On his way to reinforce the colony, Enciso had encountered a small vessel headed for Hispaniola; aboard the ship were the few remaining survivors of the San Sebastian disaster. Their temporary commander, a young soldier named Francisco Pizarro, explained that they held out for as long as they had dared, but had finally been forced to abandon the settlement. Still, encouraged by new supplies of food, livestock, and arms, they were prepared to follow Enciso and try once more – as long as it was far from San Sebastian. The ships now crossed the Gulf of Darien, and on the western coast began the new settlement of Santa Maria del Darien. No one apparently was much bothered by the fact that they had now entered Nicuesca’s portion of the royal grant.
Martin de Enciso was determined to make a success of the Darien colony, but in the process seems to have offended most of the proud Spanish gentlemen volunteers; soon there was talk of deposing the strict old judge, if only they could have agreed on a successor. It was finally decided to appeal to Diego de Nicuesca, in whose territory they had already settled; until he could be found, however, temporary command was entrusted to an energetic young man who had arrived with Enciso’s supply ships, Vasco Nunez de Balboa. With that decision, Enciso was banished from the colony; the old man, in turn, sailed to Spain, determined to have justice and his revenge.
The Darien settlers could not, of course, have realized that Nicuesca’s own colony, begun with the confident name of Castile de Oro, was already failing on the rocky Panama shore as well. The near-starving settlers there had, in fact, already set out to find Ojeda’s outpost, hoping to receive help there. A small group of Spaniards had been left behind at Porto Bello, and another at a little outpost they called Nombre de Dios. Of Castile de Oro’s original 700 settlers, only about 60 were eventually rescued by the very expedition sent out from Darien to appeal for help from them.
But Senor Nicuesca, their new governor, quickly established that he was no improvement over Enciso; if anything, he was far harsher than the old man had ever been. And when he was finally overheard in a threat to confiscate all the gold at Darien, since it had obviously been found in his territory, his fate, too, was sealed. The governor and a few of his loyal men were finally put out to sea on a small raft without any provisions whatsoever, and none of them were ever heard of again.
Balboa was now in undisputed command all along the Panama coast, and soon proved himself an able and levelheaded leader. In contrast to most Spanish conquistadors, he seems to have gotten along well with both his own countrymen and the natives population. He managed to organize the men at Darien into a disciplined work force and army, had fields planted and stores of provisions laid in. He also made several treaties and alliances with the Indians around Darien, and even married the daughter of a local tribal chief. There was only one potential problem – all his actions were undertaken without any official authority from either Hispaniola or Spain.