`nyāth dā bälbō`ä), c.1475–1519, Spanish conquistador, discoverer of the Pacific Ocean. After sailing with Bastidas Bastidas, Rodrigo de , c.1460–1526, Spanish conquistador in Colombia. In 1501, accompanied by Balboa and Juan de la Cosa, he discovered the mouths of the Magdalena River...... Click the link for more information. in 1501, Balboa probably went to Hispaniola. In 1510, fleeing from creditors, he hid on the vessel that took Enciso Enciso, Martín Fernández de , fl. 1509–19, Spanish conquistador and geographer. Commanding the supply ship for the colony planted (1509) near Cartagena by Ojeda, he met the discouraged men who had abandoned the settlement and persuaded them to
..... Click the link for more information. to Panama. After reaching Darién Darién , eastern part of Panama between the Gulf of Darién on the east and the Gulf of San Miguel on the west. Darién province, heavily forested and sparsely populated, is in the western part of the region.
..... Click the link for more information. , Balboa took command, deposed the incompetent Enciso, and sent him to Spain as a prisoner. Balboa showed only rarely the rapacity and cruelty characteristic of the conquistador. He won the friendship of the indigenous people, who accompanied him on his epic march across the isthmus. Toward the end of Sept., 1513, he discovered the Pacific and claimed it and all shores washed by it for the Spanish crown. His discovery came too late to offset Enciso's complaints at the court of Spain. Balboa was replaced by Pedro Arias de Ávila Arias de Ávila, Pedro , known as Pedrarias , c.1440–1531, Spanish colonial administrator. He was sent (1514) as governor to Darién (now part of Panama), then under the rule of Vasco Núñez de Balboa.
..... Click the link for more information. , and while preparing an expedition to Peru, he was summarily seized, accused of treason, and beheaded.
Bibliography
See C. L. G. Anderson, Life and Letters of Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1941, repr. 1971).
Balboa, Vasco Núñez de
(born 1475, Badajoz, Extremadura province, Castile—died Jan. 12, 1519, Acla, near Darién, Pan.) Spanish conquistador and explorer. In 1500 he explored the coast of modern Colombia, then settled in Hispaniola. Forced to flee creditors, he joined an expedition to assist a colony in Colombia. He persuaded the settlers to move across the Gulf of Urabá to Darién, where in 1511 they founded the first stable settlement on the South American continent. In 1513 he became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean and took possession of the Mar del Sur (South Sea) and adjacent lands for Spain. He became governor of the Mar del Sur and of the provinces of Panamá and Coiba but remained subject to a rival, Pedro Arias Dávila, or Pedrarias (1440?–1531). Fearing Balboa's influence, Pedrarias had him seized and charged with rebellion, treason, and other misdeeds. After a farcical trial, Balboa was beheaded.
Balboa, Vasco Núñez de
Born circa 1475 in Jerez de los Caballeros; died 1517 on the Pacific shore of the Isthmus of Panama. Spanish conquistador.
Balboa set sail for America in 1500, reaching the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic). In 1510 he sailed across to the Isthmus of Panama, where there was a new Spanish colony. Hearing about a rich southern coastal country (Peru), Núñez de Balboa, in search of a convenient route there, became the first man to cross the Isthmus of Panama and to reach the shore of the “South Sea” (Pacific Ocean). Early in 1517 he was falsely accused of plotting against the ruler of the colony and was executed.
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