, "need no
guards." On the principle of "In for a penny, in for a pound," {103}
Almagro was already deep enough in the bad graces of Francisco Pizarro,
and he might as well be in deeper than he was, especially as the
execution of Hernando would remove his worst enemy. But Almagro does
not appear to have been an especially cruel man. He was an easy-going,
careless, jovial, pleasure-loving soldier, and he spared the lives of
the two brothers. Gonzalo escaped, and assembling a force, immediately
took the field.

[Illustration: Fernando Cortes. From a Picture in the Florence Gallery]

There had been a meeting between Francisco and Almagro. The latter got
an inkling that there was treachery intended, and though the meeting
had begun with embraces and tears, it was broken off abruptly and both
the ancient partners prepared for an appeal to arms. Almagro had
released Hernando on his promise to return immediately to Spain. This
promise Hernando broke. Francisco made his brother commander of the
army, and the forces of the two commanders met on the plains of Salinas
on the 6th of April, 1538.

There were about seven hundred on one side, Pizarro's, and five hundred
on the other, equally divided between horse and foot, with a few pieces
of artillery in both armies. The men of Chili, as Almagro's forces
were called, hated their former comrades, and Pizarro's men returned
this feeling with such animosities as are engendered nowhere save in
civil war. Victory finally attended Hernando Pizarro. He had fought
in the ranks like a common soldier, save that he had been at great
pains so to distinguish himself by his apparel that every one could
know him, so that all who sought him could find him. Orgonez was slain
as he lay on the ground, wounded. Such was the close, fierce fighting
that the killed alone numbered nearly {104} two hundred, besides a
proportionately greater number wounded.

Almagro had watched the battle from an adjacent hill. He was old and
ill, broken down from excesses and dissipations. Unable to sit a
horse, he had been carried thither on a litter. The sight of his
routed army admonished him to try to escape. With great pain and
difficulty he got upon a horse, but being pursued, the animal stumbled
and Almagro fell to the ground. Some of Pizarro's men were about to
dispatch him when Hernando interfered. He was taken prisoner to Cuzco
and held in captivity for a while. Hernando had announced his