Explorer, Conquistador, Colonizer
1475 – 1519
Liberty is and has been a global struggle ever since man came to earth. Power and control over others seem to be the foundation upon which civilizations rise and fall. In the rare cases where a people come together with mutual rights and shared interests; over time, the base appetites for power and dominion soon erode the in·al·ien·a·ble rights of the people. Yet in the very definition of the term inalienable rights, those rights cannot be taken away. Yet, for these many ages, one man’s, or one people’s efforts to dominate another requires the elimination of inalienable rights.
In The Conquest of Liberty, you will see the struggle for liberty played out over four continents. In that struggle, one of my favorite historical players is Vasco Núñez de Balboa. Some of you know him as the discoverer of the Pacific Ocean. Others as the namesake of Newport Beach’s famous dipped ice cream, the Balboa bar, which is worthy of his name, or the name of Panama’s currency.
But that’s not why he’s a key player in my Conquest of Liberty.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa was for me an oasis in a desert of bad guys. Yes, he was certainly a Spanish conquistador, and, with that occupation, comes some serious baggage. Yet in the Conquest of Liberty, Balboa is a light. Why? Because he was a genuine leader and had the capacity to lead from the front and he was followed by true followers. His men loved him. His integrity was rare for his day. Rare for our day. The native people also loved him. After of course, they were conquered. Vasco Núñez de Balboa is best known for crossing the isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513 becoming the first European to lead an expedition to reach the Pacific Ocean. The currency in Panama is the Balboa.
I love this guy for several reasons, first, he understood that getting along with the native population was better than butchering them. Many of his conquests were pure negotiations. In fact, in one of his first conquests in the new world, he was given the chief’s beautiful young daughter as a wife. That didn’t make the local male natives very happy but the peace between the natives and the Spanish that followed was unprecedented.
Let’s back up ten years. He was a descendant of the Lord Mason of the Castle of Balboa, on the borders of León and Galicia. He was born in Jerez de los Caballeros in southwestern Spain.
Following the news of Christopher Columbus’s voyages, Balboa, as a young man jumped on the chance to join the Rodrigo Bastidas expedition. This expedition explored along the Northern Coast of South America and up past the isthmus of Panama. They were wildly successful in trading with the natives for gold and silver. When they tried to sail back to Hispaniola, their ship was eaten by shipworms which was not uncommon in the warm Caribbean if the sailors weren’t diligent in caring for their ships. The ship came apart just before reaching Hispaniola, and they barely made it back to land. There’s a lot more to this story but, Balboa settled in Hispaniola for several years as a planter and pig farmer.
When his farm failed, and he became deeply in debt, he escaped debtors’ prison by stowing away on a ship that was taking provisions to none other than Francisco Pizarro who was trying to salvage a failed settlement along the northern coast of South America.
Balboa earned the respect of the men on that ship. He was instrumental in settling the first permanent community on the new continent. It was his skill in communication, negotiation, and understanding human nature that propelled his success. He created the first permanent settlement and the second and even established the first shipyards in Panama. He established longish lasting relationships with the natives and the people all prospered under his leadership. His success was also his undoing.
Balboa’s loyalty to the king and to law and order was to me sickening. There was no law and order, just evil. Balboa was faithful to the church and to the King. But he was practically the only one who was. He returned to the crown one-fifth of all his gains as was the law. However, greed and envy drove the governor and his ilk to plot Balboa’s arrest and immediate execution in 1519. He was surrounded by traitors. Balboa’s trusted confidant seduced his princess wife and betrayed Balboa to the Governor with lies. His very own captain, who he personally trained and mentored, who he chose to accompany him on the expedition to discover the Pacific Ocean, Francisco Pizarro, yes that Francisco Pizarro; plotted with the governor to destroy Balboa. After all, Balboa had built two ships in the Pacific Ocean in preparation to explore the west coast of Ecuador and Peru. Together these traitors, betrayed, and arrested Balboa and though falsely accused, they had him executed immediately before any appeal of the false charges could be made to the king. Needless to say, the new world lost one of the great men of the day.
What was in it for Pizarro? The whole Pacific Ocean and all the spoils of the Inca Empire, and he didn’t have to share an ounce of gold with the man who settled Panama, discovered the Pacific Ocean, brought peace and prosperity to the region, and built the first ships used to sail the Pacific Ocean. My Vasco Núñez de Balboa.
http://www.archive.org/details/vasconudnez00oberrich
“Ober, Frederick A. (Frederick Albion), 1849-1913”
Vasco Nunez de Balboa
