is credit--or of an unwillingness to trust Pedrarias out of her sight,
which is more likely, is not known. At any rate, she went along.

Pedrarias, up to the time of his departure from Spain, had enjoyed two
nick-names, El Galan and El Justador. He had been a bold and dashing
cavalier in his youth, a famous tilter in tournaments in his middle
age, and a hard-fighting soldier all his life. His patron was Bishop
Fonseca. Whatever qualities he might possess for the important work
about to be devolved upon him would be developed later.

His expedition included from fifteen hundred to two thousand souls, and
there were at least as many more who wanted to go and could not for
lack of accommodations. The number of ships varies in different
accounts from nineteen to twenty-five. The appointments both of the
general expedition and the cavaliers themselves were magnificent in the
extreme. Many afterward distinguished in America went in Pedrarias's
command, chief among them being De Soto. Among others were Quevedo,
the newly appointed Bishop of Darien, and Espinosa, the judge.

The first fleet set sail on the 11th of April, 1514, and arrived at
Antigua without mishap on the 29th of June in the same year. The
colony at that place, which had been regularly laid out as a town with
fortifications and with some degree at least of European comfort,
numbered some three hundred hard-bitten soldiers. The principle of the
survival of the fittest had resulted in the selection of the best men
from all the previous expeditions. They would have been a {34}
dangerous body to antagonize. Pedrarias was in some doubt as to how
Balboa would receive him. He dissembled his intentions toward him,
therefore, and sent an officer ashore to announce the meaning of the
flotilla which whitened the waters of the bay.

The officer found Balboa, dressed in a suit of pajamas engaged in
superintending the roofing of a house. The officer, brilliant in silk
and satin and polished armour, was astonished at the simplicity of
Vasco Nunez's appearance. He courteously delivered his message,
however, to the effect that yonder was the fleet of Don Pedro Arias de
Avila, the new Governor of Darien.

[Illustration: "Balboa . . . Engaged in Superintending the Roofing of a
House"]

Balboa calmly bade the messenger tell Pedrarias that he could come
ashore in safety and that he was very welcome. Balboa was something of
a dissembler himself on occasion, as y