HE conquest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro is remarkable among those many instances to be met with in the world's history, of the Almighty overruling great personal ambition and great vices to the accomplishment of the most important results,―remarkable, it is said, because in Pizarro's case there was nothing to warrant the early development of such amazing designs. He was entirely unassisted by the influences of birth, or wealth, or education; and as far as human means are concerned, his success appears to have resulted solely from his own untiring energy, both of mind and body. Gomara relates that he was born upon the steps of a church, and in his earliest days was suckled by a sow. Other historians discredit this information; but all agree that he was born at Truxillo, in the province of Estramadura, in Spain, about the year 1480; and the generally received opinion is, that he was the natural son of one Gonzalo Pizarro, an officer of that place, by a woman of very low extraction. There can be little doubt that Pizarro never learned either to read or write. His father, though bound to support him, entirely neglected his education, and compelled him to pass his earliest years in the unintellectual occupation of tending pigs it was this circumstance, no doubt, which gave rise to the story which has been told of him by Gomara. : Moreover, when Pizarro began his adventurous undertaking, the splendid expectations held out by Nunez de Balboa, the discoverer of the great southern ocean, had passed away. Time, money, and talent had been lavishly expended; and men from dearly bought experience had come to the conclusion that the hopes of Balboa with respect to countries east of the Panama were visionary, and that he himself had been deceived by the tales of some ignorant Indians. Pizarro at an early age had left Spain. His active mind could not brook the servile employment to which he had been consigned; he ran away from his pig-styes, enlisted as a soldier, served some few years in Italy, and then proceeded to America. Here he distinguished himself as a soldier in the expeditions to Terra Firma and Mexico; his courage, enterprise, and powers of endurance rendering him the favourite leader of the soldiers, who never fought with such confidence as when under his orders. After fourteen years of arduous service, while still one of the least wealthy of the Spanish colonists in the new world, Pizarro ventured to renew the projects of discovery advanced by Balboa, and for this purpose took to himself two associates, Diego de Almagro and Fernando de Luques; the former of these, like himself, had little to boast of with regard to birth, his origin being so obscure that no historian has been able to discover who was his father; the latter was a priest, and by far the most wealthy of the three. Each adventurer agreed to employ his whole fortune in the cause. Pizarro, who could not throw into the common stock so large a sum as his associates, engaged to take the department of the greatest fatigue and danger, and to command in person the first expedition. Almagro was to conduct the supplies of provisions and attend to the reinforcements of troops; and Luques was to remain at Panama to negotiate with Pedrarias, the governor of the place, under whose sanction the enterprise had been engaged in, and to arrange matters for the general interest. Such was the strange confederacy destined to overthrow one of the wealthiest and most extensive empires upon the face of the earth. To give a religious enthusiasm to this project of ambition and avarice, when all things were arranged Luques celebrated Mass. Dividing a consecrated host into three parts, he reserved one to himself, and gave the other two to his associates. “Thus, in the name of the Prince of Peace," observes Robertson, "they ratified a contract of which plunder and bloodshed were the objects." About the middle of November 1524, Pizarro embarked in a new ship with 112 men, officers included. At Pearl Island, in the middle of the Bay of Panama, he took in wood, water, and hay for four horses, which were all he had on board. Thence proceeding 100 leagues, he landed at Port Pinas, on the continent, and endeavoured to penetrate the country. After losing many of his men from sickness, fatigue, and want of provisions, without any object having been accomplished, he sent the ship to Pearl Island for supplies. Meanwhile, Almagro, with two ships and 60 recruits, who had followed Pizarro, after meeting with various adventures, in which he lost one of his eyes by the wound of an arrow, fortunately discovered the place of his associate's retreat. They related to each other the dangers they had already gone through, and resolved in spite of all to proceed in the enterprise, having been assured by some prisoners that the treasures of Peru greatly surpassed whatever had been reported of them. Almagro repaired to Panama for recruits; but the sufferings which he and Pizarro had already undergone gave such an unfavourable view of the service, that it was with difficulty he could levy 80 men. Feeble, however, as this reinforcement was, Almagro returned with it to Pizarro, and operations were commenced after a long series of disasters and disappointments. The adventurers landed at Tacamez, on the coast of Quito, where things bore a more favourable appearance, for the natives were clad in woollen and cotton stuffs, and adorned with trinkets of gold and silver. Still their own troops were too enfeebled by fatigue and disease to give them any hope of conquering the country; Pizarro therefore retired to the small island of Gallo, while Almagro again went to Panama, hoping to secure greater reinforcements by an assurance that they were already within reach of those opulent territories which would amply repay them for any amount of exertion. The soldiers, however, were far less enthusiastic than their leaders: many desired to return with Almagro to Panama, but this was absolutely refused; and notwithstanding every precaution was used to prevent any communication between these dissatisfied troops and the government, one of them found means to send a paper subscribed by most of them, representing the hardships they were enduring, and desiring to be recalled. This letter, which was artfully |