Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Uncommon card · No. 89903

Vasco Núñez de Balboa (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbasko ˈnuɲeθ ðe βalˈβo.a]; c. 1475 – around January 12–21, 1519) was a Spanish explorer, governor, conquistador, adelantado, and a pirate. He is best known for being the first European to discover the Pacific Ocean while crossing the Isthmus of Panama in 1513. He traveled to the New World in 1500 and, after some exploration, settled on the island of Hispaniola. He founded the settlement of Santa María la Antigua del Darién in present-day Colombia in 1510, which was the first permanent European settlement on the mainland of the Americas (a settlement by Alonso de Ojeda the previous year at San Sebastián de Urabá had already been abandoned).

Read on Wikipedia · Image Anonymous (Spain)Unknown author after a 18th-century engraving, Public domain