VI. $539. 193 if Pizarro were dead, he was entrusted with à BOOK commiffion that he might then produce, by which he was appointed his fucceffor in the government of Peru. This attention to Pizarro, however, feems to have flowed rather from dread of his power, than from any approbation of his measures; for at the very time that the court feemed fo folicitous not tó irritate him, his brother Ferdinand was arrested at Madrid, and confined to a prifon, where he remained above twenty years'. WHILE Vaca de Caftro was preparing for his voyage, events of great moment happened in Peru. The governor, confidering himself, upon the death of Almagro, as the unrivalled poffeffor of that vaft empire, proceeded to parcel out its territories among the conquerors; and had this divifion been made with any degree of impartiality, the extent of country which he had to bestow, was fufficient to have gratified his friends, and to have gained his enemies. But Pizarro conducted this tranfaction, not with the equity and candour of a judge attentive to difcover and to reward merit, but with the illiberal spirit of a party leader. Large diftricts, in parts of the t Gomara Hift. c. 142. Herrera, dec. 6. lib. viii. c. VOL. III Vega, p. 11. lib. ii. c. 40. 10, 11. lib. x. c. 1. country 1540. Pizarro di vides Peru followers. among his BOOK 1540. Progrefs of the Spanish arms. 1 country moft cultivated and populous, were fet apart as his own property, or granted to his brothers, his adherents and favourites. To others, lots lefs valuable and inviting were affigned. The followers of Almagro, amongst whom were many of the original adventurers to whofe valour and perfeverance Pizarro was indebted for his fuccefs, were totally excluded from any portion in thofe lands, towards the acquifition of which they had contributed fo largely. As the.vanity of every individual fet an immoderate value upon his own fervices, and the idea of each concerning the recompence due to them rofe gradually to a more exorbitant height in proportion as their conquefts extended, all who were disappointed in their expectations exclaimed loudly against the rapaciousness and partiality of the governor. The partifans of Almagro murmured in fecret, and meditated revenge". RAPID as the progrefs of the Spaniards in South America had been fince Pizarro landed in Peru, their avidity of dominion was not yet fatisfied. The officers to whom Ferdinand Pizarro gave the command of different detachments, 29 Vega, p. 11. lib. iii. c. 2. Herrera, dec. 6. lib. viii. c. 5. penetrated VI. 1540. penetrated into several new provinces, and though BOOK some of them were expofed to great hardfhips in the cold and barren regions of the Andes, and others fuffered diftrefs not inferior amidst the woods and marfhes of the plains, they made discoveries and conquests which not only extended their knowledge of the country, but added confiderably to the territories of Spain in the New World. Pedro de Valdivia re-affumed Almagro's scheme of invading Chili, and notwithstanding the fortitude of the natives in defending their poffeffions, made fuch progress in the conqueft of the country, that he founded the city of St. Jago, and gave a beginning to the establishment of the Spanish dominion in that province. But of all the enterprises undertaken Remarkable about this period, that of Gonzalo Pizarro was of Gonzalo the most remarkable. The governor, who seems to have refolved that no perfon in Peru fhould poffefs any station of diftinguished eminence or authority but thofe of his own family, had deprived Benalcazar, the conqueror of Quito, of his command in that kingdom, and appointed his brother Gonzalo to take the government of it. He inftructed him to attempt the discovery and conqueft of the country to the east of the Andes, which, according to the information w Zarate, lib. iii. c. 13. Ovalle, lib. ii. c. 1, &c. of expedition Pizarre. BOOK of the Indians, abounded with cinnamon and VI. 1540 they endure. other valuable fpices. Gonzalo, not inferior to any of his brothers in courage, and, no less ambitious of acquiring diftinction, eagerly engaged, in this difficult fervice. He set out from Quito at the head of three hundred and forty foldiers, near one half of whom were horsemen, with four thousand Indians to carry their provifions. In forcing their way through the defiles, or over the ridges of the Andes, excefs of cold and fatigue, to neither of which they were accustomed, proved fatal to the greater part Hardships of their wretched attendants. The Spaniards, though more robuft, and inured to a variety of climates, fuffered confiderably, and lost some men; but when they defcended into the low. country, their distress increased. During two months it rained inceffantly, without any interval of fair weather long enough to dry their clothes. The immenfe plains upon which they were now entering, either altogether without inhabitants, or occupied by the rudest and least industrious tribes in the New World, yielded little fubfiftence. They could not advance a step but as they cut a road through woods, or made it through marshes. Such inceffant toil, and continual fcarcity of food, feem more than fufficient to have exhausted Zarate, lib. iv. c. 2. VI. 1540. and dispirited any troops. But the fortitude and BOOK perfeverance of the Spaniards in the fixteenth century were infuperable. Allured by frequent but false accounts of rich countries before them, 'they perfisted in struggling on, until they reached the banks of the Coca or Napo, one of the large rivers whose waters pour into the Maragnon, and contribute to its grandeur. There, with infinite labour, they built a bark, which they expected would prove of great utility, in conveying them over rivers, in procuring provifions, and in exploring the country. This was manned with fifty foldiers, under the command of Francis Orellana, the officer next in rank to Pizarro. The ftream carried them down with fuch rapidity, that they were foon far a-head of their countrymen, who followed flowly and with difficulty by land. کی Orellana, AT this distance from his commander, Orel- Deferted by lana, a young man of an aspiring mind, began to fancy himself independent, and transported with the predominant paffion of the age, he formed the scheme of distinguishing himself as a difcoverer, by following the course of the Maragnon, until it joined the ocean, and by surveying the vast regions through which it flows. This fcheme of Orellana's was as bold as it was treacherous. For, if he be chargeable with the |