It was indeed a
fiery cross that was borne over the devoted land, scathing and
consuming it in its terrible progress; but it was still the
cross, the sign of man's salvation, the only sign by which
generations and generations yet unborn were to be rescued from
eternal perdition.
[Footnote 8: Robertson, America, vol. III. p. 5.]
[Footnote 9: "A perfect judge will read each work of wit
With the same spirit that its author writ,"
says the great bard of Reason. A fair criticism will apply the
same rule to action as to writing, and, in the moral estimate of
conduct, will take largely into account the spirit of the age
which prompted it.]
It is a remarkable fact, which has hitherto escaped the notice of
the historian, that Luque was not the real party to this
contract. He represented another, who placed in his hands the
funds required for the undertaking. This appears from an
instrument signed by Luque himself and certified before the same
notary that prepared the original contract. The instrument
declares that the whole sum of twenty thousand pesos advanced for
the expedition was furnished by the Licentiate Gaspar de
Espinosa, then at Panama; that the vicar acted only as his agent
and by his authority; and that, in consequence, the said Espinosa
and no other was entitled to a third of all the profits and
acquisitions resulting from the conquest of Peru. This
instrument, attested by three persons, one of them the same who
had witnessed the original contract, was dated on the 6th of
August, 1531.
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