A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PANAMA CANAL

DISCOVERY OF  THE PACIFIC OCEAN AND PANAMA

VASCO NUNEZ de BALBOA

Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1475–January 15, 1519) was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World.  Vasco Nunez de Balboa was the first European to see (and stand in the waters of) the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean, in September of 1513. He accomplished this feat after an arduous trek through the jungles of what is now Panama.

Balboa showed himself to have a conquistador mentality: he set sail for the west, traveling along Panama's Caribbean coastline, defeating various tribes and befriending others, exploring rivers, mountains, and sickly swamps, while always searching for gold and slaves and enlarging his territory. He was also able to quell revolts among those of his men who challenged this authority, and, through force, diplomacy, and negotiation, he earned a certain respect and fear among the natives. In a letter addressed to the King of Spain, he expressed, somewhat ironically, that he had to act as a guide and even open roads by his own hand.

He succeeded in planting corn, received fresh supplies from Hispaniola and Spain, and got his men used to life as explorers in the new territories. Balboa managed to collect a great deal of gold, much of it from the ornaments worn by the native women, and the rest obtained by violence. In 1513, he wrote a lengthy letter to the King of Spain, requesting more men from Hispaniola, weapons, supplies, carpenters versed in shipbuilding, and all the necessary materials for the building of a shipyard. In a subsequent letter, from 1515, he would refer to his humanitarian policies regarding the natives, while at the same time recommending extreme severity in dealing with cannibals and violent tribes.

At the end of 1512 and the first months of 1513, he arrived in a region dominated by the cacique Careta, whom he easily defeated and then befriended. Careta was baptized and became one of Balboa's chief allies; he ensured the survival of the settlers by promising to supply the Spaniards with food. Balboa then proceeded on his journey, arriving in the lands of Careta's neighbour and rival, cacique Ponca, who fled to the mountains with his people, leaving his village open to the plundering of the Spaniards and Careta's men. Days later, the expedition arrived in the lands of cacique Comagre, fertile but reportedly dangerous terrain. However, Balboa was received peacefully and even invited to a feast in his honor; Comagre, like Careta, was then baptised.

It was in Comagre's lands that Balboa first heard of "the other sea." It started with a squabble among the Spaniards, unsatisfied by the meager amounts of gold they were being allotted. Comagre's eldest son, Panquiaco, angered by the Spaniards' avarice, knocked over the scales used to measure gold and exclaimed: "If you are so hungry for gold that you leave your lands to cause strife in those of others, I shall show you a province where you can quell this hunger". Panquiaco told them of a kingdom to the south, where people were so rich that they ate and drank from plates and goblets made of gold, but that the conquerors would need at least a thousand men to defeat the tribes living inland and those on the coast of "the other sea".

The unexpected news of a new sea, rich in gold, was received by Balboa with great interest. Using information given by various friendly caciques, Balboa started his journey across the Isthmus of Panama on September 1st, 1513, together with 190 Spaniards, a few native guides, and a pack of dogs. Using a small brigantine and ten native canoes, they sailed along the coast and made landfall in cacique Careta's territory.

Following this, Balboa entered the mountain range along the Chucunaque River.  According to information from the natives, the South Sea could be seen from the summit of this range. Balboa went ahead and, before noon that day, September 25th, he reached the summit and saw, far away in the horizon, the waters of the undiscovered sea. Andrés de Vera, the expedition's chaplain, intoned the Te Deum, while the men erected stone pyramids, and engraved crosses on the barks of trees with their swords, to mark the place where the discovery of the South Sea was made.

On September 26, 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa reached the shores of the Pacific.  After traveling more than 110 km (68 miles), Balboa named the bay where they ended up San Miguel, because they arrived on September 29, the feast day of the archangel Michael. He named the new sea Mar del Sur, since they had traveled south to reach it.  

He claimed the Pacific Ocean and all its shores for Spain, which opened the way for Spanish exploration and conquest along the western coast of South America. But it was the Portuguese explorer, Magellen (not Balboa), who, because its waters seemed so calm, gave this ocean the name "Pacifica" (meaning peaceful).

Among those with him at the time of the discovery was the Afro-Hispanic nobleman Nuflo de Olano as well as thirty other men of African heritage. Balboa decided to sail upon the newly discovered waters of the Pacific and two small ships were subsequently constructed on the Caribbean side of the isthmus and transported (in sections) across Panama to the Pacific coast. The Africans with him, as well as large numbers of native Americans, were largely responsible for the building and transporting of these first two vessels, the first substantial vessels to be constructed on the Pacific shores of the Americas.

Pedrarias Dávila (Pedro Arias de Ávila) was a Spanish colonial administrator. He led the first great Spanish expedition in the New World.  Pedrarias was born in Segovia and in early life won distinction as a soldier in Africa. He married the aristocratic Isabel de Bobadilla y de Peñalosa, whose intelligence and influence furthered his advancement. In 1513 King Ferdinand appointed Pedrarias governor of the Isthmus of Darién to supersede Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who had governed there unofficially since 1511.

Already an elderly man, Pedrarias sailed to the Isthmus in the spring of 1514, accompanied by his wife and bearing the title Captain General and Governor of Castilla de Oro, which meant he was to govern the mainland west of the Gulf of Urabá. He took 2,000 armed men, for the King hoped Pedrarias would add substantially to the meager Spanish mainland conquests made thus far.

Reaching the town of Antígua del Darién on June 29, 1514, Pedrarias began a legal prosecution of Balboa, whom he regarded as a dangerous rival and who indeed had the support of nearly all the original settlers. The residencia, or judicial hearing, on Balboa's conduct progressed to a point and then was indefintely postponed. The rivals patched up their quarrel, and there was even a betrothal of Balboa to Pedrarias's daughter in Spain. Yet the two men remained opponents, for Balboa intended to launch ships on the Pacific and sail southward to Inca Peru, while Pedrarias awaited a chance to rid himself of a competitor and seize the ships. When Balboa's sailing time approached, Pedrarias arrested him and transferred him to the settlement of Acla, where the interrupted residencia was resumed. In January 1519 Balboa and four of his principal comrades died on the scaffold at Acla.

Pedrarias, now without a rival in the Isthmus, ordered or permitted exploring expeditions to go southward and north-westward. Pascual de Andagoya moved toward Peru, and after his return the work was taken up by Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro. Andrés Niño and Gil González, acting independently of Pedrarias, explored the Pacific coasts of Costa Rica and Nicarao (Nicaragua) and discovered Fonseca Gulf. In 1519 Panama City was founded by Pedro Arias de Avila on the Pacific coast and he moved his headquarters to the Pacific side.

A new governor, Lope de Sosa, reached Darién in 1520 to relieve Pedrarias and conduct his residencia, which promised to go badly for the old governor. Luckily for Pedrarias, Sosa took sick and died in his cabin before debarking. Though a subordinate then went through the forms of a hearing, no one dared come forward to voice a complaint.

A trail called Las Cruces had been discovered between the town of Panama and the Caribbean.

Soon Panama City became one of the wealthiest cities of the Spanish Empire. Later a new road (the Camino Real) was built between  Panama and the Caribbean port of Nombre de Dios.

Pedrarias was a party to the original agreement with Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro which brought about the discovery of Peru, but withdrew (1526) for a small compensation, having lost confidence in the outcome. In the same year he was superseded as Governor of Panama by Pedro de los Ríos, and retired to León in Nicaragua, where he was named its new governor on July 1, 1527. Here he lived for the rest of his life until he died at the age of 91 on March 6, 1531. Pedrarias's administration was notoriously harsh and he left an unenviable record, as a man of unreliable character, cruel, and unscrupulous. Through his foundation of Panama, however, he laid the basis for the discovery of South America's west coast and the subsequent conquest of Peru.

PORTOBELO

AUSTRALIAN CRANE & MACHINERY PTY. LTD.
42 Glenbarry Road,
CAMPBELLFIELD.  Vic. 3061
AUSTRALIA

Tel:  +61 (03) 9357 7524
Fax: +61 (03) 9357 7521