lty discerned.

Humbolt found, among the ruins of these temples, blocks of hewn stone
thirty-six feet long, nine feet wide, and six feet in thickness. Their
great highways, spanning the gulfs, clinging to the precipitous cliffs
and climbing the mountains, were wonderful works of mechanical skill.

De Soto was thoroughly acquainted with the cruel, faithless, and
treacherous character of Pizarro. A stigma must ever rest upon his
name, for consenting to enter into any expedition under the leadership
of such a man. It may however be said, in reply, that he had no
intention of obeying Pizarro in any thing that was wrong; that his
love of adventure was roused by the desire to explore one of the most
magnificent empires in the New World, which rumor had invested with
wealth and splendor surpassing the dreams of romance. And perhaps,
most important of all, he hoped _honestly_ to be able to gather from
the fabled mines of gold, with which Peru was said to be filled, that
wealth with which he would be enabled to return to Spain and claim the
hand, as he had already won the heart, of the fair and faithful
Isabella.

Pizarro had entered upon his enterprise with an army of one hundred
and eighty men, twenty-seven of whom were mounted. It seems to be the
uncontradicted testimony of contemporary historians, that this army
was composed of as worthless a set of vagabonds as ever disgraced
humanity. There was no crime or cruelty from which these fiends in
human form would recoil.

Pizarro, following down the western coast of South America five or six
hundred miles, had reached the island of Puna, in the extreme northern
part of Peru. It was separated from the mainland by a narrow strait.
The inhabitants received him cordially, but the murders, rapine and
other nameless atrocities, perpetrated by the Spaniards upon the
friendly natives, soon so aroused their resentment that a conspiracy
was formed for the entire extermination of the invaders. The
expedition had become so weakened and demoralized that even Pizarro
saw that it would be the height of imprudence for him to venture, with
his vile crew, upon the mainland, before reinforcements under some
degree of military discipline should arrive. He was in this precarious
condition, and on the eve of extermination, when De Soto and his
select and well-ordered troops reached the island.

They came in two vessels, bringing with them an abundant supply of
arms and ammunition. The party con