THE TRAVELLING HISTORIAN -- PANAMA

PANAMA

Christopher Columbus

In 1502 on his fourth and final voyage, Christopher Columbus sailed along the isthmus of Panama, searching in vain for an open channel that would lead to the Orient. He never knew how close he came to the path to the fabled place he thought he'd found.

Seeking A Water-way to the Orient

Vasco Nuñez de Balboa
(1474 - January 15, 1519)
A Spanish explorer, governor and conquistador.

Eleven years later on September 1, 1513, Balboa stepped onto the stage of history.

Balboa learned of a lotus land as a result of a squabble among the Spaniards, who were dissatisfied with the meagre amounts of gold they were being allotted. Angry at their avarice and everlasting arguments, the son of a native chief knocked over the scales used to measure gold and exclaimed, "If you are so hungry for gold, that you leave your lands to cause strife in those of others, I shall show you a province where you can quell this hunger."

All ears perked up at this piece of positive news about people so rich, they ate from plates and drank from goblets of gold. Shouts of joy greeted this awesome outburst, but words of caution came too. Such fortunes were not free for the taking, for the route was rife with terribly intemperate tribes living inland and on the coast of "the other sea."

Panama Canal and Balboa's Trek to the Pacific

Undeterrred by talk of trouble, Balboa decided to strike out as soon as possible. The group included 190 Spaniards, a few native guides, native porters and a lot of leashed dogs led by Balboa's own beast, Leoncico, which drew a bowman's pay. All were more fearful by far than guns and crossbows. Soldiers were thankful for the presence of the porters, whose backs were bent under the burdens they carried - armour, bags of gunpowder and shot, food, camp gear and trade goods.

Stretching for over half a mile, the little company of trekkers traversed some of the densest jungle in the Americas. They hacked their way through daunting countryside and across dangerous crocodile-infested rivers. Their route was well east of the present canal and the pack-mule trail that they used later to transport gold and other goodies from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast.

From his knowledgeable native friends, Balboa knew pretty well what he was going to discover and what he would find along the way. The main purpose of the expedition, as far as he was concerned, was the search for gold-rich kingdoms. As he crossed the country, he met and managed to easily defeat hostile tribes and relieve them of their riches of gold, silver and pearls aplenty. Much of the gold he collected came from ornaments worn by native women.

Country encountered on the trip to the Pacific.
photo by
G.Wilson

The natives said the new sea could be seen from the summit of the range they were on. Balboa pressed on by himself. At that moment in history, 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 25 September, 1513,[*] Captain Vasco Nunez Balboa stood there alone and saw from the summit the South Sea, its silver water stretching away vast and inviolate before him. He and the 67 caballeros with him knelt and thanked God for their good fortune. From a little way off, the Indians watched the white men's magic and wondered what it all meant. Then a fine tree was felled and made into a tall cross situated on the site where they saw the sea.

[**]Like stout Balboa, when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific - and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise -
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

We too knew the thrill of suddenly sighting the Pacific Ocean.
photo by
G. Wilson

Eagerly the others joined in the joy at Balboa's discovery. The expedition's chaplain intoned the Te Deum, while men erected stone pyramids and engraved crosses on the bark of trees with their swords to mark the place where the South Sea was first seen.

After the epic moment of discovery, the expedition descended from the mountain range towards the sea. A small group was sent to search for routes to the coast and reached the shoreline two days later. They reconnoitred in a canoe, thus becoming the first Europeans to navigate the Pacific Ocean. Balboa with 26 men marched towards the coast, where he raised his hands, his sword in one and a standard with the image of the Virgin Mary in the other, walked knee-deep into the ocean and claimed possession of the new sea and all adjoining lands in the name of the Spanish sovereign.

Claiming the Pacific for his Sovereign

Balboa arrived back in Santa María on January 19, 1514 with a treasure in cotton goods, more than 100,000 castellanos worth of gold and pounds of pearls. Unbeknownst to Balboa, all the wealth they could carry could not compare to the magnitude of the discovery of the South Sea on behalf of Spain. Balboa sent news to Spain of this discovery along with one fifth of the treasure to the king, as the law required.

The king bestowed on him the titles of "Adelantado," governor of a territory. This did not prevent his jealous superior, who happened to be Balboa's father-in-law, from ordering him arrested on a trumped up charge of treason. A friend and famous fellow conquistador, Pizarro, captured Balboa and took him to be tried. Quickly found guilty, the sentence of death was imposed. Protesting his innocence in vain, Balboa was spirited away and shortly thereafter beheaded. The ultimate location of Balboa's remains is unknown, partly because there is no record of what happened after the execution.

One of the highest orders granted by the Panamanian government to distinguished and outstanding figures, foreign and domestic, is the Orden Vasco Núñez de Balboa. The official currency of Panama is the Panamanian balboa. The lunar crater Balboa bears his name.

Monument of Vasco Núñez de Balboa in Panama City.

Statue of Balboa in Madrid (E. Pérez, 1954)

Almost as soon as the narrow isthmus was discovered, plans were afoot for a canal, the earliest proposed by Charles V of Spain in 1539. Over three hundred years were to pass before anyone attempted to put such plans into effect. The dredging of this great ditch cost thousands of lives from the brutal labour, malaria and yellow fever, as workers fought their way through jungle density more daunting than they had ever seen before. The busiest canal in the world sees 14,000 vessels pass through its locks each year.

While most is freight and food, cruise ships accommodate tourists like us, who flock to flow from ocean to ocean through this 50-mile moat and we marvelled at what man had made as we leisurely passed through the steamy jungle that crowded in upon us at every twist and turn.

Entering the Panama Canal Gallard Cut
photo by
G.Wilson

Passing through the Panama Canal Gallard Cut
photo by
G.Wilson

Still Passing through the Panama Canal Gallard Cut
photo by
G.Wilson

etc. Panama Canal Gallard Cut
photo by
G.Wilson

Panama Canal Locks
photo by
G.Wilson

Gaton Locks
photo by
G.Wilson

Nature, ever-ready to reclaim its right, makes dredging a never-ending grind.
photo by
G.Wilson

Map of Panama Canal

Bridge to the Americas
photo by
G. Wilson

The Bridge to the Americas, which opened in 1962, connects Colón and Panamá and crosses the Pacific approach to the Panama Canal at Balboa near Panama City.

Bridge to the Americas at Night

"Balboa Bill"
Perched to be the first to see
South Sea
photo by
G. Wilson

Our ship, Princess, Passing from the Panama Canal into the Pacific Ocean
photo by
G. Wilson

[*] Some doubt the certainty of four centuries of historians as to the date and time.

[**]Poem Adapted from: On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer by John Keats

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