Pizarro Sails from Panama

1531

Francisco Pizarro set out from Panama with one hundred and eighty men, twenty-seven horses, and a license from Charles V to conquer an Andean kingdom whose name he could barely pronounce. The governor of Panama thought him a fool. Within three years he would be master of Cuzco. He carried the lessons of Cortes's conquest, including the crucial tactic of seizing the indigenous ruler as hostage.