Here Pizarro lived like a great man. He had a fine house and a long train of Indian servants, and flocks, and fields, and was looked upon as a rich man and a brave soldier. But he was not quite satisfied. Often, as he walked in his broad fields, he would look toward the north, where lay the land of Montezuma, the land that Cortez had conquered, thus winning for himself lasting honor and glory, besides great wealth, greater than Pizarro could ever expect to gain in his quiet home in Panama. And then he sometimes looked southward, too, and wondered what lay there beyond the blue, misty horizon. It could not be possible, he thought, that Cortez and Balboa had made all the great discoveries; perhaps there were other lands away there in the south as rich and great as Mexico. Perhaps it might be his good fortune some day to discover an empire as boundless and wonderful as that of Montezuma. So he pondered, day after day, over what the future might bring, and always listened eagerly for tales of the lands to the southward, where lay the great ocean that Balboa had discovered. And one day a visitor came to his home, who told him just what he wanted to hear, that there _was_ a very great and powerful empire far south of Panama, and that with a good band of resolute soldiers, and a brave leader, it might be easily conquered. And as Pizarro listened he resolved that he would be the leader if he could only find men enough to follow him on his perilous undertaking. Very wonderful things did the traveller tell of this new country, for a very wonderful country it was, and as Pizarro heard the accounts of its wealth and prosperity, it seemed to him that the old stories of Cathay and the realms of Kublai Khan were actually true. And, indeed, this country that lay to the south, protected on one side by the ocean, and on the other by its giant, snow-capped mountains, was more like the old dreams of Cathay than any land that had yet been seen by the Europeans. The empire of Peru, like that of the Aztecs, had existed for hundreds and hundreds of years, and its ruler, the mighty Inca, like the great Montezuma, was a descendant of the Sun. He was therefore held in great reverence by his subjects, as a child of their great god. For the sun was the principal deity of the Peruvians. In his honor were built the most splendid temples that the world has ever seen. In Cuzco, the capital of Peru, was a temple of the sun that was so magnificent it was called the "Place of Gold." The walls were covered with solid plates of burnished gold, and on one side was the image of the sun, made of purest gold, its face glittering with diamonds and emeralds and rubies, and the long golden rays reaching from the ceiling to the floor.