31 



HI 



an enterprize, which could not be effected without 

 great fatigue and the loss of much blood, since, in 

 its prosecution they must contend with a bold and 

 indépendant nation, by whom they were not believed 

 to be immortal. Thus all, by common consent, 

 resolved to abandon this expedition ; but they were 

 of various opinions respecting their retreat, some 

 being desirous of returnir.g to Peru, w^hile others 

 wished to form a settlement in the northern provin- 

 ces, where they had been received with such hos- 

 pitality. 



The first opinion was supported by Almagro, 

 whose mind began to be impressed by the sugges- 

 tions contained in the letters of his friends. He rep- 

 resented to his soldiers the dangers to which a settle- 

 ment would be exposed in so warlike a country, and 

 persuaded them to follow him to Cuzco, where he 

 hoped to establish himself either by favour or force. 

 His fatal experience of the mountain road, deter- 

 mined him to take that of the sea coast, by which 

 he reconducted his troops with very little loss. On 

 his return to Peru in 1538, he took possession by 

 surprize of the ancient capital of that empire ; and, 

 after several ineffectual négociations, fought a battle 

 with the brother of Pi zarro, by whom he was taken, 

 tried and beheaded, as a disturber of the public 

 peace. His army, having dispersed at their defeat, 

 afterwards reassembled under the title of the soldiers 

 of Chili, and excited new disturbances in Peru, al- 

 ready sufficiently agitated. Such was the fate of 

 the first expedition against Chili, undertaken by the 



