Were he more impartial than
this, the critic of the present day, by making allowance for a
greater amount of prejudice and partiality, might only be led
into error.
Pizarro is not only independent, but occasionally caustic in his
condemnation of those under whom he acted. This is particularly
the case where their measures bear too unfavorably on his own
interests, or those of the army. As to the unfortunate natives,
he no more regards their sufferings than the Jews of old did
those of the Philistines, whom they considered as delivered up to
their swords, and whose lands they regarded as their lawful
heritage. There is no mercy shown by the hard Conqueror in his
treatment of the infidel.
Pizarro was the representative of the age in which he lived. Yet
it is too much to cast such obloquy on the age. He represented
more truly the spirit of the fierce warriors who overturned the
dynasty of the Incas. He was not merely a crusader, fighting to
extend the empire of the Cross over the darkened heathen. Gold
was his great object; the estimate by which he judged of the
value of the Conquest; the recompense that he asked for a life of
toil and danger. It was with these golden visions, far more than
with visions of glory, above all, of celestial glory, that the
Peruvian adventurer fed his gross and worldly imagination.
Pizarro did not rise above his caste. Neither did he rise above
it in a mental view, any more than in a moral. His history
displays no great penetration, or vigor and comprehension of
though.
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