queteers, which the Emperor had sent from Spain, on account of the insurrection of the Indians. This small band of soldiers, regularly trained, and armed, decided the fate of the day. Wherever it advanced, horse and foot were borne down before it; Orgognez, while he endeavoured to rally and animate the troops, having received a dangerous wound, the route became general.

The barbarity of the conquerors disgraced the glory of their victory. The violence of civil rage hurried on some to slaughter their countrymen with indiscriminate cruelty; others were singled out by the meanness of private revenge as the objects of their vengeance. Orgognez and several officers, were massacred in cold blood; above one hundred and forty fell in the field.

Almagro, though so feeble that he could not bear the motion of a horse, was carried in a litter to an eminence, which overlooked the field of battle. From thence, in the utmost agitation of mind, he viewed the various movements of both parties, and at last beheld the total defeat of his own troops, with all the passionate indignation of a leader long accustomed to victory. He endeavoured to save himself by flight, but was taken prisoner, and guarded with the strictest vigilance.

The Indians, instead of executing the resolution which they had formed, retired quietly after the battle was over, a convincing evidence of that ascendancy the Spaniards had acquired over them, as they had not courage to fall upon their enemies when one party was ruined and dispersed, and they so weakened and fatigued that they might have been attacked to advantage.

The victorious troops found in Cuzco considerable booty, *consisting partly of the gleanings of the Indian treasures, and partly of the wealth amassed by their antagonists from the spoils of Chili and Peru. But so far did this, and whatever the liberality of Ferdinand Pizarro, their leader, could add to it, fall below their high ideas of the recompense which they conceived due to their merit, that unable to gratify such extravagant expectations, he had recourse to the same which his brother had employed on a similar occasion.

With this view he encouraged his most active officers to discover and reduce various provinces which had not hitherto submitted to the Spaniards. Volunteers resorted

to the standard erected upon this occasion with the ardour and hope peculiar to the age. Several of Almagro's soldiers joined them, and thus was Pizarro delivered from the importunity of his discontented friends, and the dread of his ancient enemies. The death of Almagro had been determined from the moment the Pizarros had him in their power; but they were constrained to defer gratifying their vengeance, until the soldiers who had served under him as well as some of their own followers, in whom they could not perfectly rely, had left Cuzco.

As soon as they had set out on their different expedi tions, Almagro was impeached of treason, formally tried, and condemned to die. Though he had often braved death with an undaunted spirit in the field the sentence astonished him the approach of death under this ignominious form, appalled him so much, that he had recourse to abject supplications unworthy of his former fame. He called upon the Pizarros to remember the ancient friendship between their brother and him, and how much he had contributed. to the success and prosperity of their family: he reminded them of the humanity with which in opposition to the repeated remonstrances of his own most attached friends, he had spared their lives, when they were in his power; he conjured them to pity his age, and infirmities, and to suffer him to pass the remainder of his days in bewailing his crimes, and in making his peace with heaven.

The entreaties (says a Spanish historian), of a man só much beloved, touched numbers of an unfeeling heart, and drew tears from many a hard eye. But the Pizarros re mained inflexible.

As soon as Almagro knew his fate to be inevitable, he met it with the dignity and fortitude of a veteran. He was strangled in prison, and afterwards publicly beheaded. He suffered in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and left one son by an Indian woman of Panama, whom, though a prisoner at that time in Lima, he named as successor to his government, pursuant to a power which the emperor had granted him.

During the civil dissensions in Peru, all intercourse with Spain was suspended, the account of the transactions there, unfortunately for the victorious party, was brought thi ther by some of Almagro's officers, who had left the country upon the ruin of their cause and they related

what had happened, with every circumstance unfavourable to Pizarro and his brothers. Their ambition, their breach of the most solemn engagements, their violence and cruelty, were painted with all the malignity of party spirit.

Ferdinand Pizarro, who arrived soon after, and appeared in court with extraordinary splendour, endeavoured to efface the impression which their accusations had made, and to justify himself, by representing Almagro as the aggressor. The emperor and his ministers, clearly saw the fatal tendency of such dissensions, and they saw no other way more likely to restore order, than by sending a person with extensive and discretionary powers, who after viewing deliberately, the posture of affairs, and enquiring on the spot, into the conduct of the different leaders, should be authorized to establish that form of government, as would be most conducive to the interest of the parent state, and the welfare of the colony.

Christoval Vaca de Castro, a judge of the royal andience at Vallodolid, was the man selected for this purpose, whose integrity, abilities, and firmness, justified the choice. He had power to take upon him different characters. If he found the governor still alive, he was to assume only the title of Judge, to maintain the appearance of acting only in concert with him, and to guard against giving any just cause of offence, to a man, who had merited so highly of his country: but if Pizarro was dead, he was entrusted with a commission he might then produce, by which he was appointed his successor in the government of

Peru.

This attention to Pizarro seems to have flowed rather from a dread of his power, than from any approbation of his measures; for at the very time the court seemed so cautious of irritating him, his brother Ferdinand was arrested at Madrid, and confined to a prison, where he remained twenty years.

While Vaca de Castro was making preparations for his voyage, events of great moment happened in Peru. Upon the death of Almagro, the governor considered himself the unrivalled possessor of that vast empire, and proceeded to parcel it out among his own partizans, to the total exclusion of the followers of Almagro; amongst whom were many of the original adventurers, to whose valour and perseverance Pizarro was indebted for his success:

these murmured in secret, and meditated revenge: great numbers of them resorted to Lima, where the house of young Almagro was open to them, and the slender por tion of his father's fortune, which the governor permitted him to enjoy, was spent in affording them subsistence.

The warm attachment, with which every person who had served under the elder Almagro, was quickly transferred to the son, who was now grown up to the age of manhood, and possessed all those qualities, which captivate the affections of soldiers. Bold, open, generous, of a graceful appearance, dexterons at all martial exercises, he seemed formed for command. His father had been extremely attentive to have him instructed in every science becoming a gentleman, the accomplishments he had acquired, increased the respect of his partizans, who were ready to undertake any thing for his advancement, they began to deliberate how they might be avenged on the author of their misery.

Their frequent cabals did not pass unobserved; and the governor was warned to be on his guard against men who meditated some desperate deed, and had resolution to execute it. It was either from the native intrepidity of his mind; or from contempt of persons, whose poverty rendered their machinations of little consequence, that he replied "Be not afraid (said he carelessly), about my life; it is perfectly safe, as long as every man in Peru knows that I can in a moment put him to death, who dares to harbour a thought against it." This security gave the Almagrians full leisure to digest and ripen every part of their scheme; and Juan de Herrada, an officer of great abilities, who had the charge of Almagro's education, took the lead in their consultations, with all the zeal that connexion inspired, and with all the authority which the ascendancy which he had over the mind of his pupil, gave

him.

On the twenty-sixth day of June, 1541, being the sabbath at mid-day, the season of tranquillity and repose in all sultry climates, Herrada at the head of eighteen of the most determined conspirators, sallied out of Almagro's house, in compleat armour, and drawing their swords, 25 they advanced hastily towards the governor's palace, criel out "Long live the king; but let the tyrant die." Their

sociates warned of their motions by a signal, were in ms at different stations, ready to support them.

Though Pizarro was usually surrounded by such a nuerous train of attendants, as suited the magnificence of e most opulent subject of the age in which he lived; et, as he was just risen from table, and most of his own omestics had retired to their own apartments, the conirators passed through the two outer courts of the palace hobserved. They were at the bottom of the stair-case, efore a page in waiting could give the alarm to his maser; who was conversing with a few friends in a large all.

The governor whose steady mind no form of danger ould appal, starting up, called for arms, and commanded Trancisco de Chaves to make fast the door. But that officer id not retain so such presence of mind as to obey this pruent order, running to the top of the stair-case, wildly askd the conspirators what they meant, and whither they vere going? Instead of answering, they stabbed him to he heart, and burst into the hall. Some of the persons who vere there, in a fright threw themselves from the windows, others attempted to escape and a few, drawing their swords ollowed their leader into an inner apartment. The conspirators having the object of their vengeance now in view, rushed forwards. Pizarro, with no other arms than his Sword and buckler, defended the entry, and supported by his half brother Alcantara, and his few friends, maintained the unequal contest with intrepidity, worthy of his former exploits; and with the vigour of a youthful combatant, Courage, (cried he to his companions) we are yet formidable enough to make those traitors repent their audacity.” But the armour of the conspirators, protected them, while every thrust they made took effect.

Alcantara fell dead at his brother's feet; his other defendants were mortally wounded. The governor, so weary that he could not wield his sword, and no longer able to parry the many weapons furiously aimed at him, received a deadly thrust full in his throat, sunk to the ground and expired. As soon as he was slain, the assassins ran into the streets waving their bloody swords, and proclaiming the death of the tyrant. About two hundred of their associates having joined them, they conducted young Alınagro, in solemn procession through the city; and assem