reason and in courtesy, to inform you,
that M. Codro, the man whom this villain murdered, was my friend; and
I doubt not that he was condemned to death for doing me an important
service."

All seemed satisfied with this explanation. These sanguinary scenes in
those days produced but a momentary impression.

De Soto and Don Pedro no longer held any intercourse with each other.
The reign of the usurping governor was atrocious beyond the power of
language to express. With horses and bloodhounds he ran down the
natives, seizing and selling them as slaves. Droves of men, women and
children, chained together, were often driven into the streets of
Leon.

The assumption then was that a nominal Christian might pardonably
inflict any outrages upon those who had not accepted the Christian
faith. Several of the Indian chiefs had embraced Christianity. Don
Pedro compelled them all to pay him a tribute of fifty slaves a month.
All orphans were to be surrendered as slaves. And then the wretch
demanded that all parents who had several children, should surrender
one or more, as slaves to the Spaniards. The natives were robbed of
their harvests, so that they had no encouragement to cultivate the
soil. This led to famine, and more than twenty thousand perished of
starvation. Famine introduced pestilence. The good Las Casas declares
that in consequence of the oppressions of the Spaniards, in ten years,
more than sixty thousand of the natives of Nicaragua perished.

About this time Francisco Pizarro had embarked in a hair-brained
enterprise for the conquest of Peru, on the western coast of South
America. Very slowly he had forced his way along, towards that vast
empire, encountering innumerable difficulties, and enduring frightful
sufferings, until he had reached a point where his progress seemed to
be arrested. His army was greatly weakened, and he had not sufficient
force to push his conquests any farther. Threatened with the utter
extermination of his band, he remembered De Soto, whom he had never
loved. He knew that he was anxious for fame and fortune, and thought
that his bravery and great military ability might extricate him from
his embarrassments.

He therefore wrote to Don Pedro, praying that De Soto, with
reinforcements, might be sent to his aid. For three years there had
been no communication whatever between the governor and the lover of
his daughter. But Don Pedro regarded the adventure of Pizarro as
hazardous in the ex