called the hill of Nicuesa, where Nombre de Dios stands, he took a brigantine with some of his men, not knowing where to go, the whole coast being marshy, covered with forest, unhealthy, and thinly peopled. He sailed along the coast in search of the people left by Ojeda, and to discover some country where he might settle, for the coast of Veragua as far as Darien was under his jurisdiction. Ojeda had received the other coast of Santa Martha and Carthagena. Having arrived at Darien, he found Vasco Nuñez and his followers, who received him as a stranger, and would neither give him provisions, nor receive him as their governor. Not desiring to let him remain with them, they made him embark in a boat with some sailors, and it is even said that this boat was caulked with a blunt tool only. I heard this from the caulker himself who did the work.[1] Thus the said
- ↑ Spanish carpenters and caulkers call their tools fierros or herramientas. In caulking seams the estopa or oakum is first driven well in with a thin edged caulking iron, and then remachado or secured with a blunt one or fierro grueso. When Andagoya says that the vessel of Nicuesa was caulked with a blunt tool (calafateado con ferro groso), he implies that
to this town; for the land was not yet divided, and they arrived in time to receive some of the best pieces. I have to inform your most royal highness that both the governors, as well Diego de Nicuesa as Alonzo de Ojeda, performed their duties very ill, and that they were the causes of their own perdition, because they knew not how to act, and because, after they arrived in these parts, they took such presumptuous fancies into their heads that they appeared to be lords of the land. They imagined that they could rule the land and do all that was necessary from their beds, and they acted thus, believing they had nothing further to do. But the nature of the land is such that, if he, who has charge of the government, sleeps, he cannot awake when he wishes; for it is a land that obliges him who governs to be very watchful. For this reason the people desired to be rid of men who did not care whether things went well or ill, like Diego de Nicuesa. This was the cause of the ruin both of the one governor and of the other. These governors believed that they could treat the people as slaves, and they never gave an account of the gold they took, nor of anything else; for which reason all became so careless that, even when they saw gold, they did not care to take it, knowing that they would themselves receive a very small share of it." Navarrete Coll., tom. iii., Num. iv., p. 358.
