elty. They seized on the aged and sick
persons who had been unable to escape, and put many of them
to the torture to make them confess where the treasures of
Cuzco were concealed. Either these unfortunate people could
not give the information required, or they had sufficient
firmness to endure agony and death rather than betray the
consecrated treasures of their national monuments and altars
into the hands of their enemies."[A]

[Footnote A: Life of Ferdinand De Soto, by Lambert A. Wilmer, p. 272.]

It was late in the afternoon of a November day, 1533, when the
dragoons of De Soto, closely followed by the whole Spanish army,
entered the burning streets of Cuzco. They ran about eagerly in all
directions searching for gold in the blazing palaces and temples. Thus
an immense amount of spoil was found, which the Peruvians had been
unable to remove. It is said that after one-fifth had been subtracted
for the Spanish crown, and the officers had received their abundant
shares, the common soldiers, four hundred and eighty in number,
received each one a sum amounting to four thousand dollars.

Peru was conquered, but the victors had indeed gained a loss. Nearly
all who were engaged in the enterprise perished miserably. Almagro was
eventually taken captive by the Peruvians and strangled. Hernando
Pizarro, returning to Spain, languished for weary years in a prison.
The younger brother was beheaded. Friar Vincent, who had given the
support of religion to many of the most atrocious of these crimes,
fell into an ambush with a small party, and they all were massacred.
Francisco Pizarro himself fell a victim to a conspiracy among his own
soldiers, and at mid-day was put to death in his own palace. But we
must leave these wild men to their career of cruelty and crime, while
we follow the footsteps of De Soto.

Early in the year 1534, De Soto took leave of his comrades in Peru,
and embarked for Spain. He had left his native land in poverty. He now
returned after an absence of about fifteen years, greatly enriched,
prepared in opulence as well as in illustrious birth to take his stand
with the proudest grandees of that then opulent realm. His last labors
in Peru were spent in unavailing endeavors to humanize the spirit of
his countrymen there, and to allay the bitter feuds which were
springing up among them. But his departure seemed to remove from them
all restraints, and Spaniards and Peruvians alik