mple of the self-made man than may be found in the person
of Francisco Pizarro, a gentleman who came to America about 1510,
intending to grow up with the country.

Mr. Pizarro was born at Truxillo, Spain, about 1471. His father was a
Spanish colonel of foot and his mother was a peasant girl who admired
and respected the dashing colonel very much, but felt that she had
scruples about marriage, and so, although years afterward Francisco
tried his best to make a match between his father and mother, they were
never married. It is said that this embittered his whole life. None but
those who have experienced it can fully realize what it is to have a
thankless parent.

Pizarro's mother's name was Estramadura. This was her maiden name. It
was a name which seemed to harmonize well with her rich, pickled-olive
complexion and so she retained it all her life. Her son did not have
many early advantages, for he was neglected by his mother and allowed to
grow up a swineherd, and it is even said that he was suckled by swine in
his infancy while his giddy mother joined in the mad whirl at the
skating-rink. We can hardly imagine anything more pitiable than the
condition of a little child left to rustle for nourishment among the
black-and-tan hogs of Spain while his father played old sledge on the
frontier in the regular army and his mother stood on her Spanish head
and wrote her cigar-box name in the atmosphere at the rink.

Poor little Pizarro had none of the modern advantages, therefore, and
his education was extremely crude. The historian says that he grew up a
bold, ignorant, and brutal man. He came to what was then called Spanish
America at the age of 39 years and assisted Mr. Balboa in discovering
the Pacific ocean. Having heard of the existence of Peru with all its
wealth, Pizarro secured a band of self-made men like himself and lit out
for that province for the purpose of conquering it if he liked it and
bringing home some solid silver teapots and gold-lined card-receivers.
He was engaged in gathering this line of goods and working them off on
the pawnbroker for twenty-one years, during which time he did not get
killed, but continued to enjoy a reasonable degree of health and
strength.

Although Peru at that time was quite densely populated with an
industrious and wealthy class of natives, Pizarro subdued her with 110
foot soldiers armed with old-fashioned muskets that had these full-blown
barrels, with muzzles on them like t