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Balboa, Vasco Núñez de 1475-1519
Spanish explorer

He was born in Jerez-de-Los-Caballeros, and in 1511 joined an expedition to Darién (Central America) as a stowaway. Taking advantage of an insurrection, he took command, founded a colony at Darién and extended Spanish influence into neighbouring areas. On one of these expeditions he climbed a peak and sighted the Pacific Ocean, the first European to do so, and took possession for Spain. The governorship was granted in 1514 to Pedro Ariar de Ávila, for whom Balboa undertook many successful expeditions and whose daughter he married. However, after a disagreement in 1519 Balboa was beheaded.

Bibliography: Kathleen Romoli, Balboa: A Political Biography (1973)