But luck was on Pizarro’s side. Upon arrival in Cartagena, he ran into Martín Fernández de Encisco, a business associate of Hojeda’s who had arrived with a relief force of 150 men. They set sail towards Uraba, but Enciso lost his ship on a sandbank. Control of the expedition would have passed to Pizarro, but the emergence of the explorer Vasco Nuñez de Balboa denied him this opportunity.

Pizarro joined Balboa on an expedition across Panama’s infested jungles, and on 29 September 1513 they waded into the waters of the Pacific. It had been the first successful crossing of the Isthmus and was an incredible achievement. On the edges of the Mar del Sur, Pizarro first heard stories of a fabulous golden land to the south and saw pictures of strange new creatures.

The news that Balboa had discovered a new ocean created a sensation in Spain and gave new hope that a route through to the wealthy Spice Islands would soon be found. But Pedro Arias Davila (also spelled “de Avila”), the new Governor of Castilla de Oro, the Central American territories from the Gulf of Urabá, near today’s Colombian-Panamanian border, to the Belén River which after the discovery was broadened to include the Pacific coasts of Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, soon dashed Balboa’s dreams of pure exploration. Pedro Arias, who had been appointed Governor because of his court connections, and Balboa hated each other on sight; the small town would not be big enough to hold them both. Within a few months, he had Balboa arrested on charges of conspiracy. Pizarro, who arrested him, had finally got his revenge for being overlooked as the leader of the Uraba expedition. Balboa was executed.

Pizarro, a true opportunist, now quickly transferred his loyalty to Pedro Arias, who sent him to trade with the natives along the Pacific coast. When the capital was transferred to Panama, he helped Pedro Arias to subjugate the warlike tribes of Veraguas, and in 1520 he accompanied Espinosa on his expedition into the territory of Cacique Urraca, in the present Republic of Costa Rica.

By the age of forty-five, Francisco Pizarro had little to show for his many expeditions. His sole assets were some terrible lands and a collection of indigenous people. Accounts of the achievements of Hernan Cortez, and the return of Pascual de Andagoya from his expedition to the southern part of Panama, fired Pizarro with enthusiasm.

All the expeditions, prior to that of Andagoya, had been to the north up as far as Honduras. Few of the newly arrived adventurers were sailors, and the land to the north and west offered safer prospects than the unknown perils of the great South Sea that stretched in unlimited vastness beyond the horizon. Weather made the south a more difficult destination, and the Humboldt current in the Pacific Ocean ensured that the Spanish mariners were faced with tropical storms and violent seas. With no sailing directions, the Spanish learnt by trial and error, and bitter experience.

In Panama, Pizarro formed a partnership with Diego de Almagro, a soldier of fortune, and Hernando de Luque, a Spanish cleric. Their plans were to form a company – the Empresa del Levante – to conquer the lands to the south of Panama. Their project seemed so utterly unattainable that the people of Panama called them the ‘company of lunatics’. However, the three were determined: Pizarro would command the expedition, Almagro would provide military and food supplies, and Luque would be in charge of finances and additional provisions. And Pizarro had spent thirteen years in the Indies, and he knew that the biggest prizes went to the boldest and to those who got there first. Luque, a schoolmaster and treasurer of the company’s funds, provided the financial backing and with the consent of the governor they began fitting out two small boats for a voyage of discovery.