islands of the West Indies did not disconcert him nor dampen his ardor. He took it for granted that they were outposts of the mainland which he sought. He describes them as "the Islands discovered in the Indian Sea," in his report of the voyage to his royal patrons. The developments of the second voyage only confirmed and amplified these delusions, from which the great explorer was never freed. Cuba, along the southern coast of which only he sailed, was readily accepted by him and by his officers as a part of the mainland of Asia, and, when his next expedition touched the shores of South America, near the delta of the Orinoco, the land was unhesitatingly pronounced to be another portion of the same continent. This self-deception Columbus sustained and increased by his too-ready habit of confusing the names of places mentioned by the Caribbean Indians with those referred to by Marco Polo in his account of his Oriental travels. Columbus set out upon his last and fourth voyage with the design of discovering a strait which should enable him to pass through Terra Firma, as he had named the mainland of South America, to India. And here was the first nebulous idea of the Panama Canal. Accord

ing to Gomara, Columbus, on this occasion, discovered the "River of Crocodiles, which is now called Rio de Chagres, which hath its springs near the South Sea, within four leagues of Panama." Had the intrepid navigator sailed up that river he might justly have been accorded the distinction of having been the first explorer of a trans-Isthmian canal route. He died without realizing the true import of his great discoveries, and still believing that his momentous cruises had been in the seas and along the coasts of Asia.

In the meanwhile, Vasco de Gama, sailing under the flag of Portugal, had rounded the southern point of Africa and reached the Malabar Coast of India, returning safely toward the end of 1499. This exploit stimulated Spain to renewed efforts to discover a western passage. Amerigo Vespucci made important discoveries along the coast of South America which he, like Columbus, believed to be the continent of Asia. On the first map to show America, that of Waldseemüller, published in 1507, a narrow strait between the continents is shown in place of the existing isthmus. In the book which accompanied this map, Waldseemüller credits Vespucci with the discovery of the newly de

picted region and suggests that it should be named the Land of Amerigo, or America. The claim was not a justifiable one, but there is good authority for the statement that Alonzo de Ojeda, with Vespucci as the pilot of his expedition, landed upon the mainland of South America within a year of the occasion when Columbus discovered the land near the delta of the Orinoco. Amerigo Vespucci made two more voyages during the succeeding ten years in a search for the strait. At this time many other adventurers were engaged in the same quest, or in the hunt for gold, large quantities of which were secured by the early comers without the trouble of mining for it. The natives held it in no great value and readily exchanged it for articles of European manufacture of trifling value.

The decade following the last voyage of Columbus was a period of eager exploration by navigators of various nations. The coast of the Americas, from Labrador to Brazil, was scoured in the hope of finding a waterway to the ocean beyond. With continued failure, it began to be believed that no such channel existed. This view was greatly strengthened in 1513, by the discovery of the Pacific Ocean. Vasco Nunez de Balboa was one of the early govern

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ors of the Province of Darien. He had married the daughter of one of the Indian chiefs and was on the best of terms with the natives. From them he learned of a vast sea, only a few days' march beyond the mountains, that divided the continent. He collected a force of Spaniards and Indians and sailed to a point near Caledonia Bay, whence he was informed the crossing could be most easily effected. route adopted is the shortest passage from ocean to ocean, although it does not pass over the divide at the lowest level. Progress through the dense jungle was difficult. It was nineteen days after starting when, on September 25, Balboa saw the Pacific Ocean from the summit of the divide. Four days later he entered the water and formally claimed the "South Sea," as he called it, in the name of the King of Spain.

Meanwhile, Balboa had been the subject of the usual intrigues at the Court of Spain, and, at the time of his great discovery, Pedrarias was preparing to sail for Terra Firma with authority to supersede him as governor. The news of Balboa's important exploit did not reach Ferdinand until after the new governor had sailed, but a royal warrant was immedi

ately issued confirming the former in his position and conferring upon him the additional honor of Adelantado of the lands upon the new sea that he had discovered. This order was doubtless delivered to Pedrarias and he seems 'to have kept it to himself, after the high-handed manner of viceroys in the American possessions of Spain at that period. The first act of Pedrarias on landing in America was to order Balboa's arrest and trial on a charge of treason. The result was an acquittal, and for a while the rivals, each with a formidable body of followers at his back, maintained an armed truce. At length Pedrarias resorted to subterfuge in order to get his enemy into his power. He was aware of Balboa's keen desire to explore the coast southward on the other side of the continent, prompted by the stories of the Indians, who declared that a country abounding in gold and other precious metals lay far away to the south. Pedrarias feigned a revulsion of feeling toward Balboa and assured him of his future friendship, at the same time giving his consent to the proposed expedition.

With the wonderful energy that characterized him, Balboa set about carrying out his cherished project, which involved nothing less than