The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

W >> William H. Prescott >> The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70

[Footnote 14: Ibid., ubi supra. - Relacion del Primer. Descub.,
Ms. - Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ubi supra.]

At this crisis reports were brought to Pizarro of a light having
been seen through a distant opening in the woods. He hailed the
tidings with eagerness, as intimating the existence of some
settlement in the neighbourhood; and, putting himself at the head
of a small party, went in the direction pointed out, to
reconnoitre. He was not disappointed, and, after extricating
himself from a dense wilderness of underbrush and foliage, he
emerged into an open space, where a small Indian village was
planted. The timid inhabitants, on the sudden apparition of the
strangers, quitted their huts in dismay; and the famished
Spaniards, rushing in, eagerly made themselves masters of their
contents. These consisted of different articles of food, chiefly
maize and cocoanuts. The supply, though small, was too
seasonable not to fill them with rapture.

The astonished natives made no attempt at resistance. But,
gathering more confidence as no violence was offered to their
persons, they drew nearer the white men, and inquired, "Why they
did not stay at home and till their own lands, instead of roaming
about to rob others who had never harmed them?" *15 Whatever may
have been their opinion as to the question of right, the
Spaniards, no doubt, felt then that it would have been wiser to
do so. But the savages wore about their persons gold ornaments of
some size, though of clumsy workmanship. This furnished the best
reply to their demand. It was the golden bait which lured the
Spanish adventurer to forsake his pleasant home for the trials of
the wilderness. From the Indians Pizarro gathered a confirmation
of the reports he had so often received of a rich country lying
farther south; and at the distance of ten days' journey across
the mountains, they told him, there dwelt a mighty monarch whose
dominions had been invaded by another still more powerful, the
Child of the Sun. *16 It may have been the invasion of Quito that
was meant, by the valiant Inca Huayna Capac, which took place
some years previous to Pizarro's expedition.

[Footnote 15: "Porque decian a los Castellanos, que por que no
sembraban. i cogian, sin andar tomando los Bastimentos agenos,
pasando tantos trabajos?" Herrera, Hist. General, loc. cit.]

[Footnote 16: "Dioles noticia el viejo por medio del lengua, como
diez soles de alli habia un Rey muy poderoso yendo por espesas
montanas, y que otro mas poderoso hijo del sol habia venido de
milagro a quitarle el Reino sobre que tenian mui sangrientas
batallas." (Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1525.) The conquest of
Quito by Huayna Capac took place more than thirty years before
this period in our history. But the particulars of this
revolution, its time or precise theatre, were, probably, but very
vaguely comprehended by the rude nations in the neighbourhood of
Panama: and their allusion to it in an unknown dialect was as
little comprehended by the Spanish voyagers, who must have
collected their information from signs much more than words.]
At length, after the expiration of more than six weeks, the
Spaniards beheld with delight the return of the wandering bark
that had borne away their comrades, and Montenegro sailed into
port with an ample supply of provisions for his famishing
countrymen. Great was his horror at the aspect presented by the
latter, their wild and haggard countenances and wasted frames, -
so wasted by hunger and disease, that their old companions found
it difficult to recognize them. Montenegro accounted for his
delay by incessant head winds and bad weather; and he himself had
also a doleful tale to tell of the distress to which he and his
crew had been reduced by hunger, on their passage to the Isle of
Pearls. - It is minute incidents like these with which we have
been occupied, that enable one to comprehend the extremity of
suffering to which the Spanish adventurer was subjected in the
prosecution of his great work of discovery.

Revived by the substantial nourishment to which they had so long
been strangers, the Spanish cavaliers, with the buoyancy that
belongs to men of a hazardous and roving life, forgot their past
distresses in their eagerness to prosecute their enterprise.
Reembarking therefore on board his vessel, Pizarro bade adieu to
the scene of so much suffering, which he branded with the
appropriate name of Puerto de la Hambre, the Port of Famine, and
again opened his sails to a favorable breeze that bore him
onwards towards the south.

Had he struck boldly out into the deep, instead of hugging the
inhospitable shore, where he had hitherto found so little to
recompense him, he might have spared himself the repetition of
wearisome and unprofitable adventures, and reached by a shorter
route the point of his destination. But the Spanish mariner
groped his way along these unknown coasts, landing at every
convenient headland, as if fearful lest some fruitful region or
precious mine might be overlooked, should a single break occur in
the line of survey. Yet it should be remembered, that, though
the true point of Pizarro's destination is obvious to us,
familiar with the topography of these countries, he was wandering
in the dark, feeling his way along, inch by inch, as it were,
without chart to guide him, without knowledge of the seas or of
the bearings of the coast, and even with no better defined idea
of the object at which he aimed than that of a land, teeming with
gold, that lay somewhere at the south! It was a hunt after an El
Dorado; on information scarcely more circumstantial or authentic
than that which furnished the basis of so many chimerical
enterprises in this land of wonders. Success only, the best
argument with the multitude, redeemed the expeditions of Pizarro
from a similar imputation of extravagance.

Holding on his southerly course under the lee of the shore,
Pizarro, after a short run, found himself abreast of an open
reach of country, or at least one less encumbered with wood,
which rose by a gradual swell, as it receded from the coast. He
landed with a small body of men, and, advancing a short distance
into the interior, fell in with an Indian hamlet. It was
abandoned by the inhabitants, who, on the approach of the
invaders, had betaken themselves to the mountains; and the
Spaniards, entering their deserted dwellings, found there a good
store of maize and other articles of food, and rude ornaments of
gold of considerable value. Food was not more necessary for
their bodies than was the sight of gold, from time to time, to
stimulate their appetite for adventure. One spectacle, however,
chilled their blood with horror. This was the sight of human
flesh, which they found roasting before the fire, as the
barbarians had left it, preparatory to their obscene repast. The
Spaniards, conceiving that they had fallen in with a tribe of
Caribs, the only race in that part of the New World known to be
cannibals, retreated precipitately to their vessel. *17 They were
not steeled by sad familiarity with the spectacle, like the
Conquerors of Mexico.

[Footnote 17: "I en las Ollas de la comida, que estaban al Fuego,
entre la Carne, que sacaban, havia Pies i Manos de Hombres, de
donde conocieron, que aquellos Indios eran Caribes." Herrera,
Hist. General dec. 3, lib. 8, cap. 11.]

The weather, which had been favorable, new set in tempestuous,
with heavy squalls, accompanied by incessant thunder and
lightning, and the rain, as usual in these tropical tempests,
descended not so much in drops as in unbroken sheets of water.
The Spaniards, however, preferred to take their chance on the
raging element rather than remain in the scene of such brutal
abominations. But the fury of the storm gradually subsided, and
the little vessel held on her way along the coast, till, coming
abreast of a bold point of land named by Pizarro Punta Quemada,
he gave orders to anchor. The margin of the shore was fringed
with a deep belt of mangrove-trees, the long roots of which,
interlacing one another, formed a kind of submarine lattice-work
that made the place difficult of approach. Several avenues,
opening through this tangled thicket, led Pizarro to conclude
that the country must be inhabited, and he disembarked, with the
greater part of his force, to explore the interior.

He had not penetrated more than a league, when he found his
conjecture verified by the sight of an Indian town of larger size
than those he had hitherto seen, occupying the brow of an
eminence, and well defended by palisades. The inhabitants, as
usual, had fled; but left in their dwellings a good supply of
provisions and some gold trinkets, which the Spaniards made no
difficulty of appropriating to themselves. Pizarro's flimsy bark
had been strained by the heavy gales it had of late encountered,
so that it was unsafe to prosecute the voyage further without
more thorough repairs than could be given to her on this desolate
coast. He accordingly determined to send her back with a few
hands to be careened at Panama, and meanwhile to establish his
quarters in his present position, which was so favorable for
defence. But first he despatched a small party under Montenegro
to reconnoitre the country, and, if possible, to open a
communication with the natives.
The latter were a warlike race. They had left their habitations
in order to place their wives and children in safety. But they
had kept an eye on the movements of the invaders, and, when they
saw their forces divided, they resolved to fall upon each body
singly before it could communicate with the other. So soon,
therefore, as Montenegro had penetrated through the defiles of
the lofty hills, which shoot out like spurs of the Cordilleras
along this part of the coast, the Indian warriors, springing from
their ambush, sent off a cloud of arrows and other missiles that
darkened the air, while they made the forest ring with their
shrill war-whoop. The Spaniards, astonished at the appearance of
the savages, with their naked bodies gaudily painted, and
brandishing their weapons as they glanced among the trees and
straggling underbrush that choked up the defile, were taken by
surprise and thrown for a moment into disarray. Three of their
number were killed and several wounded. Yet, speedily rallying,
they returned the discharge of the assailants with their
cross-bows, - for Pizarro's troops do not seem to have been
provided with muskets on this expedition, - and then gallantly
charging the enemy, sword in hand, succeeded in driving them back
into the fastnesses of the mountains. But it only led them to
shift their operations to another quarter, and make an assault on
Pizarro before he could be relieved by his lieutenant.

Availing themselves of their superior knowledge of the passes,
they reached that commander's quarters long before Montenegro,
who had commenced a countermarch in the same direction. And
issuing from the woods, the bold savages saluted the Spanish
garrison with a tempest of darts and arrows, some of which found
their way through the joints of the harness and the quilted mail
of the cavaliers. But Pizarro was too well practised a soldier
to be off his guard. Calling his men about him, he resolved not
to abide the assault tamely in the works, but to sally out, and
meet the enemy on their own ground. The barbarians, who had
advanced near the defences, fell back as the Spaniards burst
forth with their valiant leader at their head. But, soon
returning with admirable ferocity to the charge, they singled out
Pizarro, whom, by his bold bearing and air of authority, they
easily recognized as the chief; and, hurling at him a storm of
missiles, wounded him, in spite of his armour, in no less than
seven places. *18

[Footnote 18: Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms. - Xerez, Conq. del
Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 180. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru,
lib. 1, cap. 1. - Balboa, Hist. du Perou, chap. 15.]

Driven back by the fury of the assault directed against his own
person, the Spanish commander retreated down the slope of the
hill, still defending himself as he could with sword and buckler,
when his foot slipped and he fell. The enemy set up a fierce
yell of triumph, and some of the boldest sprang forward to
despatch him. But Pizarro was on his feet in an instant, and,
striking down two of the foremost with his strong arm, held the
rest at bay till his soldiers could come to the rescue. The
barbarians, struck with admiration at his valor, began to falter,
when Montenegro luckily coming on the ground at the moment, and
falling on their rear, completed their confusion; and, abandoning
the field, they made the best of their way into the recesses of
the mountains. The ground was covered with their slain; but the
victory was dearly purchased by the death of two more Spaniards
and a long list of wounded.

A council of war was then called. The position had lost its
charm in the eyes of the Spaniards, who had met here with the
first resistance they had yet experienced on their expedition.
It was necessary to place the wounded in some secure spot, where
their injuries could be attended to. Yet it was not safe to
proceed farther, in the crippled state of their vessel. On the
whole, it was decided to return and report their proceedings to
the governor; and, though the magnificent hopes of the
adventurers had not been realized, Pizarro trusted that enough
had been done to vindicate the importance of the enterprise, and
to secure the countenance of Pedrarias for the further
prosecution of it. *19

[Footnote 19: Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 3, lib. 8, cap. 11. -
Xerez, ubi supra.]

Yet Pizarro could not make up his mind to present himself, in the
present state of the undertaking, before the governor. He
determined, therefore, to be set on shore with the principal part
of his company at Chicama, a place on the main land, at a short
distance west of Panama. From this place, which he reached
without any further accident, he despatched the vessel, and in it
his treasurer, Nicolas de Ribera, with the gold he had collected,
and with instructions to lay before the governor a full account
of his discoveries, and the result of the expedition.

While these events were passing, Pizarro's associate, Almagro,
had been busily employed in fitting out another vessel for the
expedition at the port of Panama. It was not till long after his
friend's departure that he was prepared to follow him. With the
assistance of Luque, he at length succeeded in equipping a small
caravel and embarking a body of between sixty and seventy
adventurers, mostly of the lowest order of the colonists. He
steered in the track of his comrade, with the intention of
overtaking him as soon as possible. By a signal previously
concerted of notching the trees, he was able to identify the
spots visited by Pizarro, - Puerto de Pinas, Puerto de la Hambre,
Pueblo Quemado, - touching successively at every point of the
coast explored by his countrymen, though in a much shorter time.
At the last-mentioned place he was received by the fierce natives
with the same hostile demonstrations as Pizarro, though in the
present encounter the Indians did not venture beyond their
defences. But the hot blood of Almagro was so exasperated by
this check, that he assaulted the place and carried it sword in
hand, setting fire to the outworks and dwellings, and driving the
wretched inhabitants into the forests.

His victory cost him dear. A wound from a javelin on the head
caused an inflammation in one of his eyes, which, after great
anguish, ended in the loss of it. Yet the intrepid adventurer
did not hesitate to pursue his voyage, and, after touching at
several places on the coast, some of which rewarded him with a
considerable booty in gold, he reached the mouth of the Rio de
San Juan, about the fourth degree of north latitude. He was
struck with the beauty of the stream, and with the cultivation on
its borders, which were sprinkled with Indian cottages showing
some skill in their construction, and altogether intimating a
higher civilization than any thing he had yet seen.

Still his mind was filled with anxiety for the fate of Pizarro
and his followers. No trace of them had been found on the coast
for a long time, and it was evident they must have foundered at
sea, or made their way back to Panama. This last he deemed most
probable; as the vessel might have passed him unnoticed under the
cover of the night, or of the dense fogs that sometimes hang over
the coast.

Impressed with this belief, he felt no heart to continue his
voyage of discovery, for which, indeed, his single bark, with its
small complement of men, was altogether inadequate. He proposed,
therefore, to return without delay. On his way, he touched at
the Isle of Pearls, and there learned the result of his friend's
expedition, and the place of his present residence. Directing his
course, at once, to Chicama, the two cavaliers soon had the
satisfaction of embracing each other, and recounting their
several exploits and escapes. Almagro returned even better
freighted with gold than his confederate, and at every step of
his progress he had collected fresh confirmation of the existence
of some great and opulent empire in the South. The confidence of
the two friends was much strengthened by their discoveries; and
they unhesitatingly pledged themselves to one another to die
rather than abandon the enterprise. *20

[Footnote 20: Xerez, ubi supra. - Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms.
- Zarate, Conq. del Peru, loc. cit. - Balboa, Hist. du Perou,
chap. 15. - Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms. - Herrera, Hist.
General, dec. 3, lib. 8, cap. 13. - Levinus Apollonius, fol. 12.
- Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. 108.]

The best means of obtaining the levies requisite for so
formidable an undertaking - more formidable, as it now appeared
to them, than before - were made the subject of long and serious
discussion. It was at length decided that Pizarro should remain
in his present quarters, inconvenient and even unwholesome as
they were rendered by the humidity of the climate, and the
pestilent swarms of insects that filled the atmosphere. Almagro
would pass over to Panama, lay the case before the governor, and
secure, if possible, his good-will towards the prosecution of the
enterprise. If no obstacle were thrown in their way from this
quarter, they might hope, with the assistance of Luque, to raise
the necessary supplies; while the results of the recent
expedition were sufficiently encouraging to draw adventurers to
their standard in a community which had a craving for excitement
that gave even danger a charm, and which held life cheap in
comparison with gold.

Chapter III

The Famous Contract. - Second Expedition. - Ruiz Explores The
Coast. - Pizarro's Sufferings In The Forests. - Arrival Of New
Recruits. - Fresh Discoveries And Disasters. - Pizarro On The
Isle Of Gallo.

1526-1527.

On his arrival at Panama, Almagro found that events had taken a
turn less favorable to his views than he had anticipated.
Pedrarias, the governor, was preparing to lead an expedition in
person against a rebellious officer in Nicaragua; and his temper,
naturally not the most amiable, was still further soured by this
defection of his lieutenant, and the necessity it imposed on him
of a long and perilous march. When, therefore, Almagro appeared
before him with the request that he might be permitted to raise
further levies to prosecute his enterprise, the governor received
him with obvious dissatisfaction, listened coldly to the
narrative of his losses, turned an incredulous ear to his
magnificent promises for the future, and bluntly demanded an
account of the lives, which had been sacrificed by Pizarro's
obstinacy, but which, had they been spared, might have stood him
in good stead in his present expedition to Nicaragua. He
positively declined to countenance the rash schemes of the two
adventurers any longer, and the conquest of Peru would have been
crushed in the bud, but for the efficient interposition of the
remaining associate, Fernando de Luque.

This sagacious ecclesiastic had received a very different
impression from Almagro's narrative, from that which had been
made on the mind of the irritable governor. The actual results
of the enterprise in gold and silver, thus far, indeed, had been
small, - forming a mortifying contrast to the magnitude of their
expectations. But, in another point of view, they were of the
last importance; since the intelligence which the adventurers had
gained in every successive stage of their progress confirmed, in
the strongest manner, the previous accounts, received from
Andagoya and others, of a rich Indian empire at the south, which
might repay the trouble of conquering it as well as Mexico had
repaid the enterprise of Cortes. Fully entering, therefore, into
the feelings of his military associates, he used all his
influence with the governor to incline him to a more favorable
view of Almagro's petition; and no one in the little community of
Panama exercised greater influence over the councils of the
executive than Father Luque, for which he was indebted no less to
his discretion and acknowledged sagacity than to his professional
station.

But while Pedrarias, overcome by the arguments or importunity of
the churchman, yielded a reluctant assent to the application, he
took care to testify his displeasure with Pizarro, on whom he
particularly charged the loss of his followers, by naming Almagro
as his equal in command in the proposed expedition. This
mortification sunk deep into Pizarro's mind. He suspected his
comrade, with what reason does not appear, of soliciting this
boon from the governor. A temporary coldness arose between them,
which subsided, in outward show, at least, on Pizarro's
reflecting that it was better to have this authority conferred on
a friend than on a stranger, perhaps an enemy. But the seeds of
permanent distrust were left in his bosom, and lay waiting for
the due season to ripen into a fruitful harvest of discord. *1

[Footnote 1: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 180.
- Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1526. - Herrera, Hist. General,
dec. 3 lib. 8, cap. 12.]

Pedrarias had been originally interested in the enterprise, at
least, so far as to stipulate for a share of the gains, though he
had not contributed, as it appears, a single ducat towards the
expenses. He was at length, however, induced to relinquish all
right to a share of the contingent profits. But, in his manner
of doing so, he showed a mercenary spirit, better becoming a
petty trader than a high officer of the Crown. He stipulated
that the associates should secure to him the sum of one thousand
pesos de oro in requital of his goodwill, and they eagerly closed
with his proposal, rather than be encumbered with his
pretensions. For so paltry a consideration did he resign his
portion of the rich spoil of the Incas! *2 But the governor was
not gifted with the eye of a prophet. His avarice was of that
short-sighted kind which defeats itself. He had sacrificed the
chivalrous Balboa just as that officer was opening to him the
conquest of Peru, and he would now have quenched the spirit of
enterprise, that was taking the same direction, in Pizarro and
his associates.

[Footnote 2: Such is Oviedo's account, who was present at the
interview between the governor and Almagro, when the terms of
compensation were discussed. The dialogue, which is amusing
enough, and well told by the old Chronicler, may be found
translated in Appendix, No. 5. Another version of the affair is
given in the Relacion, often quoted by me, of one of the Peruvian
conquerors, in which Pedrarias is said to have gone out of the
partnership voluntarily, from his disgust at the unpromising
state of affairs. "Vueltos con la dicha gente a Panama,
destrozados y gastados que ya no tenian haciendas para tornar con
provisiones y gentes que todo lo habian gastado, el dicho
Pedrarias de Avila les dijo, que ya el no queria mas hacer
compania con ellos en los gastos de la armada, que si ellos
querian volver a su costa, que lo hiciesen; y ansi como gente que
habia perdido todo lo que tenia y tanto habia trabajado,
acordaron de tornar a proseguir su jornada y dar fin a las vidas
y haciendas que les quedaba, o descubrir aquella tierra, y
ciertamente ellos tubieron grande constancia y animo." Relacion
del Primer. Descub., Ms.]

Not long after this, in the following year, he was succeeded in
his government by Don Pedro de los Rios, a cavalier of Cordova.
It was the policy of the Castilian Crown to allow no one of the
great colonial officers to occupy the same station so long as to
render himself formidable by his authority. *3 It had, moreover,
many particular causes of disgust with Pedrarias. The
functionary they sent out to succeed him was fortified with ample
instructions for the good of the colony, and especially of the
natives, whose religious conversion was urged as a capital
object, and whose personal freedom was unequivocally asserted, as
loyal vassals of the Crown. It is but justice to the Spanish
government to admit that its provisions were generally guided by
a humane and considerate policy, which was as regularly
frustrated by the cupidity of the colonist, and the capricious
cruelty of the conqueror. The few remaining years of Pedrarias
were spent in petty squabbles, both of a personal and official
nature; for he was still continued in office, though in one of
less consideration than that which he had hitherto filled. He
survived but a few years, leaving behind him a reputation not to
be envied, of one who united a pusillanimous spirit with
uncontrollable passions; who displayed, notwithstanding, a
certain energy of character, or, to speak more correctly, an
impetuosity of purpose, which might have led to good results had
it taken a right direction. Unfortunately, his lack of
discretion was such, that the direction he took was rarely of
service to his country or to himself.