From this point Vasco Nuñez determined to set out on his return to Darien. After having been entertained during three days by the cacique whom he had robbed, he set out well furnished with provisions, which were carried by the subjects of the Indian chief. His route now lay over sterile mountains, and he and his men suffered much from the absence of water; for the burning heat had dried up all the mountain streams. The fevered Spaniards were, however, gently urged by the Indians to proceed, and were at length rewarded by arriving in a deep glen which contained a cool fountain. They were now in the territory of a chief called Poncra, who had the reputation of possessing great riches. At the approach of the Spanish bandits, Poncra and his people fled from their village, in which Nuñez and his men appropriated to themselves property to the value of three thousand crowns of gold. Poncra having been caught, was brought before Nuñez, together with three of his subjects; but neither threats nor torture could compel him to betray the locality of his treasures. Under these circumstances, the unfortunate wretch was accused by his enemies of certain practices of which he may or may not have been guilty. In any case Nuñez had no sort of authority to be his judge. He was enraged, however, at his obstinacy in refusing to reveal his treasures, and Poncra and his three companions were given to be torn, to pieces by the blood-hounds. We shall soon have to ask the reader’s sympathy for the fate of Vasco Nuñez himself; meanwhile, it may be well to bear in mind of what atrocious conduct he could on occasion be guilty towards others.

The Spaniards halted during thirty days at the village of the ill-fated Poncra, during which time they were rejoined by their companions who had been left behind. And here it may be observed that it appears somewhat strange that the energetic Vasco Nuñez, over whose head a grave accusation at this time hung, and who had undertaken his expedition to the Pacific in order to anticipate its evil results, should have apparently wasted so much time at this spot, since it was everything to him that not an hour should be lost in making his magnificent discovery known in Spain.

On departing from the village of Poncra, the Spaniards were accompanied by one of the caciques of the mountain, who not only lodged and fed them, but further presented them with the value of two thousand crowns. The Spaniards, on leaving the district, bent their course for some time along the river Comagre. When they abandoned it, owing to the precipitous nature of its banks, they had to trust entirely to their Indian guides. Had these deserted them, they would have been lost in the thick forests and unseen morasses. In their journey they were the victims of their own avarice; for they had loaded most of the Indians with gold alone, and now found themselves destitute of provisions. Many of their Indian bearers, oppressed by their burdens, sank down to perish by the way.

The Spaniards had still to pass through the territories of the most warlike cacique of the mountains. His reputation was so considerable that Nuñez dreaded to attack him with his worn-out followers; he therefore had recourse to stratagem. Taking with him seventy of the strongest of his party, he made a forced march to the neighbourhood of the cacique’s residence, which at midnight he suddenly assaulted, capturing Tubanamá and all his family. The cacique, being threatened with death, agreed to purchase his life with jewels of gold to the value of three thousand crowns, and further to levy double that sum from his subjects; which having done, he was set at liberty.

1514.

Nuñez, returning to the village where he had left his men, now resumed his march to Darien. He and his party being much affected by the climate, could proceed but slowly; but they at length arrived on the sea coast in the territories of their ally Comagre. That cacique was now dead, and had been succeeded by his son, the youth who had first given information to Nuñez of the existence of the Southern Sea. Nuñez next proceeded to Ponca, where he heard of the arrival of a ship and caravel from Hispaniola. Hastening onwards to Coyba, the residence of his ally Careta, he embarked in the brigantine on January 28th, 1514, and arrived at Darien on the following day. He had been absent for five months, and was met with the most joyful welcome on the part of the entire colony.

CHAPTER III.
THE COLONY OF DARIEN; FATE OF VASCO NUÑEZ.
1514-1517.

Once more at Darien, Vasco Nuñez lost no time in drawing up for the king a report of his expedition across the mountains to the Southern Sea, in which report he states that during the expedition he had not lost a single man in battle. But, by a singular mischance, the vessel which bore his friend and messenger, Arbolanche, who had himself taken part in the toils and dangers which he was to describe, did not sail from Darien until the beginning of March. This delay ruined the rising fortunes of Vasco Nuñez.

The Bachelor Enciso, as has been already said, had carried his complaints against Nuñez to the foot of the throne; and when, in May 1513, he was followed by Caÿzedo and Colmenares with their glowing account of the province of Zenu, with its mountain streams that flowed over golden sands, their news served but to hasten the appointment of a governor over this favoured region. The royal choice fell, on the recommendation of Fonseca the Bishop of Burgos, upon Don Pedro Arias Davila, commonly called Pedrarias, who, on July 27th of the same year, was appointed ruler over Darien. The new governor was an elderly gentleman of rank, who had been brought up in the royal household and had afterwards distinguished himself as a soldier; but he has been well called, as his subsequent actions proved him to be, “a suspicious, fiery, arbitrary old man.”[F]