Historically, on September 25, 1513, Balboa looked at the Pacific Ocean from the ridge on the west side of the Darién Mountains, and then waded into the Pacific Ocean in the Bay of San Miguel, where he discovered a large number of pearls, which will go down in history.

In the process of discovering the Pacific Ocean, Balboa and his colonists experienced the trials of the tropical rainforest, experienced the great threat of ferocious beasts and poisons, survived the wanton erosion of various diseases, defeated the provocative attacks of the natives, and left a glorious page in the great geographical discovery......

It's exciting, it's legendary.

"But I don't want to imitate." After much consideration, Ferdinand vetoed the idea of imitating Balboa through the Darién Graben.

Although crossing the Darién Trench can perform on oneself, show courage, and leave the so-called "eternal legend", all this is exchanged for human life.

Balboa brought with him a hundred and ninety colonists and a few hundred Indians, and it didn't matter how many Indians died, there were sixty-seven colonists left, that is to say, one hundred and twenty-three dead.

And Ferdinand's "second detachment", so far, there have been no fatalities.

And Ferdinand did have this hope - none of the 3,000 people he brought with him would die.

It's not impossible. Injuries and illnesses are inevitable, and there will definitely be people who want to see God on future expeditions, but in this case, if you want to avoid death, as long as you carefully ensure safety, you should be able to do it.

So Ferdinand will not pay for the life of his team members for any epic complex. He chose the safest route of the Panama Canal.

And to establish a stronghold on the Isthmus of Panama, it is clear that the first fortress in Cologne, the future free trade zone, at the entrance to the canal, would be the most suitable. If it had taken a few months to cross the Darién Graben at first, the voyage would have been able to establish a foothold in Darién Bay, on the border between Panama and Colombia, which would obviously not be conducive to the development of the Isthmus of Panama.

So in the end, the Colón-Panama City route is the best choice. If you go fast, you can reach Panama Bay on the Pacific coast in six or seven days. And it won't be attacked by thousands of natives like Balboa.

On the morning of April 23, 1494, 24 ships and 1,533 men of the "Second Detachment" and dozens of accompanying West Indies Indians landed in the Gulf of Limon.

Stepping foot on the land of Central America, the prosperous Colón Free Trade Zone is now just a wasteland, with the Port of Colón and the Panama Canal nowhere to be seen. On the contrary, some traces of the activities of the indigenous people can be found.

Ferdinand was in no hurry to cross the Isthmus of Panama, and the "second detachment" first set up a camp in the future city of Cologne, and then set up a fortress. Ferdinand named it the Fortress of Cologne.

"In the future, there will be a prosperous city here, which will be named after this fortress."

On 24 April, a group of soldiers and the natives who accompanied the boat explored the edge of the jungle on the shore and made contact with the local aborigines, who were finally able to communicate after some painstaking attempts, and the natives said that there was indeed an ocean to the west and that they knew the shortest way to go.

The shortest way is to reach the location of Panama City in the future.

In the evening of the same day, Asorin began to recruit volunteers in the "second detachment".

"Following in the footsteps of His Majesty the King, you will be the discoverers of new seas, the pioneers of new lands, and the witnesses of new history."

There were no promises or rewards, because the soldiers knew their duties before they set out, and if something happened to them, their families (even if they were single dogs, but also had parents and siblings) would be treated preferentially.

The reason why volunteers are also being recruited is because there are so many people who are volunteering.

Ferdinand only needed three hundred men to go with him, and it was enough, and Balboa only took one hundred and ninety men with him when he crossed the treacherous Darien moat.

After screening, one king, one military attaché accompanying the king, one princess, one penitent priest, three priests, twenty-eight sailors, and three hundred and two soldiers. A total of 337 people, it is really a bit of the rhythm of the three hundred warriors of Sparta.

Ferdinand was quite confident in his body. He has been running 6,000 meters a day for two years, and he has not fallen behind even in the New World. After a decade of galloping on the battlefield in Granada, it shouldn't have fallen here, right?

Probably not, it shows that Ferdinand is also confident in his luck. In the past, during the war in Granada, Queen Isabella dropped her torch in the tent at night, and then the entire camp, including the royal family's clothes and property, was burned, and Ferdinand was in the tent and nothing happened......

But no matter what, the king personally crossed the rainforest isthmus, which was always a dangerous thing, and Ferdinand was still very worried about watching documentaries such as python eating people before.

In the end, he had to grit his teeth, Ferdinand really didn't want to see the Pacific Ocean in this life.

So, Ferdinand made some preparations for Balboa's trip, which seemed to be fruitful.

Focus on relations with the Indians. Balboa brought hundreds of Indians with him when he came to the Darien Graben, but the people there were not very good guys, and they were provoked and attacked by the Indians as soon as they landed, and later fought a battle with thousands of Indian tribes, killing each other's corpses and blood, and he also suffered heavy losses.

Ferdinand was also wary when he came ashore, and now it seems that his judgment was correct, and the Indians of central Panama were still mild. Ferdinand brought out glass beads and handicrafts, and the local natives were so excited that they agreed to send more than three hundred men to accompany and lead the way with the Castilians, who were often visited by the sea tribes anyway.

Another important issue is about "bush fever", according to records, many people were infected with "bush fever" at that time, and they were covered with long bags, but not many people died from infection, mainly because people were left behind and moved slowly.

In the history of human writing, the first yellow fever epidemic in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula was first described by Spanish explorers in 1648.

From this, it was concluded that the "bush fever" encountered by the Balboa expedition, which had a low mortality rate, was not yellow fever.

There are no malaria parasites in the Native American mosquitoes, and no one in the "second detachment" has malaria, so no one will be infected with malaria this time.

Well, the so-called "bush fever" may refer to an infection caused by the bite of a chigger mite.

Chigger mites can cause scrub typhus in Asia, but the good news is that in North America, scrub mites do not transmit any disease to humans, but they can cause skin infections and dermatitis, as was the case with some members of the Balboa expedition. As long as you take care of the protection and avoid the bite, Balboa herself is safe and sound.

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