Old Times in the Colonies & The Story of Liberty. Charles Carleton Coffin
Читать онлайн книгу.
who is a great favorite of the King of Spain. He has among his followers a brave but cruel man, Pizarro, who by-and-by will be heard of in Peru.
One day Balboa is surprised to see two men come into his camp dressed in skins of wild beasts. They are Spaniards, deserters from a colony on the coast, and they have been living with an Indian chief, who has treated them with much kindness. The chief is rich; and the men offer to conduct Balboa to his capital. With one hundred and thirty men he marches to the town. The chief receives them courteously; and Balboa, after seeing how much gold the chief has in his possession, takes his departure, but in the night stealthily returns, falls upon the village, captures the chief and all his family, and plunders the place. The chief complains bitterly of the perfidy. He wishes to be a friend to the Spaniards, and offers his daughter to Balboa in marriage. The commander of the
Spaniards sees that it will he better to have the good-will rather than the enmity of the chief, and accepts the girl as his wife, and becomes very fond of her, and she of him. In company with the chief, he visits another chief, who lives in a great palace four hundred and fifty feet long, and two hundred and fifty broad, built of heavy timber. The Spaniards are surprised to find an immense store of provisions, and spirituous liquors distilled from palm-juice and corn. In another building are the bodies of the dead, which have been dried by fires and wrapped in cloths, and adorned with jewels and precious stones.
The chiefs eldest son makes a present to Balboa of four thousand ounces of gold, which the commander distributes among his followers. In the division a quarrel arises between two men, who draw their swords to fight The young chief steps between them, and kicks the gold-dust contemptuously about, scattering it upon the ground.
"Do you quarrel about such stuff! Is it for this that yon make slaves of us, and burn our towns? Beyond those mountains is a great sea, and the rivers that run into it are filled with gold, and the people who live there drink from golden vessels," says the young chief.
After many adventures, Balboa determines to cross the high mountains which rise in the west, and see if the stories he has heard are true. One hundred and ninety men volunteer to go with him. They are all armed, and he has a pack of ferocious blood-hounds.
On the 6th of September, 1513, leaving half of his men in care of the boats — about twenty miles from the mouth of Caledonia River — with Indians to guide him, he begins to climb the mountains. they march through dark woods, where in some places the palms are so thick and tall that they shut out the sunlight, and where thick vines run from tree to tree. Monkeys chatter at them. They see venomous snakes. It is a toilsome journey. They march beneath the burning sun. The men are ready to drop by the way, but the adventurous commander sends the weak ones back to the boats, and the rest move on. They come to a tribe of Indians, who dispute their way, armed with slings and war-clubs; but the soldiers fire upon them, and Balboa lets slip the bloodhounds, which rush upon the Indians, leaping at their throats. The flash, the rattle, the smoke of the guns, fill the Indians with astonishment, and they flee to the woods; but the Spaniards pursue them, and do not cease the slaughter till six hundred have been cut in pieces. They move rapidly on, and at noon the next day Balboa and the sixty men with him are at the base of a tall mountain peak.
"From there you will see the Great Water," says the Indian guide.
The Great Water! The explorer has heard of it; now he is to see it.
The men stop while Balboa goes on. He will be the first to behold the great sea.
There it is! The mightiest ocean of the globe — ten thousand miles wide — its waves rolling upon the shore, fringing it with white foam. Balboa sinks on his knees, and gives thanks to God.
The rest climb the peak and gaze upon it, and fall prostate upon the ground. A priest chants Te Deum Laudamus, and the whole company join in the thanksgiving. They cut down a tree and rear a cross upon the spot, pile a heap of stones around it, and descend the western slope.
Another tribe of Indians oppose them, but the muskets and the bloodhounds quickly win the victory. The chief sues for peace, and gives Balboa four hundred pounds of gold in exchange for some little tinkling bells, and thinks that he has the best of the bargain.
They reach the ocean, taste the water to see if it is salt, and then Balboa, with the flag of Spain in one hand, and his sword in the other, wades in and takes possession of the ocean for his master, the King of Spain.
So the Pacific Ocean, which laves the western shore of the continent where Liberty is to have its future abiding place, is first beheld by a European; and so Balboa takes possession of it for the monarch who is driving the Jews out of his realm, and roasting heretics by the thousand.
Great hardships are endured by the Spaniards before they get back to the little band on the eastern shore. They have many encounters with the Indians. One of the chiefs captured offends Balboa, and he is torn to pieces by the blood-hounds. The Spaniards find gold very abundant, and obtain so much that it becomes a burden. The soldiers cannot carry it. They are forced to climb mountains, wade through swamps, endure terrible hardships. Balboa is taken sick, but his devoted followers carry him on a blanket After months of toil they reach their boats, astonishing their comrades with the immense amount of gold in their possession — gold in dust, in scales, in nuggets, golden ornaments, cups, and drinking-vessels, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Balboa hears of lands rich in gold southward on the Pacific coast, and resolves to visit them. He cuts down trees, hews the timbers and plank, compels the Indians to transport the materials across the mountains. He and his followers endure incredible hardships. One day a new governor arrives from Spain, who bates Balboa, and accuses him of treason, arrests him, and has him executed. Columbus is rewarded for discovering s new world by being sent borne in chains; and the man who discovered the Pacific Ocean id executed. That is the gratitude of Spain to her illustrious men.
CHAPTER VIII
A BOY WHO OBJECTED TO MARRYING HIS BROTHER'S WIDOW
NEARLY one hundred years have passed since the monks dug up the bones of Doctor Wicklif, There are not many followers of the doctor in England, for the bishops have been weeding the Lollards out. So many have been imprisoned in the Tower, in London, that one section of the edifice is called the Lollards' Prison. In one of the chambers the bishops sit in council for the condemnation of heretics, not that they have committed murder or theft, or for any other crime against society, but for reading Doctor Wicklifs translation