had been killed or had died to enable them to get
away in the two ships. They did not have to wait long, for death was
busy, and a few weeks after the expiration of the appointed time they
were all on board.

There is something terrific to the imagination in the thought of that
body of men sitting down and grimly waiting until enough of them should
die to enable the rest to get away! What must have been the emotions
that filled their breasts as the days dragged on? No one knew whether
the result of the delay would enable him to leave, or cause his bones
to rot on the shore. Cruel, fierce, implacable as were these
Spaniards, there is something Homeric about them in such crises as
these.

That was not the end of their misfortunes, for one of the two
brigantines was capsized. The old chroniclers say that the boat was
struck by a great fish. That is a fish story, which, like most fish
stories, it is difficult to credit. At any rate, sink it did, with all
on board, and Pizarro and about thirty men were all that were left of
the gallant three hundred who had followed the doughty Ojeda in the
first attempt to colonize South America.

Encisco was for hanging them at once, believing that {19} they had
murdered and deserted Ojeda, but they were able to convince him at last
of the strict legality of their proceedings. Taking command of the
expedition himself, as being next in rank to Ojeda, the Bachelor led
them back to San Sebastian. Unfortunately, before the unloading of his
ship could be begun, she struck a rock and was lost; and the last state
of the men, therefore, was as bad as the first.

Among the men who had come with Encisco was a certain Vasco Nunez,
commonly called Balboa. He had been with Bastidas and La Cosa on their
voyage to the Isthmus nine years before. The voyage had been a
profitable one and Balboa had made money out of it. He had lost all
his money, however, and had eked out a scanty living on a farm at
Hispaniola, which he had been unable to leave because he was in debt to
everybody. The authorities were very strict in searching every vessel
that cleared from Santo Domingo, for absconders. The search was
usually conducted after the vessel had got to sea, too!

Balboa caused himself to be conveyed aboard the ship in a provision
cask. No one suspected anything, and when the officers of the boat had
withdrawn from the ship and Hispaniola was well down astern, he came
forth. Encisco, who was