Darien y la mar del sur, y que para continuar en él los descubrimientos se hagan alli tres ó cuatro carabelas, in Navarrete, Col. de Viages, iii. 355-7.
[X-15] Carta de Vasco Nuñez, in Navarrete, Col. de Viages, iii. 375. Oviedo enumerates the following chiefs with whom Balboa had made peace: Careta, Ponca, Careca, Chiapes, Cuquera, Juanaga, Bonanimana, Tecra, Comagre, Pocorosa, Buquebuca, Chuyrica, Otoque, Chorita, Pacra, Thenoca, Tubanamá, Teaoca, Tamaca, Tamao and others. The Licenciado Zuazo says, Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., i. 315, that Vasco Nuñez with his judicious policy had won over about thirty caciques.
[X-16] From the most high and mighty Catholic defender of the Church, always triumphant and never vanquished, the great King Don Fernando, the fifth of that name, King of the Spains, of the two Sicilies, and of Jerusalem, and of the Indies, isles and firm land of the ocean sea, tamer of barbarous peoples; and from the very high and puissant lady, the Queen Doña Juana, his dearest and most beloved daughter, our sovereigns; I, Pedrarias Dávila, their servant, messenger, and captain, notify and make known to you as best I can, that God, our Lord, one and triune, created the heavens and the earth, and one man and one woman, from whom you and we and all mankind were and are descended and procreated, and all those who shall come after us. But from the multitudes issuing out of that generation during the five thousand and more years since the world was made, it became necessary that some should go one way and some another, dispersing over many kingdoms and provinces, as in one alone they could not sustain nor preserve themselves.
All these peoples God, our Lord, gave in charge to one person, called Saint Peter, that he should be prince, lord, and superior over all men in the world, whom all should obey, and that he should be the head of all the human lineage, wheresoever man might live or be, and of whatever law, sect, or belief; and to him is given the whole world for his kingdom and lordship and jurisdiction. And although he was ordered to place his chair in Rome, as the most suitable spot whence to rule the world, yet was he also permitted to be and place his chair in any other part of the world, and judge and govern all peoples, Christians, and Moors, and Jews, and Gentiles, of whatever sect or belief they might be. And him they called Pope, that is to say, Admirable, Supreme, Father, and Keeper, because he is father and keeper of all men. And this Saint Peter was obeyed and held in reverence as lord, and king, supreme in the universe, by those who lived in that time, likewise others who after him were elected to the pontificate were so esteemed, and so it has continued until now and will continue to the end of the world.