Word: balboa
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When the ships were a few hours at sea, Balboa emerged from his barrel and presented himself to the commander of the expedition. How he rose from his cramped beginnings to the glory of a peak in Darién,* where he discovered and claimed for God and Castile the Pacific Ocean and all the lands adjoining, is a fascinating story; it is told in fine detail in a solidly researched new book, Balboa of Darién, by Kathleen Romoli...
...into the Caribbean from Santo Domingo (now Ciudad Trujillo), capital of the Spanish empire in the New World. They were headed for Urabá, on the South American mainland, with 150 settlers eager for land and gold. On one ship was a stowaway: Vasco Núñez de Balboa, an adventurer who came aboard in a provisions barrel to escape his creditors...
Worthwhile Friends. Balboa, who knew the mainland from an earlier expedition, persuaded his new commander that a better site than Urabá for a settlement would be Darién, just across the gulf in what is now Colombia. There the expeditionaries founded a town, Santa Maria del Antigua, and set up the first European colony on the American mainland...
...little more than a year, Balboa, a wise, courageous and likable conquistador in Mrs. Romoli's version of history, had been confirmed as governor of the colony. He set out to explore, and to make friends with the Cueva Indians. That the Cuevans may have been worth making friends with is suggested in contemporary descriptions of them. An affable, cigar-smoking race, the Cuevans were also uncommonly handsome, and their women "displayed unexpected aspects of sophistication. Smallish, large-eyed with thick and often wavy hair, they had beautiful narrow bodies of which they were inordinately proud . . . They took extraordinary...
...Balboa's approach to the Indians was based much more on kindness than that of some of his compatriots, whose favorite sport was throwing native chieftains to fierce dogs. Balboa, by wining and dining the native rulers (and taking their sisters and daughters as concubines), won over every chieftain within range...