d. The
metal had no commercial value to the Indians. They used it simply to
make ornaments, and when it was not taken from them by force, they were
cheerfully willing to exchange it for beads, trinkets, hawks' bells,
and any other petty trifles. Comagre was the father of a numerous
family of stalwart sons. The oldest, observing the Spaniards brawling
and fighting--"brabbling," Peter Martyr calls it--about the division of
gold, with an astonishing degree of intrepidity knocked over the scales
at last and dashed the stuff on the ground in contempt. He made amends
for his action by telling them of a country where gold, like Falstaff's
reasons, was as plenty as blackberries. Incidentally he gave them the
news that Darien was an isthmus, and that the other side was swept by a
vaster sea than that which washed its eastern shore.

These tidings inspired Balboa and his men. They talked long and
earnestly with the Indians and fully satisfied themselves of the
existence of a great sea and of a far-off country abounding in treasure
on the other side. Could it be that mysterious Cipango of Marco Polo,
search for which had been the object of Columbus's voyage? The way
there was discussed and the {38} difficulties of the journey estimated,
and it was finally decided that at least one thousand Spaniards would
be required safely to cross the Isthmus.

Balboa had sent an account of this conversation to Spain, asking for
the one thousand men. The account reached there long before Pedrarias
sailed, and to it, in fact, was largely due the extensive expedition.
Now when Balboa learned from Zamudio of what was intended toward him in
Spain, he determined to undertake the discovery himself. He set forth
from Antigua the 1st of September, 1513, with a hundred and ninety
chosen men, accompanied by a pack of bloodhounds, very useful in
fighting savages, and a train of Indian slaves. Francisco Pizarro was
his second in command. All this in lieu of the one thousand Spaniards
for which he had asked, which was not thought to be too great a number.

The difficulties to be overcome were almost incredible. The expedition
had to fight its way through tribes of warlike and ferocious
mountaineers. If it was not to be dogged by a trail of pestilent
hatreds, the antagonisms evoked by its advance must be composed in
every Indian village or tribe before it progressed farther. Aside from
these things, the topographical difficulties were immens