The Spanish conqueror Pedrarias (ca. 1440-1531), or Pedro Arias de Avila in full, has a reputation as a bloodthirsty tyrant. His positive achievements, however, included the founding of Panama City and Nicaragua.

Pedrarias was born in Segovia and in early life won distinction as a soldier in Africa. He married the aristocratic Isabel de Bobadilla y de Peñalosa, whose intelligence and influence furthered his advancement. In 1513 King Ferdinand appointed Pedrarias governor of the Isthmus of Darién to supersede Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who had governed there unofficially since 1511.

Already an elderly man, Pedrarias sailed to the Isthmus in the spring of 1514, accompanied by his wife and bearing the title Captain General and Governor of Castilla de Oro, which meant he was to govern the mainland west of the Gulf of Urabá. He took 2,000 armed men, for the King hoped Pedrarias...