Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/290

274 year 1475. He was by birth a hidalgo, or gentleman, but was in poor circumstances. Little is known of his life till the year 1501, when he was one of the company of adventurers who followed Eoderigo de Bastidas iu his voyage of discovery to the western seas. He appears to have settled iu Hispaniola, and took to cultivating land in the neighbourhood of Salvatierra, but with no great success, as his debts soon became oppressive. In 1509 the famous Ojeda sailed from San Domingo with an expedition, and founded the settlement of San Sebastian. He had left orders with Enciso, an adventurous lawyer of the town, to fit out two ships and convey provisions to the new settle ment. Enciso set sail in 1510, and Balboa, whose debts made the town unpleasant to him, managed to accompany him, by concealing himself in a cask which was conveyed from his farm to the ship as if containing provisions. The expedition, after various adventures, reached San Sebastian to find Ojeda gone and the settlement in ruins. While Enciso was undecided how to act, Vasco Nunez proposed that they should sail for Darieu, on the Gulf of Uraba, where he had touched when with Bastidas. His proposal was at once accepted, and carried out. The new town was named Sta Maria de la Antigua del Darien. Bitter quar rels soon broke out among the adventurers, caused chietiy by Enciso prohibiting all private interchange for gold with the natives. Enciso was deposed from the office of autho rity which he had assumed, but it was found no easy matter to elect a successor. Nicuesa, in whose province they were, was proposed by several, and was brought from Nombre de Dios by a ship which had been sent out to bring assistance to him. The inhabitants of Darien, how ever, would not receive him, and, in their wrath, seized him and placed him, with seventeen companions, in a crazy bark with which to find his way back to Hispaniola. The party of Vasco Nunez grew strong ; Enciso was thrown into prison, and finally sent off to Spain along with Vasco s ally, the alcalde Zamudio. Being thus left in authority, Balboa began to make excursions into the surrounding country, and by his bravery and conciliatory manners gained the friendship of eeveral native chiefs. On one of these excursions he heard for the first time of the great ocean that lay on the other side of the mountains, and of the wondrous land of gold, afterwards called Peru. Soon after his return to Darien he received letters from Zamudio, informing him that Enciso had complained to the king, and had obtained a sentence condemning Balboa and summoning him to Spain. In his despair at this message Vasco resolved to attempt some great enterprise, the success of which he trusted would conciliate his sovereign. On the 1st September 1513, he set out with about 190 men, well armed, and sailed to Coyba, where he left half his forces to guard the canoes and ships. With the remainder he started on his perilous journey across the isthmus. On the 26th September they reached the summit of the range of mountains, and the glorious expanse of the Pacific was displayed to them. Three days later, they began to descend the mountains on the western side, and Vasco, arriving at the sea-shore, formally took possession of the ocean in the name of the Spanish monarch. He remained on the coast for some time, heard again of Peru, had the Pearl Islands pointed out to him, and set out for Darien. On the 18th January 1514 he reached the town, and was received with the utmost joy. He at once sent messengers to Spain bearing presents, to give an account of his dis coveries ; but, unfortunately, these did not arrive till an expedition had sailed from Spain, under Don Pedro Arias de Avila (generally called Pedrarias, or Davila), to replace Vasco Nunez, and to take possession of the colony. For some time after Pedrarias reached Darien Vasco was in great straits, but at length letters came from the king, announcing to him his satisfaction with his exploits, and naming him Adelantado, or admiral. Pedrarias was pre vailed upon to be reconciled with Vasco, and gave him one of his daughters in marriage. Vasco then resolved to accom plish his grand project of exploring the western sea. With infinite labour materials for building ships were conveyed across the isthmus, and two brigantines were constructed. With these the adventurers took possession of the Pearl Islands, and, had it not been for the weather, would have reached the coast of Peru. This career of discovery was stopped by the jealousy of Pedrarias, who feared that Balboa would throw off his allegiance, and who enticed him to Acla by a crafty message. As soon as he had him in his power, he threw him into prison, had him tried for treason, and forced the judge to condemn him to death. The sentence, to the grief of all the inhabitants, was carried into execution on the public square of Acla in 1517.  BALBRIGGAN, a seaport of Ireland, in the county of Dublin and parish of Balrothery, 18½ miles N.N.E. of the capital. The harbour, though dry at low tides, has a depth of 14 feet at high- water springs, and affords a good refuge from the E. or S.E. gales. It is formed by a pier 600 feet long, with a lighthouse at its extremity, in 53 37 N. lat., 6 12 W. long. A viaduct of eleven arches crosses the harbour. The town has considerable manufactures of cottons and hosiery, and is much frequented as a watering- place in summer. Population in 1871, 2332.  BALDE,, a modern Latin poet of considerable repute, was born at Ensisheim in Alsace in 1603, and died in 1668. He entered the Society of the Jesuits in 1624, and for the greater part of his life acted as court-preacher and professor of rhetoric at Munich. His Latin poems were very numerous, and those in imitation of Horace are particularly successful. Although Balde has received some attention since Herder translated several of his best pieces, and although some of his poems are by no means deficient in lightness, grace, and skilful versification, it would be a mistake to look upon him as a poet of high rank. A col lected edition of his works in 4 vols. was published at Cologne in 1650; a more complete edition in 8 vols., .at Munich, 1729. Extracts have been given by Orelli, 1805, 1818; and some detached poems have been published by various editors.  BALDI,, a distinguished mathematician and miscellaneous writer, was descended of a noble family at Urbino, in which city he was born on the 6th of June 1533. He pursued his studies at Padua with extraordi nary zeal and success, and is said to have acquired, during the course of his life, no fewer than sixteen languages, though according to Tiraboschi, the inscription on his tomb limits the number to twelve. The appearance of the plague at Padua obliged him to retire to his native city, whence he was, shortly afterwards, called to act as tutor to Fer- rante Gonzaga, from whom he received the rich abbey of Guastalla. He held office as abbot for twenty-five years, and then retired to his native town. In 1612 he was employed by the duke as his envoy to Venice, where he distinguished himself by the congratulatory oration he delivered before the Venetian senate on the election of the new doge, Andrea Memmo. Baldi died at Urbino on the 12th of October 1617. He was, perhaps, the most universal genius of his age, and is said to have written upwards of a hundred different works, the chief part of which have remained unpublished. His various works give satisfactory evidence of his abilities as a theologian, mathe matician, geographer, antiquary, historian, and poet. Tho Cronica dei Matematici is an abridgment of a larger work, on which he had bestowed twelve years of labour, and which was intended to contain the lives of more than two 