The flag-ship was larger than the other vessels, but as she had been damaged and was no longer serviceable, she was left behind; she will rejoin the fleet when the sea is calmer.  The eleventh day of the calends of July the fleet reached Darien, the flag-ship arriving four days later, but without cargo.  The colonists of Darien under the leadership of Vasco Nunez Balboa, of whom we have elsewhere written at length, came down to meet the new arrivals singing the psalm Te Deum Laudamus.  Each of them offered voluntary hospitality in his house, built after the plan of native cabins.

This country may very properly be called a province, because it has been conquered and all of its chiefs dethroned.  The Spaniards refreshed themselves with native fruits and bread made either of roots or of maize.  The fleet brought other provisions, for example salt-meats, salt-fish, and barrels of wheat flour.

Behold the royal fleet at anchor in these strange countries and behold the Spaniards established, not only in the Tropic of Cancer, but almost on the equator,—­contrary to the opinion of many scientists,—­ready to settle and to found colonies.

The day after landing, four hundred and fifty colonists of Darien were invited to a meeting.  Both in public and in private, by groups or singly, they were questioned concerning the report of Vasco, Admiral of the South Sea, or, as this officer is termed in Spanish, the Adelantado.  The truth of all he had reported to the King concerning this South Sea was admitted.  According to the opinion of Vasco himself, the first thing to be done was to build forts in the territories of Comogre, Pochorrosa, and Tumanama, which would later form centres of colonisation.  A hidalgo of Cordova, Captain Juan Ayora, was chosen to carry out this plan, for which purpose he was given four hundred men, four caravels, and a small boat.  Ayora first landed in the port of Comogra, described in letters that have been received, as distant about twenty-five leagues from Darien.  From that point he despatched one hundred and fifty of his men by a more direct road than the one indicated, in the direction of the South Sea.  It was said that the distance between the port of Comogra and the gulf of St. Miguel was only twenty-six leagues.  The other company of two hundred and fifty men would remain at Comogra to render assistance to those coming and going.  The hundred and fifty men chosen to march to the South Sea took with them interpreters, some of whom were Spaniards who had learned the language spoken in the region of the South Sea, from slaves captured by Vasco when he explored the country; while others were slaves who already understood the Spanish tongue.  The harbour of Pochorrosa is seven leagues distant from that of Comogra.  Ayora, the lieutenant of Pedro Arias, was to leave fifty men and the small boat, which would serve as a courier, at Pochorroso, so that these boats might serve to carry news to the lieutenant and to the colonists of Darien, just as relays are arranged on land.  It was also intended to form a station in the territory of Tumanama, of which the capital is twenty leagues distant from that of Pochorrosa.