st_, and after a time he laid
his schemes before the King of Portugal. Whether he was laughed at
as a dreamer or a fool we know not. His plans were received with cold
refusal. History repeats itself. Like Christopher Columbus twenty
years before, Magellan now said good-bye to Portugal and made his way
to Spain.

Since the first discovery of the New World by Spain, that country had
been busy sending out explorer after explorer to discover and annex
new portions of America. Bold navigators, Pinzon, Mendoza, Bastidas,
Juan de la Cosa, and Solis--these and others had almost completed the
discovery of the east coast, indeed, Solis might have been the first
to see the great Pacific Ocean had he not been killed and eaten at
the mouth of the river La Plata. This great discovery was left to Vasco
Nunez de Balboa, who first saw beyond the strange New World from the
Peak of Darien. Now his discovery threw a lurid light on to the
limitation of land that made up the new country and illuminated the
scheme of Magellan.

Balboa was "a gentleman of good family, great parts, liberal education,
of a fine person, and in the flower of his age." He had emigrated to
the new Spanish colony of Hayti, where he had got into debt. No debtor
was allowed to leave the island, but Balboa, the gentleman of good
family, yearned for further exploration; he "yearned beyond the
sky-line where the strange roads go down." And one day the yearning
grew so great that he concealed himself in a bread cask on board a
ship leaving the shores of Hayti. For some days he remained hidden.
When the ship was well out to sea he made his appearance. Angry, indeed,
was the captain--so angry that he threatened to land the stowaway on
a desert island. He was, however, touched by the entreaties of the
crew, and Balboa was allowed to sail on in the ship. It was a fortunate
decision, for when, soon after, the ship ran heavily upon a rock, it
was the Spanish stowaway Balboa who saved the party from destruction.
He led the shipwrecked crew to a river of which he knew, named Darien
by the Indians. He did _not_ know that they stood on the narrow neck
of land--the isthmus of Panama--which connects North and South America.
The account of the Spanish intrusion is typical: "After having
performed their devotions, the Spaniards fell resolutely on the
Indians, whom they soon routed, and then went to the town, which they
found full of provisions to their wish. Next day they marched up t