He also reluctantly gave him permission to mount another expedition to explore and conquer the Mar del Sur and its surrounding lands.īalboa began these explorations in 1517-18, after having a fleet of ships painstakingly built and transported in pieces over the mountains to the Pacific.
Though suspicious of each other, the two men reached a precarious peace, and Pedrarias even betrothed his daughter María (in Spain) to Balboa by proxy. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Balboa, King Ferdinand II had appointed the elderly nobleman Pedro Arias Dávila (usually called Pedrarias) as the new governor of Darién.Īs a reward for his explorations, Balboa was named governor of the provinces of Panama and Coiba, but remained under the authority of Pedrarias, who arrived in Darién in mid-1514, soon after Balboa returned.
Late that same month, Balboa climbed a mountain peak and sighted the Pacific Ocean, which the Spaniards called the Mar del Sur (South Sea). In September 1513, Balboa led an expedition of some 190 Spaniards and a number of Indians southward across the Isthmus of Panama. Under his authority, the Spaniards dealt harshly with native inhabitants of the region in order to get gold and other riches from some of these Indians, they learned that a wealthy empire lay to the south (possibly a reference to the Inca). Balboa Sees the Pacificīy 1511, Balboa was acting as interim governor of Darién. In that region, the local Indians were more peaceful, and the new colony, Darién, would become the first stable Spanish settlement on the South American continent. At Balboa’s suggestion, they decided to move to the western side of the Gulf of Urabá, on the coast of the Isthmus of Panama, the small strip of land connecting Central and South America. The colony had been largely abandoned by the time they arrived, after local Native Americans killed many of the colonists. After falling into debt, he fled his creditors by stowing away on an expedition carrying supplies to the colony of San Sebastian, located on the coast of Urabá (now Colombia), in 1510.ĭid you know? The Spanish region of Extremadura, where Vasco Núñez de Balboa was born, was home to many other famous New World conquistadors, including Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, Hernando de Soto and Francisco de Orellana. His father was believed to be a nobleman, but the family was not wealthy like many of his class, Balboa decided to seek his fortune in the New World.Īround 1500, he joined Spanish explorers on an expedition the coast of present-day Colombia, then returned to the island of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and sought to make his living as a farmer. Balboa was born in 1475 in Jerez de los Caballeros, a town in the impoverished Extremadura region of Spain.
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