man who could be so physically
brave in some circumstances was a coward at the last. He begged like a
craven to be spared; but his doom was just, and Hernando Pizarro refused
to reverse the sentence. Francisco Pizarro had started for Cuzco; but
before he arrived Almagro was executed, and one of the basest
treacheries in history was avenged. Pizarro was shocked at the news of
the execution; but he could not feel otherwise than that justice had
been done. Like the man he was, he had Diego de Almagro, the traitor's
illegitimate son, taken to his own house, and cared for as his own
child.

Hernando Pizarro now returned to Spain. There he was accused of
cruelties; and the Spanish government, prompter than any other in
punishing offences of the sort, threw him into prison. For twenty years
the gray-haired prisoner lived behind the bars of Medina del Campo; and
when he came out his days of work were over, though he lived to be a
hundred years old.

The state of affairs in Peru, though improved by the death of Almagro
and the crushing of his wicked rebellion, was still far from secure.
Manco was developing what has since come to be regarded as the
characteristic Indian tactics. He had learned that the original fashion
of rushing upon a foe in mass, fairly to smother him under a crush of
bodies, would not work against discipline. So he took to the tactics of
harassment and ambuscade,--the policy of killing from behind, which our
Apaches learned in the same way. He was always hanging about the
Spaniards, like a wolf about the flock, waiting to pounce upon them
whenever they were off their guard, or when a few were separated from
the main body. It is the most telling mode of warfare, and the hardest
to combat. Many of the Spaniards fell victims; in a single swoop he cut
off and massacred thirty of them. It was useless to pursue him,--the
mountains gave him an impregnable retreat. As the only deliverance from
this harassment, Pizarro adopted a new policy. In the most dangerous
districts he founded military posts; and around these secure places
towns grew rapidly, and the people were able to hold their own.
Emigrants were coming to the country, and Peru was developing a
civilized nation out of them and the uplifted natives. Pizarro imported
all sorts of European seeds, and farming became a new and civilized
industry.

Besides this development of the new little nation, Pizarro was spreading
the limits of exploration and conquest