The Discovery of the Pacific by Balboa: Comagre and Spain
Adjacent to Coyba, at the foot of a range of high mountains, lay the district of Comagre, governed by a cacique of the same name, who, struck with admiration of the Spaniards, invited them into his territories, treated them with much hospitality, and displayed greater civilization than they had yet seen in the New World. His palace, one hundred and fifty paces in length and eighty in breadth, was enclosed by a wall of timber of ingenious workmanship, and divided into convenient apartments, stored with abundance of provisions. One of these chambers was the receptacle of the dried and embalmed bodies of his ancestors of many generations, which, clothed in mantles of cotton, embroidered with gold, pearls, and precious stones, were suspended from the walls.
The eldest son of the cacique presented his guest with a rich offering of gold, valued at four thousand pesos, and seventy slaves. A fifth of the metal was set apart for the king; but in the division of the remainder a strife arose among the Christians, which surprised and provoked the young Indian. "If," said he, addressing the Spaniards, and indignantly striking over the balance, "if you are so fond of gold as for its sake to desert your own country and disturb the peace of others, I will lead you to a province where your utmost desires may be gratified, -- where gold is more abundant than iron in Spain, and is used in the fabric of ordinary domestic utensils. But to conquer this country you must provide a larger force than you have here, since you will have to contend with mighty chieftains, who will vigorously defend their possessions. When you shall have passed these mountains," continued he, pointing to a range in the southwest, "you will behold another ocean, on which are vessels inferior only to those which brought you hither, equipped with sails and oars, but navigated by a people naked like ourselves." It is supposed that the young chief alluded to the people of Peru.
Balboa received with rapturous delight this first certain intimation of the existence of another ocean. He exulted in the hope of discovering the East Indies, which had been so dearly cherished by Columbus, and conjectured that the country now described to him formed a part of that vast and opulent region. He immediately set about preparation for this great enterprise, cultivating the good will of Comagre and other chieftains, and administering to the former and his sons the rite of Christian baptism.
He sent the gold intended for the royal treasury to St. Domingo, and occupied himself in subduing the neighboring tribes while waiting to obtain the sanction of the king to his government of the colony. So much gold was obtained, and such extravagant accounts of the riches of the country were carried to Spain, that the region received the name of Golden Castile (Castilla del Oro), and Balboa was sent the commission of captain-general by Passamonte, the king's treasurer at St. Domingo.
But the pleasure of Nunez, on this occasion, was not unmixed. Enciso had carried his complaints to the foot of the throne, and Balboa was commanded to repair his losses, to proceed immediately to court, and submit himself to the king's pleasure. He might, therefore, hourly expect a successor, to deprive him of the fame and wealth he anticipated from his intended enterprise. To prevent a calamity greatly deprecated by his ambitious spirit, he determined to effect the passage to the South Sea with the force then under his command.
The Isthmus of Darien is not above sixty miles in breadth, but a chain of lofty mountains, a continuation of the Andes, covered with almost impenetrable forests, runs through its whole extent. Its valleys, divided by large and impetuous rivers, and inundated by rains which prevail near two-thirds of the year, are marshy and unhealthy. Its inhabitants, advanced but a few degrees in civilization, had done nothing to remove or alleviate the difficulties of the passage from sea to sea; nor after a lapse of three hundred years has it become more facile or commodious.
The attempt of Balboa may justly be considered the boldest which had been made by the Spaniards in the New World; but he was in all respects fitted to insure its success. The quality of courage he possessed, only, in common with the meanest of his army; but his prudence, generosity, and affability, and those nameless popular talents which inspire confidence and secure attachment, were peculiarly his own. In battle his post was that of the greatest danger, and in every labor that of the greatest fatigue; whilst his regard for the ease of his troops was ever active and anxious. He desired for his undertaking a force of one thousand soldiers, but he commenced it with one hundred and ninety only, and some fierce blood-hounds, which were efficient auxiliaries. A thousand Indians, who accompanied him, were chiefly useful in the transportation of the baggage.