[Footnote 5: This singular instrument is given at length by Montesinos. (Annales, Ms., ano 1526.) It may be found in the original in Appendix, No. 6.] The instrument, which was dated March 10, 1526, was subscribed by Luque, and attested by three respectable citizens of Panama, one of whom signed on behalf of Pizarro, and the other for Almagro; since neither of these parties, according to the avowal of the instrument, was able to subscribe his own name. *6 [Footnote 6: For some investigation of the fact, which has been disputed by more than one, of Pizarro's ignorance of the art of writing, see Book 4, chap. 5, of this History.] Such was the singular compact by which three obscure individuals coolly carved out and partitioned among themselves, an empire of whose extent, power, and resources, of whose situation, of whose existence, even, they had no sure or precise knowledge. The positive and unhesitating manner in which they speak of the grandeur of this empire, of its stores of wealth, so conformable to the event, but of which they could have really known so little, forms a striking contrast with the general skepticism and indifference manifested by nearly every other person, high and low, in the community of Panama. *7 [Footnote 7: The epithet of loco or "madman" was punningly bestowed on Father Luque, for his spirited exertions in behalf of the enterprise; Padre Luque o loco, says Oviedo of him, as if it were synonymous. Historia de las Indias Islas e Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8 cap. 1.]