In 1509 the King of Spain ordered two expeditions to explore and colonize the mainland west of the Caribbean islands that were Spain's foothold in the New World.
The pair of aristocratic leaders appointed by the king were strong and brave, but they proved to be no match for the fevers, the swarms of insects, and the poisoned arrows of the savages they encountered. When both expeditions met disaster, it was a runaway debtor named Vasco Nuñez de Balboa who rallied the survivors, founded the first successful colony on the American mainland, learned how to go about penetrating the mysterious wilderness, and made a discovery almost as momentous as the New World itself—the Pacific Ocean.
In this book Jeannette Mirsky's brilliant scholarship and disciplined imagination cut through the web of legend and intrigue surrounding Balboa's name and bring to life one of history's greatest adventures.
—from the dust jacket
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