ships, and all the necessary fittings for them, to be put together in the Rio do la Balsa, and their futtock-timbers were brought ready shaped from Spain. They disembarked at Acla, and Gil Gonzalez went to Darien, to secure the support of the governor, for his enterprise. The ships, having been built in the Rio de la Balsa, were sent down to the sea, passed the island of Pearls, and, Panama having been peopled in 1519, the flotilla was brought there.[1] This Gil Gonzalez had to discover a certain number of leagues to the westward, concerning which the capitulation had been made; and thus he coasted along and arrived at the gulf of San Lucar, which had already been discovered by Pedrarias. It is at the commencement of the land of Nicaragua. Having passed the place where Leon and Granada now stand, he disembarked, and came to a village where he found one hundred thousand pesos de oro.[2] As soon as his arrival was known in the land, a large force of warlike Indians came against him, and obliged him to fall back and embark again, as he had not sufficient force to resist them.[3] He returned to Panama with the gold,[4] and went thence to Spain; but returned to San Domingo, and equipped an expedition to settle in Nicaragua, going by way of Honduras.
At this time Pedrarias sent one Francisco Hernandez de Cordova in command of a force, to subdue and settle Nicaragua; and he entered that land, subduing and conquering, and fighting in many skirmishes and battles. He founded the cities of Leon and Granada, and built fortresses in them, for defence. This land was very populous and fertile, yielding supplies of maize, and many fowls of the
- ↑ Herrera says that the ships were built in the island of Terequeri, in the bay of San Miguel; and the expedition sailed on January 21st, 1522. Gil Gonzalez took with him Andres Niño as his pilot, and many Indians.
- ↑ Here he met with a powerful chief named Nicaragua.
- ↑ He discovered the whole coast of Nicaragua, as far as the gulf of Fonseca, which he called after his patron the bishop of Burgos.
- ↑ In June 1523.
