Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Spanish conquistador

• Born: 1475
• Birthplace: Jeres de los Caballeros, Extremadura, Castile (now in Spain)
• Died: January 1, 1519
• Place of death: Acla, Castillo de Oro, Panama

Balboa explored the Caribbean and the Central American mainland during the early sixteenth century. In 1513, he was the first European to discover the eastern limits of the Pacific Ocean.

Early Life

Vasco Núñez de Balboa (VAHS-koh NEWN-yayz day bahl-BOH-uh) was born in 1475 in Jeres de los Caballeros in the Spanish province of Estremadura. Although part of the Hidalgo class of nobles, Balboa’s family was very poor. Thrilled by the reports of Christopher Columbus’s voyages to the New World in 1492 and 1493, he was drawn toward the vibrant atmosphere of Spain’s port cities. He served eight years under Don Pedro Puertocarrero, lord of Moguer, and acquired a reputation as an excellent fighter. In 1501, Balboa sailed to the New World under Don Pedro de Bastides, who discovered Barbados and sailed along the north coast of Tierra Firme (northern South America). The Bastides expedition terminated disastrously when his ships became infested with shipworms and eventually sank off the coast of Hispaniola (Haiti).

Balboa remained on Hispaniola to farm near Salvatierra, to mine for gold, and to fight Caribbeans. He fell deeply into debt, and his creditors constantly harassed him for payments. As a fighter, however, Balboa acquired great renown for his spirit and skill. Equally famous was Balboa’s dog, the great “Leoncico” (little lion), who was noted for his ferocity in combat. Indeed, Leoncico was said to have been paid the equivalent of a captain’s pay for his services.

Life’s Work

At the age of thirty-five, Balboa was tall and well built, with red hair and blue eyes. He was charming and blessed with great energy and stamina. His presence on Hispaniola, however, had become untenable because of his creditors. Thus, in September, 1510, learning of an expedition bound for Tierra Firme under Martín Fernández de Enciso, Balboa arranged to have both himself and Leoncico smuggled on board in a large barrel. Once safely beyond Hispaniola, Balboa presented himself to an astonished and angry Enciso, who reluctantly allowed him to remain with the expedition.

Balboa became the key member of an extraordinary adventure in Latin American colonial history. In 1507, King Ferdinand II of Spain had given grants and powers to Diego de Nicuesa and Alonzo de Ojeda to explore and settle areas of Tierra Firme. Enciso was a lawyer and Ojeda’s second-in-command, and he was expected to meet Ojeda at San Sebastian with supplies and reinforcements. At San Sebastian, Enciso learned that Ojeda, mortally wounded, had returned to Hispaniola, leaving behind forty-one near-starved survivors under Franciso Pizarro, later of Peruvian fame. San Sebastian was too difficult to hold in the face of Indian hostility, and Balboa suggested that they move to a more defensible site across the Bay of Urabá. Here, on the bank of the Darién River, Enciso established Santa María la Antigua del Darién, the first permanent settlement on the mainland.

Thereafter, Balboa’s life was mired in political intrigue at Darién and the royal court. Enciso proved to be an arbitrary and unpopular leader, and settlers rallied behind the charismatic Balboa, who overthrew the petty tyrant. By spring, 1511, a three-way power struggle was under way. The Balboa-Enciso fight was complicated by the claims of Nicuesa, in whose grant Darién was mistakenly located. Nicuesa, however, was stranded and starving at Nombre de Dios. When supplies and news of the Darién colony arrived, he recovered and sought to impose his authority over the trespassers. Balboa led the resistance and sent Nicuesa away on a worm-infested vessel. Nicuesa was never seen alive again.

Balboa now moved aggressively on many fronts. He consolidated his authority over Darién and banished Enciso. He rescued the remaining survivors at Nombre de Dios, compelled settlers to grow crops and build homes, and pushed Spanish power into the interior. During these entradas, Balboa heard rumors of a great ocean to the south and of a great civilization in Peru. He also brought Franciscan priests to convert and baptize the Indians and to make them loyal subjects of the king.

Balboa discussed these events and other matters in an extraordinary letter to Ferdinand in January, 1513. He provided a detailed description of the land and climate, and he defended himself against charges of usurpation of power and mistreatment of Central American Indians. He noted the discoveries that he made, particularly gold mines, and rumors that a vast sea existed to the south. If he had only one thousand men, he wrote, he would bring the South Sea and all the gold mines under the dominion of the king.

In June, 1513, Balboa received contradictory news from Spain. He was made captain and interim governor of Tierra Firme, but he received stunning news that a new governor would soon replace him and that he would face arrest and trial for Nicuesa’s death. Also, unknown to Balboa, Ferdinand sent a secret agent, Don Pedro de Arbolancha, to investigate affairs in Darién. Balboa’s successor proved to be Don Pedro Arias Dávila (Pedrarias), an elderly, but iron-willed and cruel, military man. He left Apin in April, 1514, carrying el requerimiento (the requirement), a document designed to justify war with and hegemony over the Central American Indians.

To save himself, Balboa decided to find the South Sea. He left Darién on September 1, 1513, with 190 men, beginning a grueling and arduous ordeal. On September 25 or 27, 1513, however, 4Balboa reached the crest of a mountain and sighted the South Sea. He promptly made a formal act of possession in the name of Ferdinand V. On September 29, 1513, he reached the ocean’s shore at the Gulf of San Miguel. The party remained in the area for several weeks, found pearl beds, and learned more about the Inca civilization to the south. On November 3, 1513, they began their return trip to Darién, which concluded without major incident on January 19, 1514. Among the cheering throng was the secret agent, Arbolancha, who determined that he would endorse Balboa’s continued rule over the settlement.

Events occurred too rapidly, however, for Balboa to rescue himself from his enemies. Pedrarias arrived at Darién with the crushing news that he was governor of the province, now called Castillo de Oro (golden castle). Balboa, bitterly disappointed, nevertheless sought to make the transition in leadership successful. Matters, however, soured almost immediately. Pedrarias quickly implemented his instructions to hold a two-month-long residencia (investigation) of Balboa’s conduct. Then Darién was hit with a devastating plague, and Pedrarias’s men made savage and bloody forays among nearby Indian tribes, killing, enslaving, and stealing gold, silver, and food. Pedrarias allowed these activities to continue well into 1515, undoing Balboa’s earlier work to secure these tribes’ friendship and loyalty.

Meanwhile, Arbolancha’s report induced Ferdinand to appoint Balboa adelantado, or governor, of the coast of the South Sea and of Panama and Coiba. Although Balboa remained under Pedrarias’s authority, the latter became embittered and alarmed over the former’s restored reputation. Accordingly, Balboa was arrested on a charge of conspiracy to rebel against Pedrarias and was kept in a cage in the latter’s home. Finally, Balboa was released on the condition that he marry Pedrarias’s daughter in Spain by proxy; once Pedrarias had consolidated his position with the marriage, he allowed Balboa to go to the Pacific coast and erect a shipbuilding yard.

Significance

During subsequent years, Vasco Núñez de Balboa and Pedrarias were wary of each other. Balboa was the more popular of the two leaders. He took the nearby Pearl Islands and seemed intent in moving south against Peru. By late 1518, Pedrarias had had enough of Balboa and ordered him to Acla, where he arrested Balboa on a charge of treason. In January, 1519, Balboa and several of his associates were beheaded, and Balboa’s head was placed on a pike and put on display in Acla’s plaza.

Thus died Balboa, one of the greatest conquistadores for los reyes católicos, a person of humble origins who possessed attributes of greatness: bravery, valor, humility, and a sense of fairness. He provided the inspired leadership that placed Spain on the mainland of Central America, setting the stage for the great conquests to the north and south. His greatest achievement was the discovery of the Pacific Ocean, which reinforced the growing realization that Columbus had discovered a great barrier to the Asian market. The temporal and spiritual power of the Spanish crown was rarely served better in the New World.

Bibliography

Fritz, Jean. “Vasco Núñez de Balboa.” In Around the World in a Hundred Years: From Henry the Navigator to Magellan. New York: Putnam, 1994. Account of Balboa’s contributions to exploration, geography, and cartography, and the discovery of the Pacific Ocean. Includes illustrations, map, bibliographic references, index.

Méndez Pereira, Octavio. El Tesoro del Dabaibe. Panama City, Panama: Talleres Gráficos “Benedetti,” 1934. Argues Balboa was fair in his treatment of the Indians. Méndez Pereira was a Panamanian diplomat and educator.

Ober, Frederick A. Vasco Núñez de Balboa. New York: Hayes & Brothers, 1906. A volume of the Heroes of American History series; a popular account of Balboa’s life.

Romoli, Kathleen. Balboa of Darién: Discoverer of the Pacific. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1953. The best account of the life and career of Balboa. Very readable and scholarly. Sympathetic toward Balboa while giving an objective analysis of the men who served with and under him.

Strawn, Arthur. The Golden Adventures of Balboa, Discoverer of the Pacific. London: John Lane, 1929. Another useful though dated account of Balboa. Like Romoli, Strawn was a great admirer of Balboa as a warrior and as a diplomat.

Todorov, Tzvetan. The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other. Translated by Richard Howard. Reprint. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1999. Examines the encounter between Spanish conquistadores and indigenous Americans from the point of view of conflicting worldviews and misinterpretation of each by the other. Includes illustrations, map, bibliographic references, index.