Biogrophy

= This is information about my explore's life. =

Pizarro was born in the town of [|Trujillo], in modern day [|Extremadura], [|Spain]. Sources differ in the birth year they assign to him: 1471, 1475–1478, or unknown. He was an [|illegitimate] son of Gonzalo Pizarro Rodríguez de Aguilar (senior) (1446–1522) who as [|colonel] of [|infantry] served in the [|Italian campaigns] under [|Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba], and in [|Navarre], with some distinction. His mother was Francisca González Mateos, a woman of slender means from Trujillo, daughter of Juan Mateos, of the family called //Los Roperos//, and wife María Alonso, //labradores pecheros// from Trujillo. His mother married late in life and had a son Francisco Martín de Alcántara, married to Inés Muñoz, who from the beginning was at the conquest of Peru, where he then lived, always at his brother's side, who held him always as one of his most trusted men.[|[1]] Through his father, Francisco was second cousin once removed to [|Hernán Cortés], the famed //conquistador// of the [|Aztec Empire].[|[2]]On 13 February 1502, Pizarro sailed from Spain with the newly appointed Governor of Hispaniola, [|Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres], on a fleet of 30 ships. It was the largest fleet that had ever sailed to the [|New World]. The 30 ships carried 2,500 colonists In 1513, Pizarro accompanied [|Vasco Núñez de Balboa] in his crossing of the [|Isthmus of Panama] and they became the first Europeans to view the [|Pacific] coast of the New World. The following year, in 1514, [|Pedro Arias de Avila] (Pedrarias) became the newly appointed governor of [|Castilla de Oro] and succeeded Balboa. During the next five years, Pizarro became a close associate of Pedrarias Dávila and the governor assigned him a //[|repartimiento]// of natives and cattle. When Pedrarias Dávila decided to get rid of Balboa out of distrust, he instructed Pizarro to personally arrest him and bring him to stand trial. Balboa was duly convicted and beheaded in January of 1519. For his loyalty to Pedrarias Dávila, Pizarro was bestowed the important political position of mayor ([|Alcalde]) and magistrate of the then recently founded [|Panama City] from 1519 to 1523. The first attempt to explore western South America was undertaken in 1522 by [|Pascual de Andagoya]. The native South Americans he encountered told him about a gold-rich territory called Virú, which was on a river called Pirú (later corrupted to Perú) and from which they came. These reports were related by the Spanish-Inca //[|mestizo]// writer [|Garcilaso de la Vega] in his famous //Comentarios Reales de los Incas// (1609). Andagoya eventually established contact with several Native American //curacas// (chiefs), some of whom he later claimed were sorcerers and witches. Having reached as far as the San Juan River (part of the present boundary between [|Ecuador] and [|Colombia]), Andagoya fell very ill and decided to return. Back in [|Panama], he spread the news and stories about "Pirú" – a great land to the south rich with gold (the legendary [|El Dorado]). These revelations, along with the accounts of success of Hernán Cortés in [|Mexico] years before, caught the immediate attention of Pizarro, prompting a new series of expeditions to the south in search of the riches of the [|Incan Empire]. In 1524, while still in Panama, Pizarro formed a partnership with a priest, [|Hernando de Luque], and a soldier, [|Diego de Almagro], to explore and conquer the South. Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque later renewed their compact more explicitly, agreeing to conquer and divide equally among themselves the opulent empire they hoped to discover. While historians agree their accord was strictly verbal (no written document exists to prove otherwise), they are known to have dubbed their enterprise the //"Empresa del Levante"// and determined that Pizarro would command the expedition, Almagro would provide the military and food supplies, and Luque would be in charge of finances and any additional provisions they might need.