sco Nunez sought to be chosen
for this mission, but his companions refused him their votes, and his
adherents would not allow him to go; not only because they would have
felt themselves abandoned, but because they suspected that once out of
it, Vasco would not return to such a furnace of calamities, following
the example of Valdivia and Zamudio, whom they had sent off in
the month of January, and who, they thought, had no intention of
returning. In this latter they were wrong, as we shall show in the
proper place, for those men were dead.

After several ballotings without result, the colonists finally chose
a certain Juan Quevedo, a serious man of mature age, who was agent of
the royal treasury in Darien. They had full confidence that Quevedo
would conduct this business successfully, and they counted on his
return because he had brought his wife with him to the new world and
was leaving her in the colony as a pledge. As soon as Quevedo was
elected, several opinions concerning an associate for him were
expressed. Some people said it was risky to trust such an important
affair to one man; not that they mistrusted Quevedo, but human life is
uncertain, particularly if one considers that people accustomed to a
climate near the equator would be exposed on returning northwards to
frequent changes of climate and food. It was necessary, therefore, to
provide an associate for Quevedo, so that, if one died the other
might survive and if both escaped death, the King would place more
confidence in their dual report. Much time was spent in debating this
point, and finally they decided to choose Roderigo Colmenares, whose
name I have frequently mentioned. He was a man of large experience; in
his youth he had travelled by land and sea over all Europe, and he had
taken part in the Italian wars against the French. What decided the
colonists to choose Colmenares was the fact that, if he left, they
could count on his return, because he had purchased properties in
Darien and had spent large sums in planting. He hoped to sell his
crops as they stood, and to obtain the gold of his companions in
exchange. He therefore left the care of his estates to a citizen of
Madrid, a certain Alonzo Nunez, who was his comrade. This man was a
judge, and had almost been chosen by the colonists as an envoy in
place of his friend Colmenares; and indeed he would have been elected
but that one of his companions explained that he had a wife at Madrid.
It was fea