12 ITALIAN WARS. PART sail, large and small, and carried forces amounting II. . . - — — — to six hundred horse and four thousand foot, picked men, many of them drawn from the hardy regions of the north, which had been taxed least severely in the Moorish wars. *^ Fleet fitted The command of the whole was intrusted to the euc under cordota? ^ Great Captain, Gonsalvo of Cordova, who since his return home had fully sustained the high reputation, which his brilliant military talents had acquired for him abroad. Numerous volunteers, comprehending the noblest of the young chivalry of Spain, pressed forward to serve under the banner of this accom- plished and popular chieftain. Among them may be particularly noticed, Diego de Mendoza, son of the grand cardinal, Pedro de la Paz,^^ Gonzalo Pizarro, father of the celebrated adventurer of Peru, and Diego de Paredes, whose personal prowess and feats of extravagant daring furnished many an in- credible legend for chronicle and romance. With this gallant armament the Great Captain weighed anchor in the port of Malaga, in May, 1500, design- ing to touch at Sicily before proceeding against the Turks. '^ '4 Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, torn, mounted, he seemed almost lost in iii. lib. 5, p. 324. — Ulloa, Vita et the high demipeak war-saddle then Fatti deir Invitissimo Imperatore in vogue ; which led a wag, ac- Carlo V.,(Venetia, 1606,) fol. 2. — cording to Brantome, when asked Mariana, Hist, de Espafia, torn. ii. if he had seen Don Pedro de Paz lib. 27, cap. 7. — Giovio, Vits II- pass that way, to answer, that "he lust. Virorum, torn. i. p. 226. — had seen his horse and saddle, but Zurita, Hist, del Rey Hernando, no rider." CEuvres, torn. i. disc. 9. torn. i. lib. 4, cap. 11. — Abarca, ^6 Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, Reyes de Aragon, torn. ii. rey 30, tom. viii. p. 217. — Bernaldez, cap. 10, sec. 13. Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 161. 15 This cavalier, one of the most — Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. valiant captains in the army, was lib. 19, cap. 9. so diminutive in size, that, when
