He would then salute the documents by kissing the King's signature
and by laying the paper on his head.
Many of these Viceroys were notably honourable men, who refrained from
taking a greater share than was necessary in the financial arrangements
of the New World. At the same time, the opportunities for
self-enrichment during the five years' tenure of office were quite
unusually numerous. Not a few of the occupants of this post took
advantage of these, and the extravagant manner of their subsequent life
in Spain upheld to the full the popular tales which were current
concerning the fabulous wealth of the Americas.
To go back to the early days of Peru, the inception of this colony, as
has been said, was attended by even more violent disturbances than those
common to its neighbours. We have already seen how, each the victim of
strenuous jealousies, Almagro was executed at the instance of Pizarro,
and how Pizarro himself a few years later was assassinated by the
adherents of the dead Almagro's party, who now succeeded in raising to
power his son, the younger Almagro.
This, however, by no means ended the era of catastrophe and chaos into
which the great but youthful colony of Peru was now plunged.
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