It is impossible to give, in a page or two, any adequate idea of
the hairbreadth escapes and perilous risks of Carbajal, not only
from the enemy, but from his own men, whose strength he
overtasked in the chase. They rival those of the renowned
Scanderbeg, or our own Kentucky hero, Colonel Boone. They were,
indeed, far more wonderful than theirs, since the Spanish captain
had reached an age when the failing energies usually crave
repose. But the veteran's body seems to have been as insensible
as his soul.]
Carbajal, after some further decisive movements, which fully
established the ascendency of Pizarro over the south, returned in
triumph to La Plata. There he occupied himself with working the
silver mines of Potosi, in which a vein, recently opened,
promised to make richer returns than any yet discovered in Mexico
or Peru; *39 and he was soon enabled to send large remittances to
Lima, deducting no stinted commission for himself, - for the
cupidity of the lieutenant was equal to his cruelty.
[Footnote 39: The vein now discovered at Potosi was so rich, that
the other mines were comparatively deserted in order to work
this. (Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 6, cap 4) The effect of the
sudden influx of wealth was such, according to Garcilasso, that
in ten years from this period an iron horseshoe, in that quarter,
came to be worth nearly its weight in silver. Com. Real., Parte
1, lib. 8, cap. 24.]
Gonzalo Pizarro was now undisputed master of Peru.
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