Note 543 — Chapter CXIX

Of the famous thirteen only four ever appear again in the history of the times. These are Pedro de Candia (see note, p. 193); Juan de la Torre (see note, p. 221); Nicholas de Ribera, who is mentioned as having deserted from Gonzalo Pizarro to Gasca, as having been afterwards appointed captain of the guard of the royal seal by the Royal Audience of Lima in 1554, and as having lived quietly on a repartimiento granted to him near Cuzco, and left children to inherit it; and Alonzo de Molina. When Pizarro finally left the desert island, and continued his voyage of discovery, he first touched at Tumbez, on the northern boundary of Peru, and then sailed some distance down the coast. Alonzo de Molina was sent on shore at one place, and, the sea running high, he was left there until the return of the ship. The natives treated him with great kindness, and when Pizarro’s ship came back, three more of the thirteen, Nicolas de Ribera, Francisco de Cuellar, and Pedro Alcon were sent ashore, the latter being very gaily dressed. This Alcon fell madly in love with an Indian lady at first sight, and was so furious at not being allowed to stay behind, that he drew his sword on his own shipmates, and the pilot Ruiz was obliged to knock him down with an oar. He was afterwards kept chained on the lower deck. When Pizarro finally sailed for Panama again, on his way to Spain, Alonzo de Molina was allowed to remain behind at Tumbez until the Spaniards should come back, the Indians promising to use him well. But he died before Pizarro returned, and the Indians gave various conflicting accounts of the manner of his death. Herrera, dec. iii, lib. iii, cap. 3, and lib. iv, cap. 1.

The most authentic and only complete list of the thirteen is given by Prescott, from a manuscript copy of “the Capitulation made by Pizarro with Queen Juana on July 26th, 1529,” which he obtained from Navarrete. The original is at Seville. In this document all those, among the thirteen, who were not already hidalgos, were created so.

Gomara gives the names of two, the pilot Ruiz, and Pedro de Candia. Zarate adds seven more, one of whom is not in the “Capitulation.” Garcilasso de la Vega copies from Zarate, but adds that there were two whose names were Ribera, and that he knew them both afterwards. There is only one in the “Capitulation.”

The list in the “Capitulation,” supplied by Pizarro himself, must of course have been the correct one: it is as follows:—

Bartolome Ruiz (the pilot).

Cristoval de Peralta.

Pedro de Candia.

Domingo de Soria Luce.

Nicolas de Ribera.

Francisco de Cuellar.

Alonzo de Molina.

Pedro Alcon.

Garcia de Jerez.

Anton de Carrion.

Alonzo Briceño.

Martin de Paz.

Juan de la Torre.

The name added by Zarate is that of Alonzo de Truxillo; but he may have been one of the two Alonzos of the “Capitulation;” Zarate giving his birth place of Truxillo, instead of his surname. Garcia de Jerez (or de Jaren), another of the thirteen, seems to have given evidence before a judge respecting this transaction in 1529, which has been preserved (Doc. Ined., tom. 26, p. 260), and is quoted by Mr. Helps (iii, p. 446, note). He says:—“Pizarro being in the island of Gallo, the governor Rios sent for the men who were with the said captain, allowing any one who should wish to prosecute the enterprise to remain with him.”

This story respecting Pizarro, who, when his people were suffering from the extremities of famine and hardship, and when a ship had arrived to take them back to Panama, drew a line, and called upon those who preferred toil and hunger to ease and pleasure, to cross it and remain with him, is certainly one of the most heart-stirring in the history of Spanish conquest in America. Robertson gives the story on the authority of Herrera, Zarate, Xerez, and Gomara. Prescott adds the speech imputed to Pizarro, from Montesinos, a very unreliable source; and Helps gives the account according to Herrera’s version, which no doubt is very near the truth. The conduct of these thirteen brave men shows the spirit which animated the Spaniards of that age, and the dauntless act itself, in its simple grandeur, certainly derives no additional glory from the melodramatic speeches which have been put into Pizarro’s mouth by later chroniclers.