dication of their character. After burning a great part of the city, and slaying thousands of the Mexicans, Cortes formed the resolution to try what effect the interposition of Montezuma might have to sooth or overawe his subjects. When the Mexicans approached next morning to renew the assault, that unfortunate prince, at the mercy of the Spaniards, and reduced to the sad necessity of becoming the instrument of his own disgrace, and of the slavery of his people, advanced to the battlements in his royal robes, and with all the pomp in which he used to appear on solemn occasions. At sight of their sovereign, whom they had long been accustomed to honour, and almost to revere as a god, the weapons dropt from their hands, every tongue was silent, all bowed their heads, and many prostrated themselves on the ground. Montezuma addressed them with every argument that could mitigate their rage, or persuade them to cease from hostilities. When he ended his discourse, a sullen murmur of disapprobation run through the crowd; to this succeeded reproaches and threats; and the fury of the multitude rising in a moment above every restraint of decency or respect, flights of arrows and volleys of stones poured in so violently upon the ramparts, that before the Spanish soldiers, appointed to cover Montezuma with their bucklers, had time to lift them in his defence, two arrows wounded the unhappy monarch, and the blow of a stone on his temple struck him to the ground. On seeing him fall, the Mexicans were so much astonished, that, with a transition not uncommon in popular tumults, they passed in a moment from one extreme to the other; remorse succeeded to insult, and they fled with horror, as if the vengeance of heaven were pursuing the crime which they had committed. The Spaniards, without molestation, carried Montezuma to his apartments, and Cortes

hastened thither to console him under his misfor

tune. But the unhappy monarch now perceived how low he was sunk, and the haughty spirit which seemed to have been so long extinct returning, he scorned to survive this last humiliation, and to protract an ignominious life, not only as the prisoner and tool of his enemies, but as the object of contempt or detestation among his subjects. In a transport of rage he tore the bandages from his wounds, and refused, with such obstinacy, to take any nourishment, that he soon ended his wretched days, rejecting with disdain all the solicitations of the Spaniards to embrace the Christian faith.

PIZARRO, ALMAGRO, & LUQUE.

FROM the time that Nugnez de Balboa discovered the great Southern ocean, and received the first obscure hints concerning the opulent countries with which it might open a communication, the wishes and schemes of every enterprising person in the colonies of Darien and Panama were turned towards the wealth of those unknown regions. But Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, and Hernando Luque, three persons settled in Panama, were not deterred by those difficulties which seemed unsurmountable to others.

Pizarro was the natural son of a gentleman of an honourable family by a very low woman, and, according to the cruel fate which often attends the offspring of unlawful love, had been so totally neglected in his youth by the author of his birth, that he seems to have destined him never to rise beyond the condition of his mother. In consequence of this ungenerous idea, he set him, when bordering on manhood, to keep hogs. But the as

piring mind of young Pizarro disdaining that ignoble occupation, he abruptly abandoned his charge, enlisted as a soldier, and, after serving some years in Italy, embarked for America, which, by opening such a boundless range to active talents, allured every adventurer whose fortune was not equal to his ambitious thoughts. There Pizarro early distinguished himself. With a temper of mind no less daring than the constitution of his body was robust, he was foremost in every danger, patient under the greatest hardships, and unsubdued by any fatigue. Though so illiterate that he could not even read, he was soon considered as a man formed to command. Every operation committed to his conduct proved successful, as, by a happy but rare conjunction, he united perseverance with ardour, and was as cautious in executing, as he was bold in forming his plans. By engaging early in active life, without any resource but his own talents and industry, and by depending on himself alone in his struggles to emerge from obscurity, he acquired such a thorough knowledge of affairs, and of men, that he was fitted to assume a superior part in conducting the former, and in governing the latter.

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 any of the soldiery qualities of intrepid valour, indefatigable activity, or unsurmountable constancy in enduring the hardships inseparable from military service in the new world. But in Almagro these virtues were accompanied with the openness, generosity, and candour, natural to men whose profession is arms; in Pizarro, they were united with the address, the craft, and the dissimulation of a politician, with the art of concealing his own purposes, and with sagacity to penetrate into those of other men.

1

Hernando de Luque was an ecclesiastic, who acted both as priest and schoolmaster at Panama, and, by means which the contemporary writers have not described, had amassed riches that inspired him with thoughts of rising to greater

eminence.

Pizarro set sail from Panama with a single vessel of small burden, and an hundred and twelve men. He touched at several places on the coast of Tierra Firmè, but famine, fatigue, frequent encounters with the natives, and, above all, the distempers of a moist, sultry climate, combined in wasting his slender band of followers. At length he was obliged to abandon that inhospitable coast, and retire to Chucham, opposite to the Pearl Islands, where he hoped to receive a supply of provisions and troops from Panama. But Almagro having sailed from that port with seventy men, stood directly towards that part of the continent where he hoped to meet with his associates. Not finding them there, he landed his men, who, in searching for their companions, underwent the same distresses, and were exposed to the same dangers. Chance led them to the place of Pizarro's retreat, where they found some consolation in recounting their adventures, and comparing their sufferings. As Almagro had advanced as far as the river St. Juan, where both the country and inhabitants appeared with a more promising aspect, that dawn of better fortune was sufficient to determine such sanguine projectors not to abandon their scheme.

Almagro repaired to Panama, in hopes of recruiting their shattered troops. But what he and Pizarro had suffered, gave his countrymen such an unfavourable idea of the service, that it was with difficulty he could levy fourscore men. Resuming their operations, after a long series of disasters and

disappointments, they reached the bay of St. Mat.thew, where they beheld a country more champaign and fertile than any they had yet discovered in the Southern ocean, the natives clad in garments of woollen or cotton stuff, and adorned with several trinkets of gold and silver.

They durst not venture to invade a country so populous with an handful of men, enfeebled by fatigue and disease; they retired to the small island of Gallo, where Pizarro remained with part of the troops, and his associates returned to Panama, in hopes of a new reinforcement. The governor of that settlement, not only prohibited the raising of new forces, but also despatched a vessel to bring Pizarro and his companions home. Instigated by Almagro and Luque, Pizarro refused to obey the governor, and drew a line upon the sand with his sword, permitting such as wished to return home to pass over it: only thirteen of all the daring ve terans in his service had resolution to remain with their commander. This determined band fixed their residence in the island of Gorgona, and waited the return of their associates with new forces; having been reinforced, they pursued their scheme, and reached the coast of Peru. After touching at some places of less note, they landed at Tumbez, above three degrees south of the line, distinguished for its stately temple, and a palace of the Incas, or sovereigns of the country. There the Spaniards feasted their eyes with the first view of the opu lence and civilization of the Peruvian empire. They beheld a country fully peopled and cultivated, with an appearance of regular industry; the natives decently clothed, and possessed of ingenuity, so far surpassing the other inhabitants of the new world, as to have the use of tame domestic animals. they were chiefly struck with the abundance of golden ornaments and vessels. Pizarro and his

But