rests of his excellency, and that he and the
fleet, "God willing, would set sail the next morning."

Finally, on the 18th of February, 1519, the fleet lost sight of Cuba at
Cape San Antonio, on the western end of the island. It consisted in all of
eleven vessels, most of them small, and had on board six hundred and
sixty-three soldiers and sailors. A few of these were armed with
cross-bows and only thirteen with muskets, while the horses numbered only
sixteen. In addition there were ten heavy guns and four lighter ones, with
a good supply of ammunition.

Such was the fleet and such the force with which Hernando Cortez set sail
to conquer a powerful and warlike nation. Fortunately the expedition had
one of the world's great commanders at its head, or the enterprise would
have ended in failure instead of leading, as it did, to a wonderful
success.

BALBOA AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC.

It was a splendid road to fortune which Columbus opened to the adventurers
of Spain, and hundreds of them soon took that promising path. Among these
was one Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a man poor in gold or land, but rich in
courage and ambition, and weary enough of trying to live at home like a
gentleman with the means of a peasant. In the year 1501 he crossed the
seas to Hispaniola, where, like Cortez, he took up land and began to till
the soil for a living. But he had not the skill or good luck of Cortez,
and after years of labor he found himself poorer than when he commenced.
He began to see that nature had not meant him for a farmer, and that if he
wanted a fortune he must seek it in other fields.

Balboa was not alone in this. There were others, with better-filled
pockets than he, who were ripe for adventure and eager for gold. A famous
one of these was Alonso de Ojeda, one of the companions of Columbus and
the hero of the adventure with the Carib chief already described, who in
1509 sailed for South America and founded a settlement named by him San
Sebastian. He left orders with Enciso, a lawyer of the town of San
Domingo, to fit out two more vessels and follow him with provisions for
his new settlement.

Enciso sailed in 1510, his vessels well laden with casks of bread and
other food-stuffs. There was more in them, indeed, than Enciso dreamed of,
for when far from land there crept out of one of these casks a haggard,
woe-begone, half-starved stowaway, who looked as if he had not many ounces
of life left in him. It was