A few, more lucky than the rest, stumble on some
unexpected prize, and hundreds, attracted by their success, press
forward in the same path. But the rich spoil which lay on the
surface has been already swept away by the first comers, and
those who follow are to win their treasure by long-protracted and
painful exertion. - Broken in spirit and in fortune, many
returned in disgust to their native shores, while others remained
where they were, to die in despair. They thought to dig for
gold; but they dug only their graves.
Yet it fared not thus with all Pizarro's company. Many of them,
crossing the Isthmus with him to Panama, came in time to Peru,
where, in the desperate chances of its revolutionary struggles,
some few arrived at posts of profit and distinction. Among those
who first reached the Peruvian shore was an emissary sent by
Almagro's agents to inform him of the important grant made to him
by the Crown. The tidings reached him just as he was making his
entry into Cuzco, where he was received with all respect by Juan
and Gonzalo Pizarro, who, in obedience to their brother's
commands, instantly resigned the government of the capital into
the marshal's hands. But Almagro was greatly elated on finding
himself now placed by his sovereign in a command that made him
independent of the man who had so deeply wronged him; and he
intimated that in the exercise of his present authority he
acknowledged no superior. In this lordly humor he was confirmed
by several of his followers, who insisted that Cuzco fell to the
south of the territory ceded to Pizarro, and consequently came
within that now granted to the marshal.
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