The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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[Footnote 21: "I si le recibiesen con amor, hiciese su Mrd. lo
que mas conveniente le pareciese al efecto de su conquista:
porque tenia entendido, que el haverlos traido Dios era para que
su santa fe se dilatase i aquellas almas se salvasen." Naharro,
Relacion Sumaria, Ms.]

Having now collected all the information essential to his object,
Pizarro, after taking leave of the natives of Tumbez, and
promising a speedy return, weighed anchor, and again turned his
prow towards the south. Still keeping as near as possible to the
coast, that no place of importance might escape his observation,
he passed Cape Blanco, and, after sailing about a degree and a
half, made the port of Payta. The inhabitants, who had notice of
his approach, came out in their balsas to get sight of the
wonderful strangers, bringing with them stores of fruits, fish,
and vegetables, with the same hospitable spirit shown by their
countrymen at Tumbez.
After staying here a short time, and interchanging presents of
trifling value with the natives, Pizarro continued his cruise;
and, sailing by the sandy plains of Sechura for an extent of near
a hundred miles, he doubled the Punta de Aguja, and swept down
the coast as it fell off towards the east, still carried forward
by light and somewhat variable breezes. The weather now became
unfavorable, and the voyagers encountered a succession of heavy
gales, which drove them some distance out to sea, and tossed them
about for many days. But they did not lose sight of the mighty
ranges of the Andes, which, as they proceeded towards the south,
were still seen, at nearly the same distance from the shore,
rolling onwards, peak after peak, with their stupendous surges of
ice, like some vast ocean, that had been suddenly arrested and
frozen up in the midst of its wild and tumultuous career. With
this landmark always in view, the navigator had little need of
star or compass to guide his bark on her course.

As soon as the tempest had subsided, Pizarro stood in again for
the continent, touching at the principal points as he coasted
along. Everywhere he was received with the same spirit of
generous hospitality; the natives coming out in their balsas to
welcome him, laden with their little cargoes of fruits and
vegetables, of all the luscious varieties that grow in the tierra
caliente. All were eager to have a glimpse of the strangers, the
"Children of the Sun," as the Spaniards began already to be
called, from their fair complexions, brilliant armour, and the
thunderbolts which they bore in their hands. *22 The most
favorable reports, too, had preceded them, of the urbanity and
gentleness of their manners, thus unlocking the hearts of the
simple natives, and disposing them to confidence and kindness.
The iron-hearted soldier had not yet disclosed the darker side of
his character. He was too weak to do so. The hour of Conquest
had not yet come.

[Footnote 22: "Que resplandecian como el Sol. LIamabanles hijos
del Sol por esto." Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1528.]

In every place Pizarro received the same accounts of a powerful
monarch who ruled over the land, and held his court on the
mountain plains of the interior, where his capital was depicted
as blazing with gold and silver, and displaying all the profusion
of an Oriental satrap. The Spaniards, except at Tumbez, seem to
have met with little of the precious metals among the natives on
the coast. More than one writer asserts that they did not covet
them, or, at least, by Pizarro's orders, affected not to do so.
He would not have them betray their appetite for gold, and
actually refused gifts when they were proffered! *23 It is more
probable that they saw little display of wealth, except in the
embellishments of the temples and other sacred buildings, which
they did not dare to violate. The precious metals, reserved for
the uses of religion and for persons of high degree, were not
likely to abound in the remote towns and hamlets on the coast.

[Footnote 23: Pizarro wished the natives to understand, says
Father Naharro, that their good alone, and not the love of gold,
had led him to their distant land! "Sin haver querido recibir el
oro, plata i perlas que les ofrecieron, a fin de que conociesen
no era codicia, sino deseo de su bien el que les habia traido de
tan lejas tierras a las suyas." Relacion Sumaria, Ms.]
Yet the Spaniards met with sufficient evidence of general
civilization and power to convince them that there was much
foundation for the reports of the natives. Repeatedly they saw
structures of stone and plaster, and occasionally showing
architectural skill in the execution, if not elegance of design.
Wherever they cast anchor, they beheld green patches of
cultivated country redeemed from the sterility of nature, and
blooming with the variegated vegetation of the tropics; while a
refined system of irrigation, by means of aqueducts and canals,
seemed to be spread like a net-work over the surface of the
country, making even the desert to blossom as the rose. At many
places where they landed they saw the great road of the Incas
which traversed the sea-coast, often, indeed, lost in the
volatile sands, where no road could be maintained, but rising
into a broad and substantial causeway, as it emerged on a firmer
soil. Such a provision for internal communication was in itself
no slight monument of power and civilization.

Still beating to the south, Pizarro passed the site of the future
flourishing city of Truxillo, founded by himself some years
later, and pressed on till he rode off the port of Santa. It
stood on the banks of a broad and beautiful stream; but the
surrounding country was so exceedingly arid that it was
frequently selected as a burial-place by the Peruvians, who found
the soil most favorable for the preservation of their mummies.
So numerous, indeed, were the Indian guacas, that the place might
rather be called the abode of the dead than of the living. *24

[Footnote 24: "Lo que mas me admiro, quando passe por este valle,
fue ver la muchedumbre que tienen de sepolturas: y que por todas
las sierras y secadales en los altos del valle: ay numero grande
de apartados, hechos a su usanca, todo cubiertas de huessos de
muertos. De manera que lo que ay en este valle mas que ver, es
las sepolturas de los muertos, y los campos que labraron siendo
vivos." Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 70.]

Having reached this point, about the ninth degree of southern
latitude, Pizarro's followers besought him not to prosecute the
voyage farther. Enough and more than enough had been done, they
said, to prove the existence and actual position of the great
Indian empire of which they had so long been in search. Yet,
with their slender force, they had no power to profit by the
discovery. All that remained, therefore, was to return and
report the success of their enterprise to the governor at Panama.
Pizarro acquiesced in the reasonableness of this demand. He had
now penetrated nine degrees farther than any former navigator in
these southern seas, and, instead of the blight which, up to this
hour, had seemed to hang over his fortunes, he could now return
in triumph to his countrymen. Without hesitation, therefore, he
prepared to retrace his course, and stood again towards the
north.
On his way, he touched at several places where he had before
landed. At one of these, called by the Spaniards Santa Cruz, he
had been invited on shore by an Indian woman of rank, and had
promised to visit her on his return. No sooner did his vessel
cast anchor off the village where she lived, than she came on
board, followed by a numerous train of attendants. Pizarro
received her with every mark of respect, and on her departure
presented her with some trinkets which had a real value in the
eyes of an Indian princess. She urged the Spanish commander and
his companions to return the visit, engaging to send a number of
hostages on board, as security for their good treatment. Pizarro
assured her that the frank confidence she had shown towards them
proved that this was unnecessary. Yet, no sooner did he put off
in his boat, the following day, to go on shore, than several of
the principal persons in the place came along-side of the ship to
be received as hostages during the absence of the Spaniards, - a
singular proof of consideration for the sensitive apprehensions
of her guests.
Pizarro found that preparations had been made for his reception
in a style of simple hospitality that evinced some degree of
taste. Arbours were formed of luxuriant and wide-spreading
branches, interwoven with fragrant flowers and shrubs that
diffused a delicious perfume through the air. A banquet was
provided, teeming with viands prepared in the style of the
Peruvian cookery, and with fruits and vegetables of tempting hue
and luscious to the taste, though their names and nature were
unknown to the Spaniards. After the collation was ended, the
guests were entertained with music and dancing by a troop of
young men and maidens simply attired, who exhibited in their
favorite national amusement all the agility and grace which the
supple limbs of the Peruvian Indians so well qualified them to
display. Before his departure, Pizarro stated to his kind host
the motives of his visit to the country, in the same manner as he
had done on other occasions, and he concluded by unfurling the
royal banner of Castile, which he had brought on shore,
requesting her and her attendants to raise it in token of their
allegiance to his sovereign. This they did with great
good-humor, laughing all the while, says the chronicler, and
making it clear that they had a very imperfect conception of the
serious nature of the ceremony. Pizarro was contented with this
outward display of loyalty, and returned to his vessel well
satisfied with the entertainment he had received, and meditating,
it may be, on the best mode of repaying it, hereafter, by the
subjugation and conversion of the country.

The Spanish commander did not omit to touch also at Tumbez, on
his homeward voyage. Here some of his followers, won by the
comfortable aspect of the place and the manners of the people,
intimated a wish to remain, conceiving, no doubt, that it would
be better to live where they would be persons of consequence than
to return to an obscure condition in the community of Panama.
One of these men was Alonso de Molina, the same who had first
gone on shore at this place, and been captivated by the charms of
the Indian beauties. Pizarro complied with their wishes,
thinking it would not be amiss to find, on his return, some of
his own followers who would be instructed in the language and
usages of the natives. He was also allowed to carry back in his
vessel two or three Peruvians, for the similar purpose of
instructing them in the Castilian. One of them, a youth named by
the Spaniards Felipillo, plays a part of some importance in the
history of subsequent events.

On leaving Tumbez, the adventurers steered directly for Panama,
touching only, on their way, at the ill-fated island of Gorgona
to take on board their two companions who were left there too ill
to proceed with them. One had died, and, receiving the other,
Pizarro and his gallant little band continued their voyage; and,
after an absence of at least eighteen months, found themselves
once more safely riding at anchor in the harbour of Panama. *25

[Footnote 25: Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms. - Montesinos, Annales,
Ms., ano 1528. - Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms. - Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 4, lib. 2,
cap. 6, 7. - Relacion del Primer. Descub. Ms.]

The sensation caused by their arrival was great, as might have
been expected. For there were few, even among the most sanguine
of their friends, who did not imagine that they had long since
paid for their temerity, and fallen victims to the climate or the
natives, or miserably perished in a watery grave. Their joy was
proportionably great, therefore, as they saw the wanderers now
returned, not only in health and safety, but with certain tidings
of the fair countries which had so long eluded their grasp. It
was a moment of proud satisfaction to the three associates, who,
in spite of obloquy, derision, and every impediment which the
distrust of friends or the coldness of government could throw in
their way, had persevered in their great enterprise until they
had established the truth of what had been so generally denounced
as a chimera. It is the misfortune of those daring spirits who
conceive an idea too vast for their own generation to comprehend,
or, at least, to attempt to carry out, that they pass for
visionary dreamers. Such had been the fate of Luque and his
associates. The existence of a rich Indian empire at the south,
which, in their minds, dwelling long on the same idea and alive
to all the arguments in its favor, had risen to the certainty of
conviction, had been derided by the rest of their countrymen as a
mere mirage of the fancy, which, on nearer approach, would melt
into air; while the projectors, who staked their fortunes on the
adventure, were denounced as madmen. But their hour of triumph,
their slow and hard-earned triumph, had now arrived.

Yet the governor, Pedro de los Rios, did not seem, even at this
moment, to be possessed with a conviction of the magnitude of the
discovery, - or, perhaps, he was discouraged by its very
magnitude. When the associates, now with more confidence,
applied to him for patronage in an undertaking too vast for their
individual resources, he coldly replied, "He had no desire to
build up other states at the expense of his own; nor would he be
led to throw away more lives than had already been sacrificed by
the cheap display of gold and silver toys and a few Indian
sheep!" *26

[Footnote 26: "No entendia de despoblar su Governacion, para que
se fuesen a poblar nuevas Tierras, muriendo en tal demanda mas
Gente de la que havia muerto, cebar do a los Hombres con la
muestra de las Ovejas, Oro, i Plata, que havian traido." Herrera,
Hist. General, dec. 4, lib 3, cap. 1.]

Sorely disheartened by this repulse from the only quarter whence
effectual aid could be expected, the confederates, without funds,
and with credit nearly exhausted by their past efforts, were
perplexed in the extreme. Yet to stop now, - what was it but to
abandon the rich mine which their own industry and perseverance
had laid open, for others to work at pleasure? In this extremity
the fruitful mind of Luque suggested the only expedient by which
they could hope for success. This was to apply to the Crown
itself. No one was so much interested in the result of the
expedition. It was for the government, indeed, that discoveries
were to be made, that the country was to be conquered. The
government alone was competent to provide the requisite means,
and was likely to take a much broader and more liberal view of
the matter than a petty colonial officer.

But who was there qualified to take charge of this delicate
mission? Luque was chained by his professional duties to Panama;
and his associates, unlettered soldiers, were much better fitted
for the business of the camp than of the court. Almagro, blunt,
though somewhat swelling and ostentatious in his address, with a
diminutive stature and a countenance naturally plain, now much
disfigured by the loss of an eye, was not so well qualified for
the mission as his companion in arms, who, possessing a good
person and altogether a commanding presence, was plausible, and,
with all his defects of education, could, where deeply
interested, be even eloquent in discourse. The ecclesiastic,
however, suggested that the negotiation should be committed to
the Licentiate Corral, a respectable functionary, then about to
return on some public business to the mother country. But to
this Almagro strongly objected. No one, he said, could conduct
the affair so well as the party interested in it. He had a high
opinion of Pizarro's prudence, his discernment of character, and
his cool, deliberate policy. *27 He knew enough of his comrade to
have confidence that his presence of mind would not desert him,
even in the new, and therefore embarrassing, circumstances in
which he would be placed at court. No one, he said, could tell
the story of their adventures with such effect, as the man who
had ben the chief actor in them. No one could so well paint the
unparalleled sufferings and sacrifices which they had
encountered; no other could tell so forcibly what had been done,
what yet remained to do, and what assistance would be necessary
to carry it into execution. He concluded, with characteristic
frankness, by strongly urging his confederate to undertake the
mission.

[Footnote 27: "E por pura importunacion de Almagro cupole a
Pizarro, por que siempre Almagro le tubo respeto, e deseo
honrarle." Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias Ms, Parte 3. lib. 8, cap.
1.]

Pizarro felt the force of Almagro's reasoning, and, though with
undisguised reluctance, acquiesced in a measure which was less to
his taste than an expedition to the wilderness. But Luque came
into the arrangement with more difficulty. "God grant, my
children," exclaimed the ecclesiastic, "that one of you may not
defraud the other of his blessing!" *28 Pizarro engaged to
consult the interests of his associates equally with his own.
But Luque, it is clear, did not trust Pizarro.

[Footnote 28: "Plegue a Dios, Hijos, que no os hurteis la
bendicion el uno al otro que yo todavia holgaria, que a lo menos
fuerades entrambos." Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 4. lib. 3, cap.
1.]

There was some difficulty in raising the funds necessary for
putting the envoy in condition to make a suitable appearance at
court; so low had the credit of the confederates fallen, and so
little confidence was yet placed in the result of their splendid
discoveries. Fifteen hundred ducats were at length raised; and
Pizarro, in the spring of 1528, bade adieu to Panama, accompanied
by Pedro de Candia. *29 He took with him, also, some of the
natives, as well as two or three llamas, various nice fabrics of
cloth, with many ornaments and vases of gold and silver, as
specimens of the civilization of the country, and vouchers for
his wonderful story.

[Footnote 29: "Juntaronle mil y quinientos pesos de oro, que dio
de buena voluntad Dn Fernando de Luque." Montesinos, Annales,
Ms., ano 1528."]

Of all the writers on ancient Peruvian history, no one has
acquired so wide celebrity, or been so largely referred to by
later compilers, as the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega. He was born
at Cuzco, in 1540; and was a mestizo, that is, of mixed descent,
his father being European, and his mother Indian. His father,
Garcilasso de la Vega, was one of that illustrious family whose
achievements, both in arms and letters, shed such lustre over the
proudest period of the Castilian annals. He came to Peru, in the
suite of Pedro de Alvarado, soon after the country had been
gained by Pizarro. Garcilasso attached himself to the fortunes of
this chief, and, after his death, to those of his brother
Gonzalo, - remaining constant to the latter, through his
rebellion, up to the hour of his rout at Xaquixaguana, when
Garcilasso took the same course with most of his faction, and
passed over to the enemy. But this demonstration of loyalty,
though it saved his life, was too late to redeem his credit with
the victorious party; and the obloquy which he incurred by his
share in the rebellion threw a cloud over his subsequent
fortunes, and even over those of his son, as it appears, in after
years.

The historian's mother was of the Peruvian blood royal. She was
niece of Huayna Capac, and granddaughter of the renowned Tupac
Inca Yupanqui. Garcilasso, while he betrays obvious satisfaction
that the blood of the civilized European flows in his veins,
shows himself not a little proud of his descent from the royal
dynasty of Peru; and this he intimated by combining with his
patronymic the distinguishing title of the Peruvian princes, -
subscribing himself always Garcilasso Inca de la Vega.
His early years were passed in his native land, where he was
reared in the Roman Catholic faith, and received the benefit of
as good an education as could be obtained amidst the incessant
din of arms and civil commotion. In 1560, when twenty years of
age, he left America, and from that time took up his residence in
Spain. Here he entered the military service, and held a
captain's commission in the war against the Moriscos, and,
afterwards, under Don John of Austria. Though he acquitted
himself honorably in his adventurous career, he does not seem to
have been satisfied with the manner in which his services were
requited by the government. The old reproach of the father's
disloyalty still clung to the son, and Garcilasso assures us that
this circumstance defeated all his efforts to recover the large
inheritance of landed property belonging to his mother, which had
escheated to the Crown. "Such were the prejudices against me,"
says he, "that I could not urge my ancient claims or
expectations; and I left the army so poor and so much in debt,
that I did not care to show myself again at court; but was
obliged to withdraw into an obscure solitude, where I lead a
tranquil life for the brief space that remains to me, no longer
deluded by the world or its vanities."

The scene of this obscure retreat was not, however, as the reader
might imagine from this tone of philosophic resignation, in the
depths of some rural wilderness, but in Cordova, once the gay
capital of Moslem science, and still the busy haunt of men. Here
our philosopher occupied himself with literary labors, the more
sweet and soothing to his wounded spirit, that they tended to
illustrate the faded glories of his native land, and exhibit them
in their primitive splendor to the eyes of his adopted
countrymen. "And I have no reason to regret," he says in his
Preface to his account of Florida, "that Fortune has not smiled
on me, since this circumstance has opened a literary career
which, I trust, will secure to me a wider and more enduring fame
than could flow from any worldly prosperity."

In 1609, he gave to the world the First Part of his great work,
the Commentarios Reales, devoted to the history of the country
under the Incas; and in 1616, a few months before his death, he
finished the Second Part, embracing the story of the Conquest,
which was published at Cordova the following year. The
chronicler, who thus closed his labors with his life, died at the
ripe old age of seventy-six. He left a considerable sum for the
purchase of masses for his soul, showing that the complaints of
his poverty are not to be taken literally. His remains were
interred in the cathedral church of Cordova, in a chapel which
bears the name of Garcilasso; and an inscription was placed on
his monument, intimating the high respect in which the historian
was held both for his moral worth and his literary attainments.
The First Part of the Commentarios Reales is occupied, as already
noticed, with the ancient history of the country, presenting a
complete picture of its civilization under the Incas, - far more
complete than has been given by any other writer. Garcilasso's
mother was but ten years old at the time of her cousin
Atahuallpa's accession, or rather usurpation, as it is called by
the party of Cuzco. She had the good fortune to escape the
massacre which, according to the chronicler, befell most of her
kindred, and with her brother continued to reside in their
ancient capital after the Conquest. Their conversations
naturally turned to the good old times of the Inca rule, which,
colored by their fond regrets, may be presumed to have lost
nothing as seen through the magnifying medium of the past. The
young Garcilasso listened greedily to the stories which recounted
the magnificence and prowess of his royal ancestors, and though
he made no use of them at the time, they sunk deep into his
memory, to be treasured up for a future occasion. When he
prepared, after the lapse of many years, in his retirement at
Cordova, to compose the history of his country, he wrote to his
old companions and schoolfellows, of the Inca family, to obtain
fuller information than he could get in Spain on various matters
of historical interest. He had witnessed in his youth the
ancient ceremonies and usages of his countrymen, understood the
science of their quipus, and mastered many of their primitive
traditions. With the assistance he now obtained from his
Peruvian kindred, he acquired a familiarity with the history of
the great Inca race, and of their national institutions, to an
extent that no person could have possessed, unless educated in
the midst of them, speaking the same language, and with the same
Indian blood flowing in his veins. Garcilasso, in short, was the
representative of the conquered race; and we might expect to find
the lights and shadows of the picture disposed under his pencil,
so as to produce an effect very different from that which they
had hitherto exhibited under the hands of the Conquerors.