“The good Saints prove you wrong, Señor!” said the tall and, in spite of his rags, still graceful-looking cavalier who had answered to the name of Alonso de Molina. “Yet though they should have come to take us back to Panama by force, yet forget not that there are true hearts among us who have sworn to follow you, and will, though you lead us to the mouth of the Pit itself.”
“Well spoken!” said he, also a knight of goodly stature and presence, who had come when Pedro de Candia was called. “Though there be but half a score of us that remain true, we will not forget what Almagro said when he left us, ‘better to roam a free man through the wilderness than to lie in chains in the debtors’ prison at Panama.’ What say you, Señor Capitan? Shall we get the arms out?”
Pizarro thought for a moment, and then he raised his head and, with a glance at the ships which were now close in shore, he said—
“Yes, get them out. Let us receive them as soldiers and gentlemen of Spain, whatever errand they come on; but be that what it may, I swear by my good Saint, St. Francis, and all the host of Heaven, that if ten, ay, if but two good men stand by me, I will stop here and wait Almagro’s coming, or such other means as God’s mercy may send us to prosecute this our enterprise to the end. Now, there comes the boat. Let us go and arm ourselves and receive them in what poor state we may.”
“And three swords, if no more, shall be used this day to help you to keep that oath of yours, Señor, if need be,” said Ruiz, as they went downward toward the beach, and the others said with one voice—
“Amen to that!”
On the beach Pizarro gave his orders with the quick, clear decision of a man to whom command is second nature, and arms and armour were taken out of their hiding-places, where they had been buried out of reach of the rain, and furbished up and donned on weak and famine-worn limbs with hands that trembled half with weakness and half with the excitement of new-born hope, for Pizarro had strictly enjoined his three companions to say nothing of his fears to the others.
Meanwhile a boat, with the flag of Spain trailing from her stern, was slowly making its way from the larger of the two ships to the shore. As her keel touched the sand a score of men, forgetting their discipline, as they well might do in such a moment, ran into the water and took hold of her gunwales, striving to draw her up, at the same time crying their welcomes to those they took for their deliverers; but Pizarro, with the chief and better-born men of his company, stood aloof on the shore, only saluting the new-comers in a grave and soldierly fashion.
When the boat was well aground, a tall, lean man, whose bright arms and handsome dress looked splendid in contrast with the wretchedness of the Men of Gallo, came and stood up in the bows, and, unrolling a parchment that he held in his hand, bowed to those about him and, with no further greeting, straightway began to read—
“From his Excellency Señor Don Pedro de Arias, by the Grace of God and the favour of his most Puissant and Catholic Majesty Charles the Fifth of Spain and the Netherlands and Lord Paramount of the Indies, to Francisco Pizarro, Bartolomeo Ruiz, Pedro de Candia, Alonso de Molina, and all other faithful and obedient servants of His Majesty aforesaid, now on the Island of Gallo in the South Sea, Greeting!
“These are to inform you that the said Don Pedro de Arias, having received certain complaints from persons now serving in an expedition under the command of the said Francisco Pizarro, and being well aware how great loss and suffering hath been occasioned by the ill-conduct and disaster of the said expedition, and having well weighed these matters in his council at Panama, hath sent his lieutenant, Don Lorenzo Tafur, with two ships, to bid the said Francisco Pizarro, and those with him in the Island of Gallo, to return in the said ships with all speed to Panama, that an account of the lives and treasure lost in the said expedition may be faithfully rendered to him, and that the precious lives of his Catholic Majesty’s faithful subjects may no more be endangered and wasted on the fantastic and chimerical schemes of the said Francisco Pizarro and his associates.
“Given under my hand and seal in the Government House at Panama, this the eighth day of October, in the Year of Salvation, one thousand five hundred and twenty-seven—
“For the King,
“Pedro de Arias.”