When talking about the great achievements of the early explorers of the Age of Discovery, there is a Spanish explorer and his journey of discovery that is difficult to get around, that is, Basque Núñez de Balboa, the first European discovery of an unknown ocean that has not yet been named "Pacific", a translation of Balboa (Spanish Vasco Núñez de Balboa, 1475-1519, hereinafter referred to as Balboa).
I'm going to tell you a little bit about Balboa's journey of exploration in Panama and elsewhere, starting with the first time he heard about the Pacific.
Basque Núñez de Barboa
In 1475, Balboa was born into a shabby aristocratic family in Badajoz, Spain, and later entered the upper noble castle to fight for his life as a knight. Around 1501, Balboa secretly hid in the cabin of a ship and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas, dreaming of becoming rich.
Balboa originally settled on the island of Santo Domingo, where he wanted to make a fortune by raising pigs, but he did not know how to operate, but he carried a bunch of debts, and although he participated in several expeditions, he did not get rich, but was heavily indebted, and had to take various measures to avoid debts.
Around 1510, when N'Cisso, a Venezuelan conqueror and partner of the famous Ohda, recruited people to explore Central America, Balboa, who dreamed of making a fortune and escaping debts, applied to join the expedition, but was rejected because he was in too much debt, and the creditors watched him tightly and would not let him board the ship.
But the cunning Balboa did not give up, he secretly took his favorite wolfhound, hid in a large wooden barrel and sneaked into Ensiso's expedition ship, although he was later discovered by the crew, Ensiso once exiled him to a nearby desert island, but Balboa finally relied on his ingenuity, courage and superior skills to stay on the ship and began to explore with Ensiso and others.
Route map of Balboa's expedition
In the process of exploration in Central America, Balboa showed his outstanding talent for exploration, successfully led the expedition to capture a very wealthy Indian town - the town of Dahlian (located in present-day 75 kilometers of Acandinand, Choco Province, Colombia), after conquering the local Indians and establishing a colony, Balboa provoked a rebellion, sent Ensiso and the king of Spain to the governor who ruled the local area to exile or drive back to Spain, and he monopolized power and became the emperor of the town of Darien.
After ruling a vast colony, the idle Balboa began to attack the surrounding Indian tribes, searching for gold and making a career.
subjugate
Once, after successfully conquering an Indian tribe, the story of Balboa and his expedition spread widely among the Indians in the surrounding seas, and a powerful Indian chieftain invited Balboa to his place, taking great care of him, and the chief's eldest son (whom Balboa called "The Prince of Indians"), after discovering that Balboa and others were obsessed with gold ornaments, fell in love with him. A variety of gold ornaments given directly to Balboa of 4,000 ounces (one ounce equals 28.35 grams).
After leaving enough gold to be given to the king of Spain, Balwalk, who was well versed in the art of commanding the army, gave the rest of the gold to his subordinates and let them distribute it himself. As a result, as soon as his men got the gold, they began to quarrel, and they began to divide the gold in front of the Indian prince, regardless of the existence of any outsiders.
Spanish gold coins
Each of them also shrewdly weighed and calculated, and then quickly quarreled with each other, everyone was dissatisfied with the size and value of the gold that others had received, and although the indigenous prince was a "barbarian", he was also a person of high moral character, and he saw that these foreign "civilized people" whom he had specially admired and admired before had no grace for such a small amount of gold, and they hated each other and immediately felt evil to them.
In disgust, the indigenous prince actually threw his fist at the scale, and threw out all the shiny gold, and he said angrily:
"Why are you arguing like this for a little bit of gold?" If gold is so precious in your eyes, let you stay away from your homeland for it. Coming here to invade the happy homes of others, and willing to suffer and risk it, then I will tell you a place where you can have as much gold as you want, and see these high mountains? There is a vast ocean behind the mountain, which you may be able to see from the top of the mountain. The people who come and go in that sea drive boats about the same size as yours, and they have sails and oars like your boats. Rivers flowed into the sea from the sunny side of the mountains, and these rivers were all rivers of gold, and they carried gold as much as mud and sand. The mountain kings on both sides of the river each have inexhaustible gold, and all the cups and bowls are made of gold. In fact, gold is as numerous and unusual for the people of these countries of the mountains and suns as iron is for you Spaniards. ”
When Balboa and the others heard this, they were so excited that they did not care to be angry, so they hurried to ask the prince for advice on how to wade into the sea, and inquired about the situation in the golden countries on the shore, but the prince told him:
"If you want to go to that sea, I am afraid that it will be full of dangers and dangers. You will have to pass through many powerful tribal territories, all guarded by warriors who will block your passage. Some of the hills are inhabited by ferocious, bloodthirsty cannibals who hunt and are lawless; most importantly, you will have to pass through the territory of the Great Chief, Tubanama, whose territory is six days away, which is the place with the most gold in the surrounding area; there is no doubt that the Great Chief will bring a large army to repel you. So, if you want to get something, you have to bring at least a thousand men and horses, and they must all be as strong as your current followers. ”
In addition, the young Indian prince told Balboa more rumors about the sea, most of which he had heard from captives from various places, and some of which had been told to him by a man of his own tribe, who had been a prisoner of the Emirate of the Golden Nation, Tubanama, for a long time.
In addition to providing Balboa with this information, the prince offered to help Balboa, willing to personally lead his father's soldiers to accompany Balboa there, in order to prove that what he said was true.
This was the first time That Balboa had heard the news of the Pacific Ocean and the Dorado in the Ocean, and after knowing the news, Balboa's whole body was shocked from the inside out. This unruly person who had originally been aimless and had to get by suddenly saw a golden avenue with a bright future in front of him.
He believed that once he succeeded in his adventure along this path, he would return with fame and fortune, and he would be easily forgiven by the king for the crime of rebellion, and he would be able to rise to the top of history and become one of the greatest captains and adventurers in history.
So since then, the discovery of that sea outside the mountains has become the first thought that haunts Balboa's mind day and night, so that his whole heart is stirred and burned, filled with glorious and lofty dreams, but at this time, he can only return home with poor strength, plan to return to his colony and then make plans, first prepare the necessary manpower and materials.
But when Balboa returned to the colony, he found that the town of Darien was not working well after his departure, because the explorers lacked the necessary knowledge of the local natural environment, and their crops became a complete disaster, and the crops they had worked so hard to plant in the colony were partially destroyed by flash floods, and then drowned most of the river by the surging river, and finally got almost no food, and their colony was too far away from the mature colonial base established by the Spaniards in the Caribbean Sea. The tonnage of transport ships was also very limited, so food transportation was slow, and the colony soon fell into famine.
But even in such a terrible situation, Balboa did not forget his dream of crossing the sea in search of gold, and he wrote a letter to the colonial governor, in which he highlighted the information he had heard about the fertile country behind the mountains, begging the governor to help him recruit a thousand soldiers to create conditions for his great discovery, and also to defend the huge colony he had discovered, in order to prove that he had gained a lot from this trip, to seek more support, to get rid of his criminal identity and the fact of treason. Balboa also handed over fifteen thousand crowns of gold and asked the governor for help to hand it over to the king as a fifth of the proceeds he and others had received from the colonization of America (the tax rate requested by the King of Spain).
So can the Governor do what Balboa wishes? Can it be provided with supplies and manpower for its expeditions? Here please allow me to sell to Guanzi, we will talk about it in the next issue. Like this kind of article, please pay attention to this number, your attention is my motivation.
Sculpture of Balboa in Panama City