*33
[Footnote 33: The following vigorous lines of Southey condense,
in a small compass, the most remarkable traits of Pizarro. The
poet's epitaph may certainly be acquitted of the imputation,
generally well deserved, of flattery towards the subject of it.
"For A Column At Truxillo.
"Pizarro here was born; a greater name
The list of Glory boasts not. Toil and Pain,
Famine, and hostile Elements, and Hosts
Embattled, failed to check him in his course,
Not to be wearied, not to be deterred,
Not to be overcome. A mighty realm
He overran, and with relentless arm
Slew or enslaved its unoffending sons,
And wealth and power and fame were his rewards.
There is another world, beyond the grave,
According to their deeds where men are judged.
O Reader! if thy daily bread be earned
By daily labor, - yea, however low,
However wretched, be thy lot assigned,
Thank thou, with deepest gratitude, the God
Who made thee, that thou art not such as he."]
But as no picture is without its lights, we must not, in justice
to Pizarro, dwell exclusively on the darker features of his
portrait. There was no one of her sons to whom Spain was under
larger obligations for extent of empire; for his hand won for her
the richest of the Indian jewels that once sparkled in her
imperial diadem. When we contemplate the perils he braved, the
sufferings he patiently endured, the incredible obstacles he
overcame, the magnificent results he effected with his single
arm, as it were, unaided by the government, - though neither a
good, nor a great man in the highest sense of that term, it is
impossible not to regard him as a very extraordinary one.
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