[Sidenote: =Pizarro finds great riches in Peru=]
[Illustration: ROUTES OF THE CONQUERORS, CORTÉS AND PIZARRO
_Their conquests of Mexico and of Peru brought untold stores of riches
to Spain_]
=16. Pizarro's Voyages.= Another Spaniard, Francisco Pizarro, dreamed
of finding riches greater than De Leon or Cortés had ever heard of.
He set out for Peru with an army of two hundred men. Reaching the
coast, he started inland and in a few days came to the foot of the
Andes. They crossed the mountains and, marching down the eastern side,
the Spaniards came upon the Inca, the native ruler, and his army. By
trickery they made the Inca a prisoner, put him to death, and then
subdued the army. The Spaniards then marched on to Cuzco, the capital
of Peru, where they found enormous quantities of gold and silver. Never
before in the history of the world had so many riches been found. This
great wealth was divided among the Spaniards according to rank. But the
greedy Spaniards fell to quarreling and fighting among themselves, and
Pizarro fell by the hand of one of his own men.
CORONADO, WHO PENETRATED SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES BUT FOUND NOTHING
BUT BEAUTIFUL SCENERY
=17. Coronado's Search for Rich Cities.= Stories of rich cities to the
north of Mexico led Francisco Coronado with a thousand men into the
rocky regions now known as New Mexico and Arizona. They looked with
wonder at the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, but they found no wealthy
cities or temples ornamented with gold and silver.
They pushed farther north into what is now Kansas and Nebraska, into
the great western prairies with their vast seas of waving grass and
herds of countless buffalo. "Crooked-back oxen" the Spaniards named the
buffalo.
[Sidenote: =Coronado finds no gold or silver=]
But Coronado was after gold and silver, and cared nothing for beautiful
and interesting scenes. Disappointed, he turned southward and in 1542,
after three years of wandering, reached home in Mexico. He reported to
the King of Spain that the region he had explored was too poor a place
for him to plant colonies.