The world's history contains no to accept it as history, not as the chapter more striking and attractive wild invention of imaginative monks, than that comprising the narrative of beguiling conventual leisure by the Spanish conquest in the Americas. composition of fantastical romance. Teeming with interest to the historian And the man who undertakes, at the and philosopher, to the lover of daring present day, to narrate in all their enterprise and marvellous adventure details the exploits and triumphs of it is full of fascination. On the vast a Cortés or a Pizarro, allots himself importance of the discovery of a west- no slight task. A clear head and a ern hemisphere, vying in size, as it sound judgment, great industry and a one day, perhaps, may compete in skilful pen, are needed to do justice civilisation and power, with its to the subject; to extract and combine eastern rival, it were idle to expatiate the scraps of truth buried under But the manner of its conquest com- mountains of fiction and misrepresenmands unceasing admiration. It needs tation, to sift facts from the partial the concurring testimony of a host of accounts of Spanish jurists and officials, chroniclers and eye-witnesses to con- and to correct the boastful misreprevince succeeding generations that the sentations of insolent conquerors. hardships endured, the perils sur- The necessary qualities have been mounted, the victories obtained, by found united in the person of an acthe old Conquistadores of Mexico and complished American author. Already Peru, were as real as their record is · favourably known by his histories astounding. The subjugation of vast of the eventful and chivalrous reign of and populous empires by petty detach- Ferdinand and Isabella, and of the ments of adventurers, often scantily exploits of the Great Marquis and his provided and ignorantly led-the ex- iron followers, Mr Prescott has added traordinary daring with which they to his well-merited reputation by his risked themselves, a few score strong, narrative of the Conquest of Peru. In into the heart of unknown countries, its compilation he has spared no pains. and in the midst of hostile millions, Private collections and public libraries, require strong confirmation to obtain the archives of Madrid and the manucredence. Exploits so romantic go scripts of the Escurial, he has ransacked near to realise the feats of those fabu- and collated. And he has been so lous paladins who, cased in impervious scrupulously conscientious as to send steel and wielding enchanted lance, to Lima for a copy of the portrait overthrew armies as easily as a Quixote whose engraving faces his title-page. scattered merinos. Hardly, when But although his materials had to be the tale is put before us in the quaint procured from many and distant and garrulous chronicle of an Oviedo countries, their collection appears to or a Zarate, can we bring ourselves have occasioned him less trouble than IIistory of the Conquest of Peru ; with a Preliminary View of the Civilisation of the

Incas. By William H. PRESCOTT. London: 1847. VOL. LXII.-NO. CCCLXXXI,

their abundance. The comrades and a share of the spoils and territory of the contemporaries of Pizarro were afflict- new-found El-Dorado. In these vened with a scribbling mania. They tures Spain, fresh from her long and have left masses of correspondence, bloody struggle with the Moor, and of memoranda and personal diaries, abounding in fierce unsettled spirits, contradictory of each other, often ab- eager for action and adventure, took surd in their exaggerations and childish a prominent part. The conquests of in their triviality. From this farrago Cortes followed hard upon the discohas Mr Prescott had to cull,-a labour veries of Columbus: Dutch, English, of no trifling magnitude, whose result and Portuguese pushed their investiis most creditable to him. And to gations in all directions; and, in less our admiration of his talents are added than thirty years from its first disfeelings of strong sympathy, when we covery, the whole eastern coast of read his manly and affecting account both Americas was explored from of the painful circumstances under north to south. The vast empire of which the work was done. Deprived Mexico was added to the Spanish by an accident of the sight of one eye, crown, and the mother country was the other has for years been so glutted and intoxicated by the Pacweak as at times to be useless to him tolus that flowed from this new posfor all purposes of reading and writing. session. But enterprise was not yet Atintervals he was able to read print se- exhausted, or thirst of gold satiated, veral hours a-day, but manuscript was and Balboa's discovery of the Pacific far more trying to his impaired vision, gave fresh stimulus to both. Rumour and writing was only possible through had long spoken of lands, as yet unthose aids by which even the stone- trodden by European foot, where the blind may accomplish it. But when precious metals were abundant and he could read, although only by day, worthless as the sand upon the sealight, he felt, he says, satisfied with beach. Years elapsed before any being raised so nearly to a level with well-directed attempt was made to the rest of his species. Unfortunately reach these golden shores. With a the evil increases. “The sight of my view to discovery and traffic in the eye has become gradually dimmed, Pacific, a settlement was made on the whilst the sensibility of the nerve has southern side of the Isthmus of Darien, been so far increased, that for several and the town of Panama was built. But weeks of the last year I have not the armaments that were fitted out opened a volume, and through the took a westerly direction, in hopes to whole time I have not had the use of realise a fixed idea of the Spanish it, on an average, for more than an

government relative to an imaginary hour a-day.” Sustained by love of strait intersecting the Isthmus. At letters, and assisted by readers and last an expedition sailed southwards, amanuenses, the student and scholar but soon returned, owing to the bad has triumphed over these cruel disad- health of its commander. This was vantages, surmounted all obstacles, in 1522. The moment and the man and produced three long and impor- had not yet arrived. They came, two tant historical works, conspicuous by years later ; Pizarro appeared, and their impartiality, research, and ele- Peru was discovered. gance ; entitling him to an exceedingly But the discovery was comparahonourable position amongst writers tively a trifling matter. There lay in the English tongue, and to one of the long line of coast, stretching souththe very loftiest places in the as yet eastwards from Panama; the naviscantily filled gallery of American gator disposed to explore it, had but men of letters. The last of these to spread his sails, keep the land in works, of which Pizarro is the hero sight, and take the risk of the hidden and Peru the scene, yields nothing in shoals and reefs that might lie in merit or interest to its predecessors. his course.

The seas to be crossed The discovery of America infected were often tempestuous ; the country Europe with a fever of exploration. intervening between St Michael's Guif Scarce a country was there, possessing and the southern empire, whose rua sea-frontier, whence expeditions did moured wealth and civilisation wrought not proceed with a view to appropriate so potently upon Spanish imagination,

was peopled by fierce and warlike the sands sparkled with gems, and tribes. Shipwreck was to be dreaded, golden pebbles as large as birds' eggs and a landing might for weeks or were dragged in nets out of the months be unsafe, if not impracticable. rivers.” And expeditions were actuBut what were such secondary dan- ally undertaken in search of a magical gers contrasted with the perils, doubly Fountain of Health, of golden sepulterrible from their unknown and mys- chres and temples. The Amazons terious nature, incurred by the sanguine and the water of life are still to be Genoese and his bold companions, discovered; but as to golden temples when they turned their brigantine's and jewelled sands, their equivalents, prow westward from Europe, and at least, were forthcoming, -not for sailed—they knew not whither? Here the many, but for a chosen and lucky the path was comparatively plain, few.

Of the fortunes of these the and the goal ascertained; and al- record is preserved; of the misforthough risks must be dared, reward tunes of those comparatively little is was tolerably certain : for further told us. We hear of the thousands tidings of the Peruvian empire had of golden castellanos that fell to the reached the ears of the Spaniards, lot of men, who a moment previously, less shadowy and incomplete than the were without a maravedi in their vague hints received by Balboa from tattered pouches; we find no cataan Indian chief. Andagoya, the logue of the fever-stricken victims officer whom illness had compelled to who left their bones in the noxious abandon an expedition when it was districts of Panama and Castillo de scarcely commenced, had brought Oro. And those who achieved riches, back intelligence far more explicit, earned them hardly by peril and priobtained from Indian traders who vation, although, in the magnificence had penetrated by land into the em- of the plunder, past sufferings were pire of the Incas, as far (so he says quickly forgotten. Thrice did Pizarro in his own manuscript, comprised and his daring companions sail southin Navarrete's collection) as its capital ward; 'countless were their hardships, city of Cuzco. They spoke of a bitter their disappointments, before pagan but civilised land, opulent and the sunshine of success rewarded flourishing; they described the divi- their toils, revealing to them treasures sions of its provinces, the wealth of that must in some degree have apits cities, the manners and usages of peased even their appetite for lucre. its inhabitants. But had their de. They came suddenly upon a town scription been far more minute and whose inhabitants, taken by surprise, glowing, the imagination of those filed in consternation, abandoning their who received the accounts would still property to the invaders. have outstripped reality and possi- the emerald region, and great store bility. Those were the days of golden of the gems fell into the hands of visions and chimerical day-dreams. the Spaniards. Pizarro had one as In the fancy of the greedy and cre- large as a pigeon's egg. A quantity dulous Spaniards, each corner of the of crowns other ornaments, clumNew World contained treasures, com- sily fashioned, but of pure gold and pared to which the golden trees and silver, were more to the taste of the jewelled fruits of Aladdin's garden ignorant conquerors, who were scepwere paste and tinsel. The exagge- tical as to the value of the jewels. rated reports of those adventurers “Many of them,” says Pedro Pizarro, who returned wealth-laden to Spain, whose rough, straightforward account were swoln by repetition to dimen- of the discovery and conquest of Peru sions which enchantment only could is frequently quoted by Mr Prescott, have realised. No marvels were too “had emeralds of great value ; some monstrous and unwieldy for the crav- tried them upon anvils, striking them ing gullet of popular credulity. “They with hammers, saying that if they listened with attentive cars to tales were genuine, they would not break; of Amazons, which seemed to revive others despised them, and affirmed the classic legends of antiquity, to that they were glass." A cunning stories of Patagonian giants, to flam- monk, one of the missionaries whom ing pictures of an El-Dorado, where Pizarro had been ordered by the

It was

Spanish government to take out in mother's relatives. The chief occuhis ships, encouraged this opinion, in pation of his youth was that of a order to buy up the emeralds as their swineherd. Gomara's account of his market value declined. The specie, birth, however, is only one of many, however, was of immense amount, if various and contradictory in their dethe authority just quoted may be tails. The fact is that very little is depended upon. He talks of two known of the early years of Franhundred thousand castellanos, the cisco Pizarro. His valour and solcommercial value of which was equi- dierly qualities he doubtless inherited valent to more than half a million from his father, a Spanish colonel of sterling. This from one village, of infantry, who served with distinction no great size or importance. It was in Italy and Navarre. Neither from a handsome earnest of future spoils, him nor from his mother, a person of and of the mountain of gold which, low condition, did he receive much as an Inca's ransom, awaited the parental attention. Even the date of Spaniards at Cuzco.

his birth is a matter of doubt, and In these days, when the rumoured has been differently stated by diffeexistence of a land previously un- rent chroniclers. He cannot, howknown provokes expeditions author- ever, have been far from fifty when ised and fitted out by half the mari- he started on his Peruvian expedition. time powers of Europe, and when During the fourteen previous years he great nations risk the peace of the had followed the fortunes of Ojeda, world for the possession of a paltry Balboa, and other Spanish-American Pacific islet, the small degree of vigour adventurers, until at last the opporshown by the Spanish crown in tunity offered for himself to assume pushing its American discoveries a command to which he proved in fills us with surprise. Take Peru as every way competent. His rank was an instance. The isthmus of Darien that of captain, and the number of was colonised by Spaniards ; Mexico men under his orders made but a was theirs, and the armaments sent slender company, when, in the month by Pedrarias from Panama to explore of November 1524, he left the port in a north-westerly direction, had met of Panama, on board a small vessel, at Honduras the conquerors of the indifferently provided, and of no Aztecs, the brave and fortunate com- great seaworthiness. About a hunpanions of Hernan Cortés. One dred adventurers, (some accounts say empire bad received the Spanish yoke; eighty, others a hundred and twenty,) at Panama the foot of the European stalwart, stout-hearted fellows, for was on the threshold of another, but the most part of no very reputable there it paused, desirous, yet fearing, description, composed the powerful to proceed. No aid or encourage- army destined to invade a populous ment to enterprise was afforded from empire. They started under many Spain; it was left to private capital disadvantages. Almagro, Pizarro's and individual daring further to ex- partner in the undertaking, who was tend colonies already so vast. A to follow in another ship, as soon as priest found the money ; two veteran it could be got ready, had had the soldiers, of low extraction, desperate victualling of that on which his colfortunes, and brave spirit, undertook league embarked, and he had perthe risk. The most remarkable of formed the duty in a slovenly manner, the three men who thus formed a reckoning that, upon a coasting partnership for the conquest of king- voyage, supplies might be obtained doms, could neither read nor write, from shore. Landing for this purwas illegitimate, and a foundling. pose, a few leagues south of the river “He was born in Truxillo,” says Biru, Pizarro could procure nothing Gomara, in his Historia de las Indias; besides wood and water. A tremen“ was left at the door of a church, dous storm came on ; for ten days and for a certain number of days he the ship was in imminent danger, sucked a sow, none being willing to tossed by the furious waves ; rations give him milk.” Young Pizarro sub- ran short, and two ears of Indian sequently requited this porcine nour- corn were each man's daily allowance. ishment by taking care of his foster- Thus poorly nourished, and in a crazy