" Montesinos,
Annales, Ms., ano 1525.]
[Footnote 28: "Porque el marquez don Francisco Picarro como no
savia ler ni escrivir." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms]
[Footnote 29: "Siendo personas," says the author, speaking both
of Pizarro and Almagro, "no solamente, no leidas, pero que de
todo punto no sabian leer, ni aun firmar, que en ellos fue cosa
de gran defecto. . . . . . Fue el Marques tan confiado de sus
Criados, i Amigos, que todos los Despachos, que hacia, asi de
Governacion, como de Repartimientos de Indios, libraba ha ciendo
el dos senales, en medio de las quales Antonio Picado, su
Secretario, firmaba el nombre de Francisco Picarro." Zarate,
Conq. del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 9.]
Though bold in action and not easily turned from his purpose,
Pizarro was slow in arriving at a decision. This gave him an
appearance of irresolution foreign to his character. *30 Perhaps
the consciousness of this led him to adopt the custom of saying
'No," at first, to applicants for favor; and afterwards, at
leisure, to revise his judgment, and grant what seemed to him
expedient. He took the opposite course from his comrade Almagro,
who, it was observed, generally said "Yes," but too often failed
to keep his promise. This was characteristic of the careless and
easy nature of the latter, governed by impulse rather than
principle. *31
[Footnote 30: This tardiness of resolve has even led Herrera to
doubt his resolution altogether; a judgment certainly
contradicted by the whole tenor of his history.
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