to
return to Cuzco. Here, claiming the governorship, he captured Hernando
and Gonzalo Pizarro, though refusing the counsel of his lieutenant that
they should be put to death. Then, proceeding to the coast, he met
Francisco Pizarro, and a treaty was concluded between them by which
Almagro, pending instructions from Spain, was to retain Cuzco, and
Hernando Pizarro was to be set free, on condition of sailing for Spain.
But Francisco broke the treaty as soon as made, and sent Hernando with
an army against Almagro, warning the latter that unless he gave up Cuzco
the responsibility of the consequences would be on his own head. The two
armies met at Las Salinas, and Almagro was defeated and imprisoned in
Cuzco. Before long Hernando brought him to trial and to death, thus ill
requiting Almagro's treatment of him personally. Hernando, on his return
to Spain, suffered twenty years' imprisonment for this deed, which
outraged both public sentiment and sense of justice.

Francisco Pizarro, though affecting to be shocked at the death of
Almagro, cannot be acquitted of all share in it. So, indeed, the
followers of Almagro thought, and they were goaded to still further
hatred of the Pizarros by the poverty and contempt in which they now
lived, as the survivors of a discredited party. The house of Almagro's
son in Lima formed a centre of disaffection, to whose menace Pizarro
showed remarkable blindness. He paid dearly for this excessive
confidence, for on Sunday, the 26th of June, 1541, he was attacked while
sitting in his own house among his friends, and killed.

_IV.--Later Fortunes of the Conquerors_

The death of Pizarro did not prove in any sense a guarantee of peace
among the Spaniards in Peru. At the time of his death, indeed, an envoy
from the Spanish court was on his way to Peru, who from his integrity
and wisdom might indeed have given rise to a hope that a happier day was
about to dawn. He was endowed with powers to assume the governorship in
the event of Pizarro's death, as well as instructions to bring about a
more peaceful settlement of affairs. He arrived to find himself indeed
the lawful governor, but had before him the task of enforcing his
authority. This brought him into collision with the son of Almagro, at
the head of a strong party of his father's followers. A bloody battle
took place on the plains of Chupas, in which Vaca de Castro was
victorious. Almagro was arrested at Cuzco and executed.

The history o