"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." - Marcus Garvey
By
1500, word had spread all over Spain and Europe of the wonders of the New World
and the fortunes being made there. Young
and ambitious, Vasco Nunez de Balboa was born to a less wealthy noble family
and had to work during his youth.
Nevertheless he still had the title of Hidalgo. With no connections to
wealth Balboa like many young men of the time looked to the new world to
establish his fortune. He joined the
expedition of Rodrigo de Bastiadas in 1500 and sailed up and down the Panamanian/Colombian
coastline. Bastiadas and young Balboa
traveled up and down the isthmus and encountered many idengious people groups
including the Kuna Indians. However, the
poor condition of the ships, caused by shipworm that ate the wooden hull,
forced Bastiadas to turn back and head to Santo Domingo to effect repairs. Despite repeated repairs the ships eventually
sank in port at Jacaragua, leaving most of the Indian slaves to drown, while
some gold and pearls were saved.
Using
the money he earned Balboa settled in Haiti and purchased a pig farm. A farmer he was not and was soon in debt to
his creditors. Instead of working hard
to pay off his debts, Balboa became a stowaway on a ship hiding himself and his
favorite hunting dog, Leoncillo, in barrels of supplies from his farm. The ship was bound to San Sebastian de Uraba,
founded by Conquistador Alonso de Ojeda, in what is now Columbia in 1509. Captain Martin Fernandez de Enciso discovered
the hitchhiker and threatened to leave him at the next desolate island. He later wisely recanted realizing he could
use Balboa’s expertise sense he had explored the area where they were going 8
years earlier.
Upon
arriving in 1510 at the settlement, the Spanish saw their colony had been
destroyed by the local inhabitants. Furthermore Ojeda was nowhere to be
found. Enciso decided to abandon the
settlement and head back to Hispanola.
However Balboa convinced them not to give up but rather relocate to
another area he had explored earlier with Bastidas called Darien located on the
Gulf of Uraba. The crew agreed and the
new settlement was called Sainta Maria la Antigua de Darien. Soon the new settlers quickly grew tired of
Enciso and stripped him of his authority in favor of Balboa. Enciso shamed sailed back to Spain with the
Alcalde (Spanish magistrate) Zamudio with the intent of pressing charges.
Darien
was occupied by a large chiefdom headed by Cemaco. Cemaco and his warriors
fought bravely to defend their land but fell to the Spanish forces and their
hunting dogs. Balboa and his men founded
their new town by building it on the
site of Cemaco’s old village. Balboa was
elected head of the settlement despite the fact he was not the senior officer. Balboa received word from Alcalde Zamudio
that Enciso had filed charges against him with the Spanish Crown and had
obtained a sentence condemning Balboa and an order to return to Spain to face
the charges. Balboa decided the only way to come out of this in good standing
would be to discover something new.
Immediately he and his men began exploring the surrounding countryside.
Balboa setting his dogs upon Indian
practitioners of homosexuality
Balboa
meanwhile had organized a series of gold and slave hunting expeditions into the
Indian chiefdoms of the area. His Indian
policy combined the use of barter, every kind of force, including torture, to
extract information and the tactic of divide and conquer by forming alliances
with certain tribes against others. The
Indians of Darien, less warlike than their neighbors of Uraba and without
poisoned arrows, were not formidable foes and often fled at the approach of the
Spanairds. The Spanish arsenal included
their terrible war dogs, sometimes used by Balboa as executioners to tear
Indian victims to pieces.
They
found great quantities of pearls and gold and were able to subdue the
surrounding chiefdoms mainly because they were not united. From Santa Maria
Balboa heard rumors of lands of gold to the south near a great sea. He gathered 200 men and marched south. On September 1, 1513 Balboa set out with 199
Spanairds (Francisco Pizarro among them) and 1,000 indigeneous
inhabitants. On the 25 of the same
month, Balboa reached a summit and sighted the Pacific Ocean. On September 29, 1513, Balboa waded in its
waters and “formally took possession of the Great Sea in the name of the
Spanish Monarch.
The
name of Nuflo de Olano appears in the records as that of a black slave present
when Vasco Núñez de Balboa sighted the Pacific Ocean in 1513.
Balboa
returned to Darien on January 18, 1514 with great booty and immediately sent
messengers to Spain bearing presents, to give an account of his discoveries. Ferdinand the Catholic, nonetheless, replaced
Balboa with Don Pedro Arias de Avilla.
Undaunted Balboa continued to explore the Pacific Ocean by building two
light brigantines. With these armed
ships he took possession of the Pearl Islands off the coast of Peru.
Balboa’s
exploits were put to a halt by the jealous Don Pedro Arias de Avilla. He was charged with the crime of mistreating
Indians and attempting to overthrow Avilla.
The truth is Balboa's mistreated of indigenous inhabitants was no less cruel than his contemporaries. Avilla was driven by personal jealousy who was envious of Balboa's successes. Avilla forced the local judge to condemn him to death. The sentence was duly carried out by
beheading him in the city square he founded on January 1, 1519.
Balboa’s
actions of locating the Pacific Ocean for Europeans consequently opened up the
western coast of South America to Spanish exploration and conquest.
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