Note XII-3 — Chapter XII · THE FATE OF VASCO NUÑEZ DE BALBOA. 1516-1517.

There are several streams of this name between the Atrato and the Colorado, but none of them suit the occasion. Modern maps give a Rio Balsas flowing into the gulf of San Miguel from the south, its source turned the farthest possible away from Acla. On a map of Joannis de Laet, 1633, Nov. Orb., 347, midway between the gulf of San Miguel and Panamá, are the words R de la balsa. They are placed opposite Acla; the mouth of a river only is given, the stream not being laid down. The same may be said of the R. de la balse of Montanus, Nieuwe Weereld, 1671, which is in about the same locality. The Rio Chepo is the only stream approaching the description in that vicinity. In my opinion both of these map-makers were wrong; neither the Rio Chepo nor any other stream in that neighborhood was the Rio Balsas of Vasco Nuñez. The head-waters of the Rio Chucunaque are nearer the old site of Acla than those of the Rio Chepo, or of any other southward flowing stream; and yet I do not think the Chucunaque the Balsas of Vasco Nuñez. Says Pascual de Andagoya, Navarrete, Col. de Viages, iii. 404, 'Le envió á la provincia de Acla á poblar un pueblo, que es el que agora está que se dice Acla, y de allí le dió gente que fuese al rio de la Balsa, y hiciese dos navíos para bajar por él á la mar del sur ... y bajados al golfo de S. Miguel se anegaban,' etc.; from which, and from the objects and incidents of the enterprise, as given by various authors, I am inclined to believe the Rio de las Balsas of Vasco Nuñez to be the stream now known as the Rio Sabana. The fact of distance alone, commonly estimated at 22 leagues, but which Las Casas makes '24 y 25 leguas de sierras altísimas,' inclines me to this opinion, not to mention several others pointing in the same direction, which will clearly appear in the text.