the scene from a litter, while Orgonez, a brave and fiery cavalier, commanded the little army. The battle was bloody in the extreme, two hundred being killed on the field. The victory fell to Hernando; and Orgonez, with other cavaliers, was cruelly murdered after the surrender (April, 1538). The utmost rancor and malice appears to have animated the contending factions. Almagro, who, with indescribable anguish, had witnessed the defeat of his veterans, was made prisoner. Hernando, dreading lest his revenge should be disappointed by a natural death, used every means to restore his victim and to encourage the hope of life. Meanwhile, a process, spreading over two thousand pages, was hatched up against him, and, after the usual ceremony of a trial, he was sentenced to execution. On learning his fate, he piteously begged for life-a strange example in one who had always been noted for his daring, and whose face was scarred to deformity by the wounds of a hundred battles. After receiving the sacrament, he was privately garroted in his dungeon. Having achieved this sanguinary success, Hernando, with a great treasure, embarked for Spain, to fortify the interests of his family, and take precautions lest they should be called to account for their late violent and high-handed measures. Taking the circuitous route of Mexico, he was a considerable time in reaching Spain, and did not present himself before the emperor until two years after the death of his victim. He met a cold reception, but trusted that his treasures, dealt with a liberal hand among the officers of the court, would bear him out. He was mistaken. The influence of an attached follower of Almagro outweighed his own and that of all his wealth. He was confined in a strong fortress, where for twenty years he lived in close imprisonment. In 1560, he was released, an impoverished man. All his brothers were dead, and Peru was in the hands of strangers. He survived to the age of a hundred, a rare example of justice, in Spain, executed on a wealthy and powerful offender. CHAPTER XI. RENEWED HOSTILITY OF THE INCA-EXPEDITION OF GONZALO PIZARRO- THEIR DESPERATE RESOLUTION-ASSASSINATION OF In these civil wars, the unhappy Peruvians, as may be supposed, had suffered severely, their allegiance being often claimed by two sets of masters, each ready to retort with savage vengeance any sign of disaffection. The Inca, taking advantage of the general confusion, gathered a strong force, and sallying from his eyrie in the mountains, did much mischief to his embarrassed foes-in one instance, cutting off a force of thirty troopers to a man. He maintained a desultory warfare for some time, and, knowing the treacherous nature of the enemy, held aloof from negotiation. Pizarro, with a miserable and infernal revenge, tortured to death a young and beautiful woman, a favorite wife of the Inca, who had fallen into his hands. "It seems to me," writes one of the conquerors, "that our Lord punished him for this in the end he met." Despite atrocities like these, the country, by the wise policy of Pizarro, became speedily settled with Europeans, and towns and settlements sprang up with rapidity, in various directions. Gonzalo Pizarro, to whom the command of Quito had been assigned, was a cavalier of great boldness and enterprise, and, immediately on assuming his new government, made extensive preparations for discovery in the east. In 1540, with three hundred and fifty Spaniards and four thousand Indians, he set forth for the unexplored regions of the interior. After a terrible passage, in the rainy season, over the Andes, he reached the famous Land of Cinnamon, and was lured farther still by reports of golden realms to the eastward. The adventurers pressed on, suffering dreadfully from famine, and at last came upon the Napo, one of the upper tributaries of the majestic Amazon. A vast herd of swine, which they had taken with them, as well as a thousand dogs for Indian warfare, had all been lost or devoured, and famine stared them in the face. Wild roots, toads, serpents, and such loathsome reptiles, with the leather of their saddles and belts, were their only sustenance. After pursuing this stream, with incredible difficulty, for some distance, Pizarro resolved on constructing a vessel to assist in the descent. By the constant labor of two months, a brigantine was completed, the shoes of the horses being converted into nails, and the ragged garments of the soldiers into oakum. Aboard this vessel he put Francisco de Orellana, with directions to proceed down the river, and procure provisions for his suffering comrades. Week after week elapsed, and no succor came. The Span iards again took up their march along the tangled and precip itous banks of the river. Two months of dreadful suffering and exertion brought them to its confluence with the Amazon. Here they found a solitary white man, who had been set ashore by Orellana. That cavalier, borne onward by a furious current, had reached the Amazon three days after his departure. He had found scarcely any supplies, and it was impossible to make head against the current to return. Abandoning, therefore, his companions to their fate, he sailed down the Amazon, and after a voyage, one of the most wonderful on record, reached the sea, and held his course for Spain. There, his fanciful reports enabled him to raise a band of five hundred adventurers, with whom he set sail for the great river. But he was not destined to enjoy the fruits of his discovery, dying on the passage, having achieved a strange mixture of renown and dishonor. The wearied and famine-stricken Spaniards, on learning their desertion, almost abandoned themselves to despair. It was more than a year since they had left Quito, and at least four hundred leagues of tangled wilderness and rocky Cordilleras lay between them and their homes. But no resource remained except to retrace their steps. More than a year of cruel suffering was consumed in this, and at length, in June, 1542, the remnants of the expedition, in a most forlorn and pitiable condition, rëentered Quito. Only eighty of the Spaniards and one-half their allies had survived to return. Thus ended an expedition, the most remarkable for its endurance, and the most terrible for its sufferings, of any in the annals of America. Pizarro, after the execution of his rival, had conducted himself with all the insolence of a conqueror. He entered Cuzco in triumph, wearing a splendid suit which he had lately received from Cortes, and laid down the law like an absolute dictator. To those who urged the rights of young Almagro, the son of his victim, "the governor answered right sharply, that his own government had no limit, and that it covered all on this side Flanders." The estates of the defeated faction ("the Men of Chili" as they were called) were confiscated, and distributed among his followers; and such enormous territories and repartiamentos were lavished on his brothers, that even his own partizans murmured. The shattered remains of the Almagran party, with the young chief (son of their general by an Indian) to whose fortunes they still faithfully adhered, in time found their way to Lima, where all their efforts for redress or satisfaction were treated with undisguised contempt. To such poverty had they sunk, amid all the wealth of Peru, that, it is said, twelve of these forlorn hidalgos, lodging together, could muster but a single cloak, which they wore abroad by turns-the pride of the Spanish cavalier not permitting him to appear without this necessary appendage to gentility. Their desperate state of mind was aggravated by the taunts and ridicule of the successful faction, and the governor, as he rode carelessly through the streets, often met with sinister looks and sombreros stoutly fixed on the head. To all the warnings which he received, and all the suggestions to rid himself of this dangerous nucleus of sedition, he answered, with the carelessness of power and courage, "Poor devils! they have had bad luck enough. We will not trouble them further." To renewed remonstrances, he answered haughtily, "Be in no concern about my life. It is safe enough, so long as every man in Peru knows that I can in a moment cut off any head that dares to harbor a thought against it." At length the ruined faction was reduced to despair by a report that Vaca de Castro, who had been appointed by the crown to do justice in the colonies, was lost at sea on his passage. The principal cavaliers now came to the desperate resolution of redressing their own wrongs by the assassination of their oppressor. Some twenty of them, on Sunday, June 26th, 1541, assembled at the house of Almagro, resolved to fall upon the governor as he returned from hearing the mass. The whole plot, strange to say, leaked out through the scruples of one of the conspirators, who revealed it in confession to his priest. The startling tidings were instantly communicated to Pizarro, who, however, answered coldly, "This priest wants a bishopric," evidently supposing the whole story to be a fabrication for the purpose of ingratiating the informants with himself. Still he resolved not uselessly to incur the threatened danger, and accordingly on the appointed day remained at home, under pretext of indisposition. Great was the consternation of the conspirators at the failure of their opportunity. Pizarro was evidently apprised of their plot, and their heads already seemed tottering on their shoulders. With the recklessness of desperation, they rushed into the street, crying, "Long live the king! death to the tyrant!" As they marched hastily across the great square to the palace of the governor, one Gomez Perez stepped aside to avoid a puddle of water. The fierce Juan de Rada, their leader, turned abruptly, and said, "Are you afraid of wet feet, when we are going to bathe in human blood?" and ordered the too dainty conspirator instantly to return. Pizarro, at this time, was at dinner with a number of officials and cavaliers, about equal in number to the conspirators; but they were unarmed, and several were men of peace. A terrified domestic ran into the house, crying "Help, help! all the |