the west, Vasco da Gama had opened a way for his countrymen around Africa. This route the Portuguese monopolized, and they were amassing wealth from the profits of the spice trade with the Moluccas. In order to share in that most lucrative branch of commerce, it was absolutely necessary for Spain to complete her hopeful western waterway by the discovery of the indispensable strait. Now that a footing had been secured on the Pacific, it was determined to follow up the search from that side as well as from the Atlantic.
First suggestion of an Isthmian canal. The first ships to sail upon the Pacific were launched by Balboa himself in the year 1517. They were built on the Panama coast, some of the timbers for their construction being carried across the mountains on the backs of Indian slaves. Aside from building the vessels, however, Balboa achieved very little. He coasted along the shore for some distance, gathered gold and pearls from the natives, and returned to Darien to meet death at the hands of political enemies. About six years later two other Spaniards explored northwestward from Panama as far as the Gulf of Fonseca, discovering Lake Nicaragua. This lake, it was hoped, with the stream flowing from it to the Atlantic, and a very short canal through the level ground on the west, might afford a practicable passage from ocean to ocean. Thus early (1525) was suggested the idea of the interoceanic canal.
Spain by this time was in possession of the rich val-
