the northern coast of South
America was that of Ojeda in 1499-1500, in company with Juan de la
Cosa, next to Columbus the most expert navigator and pilot of the age,
and Vespucci, perhaps his equal in nautical science as he {5} was his
superior in other departments of polite learning. There were several
other explorations of the Gulf coast, and its continuations on every
side, during the same year, by one of the Pizons, who had accompanied
Columbus on his first voyage; by Lepe; by Cabral, a Portuguese, and by
Bastidas and La Cosa, who went for the first time as far to the
westward as Porto Rico on the Isthmus of Darien.

On the fourth and last voyage of Columbus, he reached Honduras and
thence sailed eastward and southward to the Gulf of Darien, having not
the least idea that the shore line which he called Veragua was in fact
the border of the famous Isthmus of Panama. There were a number of
other voyages, including a further exploration by La Cosa and Vespucci,
and a second by Ojeda in which an abortive attempt was made to found a
colony; but most of the voyages were mere trading expeditions,
slave-hunting enterprises or searches, generally fruitless, for gold
and pearls. Ojeda reported after one of these voyages that the English
were on the coast. Who these English were is unknown. The news,
however, was sufficiently disquieting to Ferdinand, the Catholic--and
also the Crafty!--who now ruled alone in Spain, and he determined to
frustrate any possible English movement by planting colonies on the
Spanish Main.

II. The Don Quixote of Discoveries and His Rival

Instantly two claimants for the honor of leading such an expedition
presented themselves. The first Alonzo de Ojeda, the other Diego de
Nicuesa. Two more extraordinary characters never went knight-erranting
upon the seas. Ojeda was one of the {6} prodigious men of a time which
was fertile in notable characters. Although small in stature, he was a
man of phenomenal strength and vigor. He could stand at the foot of
the Giralda in Seville and throw an orange over it, a distance of two
hundred and fifty feet from the earth![1]

Wishing to show his contempt for danger, on one occasion he ran out on
a narrow beam projecting some twenty feet from the top of the same
tower and there, in full view of Queen Isabella and her court,
performed various gymnastic exercises, such as standing on one leg, _et
cetera_, for the edification of the spectators, returning