]
[Footnote 26: "Los Indios lloraban amargamente, diciendo, que de
el nunca recibieron mal tratamiento." Herrera, Hist. General,
dec. 6, lib. 5, cap. 1.]
[Footnote 27: If we may credit Herrera, he distributed a hundred
and eighty roads of silver and twenty of gold among his
followers! "Mando sacar de su Posada mas de ciento i ochenta
cargas de Plata i veinte de Oro, i las repartio." (Dec. 5, lib.
7, cap. 9.) A load was what a man could easily carry. Such a
statement taxes our credulity, but it is difficult to set the
proper limits to one's credulity, in what relates to this land of
gold.]
He was a good soldier, careful and judicious in his plans,
patient and intrepid in their execution. His body was covered
with the scars of his battles, till the natural plainness of his
person was converted almost into deformity. He must not be
judged by his closing campaign, when, depressed by disease, he
yielded to the superior genius of his rival; but by his numerous
expeditions by land and by water for the conquest of Peru and the
remote Chili. Yet it may be doubted whether he possessed those
uncommon qualities, either as a warrior or as a man, that, in
ordinary circumstances, would have raised him to distinction. He
was one of the three, or, to speak more strictly, of the two
associates, who had the good fortune and the glory to make one of
the most splendid discoveries in the Western World. He shares
largely in the credit of this with Pizarro; for, when he did not
accompany that leader in his perilous expeditions, he contributed
no less to their success by his exertions in the colonies.
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