CHAP. XVII.
ornaments of gold to the value of ten thousandcastillianos, or about eleven or twelve thousandpounds 1 . Vasco Nunez de Balboa , who followedOjeda and Nicuesa on the continent of America ,a nd who first discovered the south sea, had, in1513, collected such a quantity of effects ofvarious kinds that the fifth part, which belongedto the crown, and was remitted to Diego Columbus in Hispaniola , amounted to fifteen thousand crowns°f gold 2 . After his discovery of the South Sea,Vasco Nunez is said, but on authority doubtfulas to the exact weight, to have received in theisthmus of Darien, from one cacique, five hundredpounds of gold, in exchange for beads, hawks’bells, and looking-glasses. On his return overthe mountains, he is related to have collected fromtwo caciques seven thousand crowns more inpearls and gold 3 . In another subsequent ex-pedition in the isthmus, against a chief namedTubanama, he obtained “ amulets and other effectsof gold” to the value of two thousand crownsfrom the cacique himself, and from his subjects tothe amount of six thousand 4 .
The scenes of these exploits on the coast ofCarthagena and in the isthmus of Darien were
1 Page 124.
2 Irving, p. 150. The crowns of gold in that day weighedseventy grains, of which two were alloys, and consequently wereWorth in our present money about ten shillings and sixpence.See Diccionario de Hacienda por Argiielles, tomo ii. p. 211.
3 Page 188 and 192. 4 Page 196.