* * * * *

“Following Garcilasso de la Vega and other authors, the Historian of America[29] alleges that Gonzalo Pizarro was urged by several of his adherents, and in particular by Carvajal, to assume the sovereignty of Peru; to attach the Spaniards to his interest by liberal grants of lands and Indians, and by the creation of titles of nobility similar to those in Europe; to establish military orders of knighthood, with privileges distinctions and pensions, resembling those in Spain, as gratifications to the officers in his service; and to gain the whole body of natives to his service, by marrying the Coya, or Peruvian princess next in relation to the reigning Inca.  Thus at the head of the ancient inhabitants of the country and of the colonists, he might set the power of Spain at defiance, and could easily repel any force that might be sent from Spain to such a distance.  These counsellors who urged Pizarro to adopt this plan, insisted that he had already gone too far to expect pardon from the emperor; and endeavoured to convince him that all the founders of great monarchies had risen by their personal merit and their own valour, without any pretensions to ancient lineage or valid rights of sovereignty; and that, besides, his family had a strong title to the dominion of Peru, founded on the rights of discovery and conquest.  But the inferior talents of Gonzalo circumscribed his ambition within more narrow bounds, and confined his views to the obtaining a confirmation of the authority which he now possessed from the emperor; for which purpose he sent an officer of distinction to Spain, to give such a representation of his conduct and the state of the country, as might induce the court, from inclination or necessity, to continue him as governor of Peru for life.  Although Garcilasso de la Vega gives full warrant for this account of the proposals of the insurgents, Zarate, who was then resident in a public character in Peru, makes no mention of any such plan having been agitated, which could hardly have happened without his knowledge:  It is probable therefore that these additional circumstances were invented by the enemies of Gonzalo after his fall, on purpose to blacken his memory by the imputation of even deeper crimes than those he was actually guilty of.”—­E.

[Footnote 29:  History of America, II. 378.]

SECTION VI.

History of the Expedition of Pedro de la Gasca, the Death of Gonzalo Pizarro, and the Restoration of Peru to Tranquillity.