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success of his arms, with further specimens of the productions of the country, and with rich presents to the emperor, as the earnest of future contributions from his new conquest; requesting, in recompense for all his services, the approbation of his proceedings; and that he might be entrusted with the government of those dominions, which his conduct and the valour of his followers had added to the crown of Castile. The public voice declared warmly in favour of his pretensions, and the emperor appointed Cortes captain-general and governor of New Spain.

Even before his jurisdiction received this legal sanction, Cortes ventured to exercise all the powers of a governor, and endeavoured to render his conquest a secure and beneficial acquisition to his country. He determined to raise Mexico from its ruins; and having conceived high ideas concerning the future grandeur of the state of which he was laying the foundation, he began to rebuild its capital on a plan which hath gradually formed the most magnificent city in the New World.

It was not, however, without difficulty that the Mexican empire was reduced into the form of a Spanish colony. And to the everlasting infamy of the conquerors, they affected to consider every effort of the Mexicans to assert their own independence, as the rebellion of vassals against their sovereign, or the mutiny of slaves against their master. Under the sanction of those ill-founded maxims, they reduced the common people in the provinces to the most humiliating of all conditions, that of personal servitude. Their chiefs were punished with greater severity, and put to death by the most excruciating tortures. In almost every district of the Mexican empire, the progress of Spanish arms

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is marked with blood, and with deeds so atrocious as disgrace the enterprising valour that conducted them to success. In the country of Panuco, sixty caziques and four hundred nobles were burnt at one time; and to complete the horror of the scene, the children and relations of the wretched victims were assembled, and compelled to be spectators of their dying agonies. But we will not enlarge on facts which are disgraceful to human nature. The passions of jealousy were revived with still stronger force against Cortes at home, and Ponce de Leon was sent out to seize his person and send him prisoner to Spain. The sudden death of this man, within a few days after his arrival in New Spain, prevented the execution of this commission. And Cortes immediately set out for Castile, and in the presence of his Sovereign vindicated his conduct very successfully. His arrival in Spain removed from the A. D. monarch every suspicion and fear that had 1528. been entertained with respect to his inten

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tions. The sovereign presented him with the order of St. Jago, and the title of marquis del Valle de Guaxana, and a grant of an ample territory in New Spain. But amidst those external proofs of regard, symptoms of distrust appeared. Cortes returned to America, but in the remainder of his life nothing more is remarkable except the discovery of the peninsula of California. He returned to his native country. But his reception there was unworthy of his great merit. His antient exploits seemed to be already forgotten the emperor behaved to him with cold civility; his ministers treated him, sometimes with neglect, sometimes with insolence. His grievances received no redress; his claims were urged without effect;

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1540.

and,

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and, after several years spent in fruitless application to ministers and judges, he ended his days on the second of December in the sixty-second year of his age. His fate was the same with that of all the persons who distinguished 1547. themselves in the discovery or conquest of the New World: envied by his contemporaries, and ill requited by the court which he served, he has been admired and celebrated by succeeding ages. Which has formed the most just estimate of his character, an impartial consideration of his actions must determine.

CHAP.

CHAP. V.

History of the Conquest of Peru by Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque. Their Character. Pizarro sets of from Panama. Arrives at Tumbez. Delighted with the great Plenty of Gold and Silver. Explores the Country. Returns. Goes to Spain. Invades Peru a second time. Seizes the Gold at Coaque. Meets with Resistance at Puna. Extent of Peru. The Incas. Civil War in the Country. Atahualpa solicits Pizarro's Aid, Visits him, and is taken Prisoner. Offers a Ransom. The Bribe taken, but the Prince detained. The Spaniards share the Money, and basely murder Atahualpa. Peruvians attack the Spaniards. Almagro penetrates into Chili. Lays claim to Cuzco. Takes Ferdinand Pizarro Prisoner. Releases him. Is made Prisoner by Pizarro, and put to Death. Pizarro's Conduct and Death. Vaca de Castro arrives. His wise and resolute Conduct. Is superseded by Gasca. His benevolent Plans and Disinterestedness. Returns to Spain universally honoured. Institutions and Manners of the Mexicans and Peruvians. The recent Origin of the Mexican Empire. The Progress of the Mexicans in Civilization. Religion. Peruvian Monarchy more antient. Its Policy founded in Religion. State of Property among the Peruvians. Their public Works and Arts. Roads. Bridges, Buildings. Their unwarlike Spirit.

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WE E must how resume our chronological history of discoveries in this continent, and we ०३

find

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find three names particularly celebrated : these are Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Al1524. magro, and Hernando Luque. Pizarro

was the natural son of a gentleman of an honourable family, by a very low woman: his education and prospects were so totally neglected, that when bordering on manhood he was in no higher employment than a keeper of hogs. But the aspiring mind of this young man suddenly abandoned his charge: he enlisted as a soldier, and, having served several years in Italy, embarked for America, where he very soon distinguished himself. Almagro had as little 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 the qualities of valor, activity, or insurmountable constancy in enduring the hardships inseparable from military service in the New World. In Almagro these virtues were accompanied with openness, generosity, and candour: in Pizarro, they were united with the address, the craft, and the dissimulation of a politician. Hernando de Luque was an ecclesiastic, who acted both as a priest and schoolmaster at Panaina, and had acquired 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 Pe drarias, the governor of Panama.. Each engaged to employ his whole fortune in the adventure. Pizarro, who was the least wealthy, offered to take the department of the greatest fatigue and danger, and to command in person the armament which was to go first upon discovery. Almagro was to conduct the supplies of provisions,

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