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 160 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS Columbus, so the queen of Charles V. came to the assistance of Pizarro, and caused to be executed the extraordinary instrument which bestowed on him, with the rights of discovery and conquest, the titles of Governor and Captain- General of New Castile, as Peru was then called, and a salary of 725,000 mara- vedis, to be drawn however from the conquered country. Almagro and Luque were also provided for, but in a more modest way, which proved the be- ginning of a long, bitter, and deadly feud between Almagro and his chief. Nor did the instrument fail to make the usual provision for the conversion to Chris- tianity of the nations to be subjugated and plundered. In mustering his recruits Pizarro had the satisfaction of revisiting his native town of Truxillo, where he had lived in degradation, and to which he now re- turned a renowned discoverer and soldier, and a titled magnate. There he found his three brothers, the Pizarros, all poor and proud and eager for adventure ; and a fourth brother, on his mother's side. With these and other followers, hardly exceeding one hundred, he sailed from Seville, in January, 1530; and a year later, namely, in January, 1531, after a solemn consecration of his enterprise in the cathedral of Panama, he put forth from that port with one hundred and eighty men and twenty-seven horses, on his fourth, last, and finally successful ex- pedition, to overthrow a populous empire. That empire lay in the bosom and on both sides of the mighty ranges of the Andes, occupying thirty-seven degrees of the coast south of the equator, and ex- tending eastward far over the valleys of the Amazon and its numerous tribu- taries. It was under the rule of the Incas, a parental despotism, which spread an iron net-work of laws over millions of subjects of different races and lan- guages. Its mountain slopes, table-lands, sea-coasts, and plains comprised every variety of climate and almost every diversity of physical features. Its capital was Cuzco, where dwelt the adored Incas ; there also was the famous Temple of the Sun, with its gorgeous decorations of gold and gems. Canals, aqueducts, complete systems of irrigation for the rainless regions ; magnificent mountain roads, built to endure for centuries ; fine textile fabrics, utensils of clay and cop- per, vessels and ornaments of silver and gold ; bridges, fortresses, and edifices of a rude but massy and symmetrical architecture, well adapted to the climate and the needs of the inhabitants ; armies, magistrates, courts of justice, such were some of the tokens of a wide semi-civilized prosperity, which less than two hun- dred Spanish adventurers were proceeding ruthlessly to destroy. With incredible difficulties still to overcome, Pizarro had in his favor a circurrv stance of immense importance. The country was at that time distracted by civil war. Two brothers, Huascar and Atahualpa, sons of the last Inca, were en- gaged in a fratricidal strife for the imperial power, and their armies were turned against each other. Pizarro resolved to strike his first blow at Tumbez ; but was constrained by baffling winds to put into the Bay St. Matthew. There he landed his force, and soon fell upon a peaceful village, putting the inhabitants to flight and pillaging their dwellings. A considerable treasure thus obtained was sent back to Panama.