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Transcriber's note:
Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in
curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page
breaks occurred in the original book. For its Index, a page
number has been placed only at the start of that section.
American Fights and Fighters Series
SOUTH AMERICAN FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS
And Other Tales of Adventure
by
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY, LL. D.
Illustrations by Seymour M. Stone, George Gibbs, W. J. Aylward
and J. N. Marchand
Together with Reproductions from Old Prints and Portraits
[Frontispiece: "The Poor Little Governor . . . Distanced His Fierce
Pursuers at Last"]
Garden City -------- New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
MCMXIII
All Rights Reserved, Including That of Translation
into Foreign Languages, Including the Scandinavian
Copyright, 1910, by Doubleday, Page & Company
Published, April, 1910
To
George William Beatty
Good Fellow, Good Citizen
Good Friend
PREFACE
The first part of this new volume of the _American Fights and Fighters
Series_ needs no special introduction. Partly to make this the same
size as the other books, but more particularly because I especially
desired to give a permanent place to some of the most dramatic and
interesting episodes in our history--especially as most of them related
to the Pacific and the Far West--the series of papers in part second
was included.
"The Yarn of the _Essex_, Whaler" is abridged from a quaint account
written by the Mate and published in an old volume which is long since
out of print and very scarce. The papers on the _Tonquin_, John Paul
Jones, and "The Great American Duellists" speak for themselves. The
account of the battle of the Pitt River has never been published in
book form heretofore. The last paper "On Being a Boy Out West" I
inserted because I enjoy it myself, and because I have found that
others young and old who have read it generally like it also.
Thanks are due and are hereby extended to the following magazines for
permission to republish various articles which originally appeared in
their pages: _Harper's_, _Munseys_, _The Cosmopolitan_, _Sunset_ and
_The New Era_.
I project another volume of the Series supplementing the two Indian
volumes immediately preceding this one, but the information is hard to
get, and the work amid many other demands upon my time, proceeds slowly.
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.
ST. GEORGE'S RECTORY,
Kansas City, Mo., February, 1910.
CONTENTS
PART I
SOUTH AMERICAN FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS
PAGE
PANAMA AND THE KNIGHTS-ERRANT OF COLONIZATION
I. THE SPANISH MAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
II. THE DON QUIXOTE OF DISCOVERERS AND HIS RIVAL . . . . 5
III. THE ADVENTURES OF OJEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
IV. ENTER ONE VASCO NUÑEZ DE BALBOA . . . . . . . . . . . 17
V. THE DESPERATE STRAITS OF NICUESA . . . . . . . . . . 20
PANAMA, BALBOA AND A FORGOTTEN ROMANCE
I. THE COMING OF THE DEVASTATOR . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
II. THE GREATEST EXPLOIT SINCE COLUMBUS'S VOYAGE . . . . 34
III. "FUROR DOMINI" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
IV. THE END OF BALBOA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
PERU AND THE PIZARROS
I. THE CHIEF SCION OF A FAMOUS FAMILY . . . . . . . . . 53
II. THE TERRIBLE PERSISTENCE OF PIZARRO . . . . . . . . . 57
III. "A COMMUNISTIC DESPOTISM" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
IV. THE TREACHEROUS AND BLOODY MASSACRE OF CAXAMARCA . . 73
V. THE RANSOM AND MURDER OF THE INCA . . . . . . . . . . 85
VI. THE INCA AND THE PERUVIANS STRIKE VAINLY FOR
FREEDOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
VII. "THE MEN OF CHILI" AND THE CIVIL WARS . . . . . . . 102
VIII. THE MEAN END OF THE GREAT CONQUISTADOR . . . . . . 105
IX. THE LAST OF THE BRETHREN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
THE GREATEST ADVENTURE IN HISTORY
I. THE CHIEF OF ALL THE SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE . . . . . 115
II. THE EXPEDITION TO MEXICO . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
III. THE RELIGION OF THE AZTECS . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
IV. THE MARCH TO TENOCHTITLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
V. THE REPUBLIC OF TLASCALA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
VI. CORTES'S DESCRIPTION OF MEXICO . . . . . . . . . . 147
VII. THE MEETING WITH MONTEZUMA . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
VIII. THE SEIZURE OF THE EMPEROR . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
IX. THE REVOLT OF THE CAPITAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
X. IN GOD'S WAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
XI. THE MELANCHOLY NIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
XII. THE SIEGE AND DESTRUCTION OF MEXICO . . . . . . . . 194
XIII. A DAY OF DESPERATE FIGHTING . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
XIV. THE LAST MEXICAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
XV. THE END OF CORTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218