[Sidenote: A MOMENTOUS DECISION.] Fearful lest the men might seize the remaining ship, Pizarro despatched it also to Panamá for recruits, leaving himself with only eighty-five men. But the missile projected by the verse-maker struck home. The governor was indignant that the king's subjects should be held in continued jeopardy of their lives by their unprincipled leaders, ordered the expedition stopped, and sent the licentiate Tafur with two ships to bring the wanderers home. Father Luque, however, wrote to Pizarro not to abandon the enterprise. The arrival of Tafur at the island places Pizarro in a most trying position. And we can almost forget the hideousness of the man's nature, which assumes yet darker deformity as we proceed, when he rises under the inspiration of his energy in defiance of destiny. The very impudence of his obstinacy commands our admiration. What is the situation? Here stands a single Spaniard. Yonder are the organized armies of Peru with their tens of thousands of fighting men. The rupture between the ruling powers, preliminary to yet more dire convulsions, has not yet occurred. Humanly regarded it as insensate folly for Pizarro to dream of seizing this powerful realm, or any part of it, with his handful of vagabonds as would be his attempt to drink the ocean dry, or to pocket Parnassus. Yet what shall we say in view of the result? And sure I am it is no upright deity that aids him. When Tafur landed and told the men to get on board the ships, Pizarro cried "Stop!" Drawing his sword he marked a line from west to east. Then pointing toward the south he said: "Countrymen and comrades! Yonder lurk hunger, hardships, and death; but for those who win, fame and wealth untold. This way is Panamá, with ease, poverty, and disgrace. Let each man choose for himself. As for me, sooner will I hang my body from some sun-smitten cliff for vultures to feed on, than turn my back to the glories God has here revealed to me!" Thus saying he stepped across the line, and bade those who would to follow. The pilot Ruiz was the first; then Pedro de Candia; and finally eleven others. All the rest went back with Tafur to Panamá. Ruiz was ordered to accompany him and lend the associates his assistance. Pizarro then crossed his army of twelve on a raft to the small island of Gorgona, at a safer distance from the main shore, and there awaited Almagro. Alone, anchored on a cloud-curtained sea, near a fearfully fascinating shore, they waited five months. * * * * *