ain the position of gentility. The parents were
not able to give their son a liberal education. Their rank did not
allow them to introduce him to any of the pursuits of industry; and
so far as can now be learned, the years of his early youth were spent
in idleness.

Ferdinand was an unusually handsome boy. He grew up tall, well formed,
and with remarkable muscular strength and agility. He greatly excelled
in fencing, horseback riding, and all those manly exercises which were
then deemed far more essential for a Spanish gentleman than literary
culture. He was fearless, energetic, self-reliant; and it was manifest
that he was endowed with mental powers of much native strength.

When quite a lad he attracted the attention of a wealthy Spanish
nobleman, Don Pedro de Avila, who sent him to one of the Spanish
universities, probably that of Saragossa, and maintained him there for
six years. Literary culture was not then in high repute; but it was
deemed a matter of very great moment that a nobleman of Spain should
excel in horsemanship, in fencing, and in wielding every weapon of
attack or defence.

Ferdinand became quite renowned for his lofty bearing, and for all
chivalric accomplishments. At the tournaments, and similar displays of
martial prowess then in vogue, he was prominent, exciting the envy of
competitive cavaliers, and winning the admiration of the ladies.

Don Pedro became very proud of his foster son, received him to his
family, and treated him as though he were his own child. The Spanish
court had at that time established a very important colony at the
province of Darien, on the Isthmus of Panama. This isthmus, connecting
North and South America, is about three hundred miles long and from
forty to sixty broad. A stupendous range of mountains runs along its
centre, apparently reared as an eternal barrier between the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans. From several of the summits of this ridge the
waters of the two oceans can at the same time be distinctly seen. Here
the Spanish court, in pursuit of its energetic but cruel conquest of
America, had established one of its most merciless colonies. There was
gold among the mountains. The natives had many golden ornaments. They
had no conception of the value of the precious ore in civilized lands.
Readily they would exchange quite large masses of gold for a few glass
beads. The great object of the Spaniards in the conquest of Darien was
to obtain gold. They inferred that i