Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
backing from King F
ERDINAND
V who
granted him titles of governorship and the
honorific
ADELANTADO
of the South Sea in
recognition of his pioneering achievement.
However, due to his irregular means of tak-
ing control in Darien, Balboa continued to
be viewed as an outlaw in some circles. His
authority was soon challenged by the
newly arrived administrator P
EDRARIAS
D
ÁVILA
, who began a lengthy campaign of
calumny and manufacture of false evidence
against the impulsive conquistador. Balboa
was, meanwhile, preoccupied by grand
visions of new explorations—he had
already glimpsed the peaks of the Andes as
he probed toward the Colombian shore of
South America—and ignored the political
threats gathering around him. He assem-
bled craftsmen and Indian laborers at Acla,
on the Pacific coast of the isthmus, and
began constructing a fleet intended either
to venture forth into the Pacific or to sail
southward, following up stories of the gold
of P
ERU
. Pedrarias interrupted these dreams
by arresting Balboa and his principal
henchmen on charges of treason and mal-
feasance and decreed their execution. Bal-
boa was beheaded in January 1519 near
where he first landed in P
ANAMA
.
Reckless and obsessive, like so many
conquistadores, Balboa had skills that some
of them lacked, such as his talent for impro-
visation and his ability to win over indige-
nous peoples by a combination of initial
forcefulness and subsequent benevolence.
Furthermore he seems to have possessed a
visionary impulse that transcended the
purely materialistic motivations of most of
his contemporaries. His discovery of the
Pacific assures him a place in the direct line
of major explorers stretching from Colum-
bus to F
ERDINAND
M
AGELLAN
who opened
the European mind to an awareness of a
wider world.
Balearic Islands (Islas Baleares)
This Mediterranean archipelago, lying sev-
eral hundred miles to the east of the Spanish
coast, includes four larger islands—Majorca,
Minorca, Ibiza, and Formentera—and sev-
eral smaller ones, having a total area of
1,936 square miles. A mild climate suitable
for agriculture and abundant harbors for
shipping have drawn a stream of conquer-
ors to these islands through the centuries.
They finally passed to the rule of A
RAGON
in
the 14th century and now constitute an
“overseas” province of Spain, with special
regional status. Minorca was under British
rule for most of the 18th century and not
finally returned to Spain until 1801. Despite
their tumultuous past, the Balearics are
now esteemed as a tranquil vacation resort
by mainland Spaniards (including the royal
family) and sun-seeking northern Europe-
ans. The remarkable megalithic remains of
prehistoric settlements attract the interest
of scholars and scientists. Catalan is the pre-
dominant language on all of the islands.
Barcelona
The second city of Spain, with a population
of 2 million, and the capital of its C
ATALONIA
region, Barcelona is located in the north-
east of the country, some 300 miles from
M
ADRID
, the city's traditional rival. A major
Mediterranean port since ancient times,
Barcelona became the center of a far-flung
commercial network during the Middle
Ages, with connections extending to Italy
and Greece. Its subordination to the Crown
of A
RAGON
by the beginning of the 16th
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