* *

tree, a newe kinde of building and seldome seene.' These trees, the common habitations of the natives, are described as being of immense size and height, and the agility of the servants, at royal entertainments, in "running vp and down the staires adherente to the tree," is amusingly described. "Our men therefore came to the tree of King Abibeiba, and by the interpretours called him foorth to communication, giuing him signes of peace, and thereupon willing him to come downe. But hee denyed that hee would come out of his house, desiring them to suffer him to lyve after his fashione. When hee hadde denyed them agayne, they fell to hewing the tree with their axes. Abebeiba seeing the chippes fall from the tree on euery side, chaunged his purpose, and came downe with onely two of his sons." This unfortunate potentate, thus summarily ejected from his airy habitation, told them that "hee had no golde, and that hee neuer had any neede therof, nor yet regarded it any more then stones." He promised, however, to go to the neighboring mountains and bring them some, but "came neither at the day, nor after the day appointed. They departed therefore from thence, well refreshed with his vict-. ualles and wine, but not with gold as they hoped." In the subsequent narrative there is a touching mention of "Abebeiba, the inhabitour of the tree, who had now likewise forsaken his countrey for feare of our men, and wandered in the desolate mountaines and woods."

After this disappointment, the Spanish leader explored the country for some distance, and gained considerable spoil; but the golden temple evaded all his researches.

The neighboring caciques, indignant at the outrages of the whites, soon formed a plan for their extermination: an hundred canoes and five thousand warriors were prepared for a midnight attack upon the settlement of Darien; but the treachery of one of their people defeated the enterprise. On learning their intention, Balboa marched secretly upon the hostile camp, and seized their leaders, whom he put to death. A fortress was then erected as a safeguard against future attack. The ener

getic governor met with equal success in suppressing a most dangerous sedition among his own followers.

CHAPTER II.

EXPEDITION OF BALBOA IN SEARCH OF THE SEA-CONTESTS WITH THE
NATIVES-DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN-APPOINTMENT
OF PEDRARIAS-REAPPOINTMENT OF BALBOA-

MISFORTUNEs of the colony.

THE authority of Balboa had been confirmed by a letter from the treasurer of Hispaniola, but he was privately informed that the influence of his enemies at the court of Spain was sufficient to crush him. Some grand exploit was necessary to retrieve his fortunes; and he resolved at once to set forth in quest of the great sea, whose golden shores were said to lie in the south-west. An hundred and ninety of the most daring and resolute of his followers were selected to share the enter prise, and a number of bloodhounds were taken to overawe and discomfit the natives. On the first of September, 1513, after one of those solemn invocations to Heaven which usually preceded a Spanish expedition, whether for discovery or massacre, this little army set out to fight its way to the unknown ocean.

By the 8th, Balboa arrived at the territories of Ponca, his late foe, whom he readily conciliated, and who assured him of the reality of the object of his search. Leaving this cacique on the 20th, he pressed forward through a region of such terrible difficulties that four days were expended in passing a distance of ten leagues. The Indians, whose territory he was invading, under their cacique Quaraqua, now attacked his army in great numbers. But the unaccustomed terror of the fire-arins and bloodhounds overcame their courage: they soon took to flight; and the cacique, with six hundred of his people, was left dead upon the field. Much booty, in gold and jewels, was obtained from the Indian villages, and several prisoners, with execrable

cruelty, were given to be torn in pieces by bloodhounds. This piece of barbarism was indeed of common occurrence in the Spanish conquests. Sometimes the savage animals refused to touch the victims thus brutally offered to them-"Their very dogges," says an old author, with quaint indignation, "being less dogged than their doggish diuelish masters."

Many of the Spaniards, disabled by wounds or illness, were unable to proceed; and with only sixty-seven companions, the fierce and dauntless adventurer pushed forward up the mountain. On the 26th of September, 1513, as they were nearing its summit, he bade his companions to halt, and ordered that no man should stir from his place. With a beating heart, he ascended alone; and, standing on the summit of that mighty chain which divides the oceans, beheld the vast Pacific glittering in the south. In his joy at this sublime discovery, the grandest since the days of Columbus, he knelt down, and returned fervent thanks to God. His people crowded around him, and a solemn Te Deum went up to heaven. Formal possession, recorded by a notary, and witnessed by all, was taken of the new ocean, with all its shores and islands, in the name of Castile; a cross was erected, and a number of stones were piled up to mark the memorable spot.

Defeating the savages who opposed them, and receiving enormous tributes of gold, the Spaniards hastened to the shore of the still-distant sea. One Alonzo Martin reached it first, and leaping into a canoe, called all to witness that he was the first European who had floated on that sea: When Balboa arrived, seizing a banner, he plunged into the waves, and with a stately and swelling preamble took possession of the sea, offering to maintain in the name of his sovereigns against any other prince or people, "Christian or infidel," their "empire and dominion over these Indias, islands, and Terra firma, northern and southern, with all their seas, both at the Arctic and Antarctic poles, on either side of the equinoctial line, whether within or without the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, both now and in all times, as long as the world endures, and until the final