At once the desire arose in his mind to gaze on
that unknown sea.
Balboa felt it necessary to do something striking and do it quickly. He
had received letters from Zamudio, the agent he had sent to Spain, which
were very discouraging. Enciso had complained to King Ferdinand of the way
in which he had been treated, and the king had not only refused to support
Balboa with a royal warrant for his actions, but had condemned his course
and ordered him to return to Spain. His hopes of fortune and greatness
were at an end unless he could win the favor of the king by some great
enterprise. Such would be the discovery of that great ocean, and this he
determined to attempt.
The Isthmus of Darien, which he would have to cross, is not over sixty
miles wide. But many of these are miles of mountain, on which grow forests
so dense as to be almost impassable. There, too, where it rains for more
than half the year, the valleys are converted into marshes, and are so
often overflowed that in many places the natives have to dwell in the
trees, while from the high grounds rush swollen rivers, fierce and
threatening.
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