Such was the state of feeling in the little community of Panama
for several years after its foundation. Meanwhile, the dazzling
conquest of Mexico gave a new impulse to the ardor of discovery,
and, in 1524, three men were found in the colony, in whom the
spirit of adventure triumphed over every consideration of
difficulty and danger that obstructed the prosecution of the
enterprise. One among them was selected as fitted by his
character to conduct it to a successful issue. That man was
Francisco Pizarro; and as he held the same conspicuous post in
the Conquest of Peru that was occupied by Cortes in that of
Mexico, it will be necessary to take a brief review of his early
history.
Chapter II
Francisco Pizarro. - His Early History. - First Expedition To The
South. - Distresses Of The Voyagers. - Sharp Encounters. - Return
To Panama. - Almagro's Expedition.
1524-1525.
Francisco Pizarro was born at Truxillo, a city of Estremadura, in
Spain. The period of his birth is uncertain; but probably it was
not far from 1471. *1 He was an illegitimate child, and that his
parents should not have taken pains to perpetuate the date of his
birth is not surprising. Few care to make a particular record of
their transgressions. His father, Gonzalo Pizarro, was a colonel
of infantry, and served with some distinction in the Italian
campaigns under the Great Captain, and afterwards in the wars of
Navarre. His mother, named Francisca Gonzales, was a person of
humble condition in the town of Truxillo.
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