Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 1. Robert Grant Watson
this time with the Spaniards under Morales a cacique named Chirucá, who, on learning of the above-mentioned massacre, instantly fled during the night. He was pursued and taken, and, on being put to the torture, confessed the whole conspiracy. Morales and Pizarro were appalled by the unsuspected danger into which they had fallen. They, however, compelled Chirucá to send a message to each of the caciques inviting him to a conference. The caciques fell into the snare, and eighteen of them were put in chains. At the same time Peñalosa with his thirty men arrived from Tutibrá. Being thus in strength, the Spaniards lost no time in attacking the unsuspecting Indians, of whom seven hundred were slain. The eighteen captive caciques, and likewise Chirucá, were given to the blood-hounds.
After the above-mentioned occurrence, Morales attacked by night a warlike cacique named Biru, setting fire to his town. The chief, who at first fled, soon turned upon his pursuers and fought for the entire day, which ended not much to the advantage of the Spaniards. In his retreat, Morales was harassed by the people of the twenty caciques whom he had caused to be slaughtered. Being much pressed, he had recourse to the expedient of stabbing his Indian captives at intervals as he went along, hoping thus to occupy and delay his pursuers. In this manner, says Oviedo, perished ninety or a hundred persons. Vasco Nuñez could not be called an over-scrupulous commander; but though in circumstances of difficulty he had to provide for the safety and wants of his men as best he could, he was by nature neither cruel nor treacherous. It would be an outrage to name him together with such men as Ayora and Morales, of which latter’s proceeding, just mentioned, he writes to the king that a more cruel deed had never been heard of.
For nine days the Spaniards were hunted about the woods and mountains, at the end of which time they found themselves at the point from which they had set out. It was all their commanders could do to prevent them from yielding to despair. Entering a thick forest, they were again assailed by Indians, with whom they now fought like wild beasts. They at length owed their safety to the fact of their surprising some canoes, in which they traversed the Gulf of St. Michael, landing at a less hostile locality, from which they again set out to cross the mountains. After incredible sufferings they returned to Darien, with the satisfaction of having brought with them their precious pearls from Isla Rica, one of which was afterwards presented to the Empress of Charles V.
Another expedition sent out by Pedrarias was still more unfortunate than that above referred to. It was commanded by Becerra, and consisted of one hundred and eighty men. Of this force the sole survivor was an Indian youth, who returned to Darien almost famished with hunger. His leader, he said, had entered by unknown ways the province of Cenú, where the Indians were fully prepared to receive him. His men were wounded by poisoned arrows; the paths were blocked by felled timber; and finally, when Becerra’s men, under the guidance of Indians, were crossing a great river, the latter contrived to destroy them all.
About this time the historian Oviedo became so disgusted with the intolerable conduct of his countrymen in the Isthmus of Darien, that he resolved to return to Spain for the purpose of giving information to the king, and in order that he might live in a country more secure for his conscience and his life. It is interesting to note that he was charged with complaints to the king by the governor against the bishop and by the bishop against the governor. Pedrarias too seems to have begun to take this state of things to heart. He ordered the melting-house to be closed, and, together with the bishop, caused public prayers to be offered up that God would remove his anger from the colony. Of evil deeds there was certainly enough to rouse the wrath of the Almighty. With one expedition sent out by Pedrarias under the Alcalde Mayor Espinosa, there was a Franciscan monk named San Roman. In writing to the head of the Dominicans, San Roman begs the latter, for the love of God, to speak to the authorities at San Domingo and urge them to provide a remedy for the Terra Firma, which these tyrants were destroying. This letter was given by Pedro de Cordova to Las Casas. On his return to Spain, the same Franciscan, it is to be hoped with some exaggeration, stated at Seville that in this expedition of Espinosa’s he had seen killed by the sword or thrown to the dogs above forty thousand souls. Espinosa returned with two thousand captives, all of whom are said to have perished at Darien.
We have seen so far the results of the policy of Pedrarias and his lieutenants as regards the inhabitants of the Isthmus. We have now to turn to his treatment of the most capable and distinguished Spaniard within the colony, namely, the Adelantado Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. In the midst of the general gloom in which the settlement of Darien was enveloped, Pedrarias was continually haunted by the fear that the able Adelantado would one day oust him from his office. Had the choice of a leader depended on the people, he knew that Nuñez would have been elected by acclamation; and he had but recently received proofs of the high estimation in which his services were regarded by the king. He was further aware of the gloomy tales of misrule and consequent misery which were being constantly sent to Spain with reference to his own government. Whilst Pedrarias was in this frame of mind, a new idea was presented to him by Bishop Quevedo, the fast friend of Nuñez, who suggested a matrimonial alliance between the Adelantado and the governor’s daughter. The suggestion seemed to be a happy one and was readily accepted by both parties, a regular contract being entered into, and the young lady being sent for from Spain.
1516.
Vasco Nuñez was now the ally of the governor, whose jealousy was lost sight of in his desire to further the interests of his daughter’s future husband. Nuñez was authorised to build brigantines and to make the necessary preparations for an expedition of discovery on the Southern Sea. A town named Acla was founded at a point to the west of Darien, whence there was supposed to be the most convenient route across the mountains. Here Nuñez commenced his operations, having two hundred men placed under his command and being aided by an advance from the treasury. He was also assisted with funds by a notary of Darien, named Hernando de Arguello. Nuñez pursued his undertaking with his accustomed energy, and had in a short time constructed the materials of four brigantines. The timber was felled in the forest of Acla, and was then, with the anchors and rigging, transported to the opposite shore of the Isthmus. On this service were engaged Spaniards, negroes, and Indians. As there were no other roads save Indian paths through the primeval forests or up the rugged defiles, the work of transportation was similar to that with which the journals of Mr. Stanley in Africa have made us familiar in our own day. Many of the Indians perished over the task; but at length the ponderous loads were conveyed to a river which flowed into the Pacific.
Even then the labours of Nuñez and his men were far from being complete; for, with all their trouble, the Spaniards found that the timber which they had brought at such cost of labour and of life was useless, being worm-eaten from having been cut near salt water. They were obliged, therefore, to fell trees near the river and begin their work afresh. But the perseverance and good management of Nuñez at length overcame every difficulty. As food was scarce he divided his people into three bands, assigning to one the task of foraging for provisions, to another that of cutting and sawing the timber, and to the third that of bringing the rigging and the ironwork from Acla.
The patience of the working party was still further to be tried; for when the rainy season set in, the river rose so rapidly that the workmen had barely time to save their lives by climbing the nearest trees. The wood on which they had expended so much labour was either buried out of sight or carried away by the torrent. The same cause prevented the foraging party from returning with food; and the workmen were thus reduced to feed on roots. In this extremity the Spaniards owed their relief to the ingenuity of the Indians, who contrived to fasten a number of logs together, thus making a floating bridge on which they were able to cross to the opposite bank, where they procured provisions.
When the river had subsided, the workmen resumed their operations; and, after immense toil, Vasco Nuñez had the satisfaction of seeing two of the brigantines afloat on the river Balsas. As soon as they could be fitted and manned for sea, he embarked in them with his companions on the mighty ocean which he had been the first European to discover. His first cruise was to the Pearl Islands, on one of which he disembarked the greater part of his men, sending back his vessels for the remainder. On their arrival, taking a hundred men with him, he set out on a reconnoitering cruise to the eastward, in the direction to which the natives pointed as being that of the land which