n shore with much difficulty, they found the place
reduced to ashes by the savages. They restored it as well as they could,
and got on shore all the provisions and stores from their stranded vessels,
but were soon afterwards reduced to the utmost extremity of distress by
war and famine. Hunger frequently forced them out into the country to
endeavour to procure provisions, and the savages as often drove them back
with the loss of some of their number, which they could very ill spare,
having only been 180 men at the first They were relieved from their
present distressed situation, by the dexterity and presence of mind of a
very extraordinary person who happened to be among them. Vasquez Nugnez de
Balboa, the person now alluded to, was a gentleman of good family, great
parts, liberal education, of a fine person, and in the flower of his age,
being then about thirty-five. He had formerly sailed on discovery along
with _Bastidas_, and had afterwards obtained a good settlement in
Hispaniola; but had committed some excesses in that island, for which he
was in danger of being put to death. In this extremity, he procured
himself to be conveyed into the ship commanded by Enciso, concealed in a
bread cask, in which he remained for some days, and at last ventured to
make his appearance, when the ship was 100 leagues from Hispaniola. Enciso
had been strictly enjoined not to carry any offenders from the island, and
now threatened to set Balboa ashore on the first desert island; but the
principal people on board interceded for him with the captain, who at last
relented and granted him protection. This did not efface from his memory
the threats of Enciso, as will be seen hereafter. Observing the state of
despair to which the company was now reduced, Balboa undertook to
encourage them, by asserting that their situation was not so helpless as
they imagined. He told them that he had been upon this coast formerly with
Bastidas, when they sailed to the bottom of the gulf, where they found a
fine large town, in a fruitful soil and salubrious climate, inhabited
indeed by warlike Indians, but who did not use poisoned arrows. He
exhorted them, therefore, to bestir themselves in getting off their
stranded vessels, and to sail to that place. They approved of this advice,
and sailed to the river named Darien by the Indians, where they found
every thing to correspond with the description given by Balboa. On
learning the arrival of the Spaniards, the n