Chapter 4

The Inca grew very angry at this, and declared that he would not change his faith nor be any man's tributary. He then indignantly threw the sacred book upon the ground, and demanded satisfaction from the Spaniards for this insult to him.

At this the priest gave the signal, and the Spaniards rushed from their hiding-places and attacked the panic-stricken Indians. The Inca and his attendants were wholly unprepared, being unarmed and utterly defenseless.

The Spaniards charged through them, showing no mercy, their swords slashing right and left, and their prancing horses trampling the natives under foot. The guns and firearms of the Spaniards made such havoc and confusion that the terrified Indians offered no resistance. Indeed, they could not offer any.

In the vicinity of the Inca the struggle was fierce. The Indians, faithful to the last to their beloved monarch, threw themselves before him, shielding him with their naked bodies from the swords of the Spaniards. At last, as night drew near, the Spaniards, fearing that the Inca might escape, attempted to kill him.

But Pizarro desired that he should be taken alive, and in a loud voice ordered his followers, as they valued their own lives, not to strike the Inca. Stretching out his arm to save the monarch, Pizarro received a wound on his hand, This was the only wound received by a Spaniard during the attack.

At length the Inca was cast from his throne, and, falling to the ground, was caught by Pizarro. He was then imprisoned and placed under a strong guard. As soon as the news of the capture of the Inca spread, all resistance ceased. Many of the Indians fled to the mountains, leaving untold wealth at the disposal of their conquerors, while others remained, hoping to be able to assist their fallen ruler.

As soon as the Inca had an opportunity, he tried to think of some way of obtaining his freedom.

The room in which he was confined was twenty-two feet in length by seventeen feet in width. Raising his hand as high as he could, the Inca made a mark upon the wall, and told Pizarro that gold enough to fill the room to that mark would be given as a ransom for his release.

Pizarro agreed to this bargain, and the natives began to send gold to the Inca to secure his release. Some of the treasures in the temples were buried and hidden by the priests; but ornaments of all kinds, vases, and plate were collected, and in a few months gold amounting to fifteen millions of dollars in our money was divided among the Spaniards.

Millions of dollars' worth of gold and silver were shipped to Spain, and the Spanish nation grew very wealthy. Pizarro himself returned to Spain to take Charles V. his share of the plunder. During Pizarro's absence the Spaniards caused the Inca to be killed, notwithstanding the large ransom which they had accepted.

The richer the Spanish people grew, the more careless they became in their treatment of other nations and of those under their rule. They grew more cruel and more merciless and more greedy for gold. They flocked in great numbers to South America, a reckless, adventurous, unprincipled horde, ready to commit any crime in order to secure gold.

FERDINAND DE SOTO.

Among the men who had been with Pizarro in Peru was Ferdinand de Soto, a bold and dashing Spanish cavalier.

De Soto was appointed governor of Cuba in 1537, and at the same time received permission from the Spanish king to conquer Florida. This permission to conquer Florida was received by De Soto with great delight. He felt certain that in the interior of Florida there were cities as large and as wealthy as those of Peru. To conquer these cities, obtain their treasure, and win for himself riches and fame, was the dream of De Soto.

Strange as it may seem to you, De Soto was also anxious to convert the natives to his own religion. He intended to take from them all their possessions, but he meant to save their souls, if possible.

So, leaving his young and beautiful wife Isabella to rule over Cuba in his absence, De Soto, in May, 1539, started from Havana with nine vessels, about six hundred men, and two hundred and twenty-three horses.

After a safe voyage, the expedition landed on the coast of Florida, at Tampa Bay. Before starting on the march to the interior of the country, De Soto sent all the vessels back to Cuba. In this way he cut off all hope of retreat, in case the men should become discouraged. But no one thought of wanting to return now. Everybody was in high spirits.

The soldiers wore brilliant uniforms, their caps were adorned with waving plumes, and their polished armor glistened and sparkled in the sunshine.

In the company were twelve priests, who were expected to convert the prisoners which De Soto meant to capture. The Spaniards carried with them chains to secure these prisoners, and bloodhounds to track them in case any escaped.

It was a gay company which marched off into the interior of Florida with prancing horses, waving flags and banners, and beating drums.

At first De Soto marched directly north, plunging into a wilderness which proved to be almost impassable. The country was full of swamps, through which the horses could scarcely travel. The large trees were bound together by tangled vines; and their roots, which protruded from the earth, were like traps, catching the feet of the travelers and throwing them to the ground.

Besides all this, the heavy baggage which the men and horses carried weighed them down and made the journey almost impossible.

De Soto, however, kept bravely on, encouraging his men as best he could, and at last reached the Savannah River. Here he changed his course to westward, hoping to find gold in that direction.

Week after week, month after month, the Spaniards traveled on through a dense wilderness, enduring great hardships and finding nothing but tribes of hostile Indians.

De Soto asked one of these Indian chiefs to give him slaves enough to carry his baggage through the forest. The chief refused; whereupon De Soto and his men attacked the tribe and took many prisoners. These prisoners De Soto caused to be chained together and placed in front of the expedition, where they were made to act as guides as well as slaves.

Then De Soto asked the Indians where the great cities with gold and silver treasures were. One Indian said he did not know of any. At this reply De Soto caused the Indian to be put to death with frightful torture. This made the Indians untruthful, and they told De Soto many different stories of places where they thought gold might be found.

So the expedition wandered on, searching for the gold which they never found; and the men grew discouraged and heartsick, and longed for home.

The Indian tribes, angry at the cruel treatment of the Spaniards, attacked them frequently, and De Soto and his men scarcely ever enjoyed a peaceful rest at night. The Spaniards were unused to Indian warfare, and were no match for the quick, nimble savages, who glided through the forests silently and swiftly. These Indians never came to open battle, but hid themselves behind rocks and trees, and were scarcely ever seen. Two or three would suddenly appear, send a shower of arrows at the Spaniards, and then dart away again into the woods. The Indians scarcely ever missed their aim, and the Spaniards never knew when they were near.

One day De Soto captured some Indians who said that they knew where gold was to be found and that they would show the way to the place. De Soto only half trusted them, but he allowed them to lead the way. The cunning savages led the Spaniards into an ambush, where other Indians attacked them fiercely, killing their horses and many of their men.

As punishment for this act, De Soto ordered that these Indians should be torn to pieces by the bloodhounds.

Sometimes the Spaniards, in their wanderings, passed camps where the Indians were gathered round huge bonfires, singing, dancing, yelling, and shouting the terrible Indian war whoop. Under shelter of this noise the Spaniards would steal quietly away and avoid the Indians for a time.

At length, after wandering for two years, De Soto came, in 1541, to the shore of a large river. This river was wide and muddy, and had a strong current which carried much driftwood along with it. De Soto learned from the Indians that it was called Mississippi, or the "Father of Waters."

He had reached it near the spot where the city of Memphis now stands, and here his company halted and camped.

At this place the Spaniards built rafts, striking the fetters from their captives in order to use the iron for nails, and so crossed the river. They hoped in this way to escape from their savage foes; but on the other side of the river they found Indians who were just as fierce.

So the Spaniards traveled south, hoping by following the course of the river to reach the sea. This De Soto soon found to be impossible, as the country was a wilderness of tangled vines and roots, and his followers could not cross the many creeks and small rivers which flowed into the Mississippi. The horses traveled through this country with difficulty, often being up to their girths in water. Each day saw the little band grow less in numbers.

At length they returned to the banks of the river, being guided back by their horses. The men lost their way in the dreadful forest, but the instinct of the noble animals directed them aright.

Food was growing scarce, and De Soto himself was taken ill. He knew that unless something should be done soon to make the Indians help them, all would perish. So he sent word to an Indian chief saying that he was the child of the sun, and that all men obeyed him. He then declared that he wanted the chief's friendship, and ordered him to bring him food.

The chief sent back word that if De Soto would cause the river to dry up he would believe him. This, of course, De Soto could not do.

He was disappointed and discouraged at not being able to get food. The illness from which he was suffering grew worse, and he died soon afterwards.

His followers were anxious to hide his death from the natives, who were very much afraid of him. So they placed his body in the hollow of a scooped out tree, and sunk it at midnight in the water.

Those of his followers who were left decided to try to reach home by following the river to its mouth. These men were in a wretched condition. Their clothing was nearly all gone. Few of them had shoes, and many had only the skins of animals and mats made of wild vines to keep them warm. They built seven frail barks and sailed down the Mississippi, avoiding Indians all the way, and in seventeen days they came to the Gulf of Mexico.

In fifty days more they succeeded in reaching a Spanish settlement on the coast of Mexico, where they were received with much joy.

Of the gay company of six hundred and twenty who had set out with such high hopes, only three hundred and eleven men returned.

THE GREAT RIVER AMAZON, AND EL DORADO.

As you may imagine, there was great excitement and curiosity in Spain, after the voyages of Columbus, about the new lands beyond the Western Ocean.

Several of the men who had sailed with Columbus were ready to undertake new voyages of discovery. Among them was Yanez Pinzon.

You will remember that when Columbus made his first voyage he set out with three vessels. One of these was the _Nina_. It was commanded by Yanez Pinzon.

After Columbus had returned from his second voyage, Yanez Pinzon succeeded in fitting out a fleet to go to the New World.

In 1499 he sailed with four caravels from Palos, the same port from which Columbus had sailed. Pinzon took with him some of the sailors who had been with Columbus, and also his three principal pilots. These pilots were men who understood how to use the astrolabe and to tell the course of the ship at sea.

Pinzon's fleet sailed toward the Canary and Cape Verde Islands, and after passing them its course was southwest across the Atlantic. At length the fleet crossed the equator, and Pinzon was the first explorer to cross the line in the western Atlantic.

The fleet sailed on for nearly five hundred miles to the southward. Here Pinzon met a terrific storm, which came very near sending his whole fleet to the bottom. He was now not far from the coast, and after the storm was over he discovered land. The land proved to be the most eastern point of South America. This was in the month of January, in the year 1500.

Pinzon and a company of his men went ashore. They did not remain long, however, as they found the Indians very hostile. The Indians attacked the Spaniards and killed several of their number. They were so furious that, after chasing the Spaniards to their boats, they waded into the sea and fought to get the oars. The Indians captured one of the rowboats, but the Spaniards at last got off to their vessels.

Pinzon then set sail and steered northward along the coast.

When his fleet came near the equator, he noticed that the water was very fresh. Accordingly he gave orders to fill the water casks of his fleet. The freshness of the water of the sea led him to sail in toward the shore.

At length he discovered whence the large volume of fresh water came. It flowed out of the mouth of a great river.

It was the mouth of the river Amazon, and so great is the volume of water which it pours into the sea that its current is noticed in the ocean two hundred miles from the shore.

This fact is not so surprising when we learn that the main mouth of this great river is fifty miles wide, that the river is four thousand miles long, including its windings, and that, besides many smaller branches, it has five tributaries, each over a thousand miles long, and one over two thousand miles long, flowing into it.

Pinzon anchored in the mouth of the river, and found the natives peaceful. In this respect they were unlike those he had met farther south. They came out to his ships in a friendly way in their canoes. But when Pinzon, a short time later, left the river, he cruelly carried off thirty-six of the Indians who had been friendly to him.

While Pinzon's fleet was in the mouth of the river, it came a second time near being wrecked.

Pinzon was, of course, in strange waters. He did not know that twice each month the tide does not rise in the usual way, but rushes up the mouth of the Amazon with great force. The tide, as a rule, is about six hours in rising and six hours in falling. In the mouth of the Amazon, however, at new moon and at full moon the tide swells to its limit in two or three minutes. It comes as a wall of water, twelve or fifteen feet high, followed by another wall of the same height. Often there is a third wall of water, and at some seasons of the year there is a fourth wall.

This peculiar rising of the tide is called the _bore_. The noise of this rushing flood can be heard five or six miles off. It comes with tremendous force, and sometimes uproots great trees along the banks. During the few days when the tide rushes up the river in this way vessels do not remain in the main channel, but anchor in coves and protected places.

Pinzon, as we have said, did not know about the sudden rising of the tide. His fleet was anchored in the main channel when the bore came, and it dashed his vessels about like toy boats and almost wrecked them.

After repairing the damage done to his fleet, he made up his mind that there was little gold to be found in those parts, and so he sailed out of the mouth of the great river, and then turned northward along the coast.

It may be of interest to know what befell Pinzon after he left the mouth of the Amazon. We will tell you briefly.

He sailed along the coast to the northwest, and passed the mouth of the Orinoco, another large river of South America. About a hundred and fifty miles beyond the Orinoco, he entered a gulf and landed. Here he cut a large quantity of brazil wood to take back to Spain.

Then he sailed for the island of Hispaniola, now called Haiti. From this island he sailed to the Bahama Islands.

It was July when he reached the Bahamas. Misfortune again came to his fleet. While anchored in the Bahamas a hurricane came up, and two of his vessels were sunk. A third was blown out to sea. The fourth vessel rode out the storm, but the crew, thinking all the while she would sink, took to their small boats and at length reached the shore. The Indians came to them when they landed, and proved friendly.

After the hurricane was over, the vessel that had been carried out to sea drifted back. As soon as the sea was smooth enough Pinzon and his men went on board the two remaining vessels and set sail for Hispaniola.

At Hispaniola he repaired his vessels, and then sailed back to Spain. He reached Palos in September.

About three months after Pinzon sailed away from the mouth of the Amazon it was visited by a Portuguese navigator named Cabral. Although the Portuguese were not so fortunate as to discover America, yet they had been very active in making discoveries for seventy years and more before Columbus's first voyage.

In 1420 they discovered the Madeira Islands. In 1432 they discovered the Azore Islands, which lie eight hundred miles west of Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean. Their vessels, from time to time, had been pushing farther and farther down the west coast of Africa. In the middle of the century as many as fifty-one of their caravels had been to the Guinea coast, or the Gold Coast, as it was more often called. In 1484, eight years before Columbus discovered America, they had discovered the mouth of the Kongo River on the African coast.

It is not surprising, then, that their navigators were pushing out across the Atlantic soon after Columbus had led the way.

But though Cabral sailed along the whole coast of Brazil, and took possession of it in the name of the King of Portugal, he did not learn any more about the great river at the mouth of which he anchored than did Pinzon. Had he waited a few months, or had he returned to the river, he might easily have explored its course. For from July to December of each year the east wind blows steadily up the Amazon, and Cabral could have spread his sails and kept them spread as he sailed up the river for two thousand miles or more to the eastern foot of the great mountains of South America, the Andes.

The exploration of the Amazon, however, fell to the lot of another man, Francisco Orellana by name. Orellana did not sail up the river from its mouth, but came down it from one of its sources. This was in 1540, many years, as you see, after Pinzon and Cabral had anchored at the mouth.

Orellana was one of Pizarro's men, and had been with him when the Inca of Peru was taken and afterwards put to death. It was Francisco Pizarro, as you well know, who conquered Peru. After Francisco Pizarro had conquered the country, he made his brother, Gonzalo Pizarro, governor of Quito.

This brother, while at Quito, made up his mind to cross the Andes Mountains and explore the country beyond. So he got ready an expedition, and made Orellana his lieutenant; Orellana was, therefore, second in command of the expedition.

The army was made up of three hundred and fifty Spaniards, four thousand Indians, and one thousand bloodhounds for hunting down the natives.

They had a hard march over the Andes, and suffered very much in crossing. When they were over the mountains, they discovered a river flowing toward the southeast. This was the river Napo.

Pizarro had had so hard a march across the Andes that he felt his men could not stand it to go back by the same way. He therefore encamped by the Napo River, and spent seven months in building a vessel to hold his baggage and those of his men who were ill.

He put Orellana in charge of the vessel, and ordered him to float slowly down the river while the other part of the army marched along the shore. The march was very slow and toilsome, and after a few weeks the food began to get low.

At this time Pizarro heard of a rich country farther down the stream, where the Napo flowed into a larger river. This country he wished to reach. So he sent Orellana in the vessel, with fifty soldiers, down the Napo to the larger river. There Orellana was to get food and supplies for the army and then return.

Pizarro waited and waited in vain for Orellana to return, and at last he and his men had to find their way back across the Andes with scanty food and undergo great hardships.

Orellana and the soldiers with him were carried by the current swiftly down the Napo, and in three days they came into the great river. It was indeed a great river, for the Amazon at the place where the Napo flows into it is a mile in width.

Orellana expected to find here many people and plenty of food. He found, however, only a wilderness. It was about like the country where Pizarro and his army were encamped.

Orellana could barely get food for himself and the men with him, much less enough for Pizarro and his army. To return against the swift current would be a heavy task. After thinking the matter over, he decided to follow the great river to the sea. But he must first win the soldiers who were with him over to his plan. This he soon succeeded in doing, and they started down the Amazon.

It was no easy journey. He and the soldiers suffered greatly. But in August, 1541, after seven months of hardships, they reached the ocean, and a short time after this they sailed to Spain.

When Orellana reached Spain, he gave a glowing account of a wonderful country, rich in precious metals, through which he had passed. According to his story, it was far richer in gold than Peru.

The name El Dorado, "The Golden," was given to this fabled country; and for a score or more of years after Orellana had told his story, efforts were made to find it. Expedition after expedition set out in search of El Dorado. An explorer named Philip von Hutten, who led a party southward into the country from the northern part of South America, believed he caught sight of a city whose golden walls glistened far away in the distance. But he never reached the shining city which he thought he saw, nor was the fabled El Dorado ever found.

VERRAZZANO.

Verrazzano was a native of Florence, Italy, and a pirate like many other sailors of that time. Being known as a daring seaman, he was asked by Francis I., King of France, to take command of a fleet of four vessels and try to find a western passage to rich Cathay. For Francis had become very jealous of the Spaniards, and felt that his country ought to have a share in the riches of the New World.

Verrazzano sailed from France full of hope and joy; but he had gone only a short distance when a severe storm arose, and two of his vessels were lost sight of forever. The two remaining vessels were obliged to return to France.

After some delay Verrazzano started again, with one vessel called the _Dauphine_. With this vessel he reached the island of Madeira, and from this island he sailed, January 17, 1524, for the unknown world.

The voyage lasted forty-nine days, after which time a long, low coast was sighted in the distance. This coast, which was probably North Carolina, afforded no landing place, and for some time Verrazzano sailed north and then south, searching for one. The search proved unsuccessful, and as the crew were in need of fresh water, Verrazzano decided to send a boat ashore.