This catastrophe has been quoted with unlimited admiration, and the martyrs have received all due posthumous honour; but if we look at the circumstances from any point of view save that of a fanatic, our admiration must be considerably qualified. Azevedo and his companions were doubtless brave men; but they had been educated and sent out from their country with the express purpose of converting the heathen; and it was surely not their duty in any sense wantonly and recklessly to go out of their way to seek premature death. If the crown of martyrdom was so dear to them--if, in the language of certain writers, they were swallowed up by other-worldliness--the prize might surely have been gained more honourably amongst the savages of _Brazil_ than at the hands of French corsairs. Of the eight-and-thirty foolhardy men whose blood so uselessly stained the waters of _Palma_, one might have proved a second Nobrega. To an unprejudiced person it seems that, so far from acting for “_the greater glory of God_” by provoking wholesale massacre, they were deliberately doing the contrary, since they were thus cutting themselves off from a sphere of vast usefulness. Nor can we greatly blame the commander of the French squadron for his conduct on the occasion. It was but one scene in a fierce religious war, in which the priests, not the Huguenots, were the aggressors.
Vasconcellos set sail with the remainder of his fleet. When, after a long and miserable voyage, he sighted the coast of _Brazil_, his vessels were driven far to the north and were dispersed. At length his followers were so reduced in numbers that one vessel might contain them all; yet not even this one vessel was destined to reach its destination in safety. It was attacked by a French squadron, and, after a hopeless resistance, the governor fell; whilst fourteen remaining Jesuits shared the fate of the martyrs of _Palma_. Of sixty-nine Jesuit missionaries who had set out with Azevedo, one alone reached _Brazil_.
The conspirators who had assassinated Pizarro succeeded in securing possession of _Lima_, and their next step was at once to send to the different cities proclaiming the revolution and claiming the recognition of the son of Almagro as governor of _Peru_. At _Truxillo_ and _Arequipa_, where it was emphasized by the presence of a military force, the summons was obeyed; but in other cities it was received with merely nominal assent, whilst in some it was disregarded. At _Cuzco_, where the Almagro faction prevailed, the dissenting magistrates were summarily ejected from office; but they were soon after reinstated by means of a neighbouring military force commanded by one of Pizarro’s captains. The conspirators had most to dread from the Licentiate Vaca de Castro, whose commission to assume the post of governor in case of the death of Pizarro had now come into force. De Castro was still in the north, but on being advised of Pizarro’s death he quickened his steps southwards. He was in a difficult position, having a very imperfect acquaintance with the political state of the country, and he was neither a soldier himself nor supported by a military force. He was, however, a man of courage, and had confidence in his own resources, besides relying on the habitual loyalty of Spaniards to the crown.