Enciso and
other victims of wrecks; therefore they should not rest until they had
discovered whether he and his associates still lived.

[Note 3: Balboa was of a noble family of Xeres de los Caballeros,
and was born in 1475. He came to Hispaniola in 1500, where he suffered
extreme poverty. He went on board Enciso's vessel as a stowaway.]

Vasco Nunez, who feared to be deposed from his command on the arrival
of Nicuesa, treated those who still believed that the latter lived, as
foolish. Moreover, even were the fact proven, they had no need of him,
for did they not possess as good a title as Nicuesa? Opinions were
thus divided, when the captain of two large vessels, Roderigo de
Colmenares, arrived bringing a reinforcement of sixty men, a quantity
of foodstuffs, and clothing.

I must recount some particulars of the voyage of Colmenares. It was
about the ides of October in the year 1510 that Colmenares sailed from
Beata, the port of Hispaniola, where expeditions are usually fitted
out. The nones of November he reached the coast of that immense
country of Paria, between the port of Carthagena and the district of
Cuchibacoa, discovered by Columbus. He suffered equally during this
voyage from the attacks of the natives and from the fury of the sea.
Being short of water, he stopped at the mouth of the river called by
the natives Gaira, which was large enough for his ships to enter. This
river has different sources on a lofty snow-covered mountain, which
Roderigo's companions declared to be the highest they had ever seen.
This statement must be true, since the snow lay upon a mountain which
is not more than ten degrees distant from the equator. A shallop was
sent ashore at the Gaira to fill the water barrels, and while the
sailors were engaged in this task they saw a cacique accompanied by
twenty of his people approaching. Strange to behold, he was dressed in
cotton clothing, and a cloak, held in place by a band, fell from
his shoulders to the elbow. He also wore another trailing tunic of
feminine design. The cacique advanced and amicably advised our men
not to take water at that particular place, because it was of poor
quality; he showed them close at hand another river of which the
waters were more wholesome. The Spaniards repaired to the river
indicated by the cacique, but were prevented by the bad state of the
sea from finding its bottom, for the sands fairly bubbled as it were,
which indicated that the sea was full of r