University of Virginia Library

27. CHAPTER XXVII.
CHANGES OF FORTUNE.

The miserable remnant of that proud armament with
which Ojeda set forth from San Domingo, scarce thirty
men, with the single brigantine commanded by Pizarro,
was before the Bachelor. The melancholy review of this
little band might have discouraged a much stouter spirit
than that of Enciso, from a farther prosecution of his enterprises
in a region where such cruel fortunes had awaited
them. But the vanity of his heart got the better of his
understanding, and the desire to put in exercise his judicial
authority in the government which had been assigned to
Ojeda, from whom came his appointment, resolved him to
prosecute his voyage. It was not without great difficulty,
and only by a peremptory assertion of his authority, that he
prevailed upon the suffering crew of Pizarro to return with
him to the town of San Sebastian from which they had
departed, as they believed for ever. But his own misfortunes
began with his arrival at the port which had been so
fatal to the fortunes of his superior. His vessel struck a
rock on entering the harbour, and was soon torn to pieces
by the waves and currents. The crew escaped with great
difficulty, and but little was saved from the waters, out of
the stores of plenty, the arms, the horses and swine, with
which he had chartered his vessel for the supply of the
colony. The “Bachelor beheld the profits of years of
prosperous litigation swallowed up in an instant.” When
he landed upon the shores, the prospect that met his eye
added to his other discouragements. The Indians had
hung close upon the departing steps of Pizarro, and had destroyed
by fire the fortress and all the houses built by
Ojeda. Their supplies soon began to fail, and Enciso, a
better lawyer than soldier, sallying forth into the country,

was waylaid by the savages, who hunted them at every
step, wounded many of the Spaniards, and by their fleetness
of foot defied the pursuit of an enemy who could only
hope to contend with them in close conflict, and removed
from the shelter of their forest fastnesses. He returned to
the harbour in dismay, and his own consternation and irresoluteness,
soon declared to the Spaniards more emphatically
than words could have done, the utter incapacity of
their leader for their direction and relief. In this moment
of emergency and doubt, all eyes were turned, as by a
common impulse, upon the desolate adventurer whom the
bitter malice of the Bachelor would have consigned to a
lonely island of the sea. His name, muttered in murmurs
at first, was at length openly pronounced, and Enciso, conscious
of his own incapacity to relieve them in their present
straits, was easily persuaded to turn for counsel to the
only man of all his company by whom it could be given.
Nor did Vasco Nunez in this moment of distress, remember
the hostile spirit which Enciso had displayed towards
him. With that noble magnanimity which, since his manhood,
might almost have been deemed habitual, he seemed
to forget their strifes, and cordially gave his honest counsel
as to the best course which lay before them.

“When I sailed with Bastides along this coast,” said he,
“it was closely explored from cape de la Vela, even beyond
the miserable spot on which we now stand. In
particular, we gave a close examination to the gulf of
Uraba. It is thither I would counsel ye to go. There is,
I well remember, an Indian people on the western side of
the gulf that dwell along the banks of a river which they
call Darien. The people, though warlike, use no poison
to their weapons, and the country is fertile, and there is
gold said to grow in the mountains. There you may get
supplies of provision and found your colony if it so pleases
you.”

“In the name of God, Señor Vasco, guide us if thou
canst to this river of Darien,” was the exclamation of the
Bachelor, and his words were echoed by all his followers,
glad of any retreat which would enable them to leave a
spot so full of evil fortune and worse promise.

“Shall I be obeyed in what I command necessary to
bring ye to the spot, and secure you in its possession? It
were of little avail to say, here is the village, and the gold

is in the bowels of yonder mountain, unless there be one
who shall also tell ye in what manner to circumvent the
savage and explore the mountain.”

The Bachelor was reluctant to yield up so large an authority
to one whom he had been so anxious to destroy,
and whom he still continued to fear and hate; but the necessity
was pressing. The haughty cavalier was resolute
not to take upon himself a half authority which was liable
to be marred or baffled at any moment, at the caprice of
his commander; and the clamours of his followers, who
saw every instant the unfitness of Enciso for the command,
compelled him to close with the terms of Vasco Nunez.
In another instant and all was life and activity, courage and
confidence, among a people who were sick before with apprehension
and utterly down-hearted from their late defeat.
Still Vasco Nunez did not supersede the Bachelor, but it was
enough that the soldiers well knew that the orders came
from him though uttered by the lips of the latter. Already
they began to say to themselves—“this Vasco Nunez is
the proper man for such enterprise—Martin Hernandez de
Enciso will help us little forward.” As yet these opinions
were unexpressed to each other; but where men are equal,
the mind of one will soon be in the possession of his
neighbour, and it will be found always that every man's
conviction is the common law.

In a few hours after this deliberation took place, the colony
of San Sebastian was abandoned. Guided and counselled
by Vasco Nunez, the Bachelor set sail for the proposed
settlement on the river of Darien. When he reached
the spot, Vasco Nunez, from a previous knowledge of its
situation, took on himself the preparations, and having
divided his force under proper commands, and put them in
martial array, he landed at some distance from the town
and advanced along the banks toward it. But their approach
was soon discovered by the inhabitants; the women
and children were sent to a place of safety into the interior,
while their cassique, a valiant chief named Zemaco, stationed
himself on a little eminence with five hundred men, to
receive the invaders. Vasco Nunez had already made all
the arrangements which he deemed necessary for the combat;
but on a sudden his orders for attack were arrested by
the Bachelor, who had legal and pious scruples which were
yet to be overcome. Apprehensive that the terrors which

his men entertained of poisoned arrows might impair their
courage, he required them to swear upon the holy volume,
that, however the savages might fight, and with whatever
weapons, they should not turn their backs upon the foe.
They were to conquer or die. Then, having made certain
liberal vows of spoils yet to be won, to “our lady of Antigua”
in the event of his success, he professed himself
ready for the conflict, which he had delayed to the annoyance
of Vasco Nunez and other warriors, whose practice
made them far less scrupulous than the circumspect attorney.
Vasco Nunez, when Enciso gave the signal, led the
right division which had been given him to command,
directly up the hill, and in the very teeth of the Indian
warriors. He was quickly followed and well sustained by
the Bachelor in the centre, and Valdivia on the left, and
so warm was their valour, that Zemaco, though a brave
savage, was soon made to fly, leaving many of his warriors
slain behind him. The Spaniards then made their way to
the village, which yielded them not only great supplies of
provisions, but gold in every form of ornament, anklets,
plates and bracelets, to an immense amount. Greatly was
the heart of the Bachelor uplifted by this achievement. He
forgot all past misfortunes, and every disaster and doubt in
the moment of this unexpected success. He instantly resolved
to establish the seat of government in the village he
had taken. He was anxious to begin the sway for which
his spirit had yearned so long. His neck grew stiff with
his triumph, the merit of which he took entirely to himself—and
he who, but a day before, had taken counsel from
Vasco Nunez as from a superior, now scarcely bestowed
upon the latter the countenance due even to a slave. Nor,
in the plentitude of his authority and greatness, did he limit
its austere aspects alone to the man whom he so hated.
Having established his government, he was anxious to exhibit
its terrors, and availing himself of the royal command,
he passed an edict forbidding his men to traffic with the
natives on private account, under penalties of death.
This law was little agreeable to men who considered all
their perils as taken in vain, if denied the profits of the free
wild trade to which they naturally looked forward at the
beginning of their adventure. They murmured among
themselves at the stern interdiction, and did not hesitate to
say to one another, that the Bachelor aimed to appropriate
the common gains to himself. Many of them turned
their eyes, even at this early period, upon Vasco Nunez,
whose courage, skill, and excellent knowledge of the country,
seemed at once to designate him as the person best
fitted for the command; but he kept aloof from them in
their discontent, and seemed only to brood secretly and
sorrowfully upon that lack of resources which alone appeared
to be wanting, by which he might pass to those
conquests for which he had striven so vainly and so long.
While the murmurs and discontents of the people continued
to rise under the unwonted strictness of the lawyer's
enactments, the dispute was suddenly silenced for a brief
space by an unlooked-for occurrence. The thunder of
cannon reached their ears one day from the opposite side
of the gulf. Rejoicing no less than surprised at these
unexpected signs of European life in that heathen neighbourhood,
they replied in the same manner to such grateful
signals, and in a short time two Spanish vessels were seen
standing in for their little harbour. They proved to belong
to the armament of Nicuesa, and were under the command
of one Rodrigo de Colmenares, who was seeking his superior
with supplies. When Colmenares came to speak
with Enciso, he reproached him for having dared to establish
his government within the jurisdiction of Nicuesa.
This reproach troubled the Bachelor exceedingly, and was
productive of infinite mischief to his authority among his
people, particularly at a time when his severe laws had
almost entirely diverted from him their regards. Nor was
Colmenares idle among them as soon as he discovered how
they inclined. He gained their hearts by a free supply of
provisions. He represented to them the legitimate right of
Diego de Nicuesa, under the king's especial grant, to all
that part of the gulf in which he found them, and turned
confidently to Vasco Nunez as unquestionable authority
on such a subject, to sustain him in what he advanced.
To him also the Bachelor turned in this moment of his
precarious command, and confidently hoped to be sustained
by our cavalier, as it was by his counsel that he had made
his way to the river of Darien. But his appeal to this authority,
though made with a degree of humility strangely
at variance with the scornful deportment he had so lately
carried towards the same individual, failed of the effect
which he had hoped it might produce.

“Colmenares is right;” he replied. “The boundary
line between the separate jurisdictions of Ojeda and Nicuesa
passes through the centre of the gulf of Uraba. The
village of Darien lies, as we all may see, on the western
side of the gulf which is allotted to the Senor Diego. We
are, therefore, under the authority of Nicuesa, if any body
hath authority in this heathen land. Certainly, that of
Alonzo de Ojeda, as governor, and of Hernando de Enciso,
as his alcalde mayor, is utterly worthless here, as the
Senor Hernando, being a man of the law, and exceedingly
fond of its exercise, should have known from the beginning.”

Colmenares loudly exulted at this decision, but the Bachelor
bitterly reproached Vasco Nunez with what he
styled the treachery of his conduct; the cold sarcastic remark
with which the cavalier concluded his opinion was
to the opinionated Bachelor, like the sting under the wing
of the hornet.

“And wherefore,” he exclaimed, “did you counsel me
to come within the province of another—wherefore but as
a man false hearted and having a purpose of evil within his
mind?”

“I counselled ye, that your people might be saved from
starvation, or a worse death from the poisoned arrows of
the savages. I thought nothing of your authority when I
looked on their desperation; had it been the question how
shall the fortune of the Bachelor Enciso be made,—or
where shall we go that he may enjoy the dignity of
alcalde mayor, Vasco Nunez had given you no answer
to the prayer which you made him for relief. He had
left you to your own precious wisdom, and the bitter fruits
thereof.”

“And for this I spared you when I found you a fugitive
from the law, an unbidden guest within my vessel? For
this I yielded to the prayer of my officers when my own
justice would have consigned thee to the bald rock within
the seas.”

“Ha!” exclaimed the cavalier, striking his weapon by
his side till the well tempered steel rattled like silver in its
sheath. “By St. John of the wilderness, Enciso, the signal
which would have sent me to the bald rock in the
ocean, would have sent thee to a darker place. The good
weapon which I carry gave me life—not thy mercy, nor

thy wisdom, nor thy courage! Go to!—thou chafest me
with thy speech, till my hand can scarce refrain from
making thee now bite of the steel.”

Vasco Nunez turned away from the crowd as these
words were spoken, and the Bachelor was not unwilling that
the controversy should cease between them; but enough
had been already said to render his authority doubtful, and
his followers, whom his stern legal edicts had offended,
were glad of the argument to shake off a rule which promised
to limit their own fortunes, and deprive them of all
the advantages which had been held out to them as lures
for the adventure they had engaged in. The indiscreet
vanity of the Bachelor precipitated his overthrow—an ill-judged
attempt to browbeat and compel his opponents,
resulted in a popular commotion, in which, with a true recognition
of the democratic doctrines of a more modern
period, they withdrew their allegiance from him; and the
man of law found himself, at the moment of his highest
expectations, suddenly reduced to the condition and the
fortunes of a follower, in the very armament he set forth
from Santo Domingo to command.