Among the colonial governors, who were indebted for their situation to
their rank at home, was Don Pedro Arias de Avila, or Pedrarias, as
usually called. He was married to a daughter of Dona Beatriz de
Bobadilla, the celebrated Marchioness of Moya, best known as the friend
of Isabella the Catholic. He was a man of some military experience and
considerable energy of character. But, as it proved, he was of a
malignant temper; and the base qualities, which might have passed
unnoticed in the obscurity of private life, were made conspicuous, and
perhaps created in some measure, by sudden elevation to power; as the
sunshine, which operates kindly on a generous soil, and stimulates it to
production, calls forth from the unwholesome marsh only foul and
pestilent vapors. This man was placed over the territory of Castilla del
Oro, the ground selected by Nunez de Balboa for the theatre of his
discoveries. Success drew on this latter the jealousy of his superior, for
it was crime enough in the eyes of Pedrarias to deserve too well. The
tragical history of this cavalier belongs to a period somewhat earlier than
that with which we are to be occupied. It has been traced by abler hands
than mine, and, though brief, forms one of the most brilliant passages in
the annals of the American conquerors.
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