This is the anniversary of the generally accepted date of the discovery of the Mar del Sur (Southern Sea) by Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who was born c. 1475 in Jerez de los Caballeros, which lies just east of the southwestern border of Spain* and Portugal. The Spanish explorer ultimately settled in Hispaniola** in 1505 after emigrating to the New World five years earlier. He began an exploration of Nueva Andalucía (now the coast of northwestern Colombia) and then Castilla del Oro (now Panama) early in 1513. While a guest of the cacique (chief) Comagre near the end of this expedition, he was told of a land rich with gold on the coast of what the natives called “the other sea”. After finishing preparations, he began his journey to find this land on the first day of September. On today’s date (or on the 27th according to some sources), he crested a peak on the Isthmus of Panama and saw the ocean he gave the above name. Also called, at the time, Mar de Balboa, it was renamed Mar Pacifica by Fernão de Magalhães, who deemed it “beautiful and peaceful” after navigating the turbulent waters at the tip of South America. While Balboa is the first European to have seen the Pacific Ocean, it was a group of his men that enjoyed the honor of first reaching its eastern shore and, by canoe, exploring part of that coast. In January of 1519 the governor of the province of Castilla de Oro, Pedro Arias de Ávila y Ortiz de Cota (called Pedrarias Dávila) had Balboa arrested on the charge of attempting to usurp his authority. While Balboa vehemently claimed the accusations were false and it may well have been that Pedrarias saw his achievements and ambition as a threat, he was convicted of the offense and executed during that month. *Although the Kingdoms of Castilla, León, and Aragón were practically unified as Spain by the marriage of Fernando and Ysabel in 1469, the country was slightly smaller than the one we know. It was not until the addition the southern portion of Navarra in 1515 that the current boundaries of Spain were formed. As the reign of Ysabel’s grandson, Carlos, began in the following year, he is the first monarch to formally rule over the nation we call Spain. **Hispaniola is the Caribbean island that the nations of Haiti & the Dominican Republic now occupy. Comagre died in 1513. Fernão de Magalhães was born c. 1480 and died in 1521. Pedrarias Dávila was born c. 1468 and died in 1531. Fernando II lived from 1452 – 1516 and reigned from 1479. Ysabel I lived from 1451 – 1504 and reigned from 1474. Carlos I lived from 1500 – 1558.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 22:52:39 +0000
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