.
But when, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, Vasco Nunez de
Balboa stood upon the shore of the Pacific, and gazed over its
boundless waters, the sight to him was both grand and mysterious. He
saw that a vast sea lay beneath and before him--but that was all he
knew. Europeans had not visited it before, and the Indians, who had
acted as his guides, knew but little about it. If he had desired to
sail across those vast blue waters, Balboa would have had no idea upon
what shores he would land or what wonderful countries and continents
he would discover.
Now-a-days, any school-boy could tell that proud, brave soldier, what
lay beyond those billows. Supposing little Johnny Green (we all know
him, don't we?) had been there, how quickly he would have settled
matters for the Spanish chieftain.
"Ah, Mr. Balboa," Johnny would have said, "you want to know what lies
off in that direction--straight across? Well, I can tell you, sir. If
you are standing, as I think you are, on a point of the Isthmus of
Darien, where you can look directly westward, you may cast your eyes,
as far as they will go, over a body of water, which, at this point, is
about eleven thousand miles wide. No wonder you jump, sir, but such is
the fact. If you were to sail directly west upon this ocean you would
have a very long passage before you came upon any land at all, and the
first place which you would reach, if you kept straight on your
westward course, would be the Mulgrave Islands. But you would have
passed about seven or eight hundred miles to the southward of the
Sandwich Islands, which are a very important group, where there is an
enormous volcano, and where Captain Cook will be killed in about two
hundred and fifty years. If you then keep on, you will pass among the
Caroline Islands, which your countrymen will claim some day; and if
you are not eaten up by the natives, who will no doubt coax you to
land on some of their islands and will then have you for supper, you
will at last reach the Philippine Islands, and will probably land, for
a time, at Mindanao, to get water and things. Then, if you still keep
on, you will pass to the north of a big island, which is Borneo, and
will sail right up to the first land to the west, which will be part
of a continent; or else you will go down around a peninsula, which
lies directly in your course, and sail upon the other side of it, into
a great gulf, and land anywhere you please. Do you know where you
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