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 22 was not so fortunate. Almagro was one of the three partners in the famous compact drawn up at Panama for the exploration and conquest of the unknown regions south of the equator, whence rumors of fabulous wealth had come to the ears of the Spaniards. Father Luque, the partner who had furnished the funds, and Almagro, had been content at first to allow Pizarro to carry out his hazardous enterprise without interference or dictation. But no sooner had the indomitable captain, with his adventurous cavaliers, conquered the disunited empire of the Incas and dragged Atahualpa from his golden throne at Caxamarca, than Almagro appeared with reinforcements and sought to share in the benefits of his partner's successes. Then bickerings began over the distribution of the immense boot}'. This great empire, which Tupac Yupanqui and Huayna Capac had built up and extended from the river Esmeraldas to the river Maule, conquering and subduing both the ancient kingdom of Quito and, in the South, all the ancient northern tribes of Chile—an empire containing, as some say, ten millions of souls, and with as high a civilization as that of Egypt—this beautiful and wealthy empire had poured its immense treasures into the little town of Caxamarca to ransom its beloved Inca from the hands of a corporal's guard of Spaniards. In a few weeks, Pizarro and his cavaliers had become immensely rich; what more natural than that this should excite the envy of Almagro and his men, who arrived too late to share in the distribution of the booty. Strifes and rivalries began, which, with frequent hypocritical reconciliations between the leaders, were kept up between Pizarro and his partisans on one hand and Almagro and his followers on the -other, until the battle of Las Salinas (April 1538), removed Almagro, the father, and the battle of