It requires no
witchcraft to detect that the blood of the Pizarros flowed in the
veins of the writer to his fingers' ends. Yet his facts are less
suspicious than his inferences.]
In talent and in expansion of views, he was inferior to his
brothers. Neither did he discover the same cool and crafty
policy; but he was equally courageous, and in the execution of
his measures quite as unscrupulous. He had a handsome person,
with open, engaging features, a free, soldier-like address, and a
confiding temper, which endeared him to his followers. His
spirit was high and adventurous, and, what was equally important,
he could inspire others with the same spirit, and thus do much to
insure the success of his enterprises. He was an excellent
captain in guerilla warfare, an admirable leader in doubtful and
difficult expeditions; but he had not the enlarged capacity for a
great military chief, still less for a civil ruler. It was his
misfortune to be called to fill both situations.
Chapter IV
Gonzalo Pizarro's Expedition. - Passage Across The Mountains. -
Discovers The Napo. - Incredible Sufferings. - Orellana Sails
Down The Amazon. - Despair Of The Spaniards. - The Survivors
Return To Quito.
1540-1542.
Gonzalo Pizarro received the news of his appointment to the
government of Quito with undisguised pleasure; not so much for
the possession that it gave him of this ancient Indian province,
as for the field that it opened for discovery towards the east, -
the fabled land of Oriental spices, which had long captivated the
imagination of the Conquerors.
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