Note VII-6 — Chapter VII · SETTLEMENT OF SANTA MARÍA DE LA ANTIGUA DEL DARIEN. 1510-1511.
Reading edition
Carta dirigida al Rey por Vasco Nuñez de Balboa desde Santa María del Darien, 20 de Enero de 1513, in Navarrete, Col. de Viages, iii. 358. That Enciso has been properly represented as a vain and shallow man is proved by a reference to his book, Suma de Geographia, 2, wherein he does not hesitate to patronize the boy-emperor 'whose youth had not permitted him to read much of geography.' 'Por tanto yo Martin Fernandez de Enciso alguazil mayor dela tierra firme delas Indias ocidentales llamada castilla dl oro. Desseando hazer algun seruicio a vuestra. s. c. c. m. que le fuesse agradable y no menos prouechoso, cõsiderando que la poca edad de vuestra real alteza no ha dado lugar a que pudiesse leer los libros que dela geographia hablan.' And that he was as beastly in his bigotry and cruelty as his less learned companions we may know from what he himself wrote the king, Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., i. 449, about the caciques who kept men dressed as women, and used as such, 'and when I took Darien, we seized and burned them, and when the women saw them burning they manifested joy.' Compare Oviedo, ii. 425-27, 472-76; and iii. 7; Herrera, dec. i. lib. viii. cap. v.-vii.; and lib. ix. cap. l; or, if one will have it in Dutch, Ezquebel, Aankomst, 30-8, in Gottfried, Reysen, i.; Acosta, Compend. Hist. Nueva Granada, 33-8; Drake's Voy., 157-58; Norman's Hist. Cal., 10; Patton's Hist. U. S., 11; Ogilby's Am., 399; March y Labores, Marina Española, i. 413-23; Benzoni, Hist. Mondo Nvovo, 41-5; Harper's Mag., xviii. 468; Bidwell's Panamá, 27-28; and Heylyn's Cosmog., 1087.