BOOK III

The chief colonists of Uraba and all the friends of order decided to recall Nicuesa from wherever he was, and as the judge, Enciso, was opposed to this measure, they deprived him of the brigantine he had built at his own expense. Contrary to his will and against that of Vasco Nuñez, the adventurer, they decided to go in search of Nicuesa in order that he might settle the dispute about the commandership. Colmenares, whom I have mentioned above, was commanded to search along those coasts where it was thought Nicuesa wandered abandoned. It was known that the latter had left Veragua, because of the sterility of the soil. The colonists instructed Colmenares to bring Nicuesa back as soon as he could find him and to assure him they would be grateful to him if, on his arrival, he succeeded in calming the dissensions which rent the colony. Colmenares accepted this mission, for he was a personal friend of Nicuesa, and boldly announced that the provisions he had brought were intended as much for Nicuesa as for the colonists of Uraba. He, therefore, fitted out one of his ships and the brigantine, which had been taken from Enciso, loading them with a part of the provisions he had brought. He coasted carefully along the neighbouring shores, and finally came upon Nicuesa engaged in building his tower on Cape Marmor.

Nicuesa was the most wretched of men, reduced to a skeleton, covered with rags. There remained barely sixty of the seven hundred and more companions who had started with him, and the survivors were more to be pitied than the dead. Colmenares comforted his friend Nicuesa, embracing him with tears, cheering him with words of hope for a change of fortune and speedy success. He reminded him that the best element of the colonists of Uraba wished for his return, because his authority alone could quiet the dissensions which raged. Thanking his friend, as became the situation, Nicuesa sailed with him for Uraba.

It is a common thing to observe amongst men that arrogance accompanies success. After having wept and sighed and poured out complaints for his miseries, after having overwhelmed his rescuer, Colmenares, with thanks and almost rolled at his feet, Nicuesa, when the fear of starvation was removed, began, even before he had seen the colonists of Uraba, to talk airily of his projects of reform and his intention to get possession of all the gold there was. He said that no one had the right to keep back any of the gold, without his authorisation, or that of his associate Hojeda. These imprudent words reached the ears of the colonists of Uraba, and roused against Nicuesa the indignation of the partisans of Enciso, Hojeda's deputy judge, and that of Nuñez. It therefore fell out that Nicuesa, with sixty companions, had hardly landed, so it is reported, before the colonists forced him to re-embark, overwhelming him with threats. The better intentioned of the colonists were displeased at this demonstration, but fearing a rising of the majority headed by Vasco Nuñez, they did not interfere. Nicuesa was therefore obliged to regain the brigantine, and there remained with him only seventeen of his sixty companions. It was the calends of March in the year 1511 when Nicuesa set sail, intending to return to Hispaniola and there complain of the usurpation of Vasco Nuñez and the violent treatment offered the judge, Enciso.

He sailed in an evil hour and no news was ever again heard of that brigantine. It is believed the vessel sank, and that all the men were drowned. However that may be, Nicuesa plunged from one calamity into another, and died even more miserably than he had lived.

After the shameful expulsion of Nicuesa, the colonists consumed the provisions Colmenares had brought, and soon, driven by hunger, they were forced to plunder the neighbourhood of the colony like wolves of the forest. A troop of about one hundred and thirty men was formed under the leadership of Vasco Nuñez, who organised them like a band of brigands. Puffed up by vanity, he sent a guard in advance, and had others to accompany and follow him. He chose Colmenares[1] as his associate and companion. From the outset of this expedition he determined to seize everything he could find in the territory of the neighbouring caciques, and he began by marching along the shore of the district of Coiba, of which we have already spoken. Summoning the cacique of that district, Careca, of whom the Spaniards had never had reason to complain, he haughtily and threateningly ordered him to furnish provisions for his men. The cacique Careca answered that it was impossible, because he had already at different times helped the Christians and consequently his own provisions were well-nigh exhausted. Moreover, in consequence of a long-drawn-out war with a neighbouring cacique called Poncha, he was himself reduced to want. The adventurer admitted none of these reasons, and the wretched Careca saw his town sacked. He himself was put in irons and brought with his two wives, his sons and all his familia to Darien.[2] In the house of Careca they found three of Nicuesa's companions, who, when his ships were at anchor, during his search for Veragua, had deserted him because they feared to be tried for certain crimes. As soon as the fleet sailed away, they took refuge with Careca who received them amicably. Eighteen months had elapsed since that time, so they were as naked as the natives, but plump as the capons women fatten in dark places, for they had lived well at the cacique's table during that period; nor did they concern themselves about _meum_ and _tuum_, or as to who gave and who received, which is the cause of the crimes of violence that shorten human life.

[Note 1: The memoir of Colmenares on this expedition is contained in Navarrete's _Coleccion de Viajes_, tom. iii., pp. 386-393. Also Balboa's letter to King Ferdinand in the same volume.]

[Note 2: Balboa's description of his treatment of the natives, which he penned to the King, is just the contrary. He prides himself on having won their friendship, and ascribes to their affection for him his success in discovering the treasures and secrets of the country.]

These Spaniards nevertheless preferred to return to a life of hardship. Provisions were brought from the village of Careca to the people left behind at Darien, for the first consideration was to stave off the famine that was imminent. Whether before or afterwards I am not certain, but in any event it was shortly after the expulsion of Nicuesa that quarrels broke out between the judge, Enciso, and Vasco Nuñez, each being supported by his own partisans. Enciso was seized, thrown into prison, and all his goods sold at auction. It was alleged that he had usurped judicial functions never granted him by the King but merely by Hojeda, who was supposed to be dead, and Vasco Nuñez declared that he would not obey a man on whom the King had not conferred authority by a royal patent. He allowed himself, however, to be influenced by the entreaties of the better colonists and modified his severity, even releasing Enciso from his chains and permitting him to go on board a ship which would carry him to Hispaniola. Before the vessel sailed, some of the better people of the colony sought out Enciso and implored him to come on shore again, promising to effect a reconciliation with Vasco Nuñez and to reinstate him in his position of judge. Enciso refused and left; nor are there wanting people who whispered that God and His Saints had themselves shaped events to punish Enciso for Nicuesa's expulsion, which he had counselled.

Be that as it may, these discoverers of new countries ruined and exhausted themselves by their own folly and civil strife, failing absolutely to rise to the greatness expected of men who accomplish such wonderful things. Meanwhile it was decided by common agreement among the colonists to send their representatives to the young Admiral,[3] son and heir of Columbus, the first discoverer, who was viceroy of Hispaniola, and to the other government officials of the island. These envoys were to solicit reinforcements and a code of laws for the new colonies. They were to explain the true situation, the actual poverty of the colonists, the discoveries already made, and all that might still be hoped for, if the officials would only send them supplies. Vasco Nuñez chose for this office one of his adherents, Valdivia, the same who had prosecuted the suit against Enciso. Associated with him was a Catalonian, called Zamudio. It was agreed that Valdivia should return with provisions from Hispaniola, when his mission was accomplished, and that Zamudio should proceed to Spain and see the King. Both left the same time as Enciso, but it was the latter's intention to present a memorial to the King contradicting the representations of Valdivia and Zamudio. Both these men came to see me at Court, and I will elsewhere recount what they told me.

[Note 3: Diego, son of Christopher Columbus and his wife, Doña Moñiz de Perestrello. He was married to Doña Maria de Toledo.]

During this time the wretched colonists of Darien liberated the cacique of Coiba, Careca, and even agreed to serve as his allies during a campaign against the cacique called Poncha, who was a neighbour of Careca on the continent. Careca agreed to supply the Spaniards with food, and to join them with his family and subjects. The only arms these natives used were bows and poisoned arrows, as we have already described was the case amongst those in the eastern part beyond the gulf. As they have no iron, they use in hand-to-hand combat long wooden swords, which they call _machanas_. They likewise use pointed sticks hardened in the fire, bone-tipped javelins, and other projectiles. The campaign with Poncha began immediately after they had sown their fields as well as they could. Careca acted both as guide and commander of the vanguard. When his town was attacked Poncha fled, and the village and its surroundings were sacked. Thanks to the cacique's provisions, nothing was to be feared from hunger, but none of these supplies could be taken to the colonists who remained behind, for the distance between Darien and Poncha's village was more than a hundred miles, and everything had to be carried on men's backs to the nearest coast where the ships, which had been brought by the Spaniards to Careca's village, were lying. A few pounds of wrought gold, in the form of divers necklaces, were obtained; after ruining Poncha, the Spaniards returned to their ships, deciding to leave the caciques of the interior in peace and to confine their attacks to those along the coast.

Not far distant, in the same direction from Coiba, lies a country called Comogra, whose cacique is named Comogre, and against him the Spaniards delivered their next attack. His town stands at the foot of the other side of the neighbouring mountain chain, in a fertile plain some twelve leagues in extent. A relative of one of Careca's principal officers, who had quarrelled with him, had taken refuge with Comogre. This man was called Jura, and acted as intermediary between the Spaniards and Comogre, whose friendship he secured for them. Jura was very well known to the Spaniards ever since Nicuesa's expedition, and it was he who had received those three deserters from Nicuesa's company in his own house during their stay. When peace was concluded, the Spaniards repaired to the palace of Comogre, which lies some thirty leagues distant from Darien, but not in a direct line, for the intervening mountains obliged them to make long detours. Comogre had seven sons from different women, all handsome children or young men, wearing no clothes. His palace was formed of beams cut from the trees, and securely fastened together. It was further strengthened by stone walls. The Spaniards estimated the dimensions of this palace at one hundred and fifty paces the length and eighty paces the breadth. Its ceilings were carved and the floors were artistically decorated. They noticed a storehouse filled with native provisions of the country, and a cellar stacked with earthenware barrels and wooden kegs, as in Spain, or Italy. These receptacles contained excellent wine, not of the kind made from grapes, for they have no vineyards, but such as they make from three kinds of roots and the grain they use for making bread, called, as we have said in our first book, yucca, ages, and maize; they likewise use the fruit of the palm-trees. The Germans, Flemings and English, as well as the Spanish mountaineers in the Basque provinces and the Asturias, and the Austrians, Swabians, and Swiss in the Alps make beer from barley, wheat, and fruits in the same manner. The Spaniards report that at Comogra they drank white and red wines of different flavours.

Attend now, Sovereign Pontiff, to another and horrifying sight. Upon entering the cacique's inner apartments the Spaniards found a room filled with bodies suspended in cotton ropes. They inquired the motive of this superstitious custom, and were informed that they were the bodies of the ancestors of Comogre, which were preserved with great care, according to the rank they had occupied in life; respect for the dead being part of their religion. Golden masks decorated with stones were placed upon their faces, just as ancient families rendered homage to the _Penates_. In my first