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Updated: May 6, 2025
Almagro and Luque were very much chagrined at the meagre reward that had fallen to them, and Almagro looked with deep antagonism upon the advent of the Pizarros, who, he realized instinctively, would undermine his influence with his partner. This hatred the new Pizarros repaid in kind.
Incensed by the loss of life and the hardships of the two expeditions, with the lack of definite and tangible results, and disregarding the remonstrances of Almagro, he dispatched two ships under one Pedro Tafur to bring them back. Life on the island of Gallo had been a hideous experience.
Filled with sanguine expectations of a rich booty, Almagro began his march for Chili in the end of the year 1535, with an army of 570 Spaniards, and accompanied by 15,000 Peruvians, under the command of Paullu , the brother of the Inca Manco, the nominal emperor of Peru, who had succeeded to Atahualpa and Huasear.
Like many an unprincipled politician, he wished to reap the benefit of a bad act, and let others take the blame of it. Almagro and his followers are reported by Pizarro's secretaries to have first insisted on the Inca's death.
From this quarter Almagro obtained a liberal supply of swords, spears, shields, and arms and armour of every description, chiefly taken by the Inca at the memorable siege of Cuzco. He also received the gratifying assurance, that the latter would support him with a detachment of native troops when he opened the campaign.
At this juncture of affairs Almagro, a co-partner in the Peruvian expedition, arrived on the scene with a strong reinforcement. On learning of the immense amount of gold and silver collected, the followers of both leaders loudly clamored for its distribution among them, and, taking out the royal fifth part, the remainder was divided according to the rank and service rendered.
Francisco Pizarro was an old man, about sixty, when he effected the conquest of Peru; and his principal associate, Almagro, was his senior. Spinola, who died at sixty-one, in the full possession of his reputation, was, perhaps, the greatest military genius of his time, next to Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein.
If he has been the subject of much severe censure, he has not lacked, especially of late, zealous defenders. I have endeavored to treat him fairly in these sketches. Considering him in comparison with his contemporaries, Cortes surpassed him in ability, Hernando in executive capacity, Almagro in generosity, Balboa in gallantry, and De Soto in courtesy.
De Castro found himself in opposition to the younger Almagro, and a battle was fought. Almagro's forces were defeated, and he himself, although he escaped for a while to Cuzco, was captured and executed. In 1543 Blasco Nuñez Vela, the first Viceroy appointed by Spain, arrived in Peru, where he found de Castro in charge of the Government.
In crossing this dreary waste, which stretches for nearly a hundred leagues to the northern borders of Chili, with hardly a green spot in its expanse to relieve the fainting traveller, Almagro and his men experienced as great sufferings, though not of the same kind, as those which they had encountered in the passes of the Cordilleras.
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