Vasco Núñez de Balboa
Vasco Núñez de Balboa was the first European to see the Pacific from the Americas and was beheaded five years later. Born in Jerez de los Caballeros around 1475 into an impoverished noble family, he sailed on an exploring voyage to the northern South American coast in 1500, settled on Hispaniola as a farmer, and failed. In 1510 he escaped his creditors by hiding in a barrel aboard a ship bound for the mainland, with his dog Leoncico. Discovered at sea, he talked his way out of being marooned. He found the expedition he had joined in difficulty, persuaded it to relocate to a healthier site on the Isthmus of Panama, and founded Santa María la Antigua del Darién — the first stable European settlement on the American mainland. He displaced the appointed leaders and was recognised as interim governor. He conducted his relations with local peoples by a mixture of alliance, marriage and violence, and heard repeatedly of a great water to the south and of a rich kingdom beyond it. He set out in September 1513 with about 190 Spaniards and several hundred indigenous porters, crossing some hundred kilometres of mountain and swamp. On 25 September he climbed a ridge alone and saw the ocean, and days later waded into it in armour with a banner, claiming it and all its shores for Castile. The crown nevertheless appointed Pedrarias Dávila as governor. The two were rivals for years, and Balboa was betrothed to his daughter. Pedrarias had him arrested on a treason charge and beheaded at Acla in January 1519.
- Lived: 1475 CE – 1519 CE
- Nationality: Spanish
- Roles: explorer, conquistador, governor
