AN

ACCOUNT

OF THE

CONQUEST OF PERU;

BY

FRANCISCO PIZARRO.

FROM the time that Nugnez de Balboa discovered the great Southern ocean, and received the first obsure hints concerning the opulent countries with which it might open a communication, the wishes and schemes of every enterprising person in the colonies of Darien and Panama were turned towards the wealth of those unknown regions. Accordingly, several armaments were fitted out in order to explore and take possession of the countries to the east of Panama, but under the conduct of leaders whose talents and resources were unequal to the attempt. As the excursions of those adventurers did not extend beyond the limits of the province to which the Spaniards have given the name of Tierra Firmè, a mountainous region covered with woods, thinly inhabited, and extremely unhealthy, they returned with dismal accounts concerning the distresses to which they had been exposed, and the unpromising aspect of the places which they had visited.

But there were three persons settled in Panama on whom the circumstances which deterred others made so little impression, that at the very moment when all considered Balboa's expectations of discovering a rich country, by steering towards the east, as chimerical, they resolved to attempt the execution

of his schemes. The names of those extraordinary men were Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, and Hernando Luque. PIZARRO was the natural son of a gentleman of an honourable family by a very low woman, and, according to the cruel fate which often attends the offspring of unlawful love, had been so totally neglected in his youth by the author of his birth, that he seems to have destined him never to rise beyond the condition of his mother. In consequence of this ungenerous design, he set him, when bordering on manhood, to keep hogs. But the aspiring mind of young Pizarro disdaining that ignoble occupation, he abruptly abandoned his charge, enlisted as a soldier, and, after serving some years in Italy, embarked for America, which, by opening such a boundless range to active talents, allured every adventurer whose fortune was not equal to his ambitious thoughts. ALMAGRO had as little cause to boast of his descent as Pizarro. The one was a bastard, the other a foundling. Bred, like his companion, in the camp, he yielded not to him in any of the soldierly qualities of intrepid valour, indefatigable activity, or insurmountable constancy in enduring the hardships inseparable from military service in the New World. HERNANDO DE LUQUE was an ecclesiastic, who acted both as priest and schoolmaster at Panama, and, by 'means which the contemporary writers have not described, had amassed riches that inspired him with thoughts of rising to greater eminence.

Such were the men destined to overturn one of the most extensive empires on the face of the earth. Their confederacy for this purpose was authorised by Pedrarias, the governor of Panama. Each engaged to employ his whole fortune in the adventure. Pizarro, the least wealthy of the three, as he could not throw so large a sum as his associates into the common stock, engaged to take the department of greatest fatigue and danger, and to command in person the armament which was to go first upon discovery. Almagro offered to conduct. the supplies of provisions and reinforcements of troops, of which Pizarro might stand in need. Luque was to remain at Panama to negociate with the governor, and superintend whatever was carrying on for the general interest.

The attempt was begun with a force more suited to the humble condition of the three associates, than to the greatness of the enterprise in which they were engaged. Pizarro set sail from Panama on the 14th of November, 1524, with a single vessel, of small burden, and 112 men. After beating about for 70 days, with much danger and incessant fatigue, Pizarro's progress towards the south-east was not greater than what a skilful navigator will now make in as many hours. He touched at several places on the coast of Tierra Firmè, but found every where the same uninviting country which former adventurers had described; the low grounds converted into swamps by an overflowing of rivers; the higher, covered with impervious woods; few inhabitants, and those fierce and hostile. Famine, fatigue, frequent rencounters with the natives, and, above all, the distempers of a moist, sultry climate, combined in wasting his slender band of followers. The undaunted resolution of their leader continued, however, for some time, to sustain their spirits, although no sign had yet appeared of discovering those golden regions to which he had promised to conduct them. At length he was obliged to abandon that inhospitable coast, and retire to Chuchama, opposite to the pearl islands, where he hoped to receive a supply of provisions and troops from Panama.

But Almagro having sailed from that port with 70 men, stood directly towards that part of the continent where he hoped to meet with his associate. Not finding him there, he landed his soldiers, who, in searching for their companions, underwent the same distresses, and were exposed to the same danger, which had driven them out of the country. Repulsed at length by the Indians in a sharp conflict, in which their leader lost one of his eyes by the wound of an arrow, they likewise were compelled to reimbark. Chance led them to the place of Pizarro's retreat, where they found some consolation in recounting to each other their adventures, and comparing their sufferings.

In 1526 Almagro repaired to Panama, in hopes of recruiting their shattered troops. But what he and Pizarro had suffered, gave his countrymen such an unfavourable idea of the VOL. I.

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service, that it was with difficulty he could levy fourscore men. Feeble as this reinforcement was, Almagro took the command of it, and having joined Pizarro, they did not hesitate about resuming their operations. After a long series of disasters and disappointments, not inferior to those which they had already experienced, part of the armament reached the bay of St. Matthew, on the coast of Quito, and landing at Tacamez, to the south of the river of Emeralds, they beheld a country more champaign and fertile than any they had yet discovered in the Southern ocean, the natives clad in garments of woollen or cotton stuff, and adorned with several trinkets of gold and silver.

But, notwithstanding those favourable appearances, magnified beyond the truth, both by the vanity of the persons who brought the report from Tacamez, and by the fond imagination of those who listened to them, Pizarro and Almagro durst not venture to invade a country so populous with a handful of men enfeebled by fatigue and diseases. They retired to the small island of Gallo, where Pizarro remained with part of the troops, and his associate returned to Panama, in hopes of bringing such a reinforcement as might enable them to take possession of the opulent territories, whose existence seemed to be no longer doubtful.

But some of the adventurers, less enterprising, or less hardy, than their leaders, having secretly conveyed lamentable accounts of their sufferings and losses to their friends at Panama, Almagro met with an unfavourable reception from Pedro de los Rios, who had succeeded Pedraias in the government of that settlement. After weighing the matter with that cold economical prudence which appears the first of all virtues to persons whose limited faculties are incapable of conceiving or executing of great designs, he concluded an expedition, attented with such certain waste of men, to be so detrimental to an infant and feeble colony, that he not only prohibited the raising of new levies, but dispatched a vessel to bring home Pizarro and his companions from the island of Gallo. Almagro and Luque, though deeply affected with these measures, which they could not prevent, and durst not oppose, found

means of communicating their sentiments privately to Pizarro, and exhorted him not to relinquish an enterprise that was the foundation of all their hopes, and the only means of re-establishing their reputation and fortune, which were both on the decline. Pizarro's mind, bent with inflexible obstinacy on all its purposes, needed 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 incredible calamities to which they had been exposed were still so recent in their memories, and the thoughts of revisiting their families and friends after a long absence 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 of all the daring veterans in his service had resolution to remain 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. This, as it was farther removed from the coast than Gallo, and uninhabited, they considered as a more secure retreat, where, unmolested, they might wait for supplies from Panama, which they trusted that the activity of their associates would be able to procure. Almagro and Luque were not inattentive or cold solicitors, and their incessant importunity was seconded by the general voice of the colony, which exclaimed loudly against the infamy of exposing brave men, engaged in the public service, and charged with no error but what flowed from an excess of zeal and courage, to perish like the most odious criminals in a desert island. Overcome by those entreaties and expostulations, the governor at last consented to send a small vessel to their relief. But that he might not seem to encourage Pizarro to any new enterprise, he would not permit one landman to embark on board of it.

By this time, Pizarro and his companions had remained five months in an islaud, infamous for the most unhealthy climate