The infantry
mustered in all one hundred and five men. Almost one fifth of
them were allowed, each, four thousand four hundred and forty
pesos of gold, and one hundred and eighty marks of silver, half
of the compensation of the troopers. The remainder received one
fourth part less; though here again there were exceptions, and
some were obliged to content themselves with a much smaller share
of the spoil. *6
[Footnote 6: The particulars of the distribution are given in the
Acta de Reparticion del Rescate, an instrument drawn up and
signed by the royal notary. The document, which as therefore of
unquestionable authority, is among the Mss. selected for me from
the collection of Munoz.]
The new church of San Francisco, the first Christian temple in
Peru, was endowed with two thousand two hundred and twenty pesos
of gold. The amount assigned to Almagro's company was not
excessive, if it was not more than twenty thousand pesos; *7 and
that reserved for the colonists of San Miguel, which amounted
only to fifteen thousand pesos, was unaccountably small. *8 There
were among them certain soldiers, who at an early period of the
expedition, as the reader may remember abandoned the march, and
returned to San Miguel. These, certainly, had little claim to be
remembered in the division of booty. But the greater part of the
colony consisted of invalids, men whose health had been broken by
their previous hardships, but who still, with a stout and willing
heart, did good service in their military post on the sea-coast.
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