The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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[Footnote 24: Xeres, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p.
183.]

[Footnote 25: "Y el marques don Francisco Picarro, por tenellos
por amigos y estuviesen de paz quando alla passasen, les dio
algunos principales los quales ellos matavan en presencia de los
espanoles, cortandoles las cavezas por el cogote." Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., Ms.]

Maddened by this outrage, the people of Puna sprang to arms, and
threw themselves at once, with fearful yells and the wildest
menaces of despair, on the Spanish camp. The odds of numbers
were greatly in their favor, for they mustered several thousand
warriors. But the more decisive odds of arms and discipline were
on the side of their antagonists; and, as the Indians rushed
forward in a confused mass to the assault, the Castilians coolly
received them on their long pikes, or swept them down by the
volleys of their musketry. Their ill-protected bodies were easily
cut to pieces by the sharp sword of the Spaniard; and Hernando
Pizarro, putting himself at the head of the cavalry, charged
boldly into the midst, and scattered them far and wide over the
field, until, panic-struck by the terrible array of steel-clad
horsemen, and the stunning reports and the flash of fire-arms,
the fugitives sought shelter in the depths of their forests. Yet
the victory was owing, in some degree, at least, - if we may
credit the Conquerors, - to the interposition of Heaven; for St.
Michael and his legions were seen high in the air above the
combatants, contending with the arch-enemy of man, and cheering
on the Christians by their example! *26

[Footnote 26: The city of San Miguel was so named by Pizarro to
commemorate the event, - and the existence of such a city may be
considered by some as establishing the truth of the miracle. -
"En la batalla de Puna vieron muchos, ya de los Indios, ya de los
nuestros, que habia en el aire otros dos campos, uno acaudillado
por el Arcangel Sn Miguel con espada y rodela, y otro por Luzbel
y sus secuaces; mas apenas cantaron los Castellanos la victoria
huyeron los diablos, y formando un gran torvellino de viento se
oyeron en el aire unas terribles voces que decian, Vencistenos!
Miguel vencistenos! De aqui torno Dn Francisco Pizarro tanta
devocion al sto Arcangel, que prometio llamar la primera ciudad
que fundase de su nombre; cumpliolo asi como veremos adelante."
Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1530.]

Not more than three or four Spaniards fell in the fight; but many
were wounded, and among them Hernando Pizarro, who received a
severe injury in the leg from a javelin. Nor did the war end
here; for the implacable islanders, taking advantage of the cover
of night, or of any remissness on the part of the invaders, were
ever ready to steal out of their fastnesses and spring on their
enemy's camp, while, by cutting off his straggling parties, and
destroying his provisions, they kept him in perpetual alarm.
In this uncomfortable situation, the Spanish commander was
gladdened by the appearance of two vessels off the island. They
brought a reinforcement consisting of a hundred volunteers
besides horses for the cavalry. It was commanded by Hernando de
Soto, a captain afterwards famous as the discoverer of the
Mississippi, which still rolls its majestic current over the
place of his burial, - a fitting monument for his remains, as it
is of his renown. *27
[See Fernando de Soto: A Captain famous as the discoverer of
Mississippi.]

[Footnote 27: The transactions in Puna are given at more or less
length by Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms. - Conq. i Pob. del Peru,
Ms. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Montesinos, Annales,
Ms., ubi supra. - Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms. - Xerez,
Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. pp. 182, 183.]

This reinforcement was most welcome to Pizarro, who had been long
discontented with his position on an island, where he found
nothing to compensate the life of unintermitting hostility which
he was compelled to lead. With these recruits, he felt himself
in sufficient strength to cross over to the continent, and resume
military operations on the proper theatre for discovery and
conquest. From the Indians of Tumbez he learned that the country
had been for some time distracted by a civil war between two sons
of the late monarch, competitors for the throne. This
intelligence he regarded as of the utmost importance, for he
remembered the use which Cortes had made of similar dissensions
among the tribes of Anahuac. Indeed, Pizarro seems to have had
the example of his great predecessor before his eyes on more
occasions than this. But he fell far short of his model; for,
notwithstanding the restraint he sometimes put upon himself, his
coarser nature and more ferocious temper often betrayed him into
acts most repugnant to sound policy, which would never have been
countenanced by the Conqueror of Mexico.

Chapter II

Peru At The Time Of The Conquest. - Reign Of Huayna Capac. - The
Inca Brothers. - Contest For The Empire. - Triumph And Cruelties
Of Atahuallpa.

Before accompanying the march of Pizarro and his followers into
the country of the Incas, it is necessary to make the reader
acquainted with the critical situation of the kingdom at that
time. For the Spaniards arrived just at the consummation of an
important revolution, - at a crisis most favorable to their views
of conquest, and but for which, indeed, the conquest, with such a
handful of soldiers, could never have been achieved.
In the latter part of the fifteenth century died Tupac Inca
Yupanqui, one of the most renowned of the "Children of the Sun,"
who, carrying the Peruvian arms across the burning sands of
Atacama, penetrated to the remote borders of Chili, while in the
opposite direction he enlarged the limits of the empire by the
acquisition of the southern provinces of Quito. The war in this
quarter was conducted by his son Huayna Capac, who succeeded his
father on the throne, and fully equalled him in military daring
and in capacity for government.
Under this prince, the whole of the powerful state of Quito,
which rivalled that of Peru itself in wealth and refinement, was
brought under the sceptre of the Incas; whose empire received, by
this conquest, the most important accession yet made to it since
the foundation of the dynasty of Manco Capac. The remaining days
of the victorious monarch were passed in reducing the independent
tribes on the remote limits of his territory, and, still more, in
cementing his conquests by the introduction of the Peruvian
polity. He was actively engaged in completing the great works of
his father, especially the high-roads which led from Quito to the
capital. He perfected the establishment of posts, took great
pains to introduce the Quichua dialect throughout the empire,
promoted a better system of agriculture, and in fine, encouraged
the different branches of domestic industry and the various
enlightened plans of his predecessors for the improvement of his
people. Under his sway, the Peruvian monarchy reached its most
palmy state; and under both him and his illustrious father it was
advancing with such rapid strides in the march of civilization as
would soon have carried it to a level with the more refined
despotisms of Asia, furnishing the world, perhaps, with higher
evidence of the capabilities of the American Indian than is
elsewhere to be found on the great western continent. - But other
and gloomier destinies were in reserve for the Indian races.

The first arrival of the white men on the South American shores
of the Pacific was about ten years before the death of Huayna
Capac, when Balboa crossed the Gulf of St. Michael, and obtained
the first clear report of the empire of the Incas. Whether
tidings of these adventurers reached the Indian monarch's ears is
doubtful. There is no doubt, however, that he obtained the news
of the first expedition under Pizarro and Almagro, when the
latter commander penetrated as far as the Rio de San Juan, about
the fourth degree north. The accounts which he received made a
strong impression on the mind of Huayna Capac. He discerned in
the formidable prowess and weapons of the invaders proofs of a
civilization far superior to that of his own people. He intimated
his apprehension that they would return, and that at some day,
not far distant, perhaps, the throne of the Incas might be shaken
by these strangers, endowed with such incomprehensible powers. *1
To the vulgar eye, it was a little speck on the verge of the
horizon; but that of the sagacious monarch seemed to descry in it
the dark thunder-cloud, that was to spread wider and wider till
it burst in fury on his nation!

[Footnote 1: Sarmiento, an honest authority, tells us he had this
from some of the Inca lords who heard it, Relacion, Ms., cap.
65.]

There is some ground for believing thus much. But other
accounts, which have obtained a popular currency, not content
with this, connect the first tidings of the white men with
predictions long extant in the country, and with supernatural
appearances, which filled the hearts of the whole nation with
dismay. Comets were seen flaming athwart the heavens.
Earthquakes shook the land; the moon was girdled with rings of
fire of many colors; a thunderbolt fell on one of the royal
palaces and consumed it to ashes; and an eagle, chased by several
hawks, was seen, screaming in the air, to hover above the great
square of Cuzco, when, pierced by the talons of his tormentors,
the king of birds fell lifeless in the presence of many of the
Inca nobles, who read in this an augury of their own destruction!
Huayna Capac himself, calling his great officers around him, as
he found he was drawing near his end, announced the subversion of
his empire by the race of white and bearded strangers, as the
consummation predicted by the oracles after the reign of the
twelfth Inca, and he enjoined it on his vassals not to resist the
decrees of Heaven, but to yield obedience to its messengers. *2

[Footnote 2: A minute relation of these supernatural occurrences
is given by the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, (Com. Real., Parte 1,
lib. 9, cap. 14,) whose situation opened to him the very best
sources of information, which is more than counterbalanced by the
defects in his own character as an historian, - his childish
credulity, and his desire to magnify and mystify every thing
relating to his own order, and, indeed, his nation. His work is
the source of most of the facts - and the falsehoods - that have
obtained circulation in respect to the ancient Peruvians.
Unfortunately, at this distance of time, it is not always easy to
distinguish the one from the other.]
Such is the report of the impressions made by the appearance of
the Spaniards in the country, reminding one of the similar
feelings of superstitious terror occasioned by their appearance
in Mexico. But the traditions of the latter land rest on much
higher authority than those of the Peruvians, which, unsupported
by contemporary testimony, rest almost wholly on the naked
assertion of one of their own nation, who thought to find,
doubtless, in the inevitable decrees of Heaven, the best apology
for the supineness of his countrymen.

It is not improbable that rumors of the advent of a strange and
mysterious race should have spread gradually among the Indian
tribes along the great table-land of the Cordilleras, and should
have shaken the hearts of the stoutest warriors with feelings of
undefined dread, as of some impending calamity. In this state of
mind, it was natural that physical convulsions, to which that
volcanic country is peculiarly subject, should have made an
unwonted impression on their minds; and that the phenomena, which
might have been regarded only as extraordinary, in the usual
seasons of political security, should now be interpreted by the
superstitious soothsayer as the handwriting on the heavens, by
which the God of the Incas proclaimed the approaching downfall of
their empire.

Huayna Capac had, as usual with the Peruvian princes, a multitude
of concubines, by whom he left a numerous posterity. The heir to
the crown, the son of his lawful wife and sister, was named
Huascar. *3 At the period of the history at which we are now
arrived, he was about thirty years of age. Next to the
heir-apparent, by another wife, a cousin of the monarch's, came
Manco Capac, a young prince who will occupy an important place in
our subsequent story. But the best-beloved of the Inca's
children was Atahuallpa. His mother was the daughter of the last
Scyri of Quito, who had died of grief, it was said, not long
after the subversion of his kingdom by Huayna Capac. The princess
was beautiful, and the Inca, whether to gratify his passion, or,
as the Peruvians say, willing to make amends for the ruin of her
parents, received her among his concubines. The historians of
Quito assert that she was his lawful wife; but this dignity,
according to the usages of the empire, was reserved for maidens
of the Inca blood.

[Footnote 3: Huascar, in the Quichua dialect, signifies "a
cable." The reason of its being given to the heir apparent is
remarkable. Huayna Capac celebrated the birth of the prince by a
festival, in which he introduced a massive gold chain for the
nobles to hold in their hands as they performed their national
dances. The chain was seven hundred feet in length, and the
links nearly as big round as a man's wrist! (See Zarate, Conq.
del Peru, lib. 1, cap. 14. - Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1,
lib. 9, cap. 1.) The latter writer had the particulars, he tells
us, from his old Inca uncle, - who seems to have dealt largely in
the marvellous; not too largely for his audience, however, as the
story has been greedily circulated by most of the Castilian
writers, both of that and of the succeeding age.]
The latter years of Huayna Capac were passed in his new kingdom
of Quito. Atahuallpa was accordingly brought up under his own
eye, accompanied him, while in his tender years, in his
campaigns, slept in the same tent with his royal father, and ate
from the same plate. *4 The vivacity of the boy, his courage and
generous nature, won the affections of the old monarch to such a
degree, that he resolved to depart from the established usages of
the realm, and divide his empire between him and his elder
brother Huascar. On his death-bed, he called the great officers
of the crown around him, and declared it to be his will that the
ancient kingdom of Quito should pass to Atahuallpa, who might be
considered as having a natural claim on it, as the dominion of
his ancestors. The rest of the empire he settled on Huascar; and
he enjoined it on the two brothers to acquiesce in this
arrangement, and to live in amity with each other. This was the
last act of the heroic monarch; doubtless, the most impolitic of
his whole life. With his dying breath he subverted the
fundamental laws of the empire; and, while he recommended harmony
between the successors to his authority, he left in this very
division of it the seeds of inevitable discord. *5

[Footnote 4: "Atabalipa era bien quisto de los Capitanes viejos
de su Padre y de los Soldados, porque andubo en la guerra en su
ninez y porque andubo en la guerra en su niez porque el en vida
le mostro tanto amor que no le dejaba comer otra cosa que lo que
el le daba de su plato." Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 66.]

[Footnote 5: Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 1, lib. 8,
cap. 9. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 1, cap. 12. - Sarmiento,
Relacion, Ms., cap. 65. - Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom.
III. p. 201.]

His death took place, as seems probable, at the close of 1525,
not quite seven years before Pizarro's arrival at Puna. *6 The
tidings of his decease spread sorrow and consternation throughout
the land; for, though stern and even inexorable to the rebel and
the long-resisting foe, he was a brave and magnanimous monarch,
and legislated with the enlarged views of a prince who regarded
every part of his dominions as equally his concern. The people
of Quito, flattered by the proofs which he had given of
preference for them by his permanent residence in that country,
and his embellishment of their capital, manifested unfeigned
sorrow at his loss; and his subjects at Cuzco, proud of the glory
which his arms and his abilities had secured for his native land,
held him in no less admiration; *7 while the more thoughtful and
the more timid, in both countries, looked with apprehension to
the future, when the sceptre of the vast empire, instead of being
swayed by an old and experienced hand, was to be consigned to
rival princes, naturally jealous of one another, and, from their
age, necessarily exposed to the unwholesome influence of crafty
and ambitious counsellors. The people testified their regret by
the unwonted honors paid to the memory of the deceased Inca. His
heart was retained in Quinto, and his body, embalmed after the
fashion of the country, was transported to Cuzco, to take its
place in the great temple of the Sun, by the side of the remains
of his royal ancestors. His obsequies were celebrated with
sanguinary splendor in both the capitals of his far-extended
empire; and several thousand of the imperial concubines, with
numerous pages and officers of the palace, are said to have
proved their sorrow, or their superstition, by offering up their
own lives, that they might accompany their departed lord to the
bright mansions of the Sun. *8.

[Footnote 6: The precise date of this event, though so near the
time of the Conquest, is matter of doubt. Balboa, a contemporary
with the Conquerors, and who wrote at Quito, where the Inca died,
fixes it at 1525. (Hist. du Perou, chap. 14.) Velasco, another
inhabitant of the same place, after an investigation of the
different accounts, comes to the like conclusion. (Hist. de
Quito, tom. I. p. 232.) Dr. Robertson, after telling us that
Huayna Capac died in 1529, speaks again of this event as having
happened in 1527. (Conf. America, vol. III. pp. 25, 381.) Any
one, who has been bewildered by the chronological snarl of the
ancient chronicles, will not be surprised at meeting occasionally
with such inconsistencies in a writer who is obliged to take them
as his guides.]

[Footnote 7: One cannot doubt this monarch's popularity with the
female part of his subjects, at least, if, as the historian of
the Incas tells us, "he was never known to refuse a woman, of
whatever age or degree she might be, any favor that she asked of
him"! Com. Real. Parte 1, lib. 8, cap. 7.]

[Footnote 8: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 65. - Herrera, Hist.
General dec. 5, lib. 3, cap. 17.]

For nearly five years after the death of Huayna Capac, the royal
brothers reigned, each over his allotted portion of the empire,
without distrust of one another, or, at least, without collision.
It seemed as if the wish of their father was to be completely
realized, and that the two states were to maintain their
respective integrity and independence as much as if they had
never been united into one. But, with the manifold causes for
jealousy and discontent, and the swarms of courtly sycophants,
who would find their account in fomenting these feelings, it was
easy to see that this tranquil state of things could not long
endure. Nor would it have endured so long, bur for the more
gentle temper of Huascar, the only party who had ground for
complaint. He was four or five years older than his brother, and
was possessed of courage not to be doubted; but he was a prince
of a generous and easy nature, and perhaps, if left to himself,
might have acquiesced in an arrangement which, however
unpalatable, was the will of his deified father. But Atahuallpa
was of a different temper. Warlike, ambitious, and daring, he
was constantly engaged in enterprises for the enlargement of his
own territory, though his crafty policy was scrupulous not to aim
at extending his acquisitions in the direction of his royal
brother. His restless spirit, however, excited some alarm at the
court of Cuzco, and Huascar, at length, sent an envoy to
Atahuallpa, to remonstrate with him on his ambitious enterprises,
and to require him to render him homage for his kingdom of Quito.

This is one statement. Other accounts pretend that the immediate
cause of rupture was a claim instituted by Huascar for the
territory of Tumebamba, held by his brother as part of his
patrimonial inheritance. It matters little what was the
ostensible ground of collision between persons placed by
circumstances in so false a position in regard to one another,
that collision must, at some time or other, inevitably occur.

The commencement, and, indeed, the whole course, of hostilities
which soon broke out between the rival brothers are stated with
irreconcilable, and, considering the period was so near to that
of the Spanish invasion, with unaccountable discrepancy. By some
it is said, that, in Atahuallpa's first encounter with the troops
of Cuzco, he was defeated and made prisoner near Tumebamba, a
favorite residence of his father in the ancient territory of
Quito, and in the district of Canaris. From this disaster he
recovered by a fortunate escape from confinement, when, regaining
his capital, he soon found himself at the head of a numerous
army, led by the most able and experienced captains in the
empire. The liberal manners of the young Atahuallpa had endeared
him to the soldiers, with whom, as we have seen, he served more
than one campaign in his father's lifetime. These troops were
the flower of the great army of the Inca, and some of them had
grown gray in his long military career, which had left them at
the north, where they readily transferred their allegiance to the
young sovereign of Quito. They were commanded by two officers of
great consideration, both possessed of large experience in
military affairs, and high in the confidence of the late Inca.
One of them was named Quizquiz; the other, who was the maternal
uncle of Atahuallpa, was called Chalicuchima.

With these practised warriors to guide him, the young monarch put
himself at the head of his martial array, and directed his march
towards the south. He had not advanced farther than Ambato,
about sixty miles distant from his capital, when he fell in with
a numerous host, which had been sent against him by his brother,
under the command of a distinguished chieftain, of the Inca
family. A bloody battle followed, which lasted the greater part
of the day; and the theatre of combat was the skirts of the
mighty Chimborazo. *9

[Footnote 9: Garcilasso denies that anything but insignificant
skirmishes took place before the decisive action fought on the
plains of Cusco, But the Licentiate Sarmiento, who gathered his
accounts of these events, as he tells us, from the actors in
them, walked over the field of battle at Ambato, when the ground
was still covered with the bones of the slain. "Yo he pasado por
este Pueblo y he visto el Lugar donde dicen que esta Batalla se
dio y cierto segun hay la osamenta devienon aun de morir mas
gente de la que cuentan." Relacion, Ms., cap. 69.]

The battle ended favorably for Atahuallpa, and the Peruvians were
routed with great slaughter, and the loss of their commander.
The prince of Quito availed himself of his advantage to push
forward his march until he arrived before the gates of Tumebamba,
which city, as well as the whole district of Canaris, though an
ancient dependency of Quito, had sided with his rival in the
contest. Entering the captive city like a conqueror, he put the
inhabitants to the sword, and razed it with all its stately
edifices, some of which had been reared by his own father, to the
ground. He carried on the same war of extermination, as he
marched through the offending district of Canaris. In some
places, it is said, the women and children came out, with green
branches in their hands, in melancholy procession, to deprecate
his wrath; but the vindictive conqueror, deaf to their
entreaties, laid the country waste with fire and sword, sparing
no man capable of bearing arms who fell into his hands. *10

[Footnote 10: "Cuentan muchos Indios a quien yo lo oi, que por
amansar su ira, mandaron a un escuadron grande de ninos y a otro
de hombres de toda edad, que saliesen hasta las ricas andas donde
venia con gran pompa, llevando en las manos ramos verdes y ojas
de palma, y que le pidiesen la gracia y amistad suya para el
pueblo, sin mirar la injuria pasada, y que en tantos clamores se
lo suplicaron, y con tanta humildad, que bastara quebrantar
corazones de piedra, mas poca impresion hicieron en el cruel de
Atabalipa, porque dicen que mando a sus capitanes y gentes que
matasen a todos aquellos que habian venido, lo cual fue hecho, no
perdonando sino a algunos ninos y a las mugeres sagradas del
Templo." Sarmiento, Relacion Ms. cap. 70.]
The fate of Canaris struck terror into the hearts of his enemies,
and one place after another opened its gates to the victor, who
held on his triumphant march towards the Peruvian capital. His
arms experienced a temporary check before the island of Puna,
whose bold warriors maintained the cause of his brother. After
some days lost before this place, Atahuallpa left the contest to
their old enemies, the people of Tumbez, who had early given in
their adhesion to him, while he resumed his march and advanced as
far as Caxamalca, about seven degrees south. Here he halted with
a detachment of the army, sending forward the main body under the
command of his two generals, with orders to move straight upon
Cuzco. He preferred not to trust himself farther in the enemy's
country, where a defeat might be fatal. By establishing his
quarters at Caxamalca, he would be able to support his generals,
in case of a reverse, or, at worst, to secure his retreat on
Quito, until he was again in condition to renew hostilities.
The two commanders, advancing by rapid marches, at length crossed
the Apurimac river, and arrived within a short distance of the
Peruvian capital. - Meanwhile, Huascar had not been idle. On
receiving tidings of the discomfiture of his army at Ambato, he
made every exertion to raise levies throughout the country. By
the advice, it is said, of his priests - the most incompetent
advisers in times of danger - he chose to await the approach of
the enemy in his own capital; and it was not till the latter had
arrived within a few leagues of Cuzco, that the Inca, taking
counsel of the same ghostly monitors, sallied forth to give him
battle.