But their hour of triumph,
their slow and hard-earned triumph, had now arrived.
Yet the governor, Pedro de los Rios, did not seem, even at this
moment, to be possessed with a conviction of the magnitude of the
discovery, - or, perhaps, he was discouraged by its very
magnitude. When the associates, now with more confidence,
applied to him for patronage in an undertaking too vast for their
individual resources, he coldly replied, "He had no desire to
build up other states at the expense of his own; nor would he be
led to throw away more lives than had already been sacrificed by
the cheap display of gold and silver toys and a few Indian
sheep!" *26
[Footnote 26: "No entendia de despoblar su Governacion, para que
se fuesen a poblar nuevas Tierras, muriendo en tal demanda mas
Gente de la que havia muerto, cebar do a los Hombres con la
muestra de las Ovejas, Oro, i Plata, que havian traido." Herrera,
Hist. General, dec. 4, lib 3, cap. 1.]
Sorely disheartened by this repulse from the only quarter whence
effectual aid could be expected, the confederates, without funds,
and with credit nearly exhausted by their past efforts, were
perplexed in the extreme. Yet to stop now, - what was it but to
abandon the rich mine which their own industry and perseverance
had laid open, for others to work at pleasure? In this extremity
the fruitful mind of Luque suggested the only expedient by which
they could hope for success. This was to apply to the Crown
itself.
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