well received. Cortes was absent
eighteen months on this expedition, during which he travelled 500
leagues[57], and suffered many hardships.

In the year 1525; Francis Pizarro, and Diego de Almagro, went from Panama
to discover Peru, on the south of the fine, which they called _Nueva
Castillia_. Pedro Asias, governor of Panama, refused to take any concern
in this expedition, on account of certain evil news which had been
brought to him by Francis Vezerra. Pizarro went first in a ship with 124
soldiers, and was followed by Almagro with seventy men in another ship.
Almagro came to Rio de San Juan, in lat. 3 deg. N., where he got 3000 pezoes
of gold; and not finding Pizarro, of whom he was in search, he lost heart,
and returned to Panama. Pizarro went first to the island of Gorgona, and
thence to the isle of Gallo, from whence he proceeded to the river called
_Rio del Peru_, in lat. 2 deg. N. from which the rich and famous country of
Peru derives its name. He sailed thence to the river of St Francis, and
Cape _Passaos_, where he passed the equinoctial line, and came to _Puerto
Vejo_, in lat. 1 deg. S. and sailed on to the rivers of Chinapanpa, Tumbez,
and Payta, in four or five degrees of southern latitude, where he
received intelligence concerning King Atabalipa, and of the vast riches
of his palace. On receiving this intelligence, Pizarro returned to Panama,
from whence he went to Spain, where he solicited and obtained the
government of the rich country he had discovered; having spent above
three years in the discovery, with much labour and great danger[58].

In the same year, 1525, seven ships were fitted out from Spain, under the
command of Garcia de Loaisa, for a voyage to the Molucca Islands. Sailing
from Corunna, and passing by the Canaries, they came to the coast of
Brasil, where they discovered an island in lat. 2 deg. S. which they named St
Matthew; and, finding orange trees, hogs, and European poultry, they
concluded it to be inhabited; but, by inscriptions oil the bark of trees,
they learnt that the Portuguese had bean there seventeen years before. A
small pinnace of this squadron, commanded by Juan de Resaga, passed the
straits of Magellan, and ran along the whole coast of Peru and New Spain,
carrying the intelligence to Cortes of the expedition of Loaisa to the
Moluccas: But the admiral ship only of this squadron, commanded by Martin
Mingues de Carchova, arrived at its destination, where the Moors of the
Mol