have reflected credit on a common adventurer, but could add little new honour to the name of Cortes. Disgusted with ill-success, and weary of contending with adversaries, to whom he consider. ed it a disgrace to be opposed, he once more sought for redress in his native country. His fate there was the same with that of all the persons who had distinguished themselves in the discovery of the New World; envied by his contemporaries, and ill-requited by the court which he served, he ended his days on the second of December, 1547, in the sixty-second year of his age.

HISTORY OF AMERICA.

BOOK III.

HAVING related in my last book the splendid achievements of Cortes and his followers, and the subjugation of the Mexican empire, it now remains to close the history of South America with the conquest of Peru. The chief actors in this undertaking were Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, and Hernando de Luque.

Pizarro was the natural son of a gentleman, by an illicit amour with a woman of very low birth; and as it frequently happens to the offspring of unlawful love, he was neglected by the author of his birth, who was so unnatural as to set him, when arriving at the years of manhood, to feed his hogs. Young Pizarro could not long brook such an ignoble occupation. His aspiring mind thirsted after military glory, and he enlisted as a soldier; and after serving some years in Italy, embarked for America, where he soon distinguished himself. With a courage no less daring, than the constitution of his body was robust, he was foremost in every danger, and endured the greatest hardships. Though he was so illiterate that he could not read, he was considered as a man formed to command. Every expedition committed to his conduct, proved successful: he was as cautious in executing, as bold in forming, his plans. Engaging early in active life, without any resource but his own talents and industry, and by depending upon himself to emerge from obscurity, he acquired such a perfect

knowledge of affairs, and of men, that he was qualified to conduct the one, and govern the other.

Almagro had as little to boast of his descent. The one was a bastard, the other a foundling. Educated like his companion, in the camp, he was equally intrepid, of insurmountable constancy, in enduring those hardships which were inseparable from military service in the New World. But in Almagro these splendid accomplishments were joined to an openness, generosity, and candour, natural to men who profess the military art. In Pizarro they were united with the address, the craft, and the dissimulation of a politician; he had the art to conceal his own purposes, and sagacity to penetrate into those of other men.

Hernando de Luque was an ecclesiastic, who acted both as priest and school-master at Panama, and who had amassed riches that inspired him with thoughts of rising to greater eminence. Such were the men who eventually overturned one of the most extensive empires recorded in history.

Their confederacy was authorised by Pedrarias, the governor of Panama, and was confirmed by the most solemn act of religion. Luque celebrated mass, divided a consecrated host into three parts, of which each had his portion, and thus, in the name of the Prince of Peace, ratified a contract, of which plunder and blood- · shed were the objects.

Pizarro set sail from Panama on the fourteenth of November, 1524, with one single vessel, and an hundred and twenty men. Almagro was to conduct the supplies of provisions, and reinforcements of troops, and Luque was to remain at Panama to negociate with the governor, and promote the general interest. Pizarro had chosen the most improper time of the whole year; the periodical winds at that time set in, and were directly adverse to the course he proposed to steer. After beating about for seventy days, his progress towards the southeast was no more than what a skilful navigator will make in as many hours.

Pizarro, notwithstanding his suffering incredible hardships from famine, fatigue, and the hostility of the natives where he landed, but above all, the distempers incident to a moist sultry climate, which proved fatal to several of his men; yet his resolution remained undaunted, and he endeavoured by every persua sive art, to reanimate their desponding hopes. At length he was obliged to abandon the inhospitable coast of Terra Firma, and retire to Chucama, opposite to the pearl islands, where he hoped to receive a supply of provisions and troops from Panama. Almagro Soon after followed him with seventy men, and landing them on the continent, where he had hoped to meet with his associate, was repulsed by the Indians; in which conflict he lost one of his eyes, by the wound of an arrow: they likewise were compelled to reembark, and chance directed them to the place of Pizarro's re

treat, where they found some consolation in recounting to each other their sufferings. Notwithstanding all they had suffered, they were inflexibly bent to pursue their original intention. Almagro repaired to Panama, in hopes of recruiting their shattered troops; but his countrymen, discouraged at the recital of the sufferings he and Pizarro had sustained, were not to be persuaded to engage in such hard service. The most that he could muster was about fourscore men. Feeble as this reinforcement was, they did not hesitate about resuming their operation.

After a long series of disasters, part of the armament reached the bay of St. Matthew, on the coast of Quito, and landed at Tacamez, to the south of the river of Emeralds, and beheld a country more fertile than any they had yet discovered on the Southern Ocean; the natives were clad in garments of woollen, or cotton stuff, and adorned with trinkets of gold and silver. Pizarro and Almagro, however, were unwilling to invade a country so populous, with a handful of men enfeebled by diseases and fatigue.

Almagro met with an unfavourable reception from Pedro de los Rios, who had succeeded Pedrarias in the government of Panama. After weighing the matter with that cold economical prudence, esteemed the first of all virtues, by persons of limited faculties, incapable of conceiving or executing great designs, he concluded the expedition detrimental to an infant colony; prohibited the raising new levies, and despatched a vessel to bring home Pizarro and his companions from the island of Gallo.

Almagro and Luque, deeply affected with these measures, communicated their sentiments privately to Pizarro, requesting him not to relinquish an enterprize on which all their hopes depended, as the means of re-establishing their reputation and fortune. Pizarro's mind, inflexibly bent on all its pursuits, required no incentive to persist in the scheme. He peremptorily refused to obey the governor of Panama's orders, and employed all his address and eloquence in persuading his men not to abandon him. But the thoughts of revisiting their families and friends, after so long an absence, and suffering such incredible hardships, rushed with such joy into their minds, that when Pizarro drew a line upon the sand with his sword, permitting such as wished to return home to pass over it, only thirteen daring veterans remained with their commander. This small, but determined band, whose names the Spanish historians record with deserved praise, as the persons to whose persevering fortitude their country is indebted for the most valuable of all its American possessions, fixed their residence in the island of Gorgona, where they determined to wait for supplies from Panama, which they trusted their associates there would eventually procure.

Almagra and Luque were not inattentive or cold solicitors, and their incessant importunity was seconded by the general

voice of the people, who exclaimed loudly against the infamy of exposing brave men, engaged in the public service, charged with no error, but what flowed from an excess of zeal and courage. The governor, overcome with entreaties and expostulations, at last consented to send a small vessel to their relief. But unwilling to encourage Pizarro in any new enterprize, he would not permit one land-man to embark on board it.

Pizarro and his companions had remained at this time five months on an island in the most unhealthy climate in the region of America: during which period, they were buoyed up with hopes of succours from Panama; till worn out with fruitless expectations, they in despair came to a resolution of commiting themselves to the ocean on a float; but on the arrival of the vessel from Panama, they were transported with such joy, that all their sufferings were forgotten. Pizarro easily induced them to resume their former scheme with fresh ardour. Instead of returning to Panama, they stood towards the south-east, when on the twentieth day after their departure, they discovered the coast of Peru.

They landed in 1526, at Tumbez, a place of some note, distinguished for its stately temple, and a palace of the Incas or sovereigns of the country. There the Spaniards feasted their eyes with the first view of the opulence and civilization of the Peruvian empire: a country fully peopled and cultivated with an appearance of regular industry; the natives decently clothed, ingenious, and so far surpassing the other natives of the New World, as to have the use of tame domestic animals. But their notice was most pleasingly attracted with the show of gold and silver, which not only appeared as ornaments on their persons, and temples, but several of their vessels for common use were made of those precious metals. Pizarro and his companions seemed now to have attained the completion of their most sanguine hopes, and concluded all their wishes and dreams of inexhaustible treasures, would soon be realized.

It was, however, impracticable for Pizarro, with such a slender force to make any progress in subjugating a country so populous, and of which he hoped hereafter to take possession. He ranged, however, along the coast, maintaining a friendly intercourse with the natives, who were no less astonished at their new visitants, than the Spaniards were with the uniform appearance of opulence and cultivation which they beheld.

Having explored the country as far as was requisite to ascertain the importance of the discovery, Pizarro procured from the inhabitants some of their Limas or tame cattle, to which the Spaniards gave the name of sheep; some vessels of gold and silver, as well as some specimens of their other works of ingenuity, and two young men, whom he proposed to instruct in the Spanish lan

guage, that they might serve as interpreters in the expedition which he meditated. With these he arrived at Panama. Yet neither the splendid relation which he and his associates gave of the incredible opulence of the country which he had discovered, nor the bitter complaints he made on account of the unseasonable recall of his forces, which had put it out of his power to make a settlement there, could move the governor to swerve from his former purpose. His coldness, however, did not in any degree abate the ardour of the three associates; they therefore determined to solicit their sovereign to grant that permission which was refused by his delegate.

With this view, after adjusting among themselves that Pizarro should claim the station of governor, Almagro that of lieutenant governor, and Luque the dignity of bishop, in the country which they proposed to conquer, they sent Pizarro as their agent to Spain.

Pizarro lost no time in repairing to court; he appeared before the emperor with the unembarrassed dignity of a man conscious of what his services merited; and he conducted his negociations with such dexterity and address, which could not have been expected from his education or former habits of life. His description of his own sufferings, and pompous account of the country which he had discovered, confirmed by the specimens he had brought, made such an impression on Charles, and his ministers, that they not only approved of the intended expedition, but seemed to be interested in the success of its leader. Presuming upon those favourable dispositions, Pizarro paid little attention to the interest of his associates. But as the pretentions of Luque did not interfere with his own, he obtained for him the ecclesiastical dignity to which he aspired. For Almagro he claimed only the command of a fortress, intended to be erected at Tumbez. To himself he secured whatever his boundless ambition could desire. He was appointed governor, captain-general, and Adelantado of all the country which he had discovered, and hoped to conquer; with supreme authority, civil as well as military, and an absolute right to all the privileges and emoluments, usually granted to adventurers in the New World. His jurisdiction was declared to extend two hundred leagues along the coast, south of the river St. Jago; to be independent of the governor of Panama: and he had power to nominate all the officers who were to serve under him.

In return for these concessions, Pizarro engaged to raise two hundred and fifty men, and to provide the ships, arms, and warlike stores, requisite towards subjecting to the crown of Castile, the country of which the government was allotted him. Pizarro's funds were so low, that he could not complete more than half the stipulated number: after he had received his patents from the