had made friends, on the desolate island.

Not even a ship was left them, and they had to build a raft to convey
them to a less inhospitable island, that of Gorgona, farther north.
There they lived seven months, subsisting on small game brought down
by their cross-bows, and shell-fish found on the shores, until Ruiz,
after weary delays, returned in a small vessel, bringing supplies, but
not the expected reinforcement of troops.

In this frail craft the dauntless rovers put to sea. Pizarro pursued
his explorations southward, beyond the point where he afterward
founded Truxillo, named after his native town; visited several
Peruvian ports, and learned much of the country he proposed to
subjugate. He then returned to Panama, which he reached after an
absence of eighteen months. The reappearance of the little group of
wanderers bringing news of their discoveries, was the cause of great
astonishment in the colony, and of joyful enthusiasm among their
friends, who had long given them up for dead.

The governor, however, resenting Pizarro's disobedience of his orders
at the isle of Gallo, refused to sanction another expedition; and
Pizarro resolved upon the bold course of returning to Spain and
appealing to the Crown. This was in the spring of 1528.

Arriving at Seville, he was immediately thrown into prison for a debt
incurred at Darien. But he was released by order of the emperor,
Charles V., who received him graciously at Toledo, heard the wondrous
story of his wanderings, which Pizarro knew how to tell, and saw the
vessels of gold and silver, the fine fabrics, the llamas, and other
evidences of the Peruvian civilization, which were displayed before
his royal eyes. He was also, no doubt influenced by the recent
achievements of Cortes, who was then at court, and who perhaps spoke
for his kinsman a friendly word.

The monarch turned over Pizarro and his enterprise, with his
recommendation, to the Council of the Indies. Yet a year passed, and
nothing was done. Pizarro was fast sinking into obscurity, and he
would likewise have sunk into despair, if he had been less stout of
heart. Then, as Queen Isabella had aided Columbus, so the queen of
Charles V. came to the assistance of Pizarro, and caused to be
executed the extraordinary instrument which bestowed on him, with the
rights of discovery and conquest, the titles of Governor and
Captain-General of New Castile, as Peru was then called, and a salary
of 725,000 maravedis, t