tyrant; and even those who thought him
guilty, saw something brave and brilliant in the very crime
imputed to him. Such, however, was the general dread inspired
by the severe measures of Pedrarias, that no one dared to lift
up his voice, either in murmur or remonstrance.

"The public crier walked before Vasco Nunez, proclaiming, 'This
is the punishment inflicted by command of the king, and his
lieutenant Don Pedrarias Davila, on this man, as a traitor and
an usurper of the territories of the crown.'

"When Vasco Nunez heard these words, he exclaimed, indignantly,
'It is false! never did such a crime enter my mind. I have ever
served my king with truth and loyalty, and sought to augment
his dominions.'

"These words were of no avail in his extremity, but they were
fully believed by the populace.

"Thus perished, in his forty-second year, in the prime and
vigour of his days and the full career of his glory, one of the
most illustrious and deserving of the Spanish discoverers--a
victim to the basest and most perfidious envy.

"How vain are our most confident hopes, our brightest triumphs!
When Vasco Nunez, from the mountains of Darien, beheld the
Southern ocean revealed to his gaze, he considered its unknown
realms at his disposal. When he had launched his ships upon its
waters, and his sails were in a manner flapping in the wind, to
bear him in quest of the wealthy empire of Peru, he scoffed at
the prediction of the astrologer, and defied the influence of
the stars. Behold him interrupted at the very moment of his
departure; betrayed into the hands of his most invidious foe;
the very enterprise that was to have crowned him with glory
wrested into a crime; and himself hurried to a bloody and
ignominious grave, at the foot, as it were, of the mountain
from whence he had made his discovery! His fate, like that of
his renowned predecessor Columbus, proves, that it is sometimes
dangerous even to discern too greatly!"

There yet remain in this interesting volume the history of _Valdivia_
and his companions, and of the bold _Juan Ponce de Leon_. Each contains
scenes and incidents scarcely less interesting than those we have
rapidly noticed; but the termination of the story of Vasco Nunez affords
us a place to pause, and we are recalled from the agreeable task