ides, the Spaniards sent to offer Chiapes secure peace
and friendship if he would come to them, or otherwise the ruin and
extermination of his town and his fields. Persuaded by them, the cacique
came and placed himself in the hands of Balboa, who treated him with much
kindness. He brought and distributed gold and received in exchange beads
and toys, with which he was so diverted that he no longer thought of
anything but contenting and conciliating the strangers. There Vasco Nunez
sent away the Quarequanos, and ordered that the sick, who had been left
in their land, should come and join him. In the mean while he sent
Francisco Pizarro, Juan de Ezcarag, and Alonzo Martin to reconnoitre the
environs and to discover the shortest roads by which the sea might be
reached. It was the last of these who arrived first at the coast, and,
entering a canoe which chanced to lie there, and pushing it into the
waves, let it float a little while, and, after pleasing himself with
having been the first Spaniard who entered the South Sea, returned to
seek Balboa.

Balboa with twenty-six men descended to the sea, and arrived at the
coast early in the evening of the 29th of that month; they all seated
themselves on the shore and awaited the tide, which was at that time on
the ebb. At length it returned in its violence to cover the spot where
they were; then Balboa, in complete armor, lifting his sword in one hand,
and in the other a banner on which was painted an image of the Virgin
Mary with the arms of Castile at her feet, raised it, and began to march
into the midst of the waves, which reached above his knees, saying in a
loud voice: "Long live the high and mighty sovereigns of Castile! Thus in
their names do I take possession of these seas and regions; and if any
other prince, whether Christian or infidel, pretends any right to them, I
am ready and resolved to oppose him, and to assert the just claims of my
sovereigns."

The whole band replied with acclamations to the vow of their captain,
and expressed themselves determined to defend, even to death, their
acquisition against all the potentates in the world; they caused this act
to be confirmed in writing, by the notary of the expedition, Andres de
Valderrabano; the anchorage in which it was solemnized was called the
Gulf of San Miguel, the event happening on that day.

[Footnote 1: Balboa had his first view of the Pacific from this "peak in
Darien" September 25th.]

CHRONOLOGY OF