Francisco Pizarro was born in 1478 in Spain to an unmarried father who was a royal infantry captain. As a child, he herded pigs and lived with his father's brother, receiving little formal education. His early experiences included serving as first mate on an expedition led by Balboa that explored Panama in search of the rumored Inca Empire, finding gold but not the Incas. Pizarro later went to the king and queen of Spain to report his findings, and received funding for a return expedition to continue searching for the Incas, which led to his brutal conquest of the Inca Empire through ambush, warfare, and theft of their treasures.