Castile and governed by Pizarro, an entitle-
ment to which his partner Almagro would
later violently object. From the start of his
third and final expedition, Pizarro’s officially
sanctioned goal was nothing less than com-
plete possession of Peru.
THE FINAL EXPEDITION
When Pizarro sailed from Panama in Decem-
ber 1530, his expedition was comparatively
small. Only 180 men participated, including
his half-brothers Hernando, Gonzalo, and
Juan, and a cavalry company with 37 horses
commanded by Hernando de Soto (who later
led his own expedition to Florida). The force
landed in northern Ecuador and remained
there for nearly a year. When Pizarro finally
proceeded down the coast to Tumbes, he
found Peru dramatically changed from what
he had seen earlier.
Pizarro learned that Peru was near the end
of a bloody four-year civil war over leadership
of the Inca empire. When the emperor Huayno
Capac died in 1528, his sons Huascar and
Atahualpa had both claimed themselves to be
the rightful heir to the throne. Tens of thou-
sands of people died as Atahualpa’s forcesPizarro, Peru, and South America B 67
Hernando de Soto, who would later explore the present-day southeastern United States, served as Pizarro’s
cavalry captain on his expedition in present-day Peru. In this 1850s image de Soto displays his horsemanship
for the Inca.(Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-104369])