Note VII-11 — Chapter VII · SETTLEMENT OF SANTA MARÍA DE LA ANTIGUA DEL DARIEN. 1510-1511.

Benzoni asserts that after leaving Antigua, Nicuesa followed the coast for some distance, but landing one day for water, he was seized by cannibals, who captured the vessel and devoured the men. 'E cosi Niquesa molto dolente se ne parti, e per quella costa andando salto in terra per piglior acqua, e su da paesani ucciso, e poi mangiato con tutti i suoi compagni, e questo su la fine della vita di Diego di Niquesa, con la sua armata di Veragua.' Hist. Mondo Nvovo, i. 47. A story was current for a time that they had been thrown on Cuba, where all perished, leaving inscribed upon a tree, 'Here ended the unfortunate Nicuesa.' Las Casas and Herrera, however, are of opinion that his vessel foundered at sea. 'Algunos imaginaron que aportò a Cuba, y que los Indios le mataron, porque andando ciertos Castellanos por la isla hallarõ escrito en un arbol: Aqui feneciò el desdichado Nicuesa: pero esto se tuvo por los hombres mas verdaderos, por falso, porque los primeros que entraron en Cuba, afermaron nunca aver oydo tal nueva. Lo que se tuvo por mas cierto, es, que como llenava tan mal navio, y las mares de aquellas partes son ton bravas, y vehementes, la mesma mar lo tragara facilmente, o que pereceria de hãbre, y de sed.' Herrera, i. viii. viii. But his fate must forever remain a mystery; and he one among the many whose visionary hopes have been buried beneath these waters; one among the many who, having left home with sanguine expectations, sailed over these seas in quest of gold or adventure, never again to be heard from! It is easy, after a failure, to find the mistake. Many of Nicuesa's misfortunes sprang not from any fault, and yet faults, in place of nobler qualities, were developed by his misfortunes.