Excerpt from The Damsel of Darien, Vol. 1 of 2 The tale which follows will be found to illustrate some of these opinions. Its hero was one of the most gallant and great among the discoverers - a man no less thought ful than valorous having all the virtues, and but very few, and those in small degree. Of the vices of his comrades one who led his companions to fame and victory - who won the greatest advantages in the New World, next to Columbus; and perished through the ingratitude of his sovereign and the miserable baseness of his fellows. With far greater merits, his fate was, nevertheless, the fate of all of those who shared his companion's, and served under the same sway. It was, and must be, the fate of all who toil in behalf of a time which has just enough Of ambition to foster envy into rankness, and too little of gratitude to be. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.