While Meditating Upon This Project, A Boat Came Into The Port
With Four Men, Who Reported That Nicuessa Had Been
Stranded on an unknown
coast, and after marching a great way by land with incredible fatigue, was
now not far
Off, but that he and his followers were in a very miserable
condition. On hearing this melancholy account, Olano relented, and
immediately sent back the boat with provisions and refreshments, which
came very opportunely to save Nicuessa and his men from starving, which
they certainly must have done without this seasonable relief. Yet this did
not in the least soften his resentment against Olano for deserting him,
whom he would have hanged, if he had not been afraid of irritating the men,
and instead of that he put him in irons, threatening to send him to Spain
in that condition. The authority, however, did not remain long in his
hands; for, endeavouring to establish a settlement on the Bethlehem
river, he was so straitened for provisions, that he was obliged to leave a
part of his men there, and to sail with the rest to Porto Bello; but, not
being allowed by the Indians to land there, he was obliged to proceed four
or five leagues farther to the port which Columbus named Bastimentos.
Immediately on entering he exclaimed, Paremos aqui en el nombre de Dios,
Let us stay here in the name of God. He immediately landed and began to
erect a fortress, which was named Nombre de Dios, from the above
mentioned expression. He had not been long here till he found himself as
much straitened for provisions as at Bethlehem, on which account he sent
one of his ships to St Domingo to request assistance from the governor.
Scarcely was this vessel out of the port, before that with Colmenares
arrived from the river Darien, with the invitation to take the command of
the Spanish colony at that place. Colmenares and his men were so
astonished to see the miserable condition of Nicuessa and seventy of his
people, who were all that remained with him at Nombre de Dios, that they
shed tears. They were lean, ragged, and barefooted, and excited pity by
the recital of the intolerable distresses they had undergone, and the
numbers of their companions who had already died.
Colmenares did all he could to comfort Nicuessa, telling him that the
people of Darien wished him to come and assume the government of that
colony, which was situated in a fine country abounding in provisions, and
which did not want gold. Nicuessa began to recover his spirits, by the
seasonable supply of provisions, and the comfortable intelligence brought
by Colmenares, and gave thanks to God for this merciful relief. But he
soon forfeited the reputation for prudence which he had formerly enjoyed
among the colonists of Hispaniola; as, forgetting the miserable condition
from which he was so recently relieved, and not considering that the
people of Darien had submitted to his authority of their own free will, he
foolishly declared in public that he would take all their gold from them
on his arrival, and would even punish them for encroaching on his province.
This news soon spread abroad, and heaven had the imprudence to send a
caravel before him to Darien, having a desire to examine some islands
which lay in the way thither.
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