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Several provisions of a liberal tenor were also made, to encourage emigration to the country. The new

brief mention of the affair, gives the number as sixteen. (Reports on the Discovery of Peru, p. 8, note.) But had Mr. Markham been at the pains to read the whole of the document on whose assumed silence in regard to the point in question his argument is chiefly based, he would probably have refrained from contradicting the general mass of contemporary authorities, as well as the modern writers who have conformed to them. The preamble to the Capitulation, reciting the services and enterprises for which Pizarro and his companions were to be rewarded, says expressly that on account of the dangers and toils of the voyage he was deserted on an uninhabited island by all the people that had gone with him, except thirteen alone, who chose to remain with him. ("Donde pasastes muchos peligros e trabajo, á causa de lo cual os dejó toda la gente que con vos iba en una isla despoblada con solos trece hombres que no vos quisieron dejar.") This settles the number of the faithful few on the authority of Pizarro himself, and accounts for the fact that the subsequent clause, enumerating their names, mentions only in a general way "the great service they had rendered in the said voyage and discovery."

It should perhaps be mentioned that Sir Arthur Helps makes the number fourteen, without citing his authority, and rejects the common version of the story of "crossing the line," as an example of "the invincible passion for melodramatic representation which people of secondrate imagination delight in,—those especially who have not seen much of human affairs, and who do not know in how plain and unpretending a manner the greatest things are, for the most part, transacted." (The Spanish Conquest in America, Am. ed., vol. iii. p. 409.) It may be admitted that there are many people of second-rate, or even third- or fourth-rate, imagination, who have employed themselves either in amplifying or simplifying the events of history; but, without holding any official position, one may have seen enough of "human affairs" to believe that neither the greatest nor the smallest things are always transacted with the extreme quietude and gentleness that accord with the tone of an idyllic historian. In regard to this particular affair, Sir Arthur Helps relies on what he calls the "simple story" told by Herrera, according to whom it was Tafur who drew the line, and who makes no mention of Pizarro's speech. Garcilasso, on the other

settlers were to be exempted from some of the most onerous but customary taxes, as the alcabala, or to be subject to them only in a mitigated form. The tax on the precious metals drawn from mines was to be reduced, at first, to one-tenth, instead of the fifth imposed on the same metals when obtained by barter or by rapine.

It was expressly enjoined on Pizarro to observe the existing regulations for the good government and protection of the natives; and he was required to carry out with him a specified number of ecclesiastics, with whom he was to take counsel in the conquest of the country, and whose efforts were to be dedicated to the service and conversion of the Indians; while lawyers and attorneys, on the other hand, whose presence was considered as boding ill to the harmony of the new settlements, were strictly prohibited from setting foot in them.

Pizarro, on his part, was bound, in six months from the date of the instrument, to raise a force, well equipped for the service, of two hundred and fifty men, of whom one hundred might be drawn from the colonies; and the government engaged to furnish some trifling assistance in the purchase of artillery and military stores. Finally, he was to be prepared, in six months after his return to Panamá, to leave that port and embark on his expedition."

• This remarkable document, formerly in the archives of Simancas,

hand, gives exactly the same relation as Montesinos, whom Prescott has followed; and we can feel little difficulty in agreeing with Mr. Markham that "of these two accounts [Herrera's and Garcilasso's] that of Garcilasso is far more likely to be true."-Ed.]

Such are some of the principal provisions of this Capitulation, by which the Castilian government, with the sagacious policy which it usually pursued on the like occasions, stimulated the ambitious hopes of the adventurer by high-sounding titles and liberal promises of reward contingent on his success, but took care to stake nothing itself on the issue of the enterprise. It was careful to reap the fruits of his toil, but not to pay the cost of them.

A circumstance that could not fail to be remarked in these provisions was the manner in which the high and lucrative posts were accumulated on Pizarro, to the exclusion of Almagro, who, if he had not taken as conspicuous a part in personal toil and exposure, had at least divided with him the original burden of the enterprise, and, by his labors in another direction, had contributed quite as essentially to its success. Almagro had willingly conceded the post of honor to his confederate; but it had been stipulated, on Pizarro's departure for Spain, that, while he solicited the office of Governor and Captain-General for himself, he should secure that of Adelantado for his companion. In like manner, he had engaged to apply for the see of Tumbez for the vicar of Panamá, and the office of Alguacil Mayor for the pilot Ruiz. The bishopric took the direction that was concerted, for the soldier could scarcely claim the mitre of the prelate; but the other offices, instead of their appropriate

and now transferred to the Archivo General de las Indias in Seville, was transcribed for the rich collection of the late Don Martin Fernandez de Navarrete, to whose kindness I am indebted for a copy of it. It will be found printed entire, in the original, in Appendix No. 7.

distribution, were all concentred in himself. Yet it was in reference to his application for his friends that Pizarro had promised on his departure to deal fairly and honorably by them all.3

It is stated by the military chronicler, Pedro Pizarro, that his kinsman did, in fact, urge the suit strongly in behalf of Almagro, but that he was refused by the government, on the ground that offices of such paramount importance could not be committed to different individuals. The ill effects of such an arrangement had been long since felt in more than one of the Indian colonies, where it had led to rivalry and fatal collision. Pizarro, therefore, finding his remonstrances unheeded, had no alternative but to combine the offices in his own person, or to see the expedition fall to the ground. This explanation of the affair has not received the sanction of other contemporary historians. The apprehensions expressed by Luque, at the time of Pizarro's assuming the mission, of some such result as

3 "Al fin se capituló, que Francisco Piçarro negociase la Governacion para si: i para Diego de Almagro, el Adelantamiento: i para Hernando de Luque, el Obispado: i para Bartolomé Ruiz, el Alguacilazgo Maior: i Mercedes para los que quedaban vivos, de los trece Compañeros, afirmando siempre Francisco Piçarro, que todo lo queria para ellos, i prometiendo, que negociaria lealmente, i sin ninguna cautela." Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 4, lib. 3, cap. I.

4 "Y don Francisco Piçarro pidio conforme á lo que llevava capitulado y hordenado con sus compañeros ya dicho, y en el consejo se le rrespondio que no avia lugar de dar governacion á dos compañeros, á caussa de que en santa marta se avia dado ansi á dos compañeros y el uno avia muerto al otro. Pues pedido, como digo, muchas vezes por don Francisco Piçarro se les hiziese la merced á ambos compañeros, se le rrespondio la pidiesse parassi sino que se daria á otro, y visto que no avia lugar lo que pedia y queria pedio se le hiziese la merced á el, y ansi se le hizo." Descub. y Conq., MS.

...

actually occurred, founded, doubtless, on a knowledge of his associate's character, may warrant us in distrusting the alleged vindication of his conduct; and our distrust will not be diminished by familiarity with his subsequent career. Pizarro's virtue was not of a kind to withstand temptation,-though of a much weaker sort than that now thrown in his path.

The fortunate cavalier was also honored with the habit of St. Jago; and he was authorized to make an important innovation in his family escutcheon,-for by the father's side he might claim his armorial bearings. The black eagle and the two pillars emblazoned on the royal arms were incorporated with those of the Pizarros; and an Indian city, with a vessel in the distance on the waters, and the llama of Peru, revealed the theatre and the character of his exploits; while the legend announced that "under the auspices of Charles, and by the industry, the genius, and the resources of Pizarro, the country had been discovered and reduced to tranquillity," thus modestly intimating both the past and prospective services of the Conqueror."

These arrangements having been thus completed to Pizarro's satisfaction, he left Toledo for Truxillo, his native place, in Estremadura, where he thought he should be most likely to meet with adherents for his new enterprise, and where it doubtless gratified his vanity to display himself in the palmy, or at least

5 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 182.—Oviedo, Hist de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 1.—Caro de Torres, Historia de las Ordenes militares (ed. Madrid, 1629), p. 113.

• "Caroli Cæsaris auspicio, et labore, ingenio, ac impensa Ducis Piça rro inventa, et pacata." Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 4, lib. 6, cap. 5.

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