r of the woods.

Balboa, a gentleman by birth and by inclination as well--who had,
according to some accounts, endeavored to compose the differences
between Nicuesa and the colonists--was greatly touched and mortified at
seeing so brave a cavalier reduced to such an undignified and desperate
extremity. He secretly sought Nicuesa that night and profferred him
his services. Then he strove valiantly to bring about an adjustment
between the fugitive and the brutal soldiery, but in vain.

Nicuesa, abandoning all his pretensions, at last begged them to receive
him, if not as a governor, at least as a companion-at-arms, a
volunteer. But nothing, neither the influence of Balboa nor the
entreaties {26} of Nicuesa, could mitigate the anger of the colonists.
They would not have the little governor with them on any terms. They
would have killed him then and there, but Balboa, by resorting to harsh
measures, even causing one man to be flogged for his insolence, at last
changed that purpose into another--which, to be sure, was scarcely less
hazardous for Nicuesa.

He was to be given a ship and sent away forever from the Isthmus.
Seventeen adherents offered manfully to share his fate. Protesting
against the legality of the action, appealing to them to give him a
chance for humanity's sake, poor Nicuesa was hurried aboard a small,
crazy bark, the weakest of the wretched brigantines in the harbor.
This was a boat so carelessly constructed that the calking of the seams
had been done with a blunt iron. With little or no provisions, Nicuesa
and his faithful seventeen were forced to put to sea amid the jeers and
mockery of the men on shore. The date was March 1, 1511. According to
the chroniclers, the last words that those left on the island heard
Nicuesa say were, "Show thy face, O Lord, and we shall be saved." [5]

A pathetic and noble departure!

Into the misty deep then vanished poor Nicuesa and his faithful
followers on that bright sunny spring morning. And none of them ever
came back to tell the tale of what became of them. Did they die of
starvation in their crazy brigantine, drifting on and on while they
rotted in the blazing sun, until her seams opened and she sank? Did
they founder in one of the sudden and fierce storms which sometimes
swept {27} that coast? Did the deadly teredo bore the ship's timbers
full of holes, until she went down with all on board? Were they cast
on shore to become the prey of Indians who