e. De
Soto, during the whole of his adventurous life, seems to have been
entirely unconscious of the emotion of fear. During his residence in
the camp of the Pizarros, he had exerted a powerful restraint upon
their ferocious natures. He had very earnestly endeavored to impress
their minds with the conviction that they could not pass through the
populous empire of Peru, or even remain in it, if their followers were
allowed to trample upon the rights of the natives. So earnestly and
persistently did he urge these views, that Pizarro at length
acknowledged their truth, and in the presence of De Soto, commanded
his men to abstain from every act of aggression.

But now that De Soto was gone, the Pizarros and their rabble rout of
vagabonds breathed more freely. Scarcely had the plumed helmets of the
cavaliers disappeared in the distance, when Hernando Pizarro set out
on a plundering expedition into the villages of the Peruvians. The
natives fled in terror before the Spaniards. Pizarro caught one of the
leading men and questioned him very closely respecting the designs of
Attahuallapa. The captive honestly and earnestly declared, that he
knew nothing about the plans of his sovereign.

This demoniac Hernando endeavored to extort a confession from him by
torture. He tied his victim to a tree, enveloped his feet in cotton
thoroughly saturated with oil and applied the torch. The wretched
sufferer in unendurable agony, said "yes" to anything and everything.
Two days after, it was proved that he could not have known anything
respecting the intended operations of the Inca. It is a satisfaction
to one's sense of justice to remember that there is a God who will not
allow such crimes to go unpunished.

De Soto, with his bold cavaliers, pressed rapidly on towards the
Peruvian camp. Very carefully he guarded against every act of
hostility or injustice. Everywhere the natives were treated with the
utmost courtesy. In the rapid advance of the Spaniards through the
country, crowds flocked to the highway attracted by the novel
spectacle. And a wonderful spectacle it must have been! These
cavaliers, with their nodding plumes, their burnished armor, their
gleaming sabres, their silken banners, mounted on magnificent war
horses and rushing along over the hills and through the valleys in
meteoric splendor, must have presented an aspect more imposing to
their minds than we can well imagine.

De Soto, who had not his superior as a horseman in