They reported their success to
Balboa, and with twenty-six men the commander set out for the sea-coast.
The Indian chief Chiapes, whom Balboa had fought and then made his ally,
accompanied the party with some of his followers. On Michaelmas they
reached the shore of a great bay, which in honor of the day was
christened Bay de San Miguel. The tide was out, leaving a beach half a
league wide covered with mud, and the Spaniards sat down to rest and
wait. When it turned, it came in so fast that some who had dropped
asleep found it lapping the bank at their feet, before they were fairly
roused.
Balboa stood up, and taking a banner which displayed the arms of
Castile and Leon, and the figure of the Madonna and Child, he drew his
sword and marched into the sea. In a formal speech he again took
possession, in the names of the sovereigns, of the seas and lands and
coasts and ports, the islands of the south, and all kingdoms and
provinces thereunto appertaining. These rights he declared himself ready
to maintain "until the day of judgment."
While another document was receiving the signatures of the members of
the expedition, Saavedra, who was standing near the margin of the bay,
took up a little water in his hand and tasted it. It was salt.
In the excitement of actually reaching the coast of so broad and
beautiful a sea, no one had happened to think of finding out whether the
water was fresh or salt.
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