n the other side of the Isthmus. The lack of
that little iron and that little pitch proved the undoing of Vasco
Nunez. If he had been able to obtain them or if he had sailed away
without them, he might have been the conqueror of Peru; in which case
that unhappy country would have been spared the hideous excesses and
the frightful internal brawls and revolutions which afterward almost
ruined it under the long rule of the ferocious Pizarros. Balboa would
have done better from a military standpoint than his successors, and as
a statesman as well as a soldier the results of his policy would have
been felt for generations.

History goes on to state that while he was waiting for the pitch and
iron, word was brought to him that Pedrarias was to be superseded in
his government. This would have been delightful tidings under any
other circumstances, but now that a reconciliation had been patched up
between him and the governor, he rightly felt that the arrival of a new
governor might materially alter the existing state of affairs.
Therefore, he determined to send a party of four adherents across the
mountains to Ada to find out if the rumours were true.

If Pedrarias was supplanted the messengers were to return immediately,
and without further delay they would at once set sail. If Pedrarias
was still there, well and good. There would be no occasion for such
precipitate action and they could wait for the pitch and iron. He was
discussing this matter with some friends on a rainy day in 1517--the
month and the date not being determinable now. The sentry attached to
the governor's quarters, driven to the shelter of the {47} house by the
storm, overheard a part of this harmless conversation. There is
nothing so dangerous as a half-truth; it is worse than a whole lie.
The soldier who had aforetime felt the weight of Balboa's heavy hand
for some dereliction of duty, catching sentences here and there,
fancied he detected treachery to Pedrarias and thought he saw an
opportunity of revenging himself, and of currying favor with the
governor, by reporting it at the first convenient opportunity.

Now, there lived at Ada at the time one Andres Garavito. This man was
Balboa's bitter enemy. He had presumed to make dishonorable overtures
to Balboa's Indian wife. The woman had indignantly repulsed his
advances and had made them known to her husband. Balboa had sternly
reproved Garavito and threatened him with death. Garavito had
n