ducted by Hernando, was sentenced to execution. He had always been noted for his extreme daring, and had probably seen more hard fighting than any other man in Peru. Yet, strange to record, he begged piteously for his life-a degradation which availed him nothing, for he was privately dealt with in his dungeon, by the infamous garrote.

CHAPTER VIII.

MISSION OF HERNANDO.HIS FATE.-EXPEDITION OF GON. ZALO PIZARRO.-DISCOVERY OF AND VOYAGE DOWN THE AMAZON.TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS.- -CONSPIRACY AGAINST

PIZARRO BY THE PARTISANS OF ALMAGRO. HIS ASSAS

SINATION. HIS CHARACTER, ETC.

DREADING lest they should be called to account for this high handed dealing with an officer of the crown, the Pizarros resolved to dispatch Hernando, with a great treasure, to fortify their interests at court. Accordingly, two years after the death of Almagro, he reached Spain, but met with a cold reception from the emperor. Singularly enough, the influence of a devoted adherent of the Almagran faction was found sufficient to outweigh his own, though backed by all the wealth of Peru. He was arrested, and for twenty years was kept in close imprisonment, not being able to obtain his release until 1560. At that time all his brothers were dead, and Peru had passed under the rule of others.

Meanwhile, the Peruvians, defeated and discouraged, had, in great measure, desisted from hostilities; and the Inca Manco, on one occasion, was so hard pressed as to be compelled to take refuge, with only a single female companion, out of his numerous harem, in the savage recesses of the Andes. Gathering a force, however, and sallying at intervals from his stronghold in the mountains, he inflicted much damage on the Spaniards; and Pizarro, with a vile revenge, tortured to death one of the wives of the revolted prince, a young and beautiful woman, whom chance had thrown into his hands. "It seems to me," writes one of the conquerors, "that our Lord punished him for this, in the end he met." But, for the most part, the natives

of Peru appeared completely overawed by the continually-increasing force of the Spaniards.

The country, of course, from the brilliant attractions presented by its wealth and enhanced by the sagacious policy of Pizarro, was settled with extraordinary rapidity. The government of Quito had been assigned to his brother Gonzalo, a man of high enterprise, who presently made great preparations for fresh discovery. With three hundred and fifty Spaniards and four thousand Indians, driving a vast herd of swine, as a resource against famine, in the year 1540, he set forth for the eastward. Crossing the Andes, amid terrible difficulties, he entered the Land of Cinnamon, and thence, attracted by alluring reports of treasure, pressed onward to the Napo, one of the tributaries of the Amazon. By this time, all the swine, as well as a thousand dogs provided for warfare with the natives, had been devoured or lost, or had perished on the way; and the adventurers, suffering grievously from famine, were compelled to feed on wild roots, on toads and other loathsome reptiles, and finally even on the leather of their belts and saddles.

To evade the almost insurmountable difficulties of following the river, Gonzalo commenced the building of a vessel, converting the shoes of the horses into nails, and the ragged garments of the soldiers into oakum. By two months of constant labour, it was completed, and Francisco de Orellana, with a small crew, was put in command, with directions to proceed down the river and procure supplies. After waiting a long time in vain for his return, the army again took up its march along the banks, and, after two months more of extreme toil and suffering, reached the Amazon. From a Spaniard who had here been set ashore by Orellana, they learned that that commander, carried downward by a fierce current, had reached the Great River in only three days; that finding it impossible to return against it, he had abandoned his companions to their fate, and continued his course down the Amazon. Extraordinary to relate, after the most memorable inland voyage on record, he reached the sea, and arrived safely in Spain. No course now remained for Gonzalo but to retrace his steps, and accordingly, after more than a year consumed in this terrible march, and an equal time in the return, in June, 1542, with the remnant of his command, he succeeded in regaining his capital of Quito. Only eighty of the Spaniards and one half the Indians had survived.

The triumph of Pizarro at the downfall of his ancient rival, was

insolent in the extreme. To those who urged the hereditary rights of young Almagro, (son of the defeated general,) he answered sharply "that his own government covered all on this side Flanders." All the estates of the "Men of Chili," as the Almagran faction was called, were mercilessly confiscated, and the shattered remains of that once powerful party, with the young chief at their head, betook themselves to Lima, where they sought in vain for redress or con sideration. Sunk in the most wretched poverty, the keenness of which was aggravated by the sneers of their triumphant enemies, these unfortunate partisans finally became desperate. Pizarro, however, treated their enmity with undisguised contempt, answering to those who cautioned him against them, "Poor devils! they have had bad luck enough. We will not trouble them more. Be under no concern," he haughtily answered to further remonstrances, "about my life. It is safe enough so long as every man in Peru knows that I can in a moment cut off any head that dares to harbour a thought against it."

*

*

The chiefs of the despised faction, in despair at a report of the loss of Vaca de Castro, (who had been appointed by the crown as arbitrator of these civil discords,) at last, in their extremity, resolved on the assassination of the viceroy. One of their number, through conscientious scruples, revealed the plot in confession, and the confessor hastened to lay the particulars before the government. But Pizarro, deeming the statement impossible, said, "The priest wants a bishopric," and was with difficulty persuaded by his friends to stay at home on the day appointed for his destruction.

On that day (Sunday, June 26, 1541,) the conspirators, twenty in number, were assembled at the house of Almagro, resolved to fall on the governor as he returned from mass. Perceiving, from his absence, that their plot was discovered or at least suspected, in a species of desperation, they rushed into the street, crying, "Long live the king! death to the tyrant!" Pizarro, at the time, was at dinner, with a number of his friends, when a breathless domestic entered the room, crying, "Help! help! all the Men of Chili are coming to murder the Marquis!" Most of the guests, being unarmed, fled precipitately into the garden, and Pizarro ordered Chaves, one of his officers, to keep the door, while he buckled on his armour. That cavalier, however, attempting to parley with the assailants, was instantly slain, and his body was flung down the stairs. Martin de Alcantara, Pizarro's half-brother, who was assisting the latter with his armour, next

sprang to the door, and, with a few of the governor's household, defended it valiantly; but, after doing some execution, was over powered and slain.

Pizarro now flung away his cuirass, which he had vainly endeavoured to buckle on, and, with a cloak wrapped round his left arm, sword in hand, sprang like a lion into the fray. "Ha, traitors!" shouted the old viceroy, "have you come to kill me in my own house! Courage, my friends, we are yet enough to make them repent their audacity." He killed three of the conspirators with his own hand, but was at last struck to the earth by the numerous weapons of his enemies. Seeing his death, he besought a confessor, but none was at hand; and, tracing a cross on the floor with his own blood, and attempting to kiss it, he murmured, "Jesu!" and yielded up his soul under numerous sword-thrusts. The triumphant assas sins rushed into the street, brandishing their bloody swords, and crying, "The tyrant is dead! Long live the emperor and his gov ernor, Almagro."

The Men of Chili, still three hundred in number, at once rallied around their youthful chief, and proclaimed him governor-the partisans of Pizarro, completely overawed, venturing on no opposition. That same night, the remains of the victim, wrapped in a coarse cotton cloth, and attended only by his wife and a few black servants, were huddled into an obscure grave in the corner of the cathedral. They were afterwards, however, removed to a more honourable place, and commemorated by a monument suitable to his high rank and great achievements.

"Thus, at the age of about sixty-five, perished Francisco Pizarro, the Conqueror of Peru, the most remarkable and perhaps the worst man of that host of discoverers and conquerors by whom the early history of America has been illustrated and disgraced. His career forms the best commentary on his character. Ambition and rapacity appear to have been his ruling traits; but he was not avaricious; for his immense acquisitions were devoted not merely to his own aggrandizement, but to the nobler office of building cities, settling colonies, and laying the foundations of an empire. Though bigoted in the extreme, he had none of that crusading zeal which so eminently distinguished Cortes, and he was far more anxious to seize the treasures and to enslave the bodies of the Indians than to con vert their souls. Doubtless, he was as brave as a man can be, and possessed of a fortitude and perseverance perhaps surpassing that

of any character recorded in history. But he was cruel, remorseless, and perfidious to the very extremest degree; and his name has ever been held in deserved execration by the great majority of mankind."*

CHAPTER IX.

TACA DE CASTRO.- -DEFEAT OF YOUNG ALMAGRO AT CHUPAS.BLASCO NUNEZ DE VELA.-UNPOPULAR DECREES.REBELLION HEADED BY GONZALO PIZARRO.-OVERTHROW OF THE VICEROY.

By a singular coincidence, devoutly ascribed by an early writer to the special interposition of Providence, a legitimate successor tc the viceroyalty of Peru had already arrived in the New World at the time of Pizarro's assassination. This was the Licentiate Vaca de Castro, who came over from Spain ostensibly as a royal commissioner to lend the aid of his legal knowledge and ability in the administration of government; but with private instructions to keep close watch over Pizarro's conduct, and to make report to the Spanish court of any undue assumption of power, or threatened infringement of the royal prerogative. He was also provided with formal authority to succeed to the government, in case of the death of the reigning viceroy.

The timely approach of this official gave opportunity to the opponents of the rebellious Men of Chili, to unite their forces and take a definitive position. Alonzo de Alvarado, and Alvarez de Holguin, two of the principal military officers of Pizarro, were both in command of trusty and veteran troops, and readily lent their assistance in opposition to the Almagran faction. Vaca de Castro had not been bred to arms, but the courage and spirit natural to a Spanish cavalier sustained him in his dangerous position. He hastened to Quito, and collecting what forces he could muster, proclaimed his commission, and prepared to enter upon a forcible assertion of his rights. Messengers were dispatched in various directions to set forth his claims in the more important towns.

Young Almagro, in the mean time, having furnished his little army at Lima with abundance of martial equipments and with

* Discoverers, &c., of America.