alt, he
felt assured that he had indeed discovered an ocean; he again returned
thanks to God, and drawing his dagger from his girdle, marked three
trees with crosses in honour of the Trinity and in token of possession.

He remained on the shore of the Pacific ocean till the 3d of November.
In the interval, he conciliated by his good management the kind feelings
of the natives; he visited some of the neighbouring islands; he was
shown the valuable pearl fisheries; and was loaded when he left there
with pearls and gold. On his return he had several hostile rencounters
with the natives, and reached Darien on the 19th of January, 1514.

"Thus ended one of the most remarkable expeditions of the early
discoverers. The intrepidity of Vasco Nunez in penetrating,
with a handful of men, far into the interior of a wild and
mountainous country, peopled by warlike tribes; his skill in
managing his band of rough adventurers, stimulating their
valour, enforcing their obedience, and attaching their
affections, show him to have possessed great qualities as a
general. We are told that he was always foremost in peril, and
the last to quit the field. He shared the toils and dangers of
the meanest of his followers, treating them with frank
affability; watching, fighting, fasting and labouring with
them; visiting and consoling such as were sick or infirm, and
dividing all his gains with fairness and liberality. He was
chargeable at times with acts of bloodshed and injustice, but
it is probable that these were often called for as measures of
safety and precaution; he certainly offended less against
humanity than most of the early discoverers; and the unbounded
amity and confidence reposed in him by the natives, when they
became intimately acquainted with his character, speak strongly
in favour of his kind treatment of them.

"The character of Vasco Nunez had, in fact, risen with his
circumstances, and now assumed a nobleness and grandeur from
the discovery he had made, and the important charge it had
devolved upon him. He no longer felt himself a mere soldier of
fortune, at the head of a band of adventurers, but a great
commander conducting an immortal enterprise. 'Behold,' says old
Peter Martyr, 'Vasco Nunez de Balboa, at once transformed from
a rash royster to a politic and discreet captain:' and thu