South American Fights and Fighters, and Other Tales of Adventure Read online

  SOUTH AMERICAN FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS

  And Other Tales of Adventure

  by

  CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY, LL. D.

  Illustrations by Seymour M. Stone, George Gibbs, W. J. Aylwardand J. N. Marchand

  Together with Reproductions from Old Prints and Portraits

  [Frontispiece: "The Poor Little Governor . . . Distanced His FiercePursuers at Last"]

  Garden City -------- New YorkDoubleday, Page & CompanyMCMXIIIAll Rights Reserved, Including That of Translationinto Foreign Languages, Including the Scandinavian

  Copyright, 1910, by Doubleday, Page & CompanyPublished, April, 1910

  To

  George William Beatty

  Good Fellow, Good Citizen

  Good Friend

  PREFACE

  The first part of this new volume of the _American Fights and FightersSeries_ needs no special introduction. Partly to make this the samesize as the other books, but more particularly because I especiallydesired to give a permanent place to some of the most dramatic andinteresting episodes in our history--especially as most of them relatedto the Pacific and the Far West--the series of papers in part secondwas included.

  "The Yarn of the _Essex_, Whaler" is abridged from a quaint accountwritten by the Mate and published in an old volume which is long sinceout of print and very scarce. The papers on the _Tonquin_, John PaulJones, and "The Great American Duellists" speak for themselves. Theaccount of the battle of the Pitt River has never been published inbook form heretofore. The last paper "On Being a Boy Out West" Iinserted because I enjoy it myself, and because I have found thatothers young and old who have read it generally like it also.

  Thanks are due and are hereby extended to the following magazines forpermission to republish various articles which originally appeared intheir pages: _Harper's_, _Munseys_, _The Cosmopolitan_, _Sunset_ and_The New Era_.

  I project another volume of the Series supplementing the two Indianvolumes immediately preceding this one, but the information is hard toget, and the work amid many other demands upon my time, proceeds slowly.

  CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.

  ST. GEORGE'S RECTORY,

  Kansas City, Mo., February, 1910.

  CONTENTS

  PART I

  SOUTH AMERICAN FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS

  PAGE

  PANAMA AND THE KNIGHTS-ERRANT OF COLONIZATION

  I. THE SPANISH MAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 II. THE DON QUIXOTE OF DISCOVERERS AND HIS RIVAL . . . . 5 III. THE ADVENTURES OF OJEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 IV. ENTER ONE VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA . . . . . . . . . . . 17 V. THE DESPERATE STRAITS OF NICUESA . . . . . . . . . . 20

  PANAMA, BALBOA AND A FORGOTTEN ROMANCE

  I. THE COMING OF THE DEVASTATOR . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 II. THE GREATEST EXPLOIT SINCE COLUMBUS'S VOYAGE . . . . 34 III. "FUROR DOMINI" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 IV. THE END OF BALBOA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

  PERU AND THE PIZARROS

  I. THE CHIEF SCION OF A FAMOUS FAMILY . . . . . . . . . 53 II. THE TERRIBLE PERSISTENCE OF PIZARRO . . . . . . . . . 57 III. "A COMMUNISTIC DESPOTISM" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 IV. THE TREACHEROUS AND BLOODY MASSACRE OF CAXAMARCA . . 73 V. THE RANSOM AND MURDER OF THE INCA . . . . . . . . . . 85 VI. THE INCA AND THE PERUVIANS STRIKE VAINLY FOR FREEDOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 VII. "THE MEN OF CHILI" AND THE CIVIL WARS . . . . . . . 102 VIII. THE MEAN END OF THE GREAT CONQUISTADOR . . . . . . 105 IX. THE LAST OF THE BRETHREN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

  THE GREATEST ADVENTURE IN HISTORY

  I. THE CHIEF OF ALL THE SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE . . . . . 115 II. THE EXPEDITION TO MEXICO . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 III. THE RELIGION OF THE AZTECS . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 IV. THE MARCH TO TENOCHTITLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 V. THE REPUBLIC OF TLASCALA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 VI. CORTES'S DESCRIPTION OF MEXICO . . . . . . . . . . 147 VII. THE MEETING WITH MONTEZUMA . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 VIII. THE SEIZURE OF THE EMPEROR . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 IX. THE REVOLT OF THE CAPITAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 X. IN GOD'S WAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 XI. THE MELANCHOLY NIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 XII. THE SIEGE AND DESTRUCTION OF MEXICO . . . . . . . . 194 XIII. A DAY OF DESPERATE FIGHTING . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 XIV. THE LAST MEXICAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 XV. THE END OF CORTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218