The charge made was that of treasonable conspiracy to cast off all allegiance to the Crown, under a determination to sail, operate, and trade in the South Seas entirely for private benefit. The evidence rested largely on the testimony of the traitorous Garabito, and eavesdroppers, who stated that they had overheard Balboa and his officers planning to sail on their own account and ignore the authority of the Governor. In vain Balboa indignantly pointed out the flimsiness of the accusation, maintaining that, were there the slightest truth in the charges made, it was very unlikely he would have returned and put himself in the power of the Governor, when he could easily have sailed away in the ships he now had on the Pacific and found a land or island to supply him and his men with safe subsistence, far away from the chances of interference from the power it was alleged he was anxious to cast off. The trial dragged along for many days, and the verdict of guilty was accompanied by a recommendation to mercy, on account of the prisoner’s great services, while the hope was expressed that permission would be granted to him to appeal to a higher tribunal in Spain. Pedrarias, glad of the opportunity of clearing from his path a man of whom he was inordinately jealous, would listen to no entreaties from the many advocates of the claims of the prisoner to consideration, and the day following the verdict Balboa, with three of his principal officers, preceded by the public crier, walked in chains to meet his fate at the block erected in the Public Square; and for days afterwards his gory head, stuck on the end of a pole, met the gaze of the sorrowing inhabitants of the town of Acla. Pedrarias soon found out the futility of attempting to maintain a prosperous colony at Santa Maria, for the implacable hostility of the Indians and the depredations in his ranks by sickness, combined with the disappointment of his expectations of finding the treasure he sought, drove him to shift his headquarters to a more advantageous spot. Having got rid of the Governor of Panama, in the person of Balboa, he proceeded to establish himself within that territory, and fixing a site upon the bay in which are situated the Pearl Islands, he there founded a city to which he gave the name of Panama, and thither he transferred the seat of government, so that it became the capital of Terra Firma. [Illustration] CHAPTER III _The Buccaneers_ The short-sighted policy of the Spaniards in exterminating the natives of the countries which they conquered, necessitated the importation of the negro from Africa, and led to the development of a huge traffic in slaves, in which England, France, and Portugal played an important part. The men engaged in this trade were naturally a ruffianly set who soon became familiar with the operations in the newly acquired Spanish territories, and were quick to take advantage of the knowledge which they thus acquired.