a
trial conducted under such auspices as Pedrarias's. He determined,
therefore, to secure himself in his position by some splendid
achievement, which would so work upon the {36} feelings of the King
that he would be unable, for very gratitude, to press hard upon him.

The exploit that he meditated and proposed to accomplish was the
discovery of the ocean upon the other side of the Isthmus. When
Nicuesa came down from Nombre de Dios, he left there a little handful
of men. Balboa sent an expedition to rescue them and brought them down
to Antigua. Either on that expedition or on another shortly afterward,
two white men painted as Indians discovered themselves to Balboa in the
forest. They proved to be Spaniards who had fled from Nicuesa to
escape punishment for some fault they had committed and had sought
safety in the territory of an Indian chief named Careta, the Cacique of
Cueva. They had been hospitably received and adopted into the tribe.
In requital for their entertainment, they offered to betray the Indians
if Vasco Nunez, the new governor, would condone their past offenses.
They filled the minds of the Spaniards, alike covetous and hungry, with
stories of great treasures and what was equally valuable, abundant
provisions, in Coreta's village.

Balboa immediately consented. The act of treachery was consummated and
the chief captured. All that, of course, was very bad, but the
difference between Balboa and the men of his time is seen in his after
conduct. Instead of putting the unfortunate chieftain to death and
taking his people for slaves, Balboa released him. The reason he
released him was because of a woman--a woman who enters vitally into
the subsequent history of Vasco Nunez, and indeed of the whole of South
America. This was the beautiful daughter of the chief. Anxious to
propitiate his captor, Careta offered Balboa this flower of the family
{37} to wife. Balboa saw her, loved her and took her to himself. They
were married in accordance with the Indian custom; which, of course,
was not considered in the least degree binding by the Spaniards of that
time. But it is to Balboa's credit that he remained faithful to this
Indian girl. Indeed, if he had not been so much attached to her it is
probable that he might have lived to do even greater things than he did.

In his excursions throughout the Isthmus, Balboa had met a chief called
Comagre. As everywhere, the first desire of the Spanish was gol