Goyo's History of Balboa

Some artist's guess at what Balboa looked like

Balboa

His name is everywhere in Panama. He’s as famous as Torijjos or Noriega and in a better way. His face is on every coin. The paper currency is technically called the “Balboa”, but is really the US Dollar. The strange part is that there was never an official portrait of Balboa or even a good description of his face – so the face on the coins and statues could be anyone, really. But, I digress.

For a really famous guy, he never really did that much. First European to see the Pacific from the eastern edge – Whoop-dee-doo. I get a chuckle when some book says he “discovered” the Pacific. Like that makes any sense. But it was enough to get him in all the history books – at least the ones I read in US schools. “Vasco de Balboa was a Spaniard, who crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 to discover the Pacific Ocean.”  Remember that name and date, they’ll be on the test.

But, let’s have a look at the real story behind that neat, clean headline. Balboa left Spain in 1500 as a common seaman with an expedition led by Bastidas that landed in the Darien area of Panama and worked their way down the coast of Colombia to Venezuela, trading and looting and plundering as the Spanish did so well back in that era. He left the ship in Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Republic) and tried his hand at farming there, but was a failure. In 1511, he tried to get hired on to an expedition to Panama led by Hernando Enciso. When he was rejected, he stowed away. The three ships of the Enciso expedition got separated and badly beaten by natives with poison arrows. Balboa remembers a place on the coast where the natives did not use poison and guides the ships there.

This is where Balboa emerges as a natural leader. With his charisma and knowledge of the area, the men back him in a mutiny and Enciso and his staff are set adrift, but eventually make it back to Spain. Meanwhile, Balboa knows he is in deep doo doo if he doesn’t make a big splash. So, he decides to take a crew of 190 men straight south into what is now Darien, Panama. Having lived in the area, I have nothing but awe and respect for what he did. Crossing the jungles, mountains and swamps of eastern Panama, wearing full body armor, muskets, swords and shields with dozens of huge mastiff dogs in the heat and humidity is nothing short of miraculous. Balboa’s secret was to befriend the tribes that he met and get them to help him with promises of big rewards. Those that did not become friends were simply exterminated by overwhelming force.

The expedition reached the Pacific at about the present day city of La Palma in August of 1513. They built some boats and sailed out for a week. Finding no land, they were (correctly) convinced that this was a new ocean. Balboa and his men accomplished all this in about 6 months. Incredibly, they lost not a single man. They returned to Hispaniola as heroes and great explorers. Word of his exploits gets back to Spain just about the time that Enciso does. The King decides to side with Balboa and forgives his treason and gives him a position with the new Governor of Panama – Pedro Davila. Davila dislikes Balboa and just 3 years after his great achievement, Balboa is arrested and given an option to build 3 boats and go explore the Pacific. His boats fall apart and he returns unsuccessful. Balboa is then executed for the old treason charge in 1519, just 6 years after “discovering” the Pacific.

And that, boys and girls is the history that never made it into our nicely white-washed textbooks. And despite his rather ignominious demise, Balboa goes on to become a Panamanian folk hero, with his name on towns, roads, rivers and money. You think it is a crazy world today? It’s ALWAYS been a crazy world. An dat’s a fact, Jack.

Follow-up to the Balboa story

Balboa’s route was used for many years to transport gold from Peru across to the Caribbean side and on to Spain. But, when a much shorter route across Panama – basically where the Canal would eventually be built  - was discovered, his route was reabsorbed into the jungle. Until a group of whacky nuclear scientists dragged Balboa’s name out of history’s closet one more time.

It happened like this: It was a mostly forgotten project called Operation Plowshare. The idea was to use the awesomely devastating power of the nuclear bomb for “peaceful’ uses. At the time, the largest US Navy ships became too large to pass through the Canal and the Canal was running at over capacity. Some whacked out nuclear scientists came up with a plan to open up a new sea-level canal, using 380 “small, tactical” nuclear explosions along Balboa’s route. The bombs would be detonated in sequence and water would flow from sea to shining sea in a matter of about an hour. The “excavated” material would be thrown clear into the jungle and the rush of water would scour out any high spots. The blasts would create a crater 300 ft deep and 1200 ft wide clear across Panama.

Yeah. I know. WTF were they thinking? There were a few little bugs to work out. Like the 10,000 Kuna and Embera living along the route. Oh, and that little detail about all the residual radiation. And the shock wave equal to a n 8.0 earthquake.he US got so far as to send a survey team to evaluate the route and calculate bomb placement and sizes. Using old Spanish texts, the survey team followed Balboa’s passage, finding many artifacts along the route. Eventually, protests from the Kuna and common sense caused the plan to implode and Tricky Dick Nixon officially killed the program. Thus removing any hope for a Balboa redux.