at a moment when the highest prize of nautical achievement yet remaining the circumnavigation of the globe *—was already in his grasp. He was a man of the most undaunted courage and the highest skill in his profession, but headstrong and unscrupulous in the extreme. His good qualities are evidenced not only by his exploits, but by the affection and admiration of his crews, who, despite his severity, and the obnoxious circumstance of his being a foreigner, appear to have held him in high regard. The king of Zebu, who, on his admission into the Church, had been christened Don Carlos, (after the Emperor Charles V.,) but whose conversion seems to have been of no very radi cal nature, taking advantage of the misfortune of his allies, now committed a most treacherous and cruel massacre on a number of them whom he had enticed into the palace. Among these was the brave Juan Serrano, who had succeeded to the command of the squadron. The unfortunate man, wounded and fettered on the shore, piteously besought aid or ransom from his companions in the ships; but Carvallo, the next in command, turned a deaf ear to his request. "Finding all his entreaties were vain," says Pigafetta, "he uttered deep imprecations, and appealed to the Almighty at the great day of judgment to exact account of his soul from Juan Carvallo, his fellow-gossip. * * * His cries were, however, disregarded, and we set sail without ever hearing what became of him." Of the five ships which had sailed on this eventful voyage, only one, the Vitoria, a little vessel of sixty tons, succeeded in completing the circumnavigation of the globe. After touching at many islands, among them the Moluccas, the object of the expedition, she arrived at San Lucar, on the 6th of September, 1522; twenty-one of her crew having died, and the rest being worn out by the fatigues of a voyage which had * Magellan, on a former voyage to the East, had reached Malacca, and thus only wanted a few degrees, at his death, of completing the circumnavigation by voyages in opposite directions. lasted more than three years. The adventurous little craft, after having traversed nearly fifty thousand miles of ocean, was drawn ashore, and remained for many years a monument of the most remarkable achievement of the century. Of her European crew, only eighteen had survived. "These," concludes old Pigaffetta, with just and honest exultation, "were mariners who surely merited an eternal memory more justly than the Argonauts of old. The ship, too, undoubtedly deserved far better to be placed among the stars than the ship Argo, which from Greece discovered the great sea; for this, our wonderful ship, taking her departure from the Straits of Gibraltar, and sailing southward through the great ocean towards the Antartic Pole, and then turning west, not by sailing back, but proceeding constantly forward; so compassing the globe, until she marvellously regained her native country, Spain." The honors which, had he survived, would have been due to Magellan, fell to the lot of Sebastian del Cano, the commander of the Vitoria. He was ennobled by the emperor, and was permitted to bear for his arms a globe, with the honorable motto, "PRIMUS ME CIRCUMDEDISTI." (THOU FIRST HAST ENCOMPASSED ME.) To the great surprise of the fortunate adventurer, he discovered that, in his protracted navigation, he had lost a day in his reckoning, arriving, according to his calculation, on the fifth of September. This circumstance, which, as a matter of course, must befall all who circumnavigate the earth from east to west, was, in that day, matter for much perplexing speculation among the learned and scientific. THE CONQUEST OF PERU. BY FRANCISCO PIZARRO. CHAPTER I. THE COLONY OF PANAMA-ACCOUNT OF FRANCISCO PIZARRO-ALMAGRO AND LUQUE-FIRST VOYAGE OF PIZARRO-TERRIBLE LOSS AND “Oh, could their ancient Incas rise again, How would they take up Israel's taunting strain! Art thou, too, fallen, Iberia? Do we see The robber and the murderer weak as we? Thou, that hast wasted Earth, and dared despise Alike the wrath and mercy of the skies, Thy pomp is in the grave, thy glory laid Low in the pits thine avarice has made. We come with joy from our eternal rest To see the oppressors in their turn oppressed." WITHIN less than a quarter of a century from its discovery by Cabot, the whole eastern coast of the American Continent, from Hudson's Bay to Terra del Fuego, had been visited and explored by a succession of daring adventurers. All that lay to the westward was unknown, until the famous expedition of Balboa, in 1513, had proved the existence of a great ocean lying beyond the isthmus. The brilliant exploits and melancholy fate of that renowned pioneer, have been already narrated. The conquest of those realms of gold, of which the vague and exciting rumors had moved him to such arduous undertakings, was reserved for more fortunate, but not more vigorous and indefatigable hands. |