greatly disturbed, moreover, by the extraordinary actions of his Indian prisoners. These were confined in the forecastle, and as some of the crew slept upon the hatch, there seemed no chance of their escaping. One night the prisoners, piling up a lot of ballast just under the hatch, mounted on one another's shoulders, and by a concerted action, burst open the covering of the forecastle and hurled the sleeping sailors across the deck. Thus freed, the most agile of the warriors leaped overboard and escaped. The rest were secured and thrust back into their prison with a guard over them. When, however, they were inspected the next morning, not one was alive. In desperation they had all hanged or strangled themselves with cords or ends of rope.

The escape of the warriors boded no good to the little colony, and the admiral was glad to accept the offer of one of his pilots, who volunteered to go in a boat as far as the point at which the surf began and then to swim to the shore. Having made this hazardous trip and returned in safety the pilot reported that the settlers were determined to abandon the country and declared that if they were not taken on board, they would embark as soon as possible in the caravel that had been left them.

For nine days more, however, the stormy weather prevented communication with the land; then with the coming of calmer weather, which was foretold to Columbus in a vision, a raft of boats was made, and all the men, with the supplies, were safely transported on board the caravels.

Joyful as men escaping from almost certain death, the colonists were borne away with the first favorable breeze from that dismal shore; while the admiral promised himself that with a more propitious day, he would yet plant a colony in the land of Veragua.

Coasting back towards South America he sailed as far as the Gulf of Darien, and then turned his course towards Hispaniola. From the island of Jamaica, he inscribed a long letter to his sovereigns, in which after describing the lands he had taken possession of in their names, he added:

"The people who have sailed with me have passed through incredible toil and danger, and I beseech your Highnesses since they are poor, to pay them promptly and to be gracious to each of them according to their respective merits; for I can safely assert that to my belief they are the bearers of the best news that ever was carried to Spain."

CHAPTER II

SETTLEMENT

IN the preceding chapter the fame of discovering Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and a portion of Panama has been given to Columbus. The great admiral has a just claim to these laurels. It is true that John Fiske in his Discovery of America, relying on certain statements of the Spanish historians Gomara and Oviedo, who wrote a generation or two after the event, has assigned the finding of the Honduras coast to the captains Pinzon and Solis, but in depriving Columbus of the credit of the discovery, Fiske is not supported by more recent students of this period. Professor Bourne has shown conclusively that the most trustworthy contemporary authorities, Las Casas and Fernando Columbus, assert that the voyage of Pinzon and Solis was undertaken after the fourth voyage of Columbus.

A portion of the coast visited on this voyage by Columbus, however, had already been discovered not long before, though it is not certain that Columbus had been informed of the fact. In 1500-2 Rodrigo de Bastidas and Juan de la Cosa had made a voyage to South America, and towards the close of their expedition, had sailed along the coast of Panama and Veragua as far as Nombre de Dios, near the present town of Aspinwall. In their company was Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, who some years later was to be the first European to gaze upon the waters of what is now the Pacific Ocean.

The opportunity to accomplish this important task came to Balboa in connection with the expeditions of Ojeda and Nicuesa to found permanent settlements on the mainland. Ojeda was a former companion of Columbus, while Nicuesa was a resident of Hispaniola, wealthy and well-born. Excited by the voyages of Columbus and of Pinzon and Solis, these two men sought and received each the grant of a province in the New World: Ojeda, the province of Urabá, lying east of the River Darien, and Nicuesa, the Isthmus of Panama and the coast of Veragua as far north as Cape Gracias á Dios in Honduras. Ojeda sailed from San Domingo with four vessels, three hundred men, and twelve mares. Nicuesa, who had furnished himself at the expense of his fortune, had five vessels and six hundred and fifty men. The start of the two adventurers was made in the month of November, 1509.

Ojeda, who was the first to set out, soon reached the port of Cartagena. Here he managed to antagonize the Indians by making a fierce attack upon one of their villages and capturing a number of the savages. Pursuing some fugitives in a disorderly fashion, he and his men were suddenly surrounded by a band of savages who, by the use of poisoned arrows, succeeded in killing seventy or more of the Spaniards, Ojeda and one companion alone surviving. When Ojeda was finally discovered hiding in a wood, by a searching party from his ships, his shield showed the marks of three hundred arrows. Infuriated against the Indians, the vanquished commander now joined his forces with those of Nicuesa, whose fleet had arrived upon the coast, and the two captains took a terrible vengeance, burning men, women, and children in their cabins.

Ojeda now parted from Nicuesa, and sailed away to the Gulf of Urabá. Here he spent some time in seeking the River Darien, which had been fixed as the boundary line between his possessions and those of Nicuesa. Though this river flows into the Gulf of Urabá, he was unable to locate it, and choosing a spot on the eastern side, he founded the