'T is well known that the famous banner which Pizarro carried to the conquest of Peru has been the subject of many and varied versions of its history, founded on the existence of several pennons of apparently unquestionable authenticity which each historian cites in support of his own particular story.

Naturally, Gen. San Martín, his family, his friends, his biographers, and the historians of the extreme south were convinced that the victor of Chacabuco possessed during his lifetime and preserved until his death in Europe the conqueror's standard. This erroneous belief was discarded when don Ricardo Palma published data relative to the authentic gonfalon, with the arms of Charles V on one side, and on the other the Apostle St. James, the flag preserved in Cuzco in the ancient temple of the sun, converted by the conquistadores into a Catholic temple. Certainly the municipality of Lima presented to Gen. San Martín, by act of April 4, 1821, an ancient Spanish standard which the councilar body declared to be the standard of Pizarro. The protector did not doubt its authenticity, for in his farewell proclamation addressed to the Peruvians on the 20th of September, 1822, he said: "There is in my possession the standard which Pizarro brought to enslave the empire of the Incas." On this point it is that Gen. Héres, writing his Apuntamientos, in his austere style, says that Gen. San Martín laid aside the insignia of supreme power and relinquished them, assuring the people "that he was leaving Peru, taking with him what most honored him and excited his ambition, the banner which Pizarro had brought to Peru." And also on this point it is that Señor Vicuña has said that "much better than those rags (the uniform of the protector), he preserved with zealous veneration the standard of Pizarro, the only spoil of a relinquished reign."

In an additional clause to his will, dated, Paris, January 23, 1844, San Martín said: "It is my will that the standard which the brave Spaniard, Don Francisco Pizarro, bore in the conquest of Peru, be returned to that Republic." A son-in-law of the protector, Señor Balcarce, handed it over, in France, to Dr. Gálvez, Minister of Peru, who took it to his country.

But the fact is that in the same year (1844) the Argentinian, Señor Florencio Varela, saw the standard, and in a description which he gives of it says: "It was of silk, quadrilateral, and of a straw color that seemed to have been faded by time. It was about 11.84 feet.

1 English version of an article by Señor Eloy G. Gonzales, published in Actualidades (Caracas) of July 6, 1919.

The drawing represents one of the faces of the gonfalon with which the Spaniards under Pizarro made their entrance into Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incas, on the 16th of November, 1533. The banner was placed in the Temple of the Sun, afterwards converted into a Christian cathedral, and there preserved until the year 1824, when the authorities of Cuzco offered it to Marshall Sucre, victor of Ayacucho, who delivered it to the Liberator, Bolívar. The Liberator presented it to the city of Caracas which guards the precious relic in the Salon of the Municipal Council. The side shown in the drawing, made by the arabesques on the first field of the flag, represents the arms of Charles V, Emperor of Germany and King of Spain.

long and 6.36 feet wide. In the center there is a large shield, about the shape of the Spanish shield on the South American pesos, the border of the shield being red, the center turquoise blue." It was also seen by don Ricardo Palma, when they returned it to Peru, and he said that the shield was in a blue field with a red border, and that it did not have the arms of Spain, but those given to Lima in 1537— three royal crowns and a star. It was the same banner as the royal ensign, and by right of heredity was carried in the processions of Corpus Christi and Santa Rosa, at the entrance of the viceroys, proclamations of the sovereign, and other solemn occasions. "The people of Lima," explains Señor Palma, "mistakenly called this banner the standard of Pizarro, and accepted it without question as the war pennon brought by the Spaniards for the conquest. And as the error descended from generation to generation without contradiction. it finally became traditional and historical."

As has been said, the real standard of Pizarro was in Cuzco, in the temple with other flags of the conquest. When Gen. Sucre entered that city on the 25th of December, 1824, there were given over to him by reason of the terms of the surrender of Ayacucho, "the public buildings, archives, war material, flags, and ancient standards, everything that belonged to the government of the colony." From among those flags the marshal took the standard of Pizarro to send it as a special gift to the liberator and thus he told him in a letter of December 30th of the same year, 1824: "I present you with the flag that Pizarro brought to Cuzco 300 years ago; it is only a tattered remnant, but it has the virtue of being the conqueror of Peru. I believe that it will be a trophy worthy of your appreciation." The liberator chose to present the trophy to the municipality of Caracas, and on the 9th of January, 1826, Gen. Soublette, minister of war, addressed that body in the following words: "I have the honor to be the instrument of the Government in presenting the royal standard of Castile, which the Colombian army defeated in Peru under the leadership of his excellency, the liberator president." The municipality received the standard on the 26th of February, and voted to exhibited it to the public of Caracas on the first anniversary of the 19th of April.

By that time, of the two faces of the large arabesques which formed. the standard, only the one which contained the arms of Charles V was visible, because the other was covered with white satin in a bad state of deterioration. It is the same side that is seen in the frame on the west wall of the council chamber next to the one of the signing of the act of independence. It shows great arabesques of the fifteenth century, 1.27 meters by 1.15 meters, of yellow and white satin touched with blue and embroidered with gold thread; in the center in a circle of 0.80 meter diameter are the arms of Charles V, of the year 1533;

THE OTHER FIELD OF THE STANDARD OF PIZARRO.

The face of the standard, reproduced in the above drawing, which figured in the conquest of Peru, is 30 centimeters in diameter, and the painting and embroidery represents a warrior mounted on a handsome white horse, running at a gallop, and covered with rich trappings and mail. The knight wears on his head a helmet crowned with plumes; his mantle floats free to the wind; a red cross, that of Santiago, shows on the coat of mail which covers his breast; and he bears in his right hand a sword. The field represents a wide plain, on which are shrubs and plants, helmets and implements of war.

the shield of Castile-two lions, two castles, and the imperial diadem-flanked by two eagle heads, crowned. To-day only the two lions, one castle, and one of the eagle crowns remain. But to establish the authenticity of the standard of Pizarro it was necessary to find on the banner received by the municipality of Caracas the image. of St. James. The council agreed to keep the flag, and it remained in the same state for 15 years until again exhibited in the civic procession of July 5, 1841, and the following year, when the ashes of the liberator were brought to Caracas it was placed at the foot of the mausoleum which contained them. The council resolved to place the banner in a case under glass, to preserve it from souvenir hunters, foreign and Venezuelan, who all wanted to carry away fragments of it. When the standard was prepared to be encased in the center of the posterior arabesque, under the "tatters" of which the marshal spoke, there appeared, in painting and relief, the image of the saintly protector of Spain. This is the same face which is now in the other case, beside the first in the municipal chamber. It represents, in the same proportions as the arms of Charles V, a "warrior mounted on a handsome white horse, running at a galop, and covered with rich trappings and mail. The knight wears on his head a helmet crowned with plumes, his mantle floats free to the wind, a red cross, that of St. James, shows on the coat of mail which covers his breast, and he bears in his right hand a sword, and on the field are seen shrubs, tropical plants, helmets, and implements of war." It is the same knight who appeared in the midst of the hectacombs of the Aztecs and Spaniards; the same who appeared, white and shining, in the valleys of Popayan and Cali, when Francisco César was overwhelmed by a formidable Indian army; and the same Viracocha which struck fear into the hosts of Manco Inca during the seige and taking of Cuzco.

To-day experts no longer discuss the authenticity of the standard in the halls of the council chamber of Caracas; but what was not widely known until recently was that a minute account was written about the standard in 1578, under the title "Royal Standard of Potosí," by a chronicler from Potosí named don Bartolomé Martínez Vela; and according to what don Eduardo Posada says in his recent book "Notes on Colombian History" it appears from this ancient chronicle, 400 years old, that the banner to-day preserved by the municipality of Caracas "was at the Taking of Granada, on the 6th of January, 1492, and was then brought by Columbus to America on his first voyage; that it afterward was present at the conquest of Mexico, and from there went to Honduras until it reached the city of Nombre de Dios, where Pizarro took it for the conquest of Peru."

All praise to the prudence and honor of the notable academician from Colombia.