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VI.

BOOK and fafigued, they had not courage to fall upon their enemies, when fortune prefented an opportunity of attacking them with fuch advantage.

1538.

New exp:

ditions.

Cuzco was pillaged by the victorious troops, who found there a confiderable booty, confifting partly of the gleanings of the Indian treasures, and partly of the wealth amaffed by their antagonifts from the spoils of Peru and Chili. But fo far did this, and whatever the bounty of their leader could add to it, fall below the high ideas of the recompence which they conceived to be due to their merit, that Ferdinand Pizarro, unable to gratify fuch extravagant expectations, had recourse to the fame expedient which his brother had employed on a similar occasion, and endeavoured to find occupation for his turbulent affuming fpirit, in order to prevent it from breaking out into open mutiny. With this view, he encouraged his most active officers to attempt the discovery and reduction of various provinces which had not hitherto submitted to the Spaniards. To every ftandard erected by the leaders who undertook any of those new expeditions, volunteers reforted with the ardour and hope peculiar to the age. Several of Almagro's foldiers joined them, and thus Pizarro had the

Zarate, lib. iii. c. 11. Vega, p. 11. lib. ii. c. 38.

VI.

fatisfaction of being delivered both from the im- BOOK portunity of his difcontented friends, and the dread of his ancient enemies.

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1538.

ALMAGRO himself remained for feveral months Almagro tried, in cuftody, under all the anguish of fufpence. For although his doom was determined by the Pizarros from the moment that he fell into their hands, prudence constrained them to defer gratifying their vengeance, until the foldiers who had served under him, as well as feveral of their own followers in whom they could not perfectly confide, had left Cuzco. As foon as they set out upon their different expeditions, Almagro was impeached of treafon, formally tried, and con- condemned, demned to die. The fentence astonished him; and though he had often braved death with undaunted fpirit in the field, its approach under this ignominious form appalled him fo much, that he had recourse to abject fupplications, unworthy of his former fame. He befought the Pizarros to remember the ancient friendship between their brother and him, and how much he had contributed to the profperity of their family; he reminded them of the humanity with which, in oppofition to the repeated remonstrances of

Zarate, lib. iii. c. 12. Gomara Hift. c. 141. Herrera, dec. 6. lib. iv. c. 7.

his

VI.

1538.

BOOK his own most attached friends, he had spared their lives when he had them in his power; he conjured them to pity his age and infirmities, and to fuffer him to pafs the wretched remainder of his days in bewailing his crimes, and in making his peace with Heaven. The entreaties, fays a Spanish hiftorian, of a man so much beloved, touched many an unfeeling heart, and drew tears from many a ftern eye. But the brothers remained inflexible. As foon as Almagro knew his fate to be inevitable, he met it with the dignity and fortitude of a veteran. He was ftrangled in prifon, and afterwards publicly beheaded. He fuffered in the feventy-fifth year of his age, and left one fon by an Indian woman of Panama, whom, though at that time a prisoner in Lima, he named as fucceffor to his government, pursuant to a power which the emperor had granted him.

and put ro death.

7539.

Delibera

court of

As, during the civil diffentions in Peru, all tions of the intercourfe with Spain was fufpended, the detail of the extraordinary tranfactions there did not foon reach the court. Unfortunately for the victorious faction, the first intelligence was brought thither by fome of Almagro's officers,

Spain conceming the state of Peru.

Zarate, lib. iii. c. 12. Gomara Hift. c. 141. Vega, p. 11. lib. ii. c. 39. Herrera, dec. 6. lib. iv. c. 9. lib. v. c. 1.

who

VI.

1538.

who left the country upon the ruin of their BOOK caufe; and they related what had happened, with every circumftance unfavourable to Pizarro and his brothers. Their ambition, their breach of the most folemn engagements, their violence and cruelty, were painted with all the malignity and exaggeration of party hatred. Ferdinand Pizarro, who arrived foon after, and appeared in court with extraordinary splendor, endeavoured to efface the impreffion which their accufations had made, and to justify his brother and himself by representing Almagro as the aggreffor. The emperor and his minifters, though they could not pronounce which of the contending factions was most criminal, clearly difcerned the fatal tendency of their diffentions. It was obvious, that while the leaders, entrusted with the conduct of two infant colonies, employed the arms which fhould have been turned against the common enemy, in destroying one another, all attention to the public good muft ceafe, and there was reafon to dread that the Indians might improve the advantage which the difunion of the Spaniards presented to them, and extirpate both the victors and vanquished. But the evil was more ap parent than the remedy. Where the information which had been received was fo defective and fufpicious, and the scene of action fo remote, it was almoft impoffible to chalk out the line

of

BOOK of conduct that ought to be followed, and

VI.

1538.

Vaca de

Caftro fent

ample powers.

before any plan that fhould be approved of in Spain could be carried into execution, the fituation of the parties, and the circumstances of affairs, might alter fo entirely as to render its effects extremely pernicious.

NOTHING therefore remained but to fend thither with a perfon to Peru, vested with extenfive and discretionary power, who, after viewing deliberately the posture of affairs with his own eyes, and enquiring upon the fpot into the conduct of the different leaders, fhould be authorised to establish the government in that form which hẹ deemed moft conducive to the intereft of the parent ftate, and the welfare of the colony. - The man felected for this important charge was Chriftoval Vaca de Caftro, a judge in the court of royal audience at Valladolid; and his abilities, integrity, and firmnefs, juftified the choice. His inftructions, though ample, were not fuch as to fetter him in his operations. According to the different afpect of affairs, he had power to take upon him different characters. If he found the governor still alive, he was to affume only the title of judge, to maintain the appearance of acting in concert with him, and to guard againft giving any juft caufe of offence to a man who had merited fo highly of his country. But

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