fpired them with fuch ideas of their own fuperiority, that Pizarro did not hesitate to fail (February 1531.) with this contemptible force to invade a great empire. Almagro was left at Panama, as formerly, to follow him with what reinforcement of men he should be able to mufter. As the feafon for embarking was properly chofen, and the courfe of navigation between Panama and Peru was now better known, Pizarro completed the voyage in thirteen days; though, by the force of the winds and currents, he was carried above a hundred leagues to the north of Tumbez, the place of his destination, and obliged to land his troops in the bay of St. Matthew.

Lands in Peru.

Without lofing a moment, he began to advance towards the fouth, taking care, however, not to depart far from the fea-fhore, both that he might easily effect a junction with the fupplies which he expected from Panama, and fecure a retreat in cafe of any difafter, by keeping as near as poffible to his fhips. But as the country in feveral parts on the coaft of Peru is barren, unhealthful, and thinly peopled; as the Spaniards had to pass all the rivers near their mouth, where the body of water is greatest; and as the imprudence of Pizarro, in attacking the natives when he should have ftudied to gain their confidence, had forced them to abandon their habitations; famine, fatigue, and difeafes

of various kinds, brought upon him and his followers calamities hardly inferior to those which they had endured in their former expedition. What they now experienced correfpónded fo ill with the alluring defcription of the country given by Pizarro, that many began to reproach. him, and every foldier must have become cold to the fervice, if, even in this unfertile region of Peru, they had not met with fome appearances of wealth and cultivation, which feemed to justify the report of their leader. At length they reached (April 14. 1531) the province of Coaque; and, having surprised the principal fettlement of the natives, they feized there veffels and ornaments of gold and filver, to the amount of thirty thoufand pefos, with other booty of fuch value, as difpelled all their doubts, and inspired the most defponding with fanguine hopes. r)

His meafures for obtaining a reinforcement.

Pizarro himself was fo much delighted with this rich fpoil, which he confidered as the first fruits of a land abounding with treafure, that he inftantly dispatched one of his fhips to Panama with a large remittance to Almagro; and another to Nicaragua with a confiderable fum to fome perfons of influence in that province, in hopes of alluring adventurers, by this early display of the wealth which he had acquired. Meanwhile, he continued his march along the coaft, and difdaining to employ any means of reducing the natives

r) Herrera, dec. 4. lib. vii, c. 9. lib. ii, e̟, I.

Xeres 182.

but force, he attacked them with, fuch violence in their scattered habitations, as compelled them either to retire into the interior country, or to fubmit to his yoke. This fudden appearance of invaders, whofe afpect and inanners were fo ftrange, and whofe power feemed to be fo irresistible, made the fame dreadful impreflion as in other parts of America. Pizarro hardly met with refiftance until he attacked the island of Puna in the bay of Guayquil. As that was better peopled than the country through which he had paffed, and its inhabitants fiercer and lefs civilized than thofe of the continent, they defended themselves with fuch ob ftinate valour, that Pizarro fpent fix months. in reducing them to fubjection. From Puna he proceeded to Tumbez, where the diftempers which raged among his men compelled him to remain for three months. s)

Receives fome, and continues to advance.

While he was thus employed, he began to reap advantage from his attention, to spread the fame of his firft fuccefs at Coaque. Two different detachments arrived from Nicaragua, which, though neither exceeded thirty men, he confidered as a reinforcement of great confequence to his feeble band, especially as the one was únder the command of Sebaftian Benalcazar, and the other of Hernando Soto, officers not inferior in merit and reputation to any who had ferved 5) P. Sancho ap. Ramuf. iii. p. 371, F. Herrera, dec. 4. lib. vii. c. 18. lib. ix, c. I. Zarate, lib. ii. c. 3: 3. Xeres

p. 182, &c.

in America.

From Tumbez he proceeded (May 16. 1532.) to the river Piura, and in an advantageous ftation near the mouth of it, he eftablished the firft Spanish colony in Peru; to which he gave the name of St. Michael.

As Pizarro cantinued to advance towards the centre of the Peruvian empire, he gradually received more full information concerning its extent and policy, as well as the fituation of its affairs at that juncture. Without fome knowledge of thefe, he could not have conducted his operations with propriety; and without a fuitable attention to them, it is impoffible to account for the progrefs which the Spaniards had already made, or to unfold the caufes of their fubfequent fuccefs.

State of the Peruvian empire.

At the time when the Spaniards invaded Feru, the dominions of its fovereigns extended in length, from north to fouth, above fifteen hundred miles along the Pacific Ocean. Its breadth, from east to weft, was much less confiderable; being uniformly bounded by the vaft ridge of the Andes, ftretching from its one extremity to the other. Peru, like the reft of the New World, was originally poffeffed by fmall independent tribes, differing from each other in manners, and in their forms of rude policy. All, however, were fo little civilized, that, if the traditions concerning their mode of life, preserved among their defcendants, deferve credit, they

muft

must be claffed among the most unimproved favages of America. Strangers to every fpecies of cultivation or regular induftry, without any fixed refidence, and unacquainted with thofe fentiments and obligations which form the first bonds of focial union, they are faid to have roamed about naked in the forefts, with which the country was then covered, more like wild beafts than like men. After they had ftruggled for feveral ages with the hardships and calamities which are inevitable in this barbarous ftate, and when no circumftance feemed to indicate the approach of any uncommon effort towards improvement, we are told that there appeared on the bank of the lake Titiaca, a man and woman of majestick form, and clothed in decent garments. They declared themselves to be children of the Sun, fent by their beneficent parent, who beheld with pity the miferies of the human race, to instruct and to reclaim them. At their perfuafion, enforced by reverence for the divinity in whofe name they were fuppofed to speak, several of the dispersed favages united together, and receiving their commands as heavenly injunctions, followed them to Cuzco, where they settled, and began to lay the foundations of a city.

Manco Capac and Mama Ocollo, for fuch were the names of thofe extraordinary perfonages, having thus collected fome wandering tribes, formed that focial union, which, by multiplying the defires. and uniting the efforts of the human fpecies, excites induftry, and leads to improveROBERTSON Vol. III. B