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Previous to its Destruction by Fire, Jan 29 & 30. 1821.

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PROCEEDINGS OF THE SPANIARDS IN THE CONQUEST OF PERU.

Ir was not until the year 1509, that Ojeda and Niguessa meditated the design of making those inroads on the Continent, which finally led to the conquest of Peru. To confirm them in this resolution, Ferdinand granted to the former the government of the country that begins at Cape de la Vela, and terminates at the Gulf of Darien; and to the latter, all the space extending from Cape de la Vela to Cape Gracias a Dios. They were both of them on their landing to announce to the people the tenets of the Christian religion, and to inform them of the gift which the Roman pontiff had made of their country to the king of Spain! If the savages refused to submit quietly to the yoke of the Spaniards, they were authorized to pursue them with fire and sword, and to reduce the survivors to slavery.

But it was a more easy matter to grant these absurd and atrocious privileges, than to put the barbarous and superstitious adventurers who solicited these rights into the possession of them. The Indians, on their arrival, rejected every kind of intercourse with a horde of rapacious strangers, who threatened equally their liberties and their lives. Arms were more favourable to the Spaniards than their perfidious caresses. The people of the Continent, accustomed to carry on war with each other, received them with a degree of boldness that had not been experienced in the islands, which perfidy and power had already subdued. Poisoned arrows were showered upon the invaders from every quarter, and not one who was wounded escaped a death more or less dreadful. To the arrows of the enemy, other causes of disaster were soon joined. Shipwrecks, unavoidable in these unknown latitudes,-an almost continual want of subsistence, upon a coast totally uncultivated,and diseases peculiar to the climate, No. 25.-VOL. III.

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which might then be reckoned among the most unwholesome in America,— seemed to indicate that the vengeance of Heaven intended to prevent the crimes which these civilized barbarians meditated. The few Spaniards who had survived these complicated calamities, and who could not return to St. Domingo, collected themselves together, and erected the standard of superstition and misery at St. Mary's, in the province of Darien.

In this place they continued to live in a state of anarchy for some time, when Vasco Nugues de Balboa appeared among them. This man, who was honoured by the companions of his fortune with the surname of Hercules, had a robust constitution, an intrepid courage, and a popular cloquence. These qualities made them choose him for their chief, and all his actions proved that he was worthy to command the villains whose suffrages he had obtained. Judging that more gold would be found in the inland parts than upon the coasts, from whence it had repeatedly been taken, he plunged himself among the mountains. During this excursion, he is said to have fallen in with several of that species of little white men, who are to be met with in some parts of Africa, and in some of the Asiatic islands. The bodies of these men are covered with a fine down of a glistening white, but they have no hair on any parts. Their eyes are red, and their sight is so weak that they can see but imperfectly during the day; but the night, which renders the visual organs of others comparatively useless, gives to them the full vigour of theirs. In reference to bodily strength, they appeared to be exceedingly feeble; and their mental faculties seemed to be more circumscribed than those of other savages. In number they were but few, and their manners were rather inoffensive than ferocious. It was a race which nature had not yet apparently ripened to perfection

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Proceedings of the Spaniards in the Conquest of Peru. 204

Other savages, however, were found in these hitherto unvisited regions, whose courage, neither threats, nor the parade of military terror, could subdue. These had no inclination to surrender their rights, without defending them, to a company of plundering vagabonds, who seemed born to do mischief and to commit crime. These Indians were inferior to their invaders only in discipline and in arms; and these finally rendered the cause of injustice triumphant. Among the customs which prevailed with these children of nature, there was one of a most extraordinary complexion, for the origin of which we may search in vain. It was an established rule among them, that husbands on the death of their wives, and wives on the death of their husbands, should cut off the end of a finger; and in case of a repeated widowhood, this action was to be renewed. By these marks, it might instantly be known, on looking at the hands of both sexes, if a widowed, state had been their lot, and how many times they had been so. This custom, though cruel in itself, is certainly less inhuman than the funeral barbarities which still continue to disgrace the Eastern hemisphere.

But there was one practice that we cannot survey without horror, which was peculiar to the savages of Darien. When a widow died, such of her children as, through their tender age, were unable to provide for their own subsistence, were deliberately buried with her in the same grave. This was done by an established law, founded upon savage humanity, to prevent them from being starved to death, as no one would take upon him the charge of their support. This seems to be one of the most atrocious deeds to which the deplorable state of savage life was ever able to impel mankind.

soon gave him the dominion of the territory of which he had taken the possession.

It happened one day, while these conquerors were disputing with each other about some gold which they had obtained, with a degree of warmth which threatened acts of violence, that a young Cacique, who was present, being disgusted with their conduct, shook the scales so violently as to overturn the precious object of contention. Why," exclaimed he with an air of disdain, as he was about to leave them, "why, do you quarrel for such a trifle? If it be for this useless metal that you have quitted your country, and that you murder so many persons, I will conduct you to a region, where it is so common, that it is employed for the meanest purposes." The greedy Spaniards instantly caught the sound; and urging him to explain himself more fully, he assured them, that " at a distance from the ocean which washed the eastern shores of Darien, there was another ocean, which led to this rich country." To the ears of avarice, these sentences imparted information of another world, to which the name of gold instantly began to allure them. The opinion immediately prevailed, that this was the sea which Columbus had so earnestly sought, but had not the happiness to discover; and they instantly resolved to cross the Isthmus, to ascertain the truth or falsehood of the information they had received. Accordingly, on the 1st of September, 1513, one hundred and ninety Spaniards, attended by one thousand Indians, who were to serve them as guides, and to carry their baggage, began their march on this adventurous expedition.

From the place where this troop began their journey, to that which they expected would reward them for all But notwithstanding the courage, their toils, the distance was no more numbers, and ferocious manners of than sixty miles. But they had so these barbarians, Balboa, supported many steep mountains to ascend, so by the obstinacy of his own disposi- many large rivers to cross, such deep tion, and urged on by the rapacity of morasses to traverse, such thick forests his soldiers, who were assisted in their to penetrate, and so many fierce tribes depredations by some packs of blood-to disperse, that it was not till after a hounds, which the Spaniards had march of twenty-five days, though they always found serviceable in their had been long inured to privations, former conquests, succeeded in de- dangers, and fatigues, that these adstroying a considerable number of the venturers arrived at the place of their inhabitants, and in dispersing or sub-expectations. On reaching the sumduing those who survived. Vice, cou-mit of a hill, from which his guide rage, depredations, and bloodhounds, assured Balboa that the ocean might

205 Proceedings of the Spaniards in the Conquest of Peru.

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another route; but in this the obstacles were still more numerous, and more formidable. The hardships which they endured were almost incredible. Many fell during the journey, and those who survived were better qualified to enter a hospital, than to undertake the subjugation of an empire.

Balboa, as might naturally be supposed, fully expected that he should be employed to conduct this great design; and no man could advance su

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be seen, he ordered his men to halt. He then ascended an eminence, and beheld with an amazement which no language can describe, the waters of the Pacific ocean spread before him, and apparently stretching into latitudes and longitudes, of which even imagination was unable to measure the extent. On surveying the shores, he perceived immeasurable territories, which no European foot had ever trodden, and over which no European eye had ever wandered; peopled by na-perior claims on the ground of justice, tions, of whose names he had never or of personal qualifications. heard, with whose manners he was companions had placed in him the uttotally unacquainted, but with whose most confidence; and he had thrown wealth fancy had already enriched him. into the public coffers more treasure Having thus feasted his eyes and ima- than any other adventurer. In the gination, he ordered his followers to public opinion, the discovery he had advance, to behold the magnificent made, placed him on a level with Cospectacle. The cross was then imme- lumbus; and the event proved, that diately planted, and the name of Fer- similar disasters awaited him, which dinand inscribed upon the bark of finally terminated in a more ignomisome trees. This being done, they nious fate. By an instance of that indescended the mountain, when Balboa, justice and ingratitude so common in fully armed, marched into the water, courts; where merit cannot prevail and, stretching his sword over the against power,-where a great comwaves, exclaimed; "Spectators of mander is superseded in the midst of both hemispheres, I call you to witness his triumphs by a contemptible rival, that I take possession of this part of the universe, for the crown of Castile. My sword shall defend what my arm has given to it."

How ridiculous soever in the eyes of common sense, and insulting to justice, these ceremonies may now appear, they were thought, in these days of darkness, of sufficient importance, in the opinion of Europe, to confer a title to the dominion of all the countries in the New World, whereever the nations could introduce their power, and stain their march with blood. Relying on the justice of this detestable principle, Balboa proceeded to exact from the neighbouring people a tribute in pearls, gold, and provisions, to enable him and his banditti to return, to concert measures for their destruction. Of the country through which they passed, they had examined only a small part; but every testimony united in confirming the reports respecting the riches of the empire which was called Peru. Under these impressions, the miscreants who now meditated the conquest of it, urged their way towards Darien, to collect forces, and arrange their plans for this arduous enterprise. The difficulties which they had encountered as they advanced, induced them to return by

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where a dissipating and rapacious favourite displaces an economical minister of finance,-where the general good, and services done, are equally forgotten,—and where revolutions in the great officers of state become objects of mirth and pleasantry, Pedrarias was chosen in his stead.

The new commander, as cruel as he was jealous, contrived on a false pretence to throw Balboa into a dungeon. He then ordered him to take his trial; and practised arts which humanity shudders to relate, to have him pronounced guilty. His judges, influenced more by the entreaties and threats of his rival, than by their own convictions complied with his wishes, but recommended him in the strongest terms to mercy. This, however, was in vain. He was publicly executed by orders of the tyrant; who, conscious of his own inability to execute what he had undertaken, dreaded the scrutiny of the man whom he had supplanted. Being now delivered from all restraint, he gave himself up to every species of profligacy, which wickedness could devise, or tyranny practise. His supporters, by his orders, or with his consent, pillaged and massacred the tribes whom Balboa had conciliated, and on whose assist

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