*2
[Footnote 1: The few writers who venture to assign the date of
Pizarro's birth do it in so vague and contradictory a manner as
to inspire us with but little confidence in their accounts.
Herrera, it is true, says positively, that he was sixty-three
years old at the time of his death, in 1541. (Hist. General,
dec. 6, lib. 10, cap. 6.) This would carry back the date of his
birth only to 1478. But Garcilasso de la Vega affirms that he
was more than fifty years old in 1525. (Com. Real., Parte 2,
lib. 1, cap. 1.) This would place his birth before 1475. Pizarro
y Orellana, who, as a kinsman of the Conqueror, may be supposed
to have had better means of information, says he was fifty-four
years of age at the same date of 1525. (Varones Ilustres del
Nuevo Mundo, (Madrid, 1639,) p. 128.) But at the period of his
death he calls him nearly eighty years old! (p. 185.) Taking
this latter as a round exaggeration for effect in the particular
connection in which it is used, and admitting the accuracy of the
former statement, the epoch of his birth will conform to that
given in the text. This makes him somewhat late in life to set
about the conquest of an empire. But Columbus, when he entered
on his career, was still older.]
[Footnote 2: Xerez, Conquista del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p.
179. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 1, cap. 1. - Pizarro y
Orellana, Varones Ilustres, p. 128.]
But little is told of Francisco's early years, and that little
not always deserving of credit.
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