326 AMERICA. 



tyranny and cruelty against all who had not concurred in his design... 

 This conduct raised a conspiracy against him, to which he fell a 

 sacrifice in his own palace, and in the city of Lima, which he himself 

 had founded. The partisans of old Almagro now declared his son, 

 of the same name, their viceroy ; but the greater part of the nadon, 

 though extremely well satisfied with the fate of Pizarro, did not con- 

 cur with this declaration. They waited the orders of the emperor 

 Charles V, then king of Spain, who sent over Vaca di Castro to be 

 their governor. This man, by his integrity and wisdom, was admira- 

 bly well fitted to heal the wounds of the colony, and to place every 

 thing on the most advantageous footing, both for it and for the mother 

 country. By his prudent management, the mines of la Plata and 

 Potosi, which were formerly private plunder, become an object of 

 public utility to the court of Spain. The parties were silenced or 

 crushed ; young Almagro, who would hearken to no terms of accom- 

 modation, was put to death ; and a tranquillity, since the arrival of the 

 Spaniards unknown, was restored to Peru. It seems, however, that 

 Castro had not been sufficiently skilled in gaining the favour of the 

 Spanish ministry, by proper bribes or promises, which a ministry 

 would always expect from a governor of so rich a country. By their 

 advice a council was sent over to controul Castro, and the colony was 

 again unsettled. The party spirit, but just extinguished, began to 

 blaze anew ; and Gonzalo, the brother of the famous Pizarro, set 

 himself at the head of his brother's partisans, with whom many new 

 malecontents had united. It was now no longer a dispute between 

 governors about the bounds of their jurisdiction. Gonzalo Pizarro 

 only paid a nominal submission to the king. He strengthened daily, 

 and even went so far as to behead a governor who was sent over to 

 curb him. He gained the confidence of the admiral of the Spanish 

 fleet in the South Seas, by whose means he proposed to hinder the 

 landing of any troops from Spain, and he had a view of uniting the 

 inhabitants of Mexico in his revolt. 



Such was the situation of affairs, when the court of Spain, sensible 

 of their mistake in not sending into America men whose character 

 and virtue only, and not opportunity and cabal, pleaded in their behalf, 

 dispatched, with unlimited powers, Peter de la Gasca, a man differ- 

 ing from Castro only by being of a more mild and insinuating beha- 

 viour, but with the same love of justice, the same greatness of soul, 

 and the same disinterested spirit. All those who had not joined in 

 Pizarro's revolt flocked to his standard ; many of his friends, charm- 

 ed with the behaviour of Gasca, forsook their old connections ; the 

 admiral was gained over by insinuation to return to his duty ; and 

 Pizarro himself offered a full indemnity, provided he would return to 

 the allegiance of the Spanish crown. But so intoxicating are the 

 ideas of royalty, that Pizarro was determined to run every hazard, 

 rather than submit to any officer of Spain. With those of his par- 

 tisans, therefore, who still continued to adhere to his interest, he de- 

 termined to venture a battle, in which he was conquered, and taken 

 prisoner. His execution followed soon after; and thus the brother of 

 him who conquered Peru for the crown of Spain, fell a sacrifice for 

 the security of the Spanish dominion over that country. 



The conquest of the great empires of Mexico and Peru is the only 

 part of the American history which deserves to be treated under the 

 present head. What relates to the reduction of the other parts of the 

 continent, or of the islands, if it contains either instruction or enter- 



