ng in a northerly direction, running in at every
bay, and landing whenever they approached a flourishing Indian
village, plundering the natives and maltreating them in every shameful
way. At length they aroused such a spirit of desperation on the part
of the natives, that they fell upon the buccaneers with resistless
ferocity. Two-thirds of the miscreants were slain. Pizarro barely
escaped with his life, having received severe wounds and being borne
to his ship in a state of insensibility.

While Pizarro was absent on this ill-fated expedition, a new trouble
befell Don Pedro. Las Casas, a devoted Christian missionary, whose
indignation was roused to the highest pitch by the atrocities
perpetrated upon the Indians, reported the inhuman conduct of Don
Pedro to the Spanish government. The King appointed Peter de Los Rios
to succeed him. The new governor was to proceed immediately to Panama
and bring the degraded official to trial, and, if found guilty, to
punishment. The governor of a Spanish colony in those days was
absolute. Don Pedro had cut off the head of his predecessor, though
that predecessor was one of the best of men. He now trembled in
apprehension of the loss of his own head. Conscious of his deserts, he
was terror-stricken.

About four or five hundred miles north of Panama there was the
magnificent province of Nicaragua. The isthmus is here about one
hundred and fifty miles in breadth, and the province being about two
hundred miles in a line from north to south, extended from the
Atlantic to the Pacific shores. Don Pedro was popular with his brutal
soldiery, since he allowed them unlimited license and plunder. He
resolved, surrounded by them, to take refuge in Nicaragua.
Nevertheless, to render himself as secure as possible, he decided to
send an agent to plead his cause at the Spanish court.

Among those rude, unprincipled adventurers, men of violence and blood,
it was very difficult to find a suitable person. At length he fixed
with much hesitation upon M. Codro, the astrologer. He was a
simple-minded, good man; learned, though very artless. M. Codro was
strongly attached to De Soto, the preserver of his life. As we have
seen, he was well aware of the peril to which his benefactor was
hourly exposed from the malignity of the governor. Gladly therefore he
accepted the mission, as he hoped it would afford him an opportunity
of conferring some favor upon his imperilled friend.

Don Pedro had adopted the mo