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

The two armies met on the plains of Quipaypan, in the
neighbourhood of the Indian metropolis. Their numbers are stated
with the usual discrepancy; but Atahuallpa's troops had
considerably the advantage in discipline and experience, for many
of Huascar's levies had been drawn hastily together from the
surrounding country. Both fought, however, with the desperation
of men who felt that everything was at stake. It was no longer a
contest for a province, but for the possession of an empire.
Atahuallpa's troops, flushed with recent success, fought with the
confidence of those who relied on their superior prowess; while
the loyal vassals of the Inca displayed all the self-devotion of
men who held their own lives cheap in the service of their
master.

The fight raged with the greatest obstinacy from sunrise to
sunset; and the ground was covered with heaps of the dying and
the dead, whose bones lay bleaching on the battle-field long
after the conquest by the Spaniards. At length, fortune declared
in favor of Atahuallpa; or rather, the usual result of superior
discipline and military practice followed. The ranks of the Inca
were thrown into irretrievable disorder, and gave way in all
directions. The conquerors followed close on the heels of the
flying. Huascar himself, among the latter, endeavoured to make
his escape with about a thousand men who remained round his
person. But the royal fugitive was discovered before he had left
the field; his little party was enveloped by clouds of the enemy,
and nearly every one of the devoted band perished in defence of
their Inca. Huascar was made prisoner, and the victorious chiefs
marched at once on his capital, which they occupied in the name
of their sovereign. *11

[Footnote 11: Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 77. - Oviedo, Hist. de
las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 9. - Xerez, Conq. del
Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 202. - Zarate. Conq. del Peru,
lib. 1, cap. 12. - Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 70. - Pedro
Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]

These events occurred in the spring of 1532, a few months before
the landing of the Spaniards. The tidings of the success of his
arms and the capture of his unfortunate brother reached
Atahuallpa at Caxamalca. He instantly gave orders that Huascar
should be treated with the respect due to his rank, but that he
should be removed to the strong fortress of Xauxa, and held there
in strict confinement. His orders did not stop here, - if we are
to receive the accounts of Garcilasso de la Vega, himself of the
Inca race, and by his mother's side nephew of the great Huayna
Capac.
According to this authority, Atahuallpa invited the Inca nobles
throughout the country to assemble at Cuzco, in order to
deliberate on the best means of partitioning the empire between
him and his brother. When they had met in the capital, they were
surrounded by the soldiery of Quito, and butchered without mercy.
The motive for this perfidious act was to exterminate the whole
of the royal family, who might each one of them show a better
title to the crown than the illegitimate Atahuallpa. But the
massacre did not end here. The illegitimate offspring, like
himself, half-brothers of the monster, ali, in short, who had any
of the Inca blood in their veins, were involved in it; and with
an appetite for carnage unparalleled in the annals of the Roman
Empire or of the French Republic, Atahuallpa ordered all the
females of the blood royal, his aunts, nieces, and cousins, to be
put to death, and that, too, with the most refined and lingering
tortures. To give greater zest to his revenge, many of the
executions took place in the presence of Huascar himself, who was
thus compelled to witness the butchery of his own wives and
sisters, while, in the extremity of anguish, they in vain called
on him to protect them! *12

[Footnote 12: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 9, cap. 35 -
39.

"A las Mugeres, Hermanas, Tias, Sobrinas, Primas Hermanas, y
Madrastras de Atahuallpa, colgavan de los Arboles, y de muchas
Horcas mui altas que hicieron: a unas colgaron de los cabellos, a
otras por debajo de los bracos, y a otras de otras maneras feas,
que por la honestidad se callan: davanles sus hijuelos, que los
tuviesen en bracos, tenianlos hasta que se les caian, y se
aporreavan" (Ibid., cap. 37.) The variety of torture shows some
invention in the writer, or, more probably, in the writer's
uncle, the ancient Inca, the raconteur of these Blue beard
butcheries.]

Such is the tale told by the historian of the Incas, and received
by him, as he assures us, from his mother and uncle, who, being
children at the time, were so fortunate as to be among the few
that escaped the massacre of their house. *13 And such is the
account repeated by many a Castilian writer since, without any
symptom of distrust. But a tissue of unprovoked atrocities like
these is too repugnant to the principles of human nature, - and,
indeed, to common sense, to warrant our belief in them on
ordinary testimony.

[Footnote 13: "Las crueldades, que Atahuallpa en los de la Sangre
Real hico, dire de Relacion de mi Madre, y de un Hermano suio,
que se llamo Don Fernando Huallpa Tupac Inca Yupanqui, que
entonces eran Ninos de menos de diez Anos." Ibid., Parte 1, lib.
9, cap. 14.]

The annals of semi-civilized nations unhappily show that there
have been instances of similar attempts to extinguish the whole
of a noxious race, which had become the object of a tyrant's
jealousy; though such an attempt is about as chimerical as it
would be to extirpate any particular species of plant, the seeds
of which had been borne on every wind over the country. But, if
the attempt to exterminate the Inca race was actually made by
Atahuallpa, how comes it that so many of the pure descendants of
the blood royal - nearly six hundred in number - are admitted by
the historian to have been in existence seventy years after the
imputed massacre? *14 Why was the massacre, instead of being
limited to the legitimate members of the royal stock, who could
show a better title to the crown than the usurper, extended to
all, however remotely, or in whatever way, connected with the
race? Why were aged women and young maidens involved in the
proscription, and why were they subjected to such refined and
superfluous tortures, when it is obvious that beings so impotent
could have done nothing to provoke the jealousy of the tyrant?
Why, when so many were sacrificed from some vague apprehension of
distant danger, was his rival Huascar, together with his younger
brother Manco Capac, the two men from whom the conqueror had most
to fear, suffered to live? Why, in short, is the wonderful tale
not recorded by others before the time of Garcilasso, and nearer
by half a century to the events themselves? *15

[Footnote 14: This appears from a petition for certain
immunities, forwarded to Spain in 1603, and signed by five
hundred and sixty-seven Indians of the royal Inca race. (Ibid.,
Parte 3, lib. 9, cap. 40.) Oviedo says that Huayna Capac left a
hundred sons and daughters, and that most of them were alive at
the time of his writing. "Tubo cien hijos y hijas, y la mayor
parte de ellos son vivos." Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3,
lib. 8, cap. 9.]

[Footnote 15: I have looked in vain for some confirmation of this
story in Oviedo, Sarmiento, Xerez, Cieza de Leon, Zarate, Pedro
Pizarro, Gomara, - all living at the time, and having access to
the best sources of information; and all, it may be added,
disposed to do stern justice to the evil qualities of the Indian
monarch.]

That Atahuallpa may have been guilty of excesses, and abused the
rights of conquest by some gratuitous acts of cruelty, may be
readily believed; for no one, who calls to mind his treatment of
the Canaris, - which his own apologists do not affect to deny,
*16 - will doubt that he had a full measure of the vindictive
temper which belongs to

'Those souls of fire, and Children of the Sun,
With whom revenge was virtue."

But there is a wide difference between this and the monstrous and
most unprovoked atrocities imputed to him; implying a diabolical
nature not to be admitted on the evidence of an Indian partisan,
the sworn foe of his house, and repeated by Castilian
chroniclers, who may naturally seek, by blazoning the enormities
of Atahuallpa, to find some apology for the cruelty of their
countrymen towards him.

[Footnote 16: No one of the apologists of Atahuallpa goes quite
so far as Father Velasco, who, in the over-flowings of his
loyalty for a Quito monarch, regards his massacre of the Canares
as a very fair retribution for their offences. "Si les auteurs
dont je viens de parler sietaient trouves dans les memes
circonstances qu'Atahuallpa et avaient eprouve autant d'offenses
graves et de trahisons, je ne croirai jamais qu'ils eussent agi
autrement"! Hist. de Quito, tom. I p. 253.]

The news of the great victory was borne on the wings of the wind
to Caxamalca; and loud and long was the rejoicing, not only in
the camp of Atahuallpa, but in the town and surrounding country;
for all now came in, eager to offer their congratulations to the
victor, and do him homage. The prince of Quito no longer
hesitated to assume the scarlet borla, the diadem of the Incas.
His triumph was complete. He had beaten his enemies on their own
ground; had taken their capital; had set his foot on the neck of
his rival, and won for himself the ancient sceptre of the
Children of the Sun. But the hour of triumph was destined to be
that of his deepest humiliation. Atahuallpa was not one of those
to whom, in the language of the Grecian bard, "the Gods are
willing to reveal themselves." *17 He had not read the
handwriting on the heavens. The small speck, which the
clear-sighted eye of his father had discerned on the distant
verge of the horizon, though little noticed by Atahuallpa, intent
on the deadly strife with his brother, had now risen high towards
the zenith, spreading wider and wider, till it wrapped the skies
in darkness, and was ready to burst in thunders on the devoted
nation.
[Footnote 17: v. 161.]

Chapter III

The Spaniards Land At Tumbez. - Pizarro Reconnoitres The Country.
- Foundation Of San Miguel. - March Into The Interior. - Embassy
From The Inca. - Adventures On The March - Reach The Foot Of The
Andes.

1532.

We left the Spaniards at the island of Puna, preparing to make
their descent on the neighbouring continent at Tumbez. This port
was but a few leagues distant, and Pizarro, with the greater part
of his followers, passed over in the ships, while a few others
were to transport the commander's baggage and the military stores
on some of the Indian balsas. One of the latter vessels which
first touched the shore was surrounded, and three persons who
were on the raft were carried off by the natives to the adjacent
woods and there massacred. The Indians then got possession of
another of the balsas, containing Pizarro's wardrobe; but, as the
men who defended it raised loud cries for help, they reached the
ears of Hernando Pizarro, who, with a small body of horse, had
effected a landing some way farther down the shore. A broad tract
of miry ground, overflowed at high water, lay between him and the
party thus rudely assailed by the natives. The tide was out, and
the bottom was soft and dangerous. With little regard to the
danger, however, the bold cavalier spurred his horse into the
slimy depths, and followed by his men, with the mud up to their
saddle-girths, they plunged forward until they came into the
midst of the marauders, who, terrified by the strange apparition
of the horsemen, fled precipitately, without show of fight, to
the neighbouring forests.

This conduct of the natives of Tumbez is not easy to be
explained; considering the friendly relations maintained with the
Spaniards on their preceding visit, and lately renewed in the
island of Puna. But Pizarro was still more astonished, on
entering their town, to find it not only deserted, but, with the
exception of a few buildings, entirely demolished. Four or five
of the most substantial private dwellings, the great temple, and
the fortress - and these greatly damaged, and wholly despoiled of
their interior decorations - alone survived to mark the site of
the city, and attest its former splendor. *1 The scene of
desolation filled the conquerors with dismay; for even the raw
recruits, who had never visited the coast before, had heard the
marvelous stories of the golden treasures of Tumbez, and they had
confidently looked forward to them as an easy spoil after all
their fatigues. But the gold of Peru seemed only like a deceitful
phantom, which, after beckoning them on through toil and danger,
vanished the moment they attempted to grasp it.

[Footnote 1: Xerez, Conq del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 185.
"Aunque lo del templo del Sol en quien ellos adoran era cosa de
ver, porque tenian grandes edificios, y todo el por de dentro y
de fuera pintado de grandes pinturas y ricos matizes de colores,
porque los hay en aquella tierra." Relacion del Primer. Descub.,
Ms.]

Pizarro despatched a small body of troops in pursuit of the
fugitives; and, after some slight skirmishing, they got
possession of several of the natives, and among them, as it
chanced, the curaca of the place. When brought before the
Spanish commander, he exonerated himself from any share in the
violence offered to the white men, saying that it was done by a
lawless party of his people, without his knowledge at the time;
and he expressed his willingness to deliver them up to
punishment, if they could be detected. He explained the
dilapidated condition of the town by the long wars carried on
with the fierce tribes of Puna, who had at length succeeded in
getting possession of the place, and driving the inhabitants into
the neighbouring woods and mountains. The Inca, to whose cause
they were attached, was too much occupied with his own feuds to
protect them against their enemies.

Whether Pizarro gave any credit to the cacique's exculpation of
himself may be doubted. He dissembled his suspicions, however,
and, as the Indian lord promised obedience in his own name, and
that of his vassals, the Spanish general consented to take no
further notice of the affair. He seems now to have felt for the
first time, in its full force, that it was his policy to gain the
good-will of the people among whom he had thrown himself in the
face of such tremendous odds. It was, perhaps, the excesses of
which his men had been guilty in the earlier stages of the
expedition that had shaken the confidence of the people of
Tumbez, and incited them to this treacherous retaliation.

Pizarro inquired of the natives who now, under promise of
impunity, came into the camp, what had become of his two
followers that remained with them in the former expedition. The
answers they gave were obscure and contradictory. Some said,
they had died of an epidemic; others, that they had died of an
epidemic; others, that they had perished in the war with Puna;
and others intimated, that they had lost their lives in
consequence of some outrage attempted on the Indian women. It
was impossible to arrive at the truth. The last account was not
the least probable. But, whatever might be the cause, there was
no doubt they had both perished.

This intelligence spread an additional gloom over the Spaniards;
which was not dispelled by the flaming pictures now given by the
natives of the riches of the land, and of the state and
magnificence of the monarch in his distant capital among the
mountains. Nor did they credit the authenticity of a scroll of
paper, which Pizarro had obtained from an Indian, to whom it had
been delivered by one of the white men left in the country.
"Know, whoever you may be," said the writing, "that may chance to
set foot in this country, that it contains more gold and silver
than there is iron in Biscay." This paper, when shown to the
soldiers, excited only their ridicule, as a device of their
captain to keep alive their chimerical hopes. *2

[Footnote 2: For the account of the transactions in Tumbez, see
Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Oviedo, Hist. de las
Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 1. - Relacion del Primer.
Descub., Ms. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 4, lib. 9 cap. 1, 2.
- Xerez, Conq. de Peru, ap Barcia tom. III. p. 185.]

Pizarro now saw that it was not politic to protract his stay in
his present quarters, where a spirit of disaffection would soon
creep into the ranks of his followers, unless their spirits were
stimulated by novelty or a life of incessant action. Yet he felt
deeply anxious to obtain more particulars than he had hitherto
gathered of the actual condition of the Peruvian empire, of its
strength and resources, of the monarch who ruled over it, and of
his present situation. He was also desirous, before taking any
decisive step for penetrating the country, to seek out some
commodious place for a settlement, which might afford him the
means of a regular communication with the colonies, and a place
of strength, on which he himself might retreat in case of
disaster.

[See Peruvian Settlement: pizarro was desirous of seeking out
some commodius place for a settlement.]

He decided, therefore, to leave part of his company at Tumbez,
including those who, from the state of their health, were least
able to take the field, and with the remainder to make an
excursion into the interior, and reconnoitre the land, before
deciding on any plan of operations. He set out early in May,
1532; and, keeping along the more level regions himself, sent a
small detachment under the command of Hernando de Soto to explore
the skirts of the vast sierra.

He maintained a rigid discipline on the march, commanding his
soldiers to abstain from all acts of violence, and punishing
disobedience in the most prompt and resolute manner. *3 The
natives rarely offered resistance. When they did so, they were
soon reduced, and Pizarro, far from vindictive measures, was open
to the first demonstrations of submission. By this lenient and
liberal policy, he soon acquired a name among the inhabitants
which effaced the unfavorable impressions made of him in the
earlier part of the campaign. The natives, as he marched through
the thick-settled hamlets which sprinkled the level region of
between the Cordilleras and the ocean, welcomed him with rustic
hospitality, providing good quarters for his troops, and abundant
supplies, which cost but little in the prolific soil of the
tierra caliente. Everywhere Pizarro made proclamation that he
came in the name of the Holy Vicar of God and of the sovereign of
Spain, requiring the obedience of the inhabitants as true
children of the Church, and vassals of his lord and master. And
as the simple people made no opposition to a formula, of which
they could not comprehend a syllable, they were admitted as good
subjects of the Crown of Castile, and their act of homage - or
what was readily interpreted as such - was duly recorded and
attested by the notary. *4

[Footnote 3: "Mando el Gobernador por eregon e so graves penas
que no le fuese hecha fuerza ni descortesia e que se les hiciese
muv buen tratamiento por los Espanoles e sus criados." Oviedo,
Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 2.]

[Footnote 4: "E mandabales notificar o dar a entender con las
lenguas el requerimiento que su Magestad manda que se les haga a
los Indios para traellos en conocimiento de nuestra Santa fe
catolica, y requiriendoles con la paz, e que obedezcan a la
Iglesia e Apostolica de Roma, e en lo temporal den la obediencia
a su Magestad e a los Reyes sus succesores en los regnos de
Castilla i de Leon; respondieron que asi lo querian e harian,
guardarian e cumplirian enteramente; e el Gobernador los recibio
por tales vasallos de sus Magestades por auto publico de
notarios.' Ibid., Ms., ubi supra.]
At the expiration of some three or four weeks spent in
reconnoitring the country, Pizarro came to the conclusion that
the most eligible site for his new settlement was in the rich
valley of Tangarala, thirty leagues south of Tumbez, traversed by
more than one stream that opens a communication with the ocean.
To this spot, accordingly, he ordered the men left at Tumbez to
repair at once in their vessels; and no sooner had they arrived,
than busy preparations were made for building up the town in a
manner suited to the wants of the colony. Timber was procured
from the neighbouring woods. Stones were dragged from their
quarries, and edifices gradually rose, some of which made
pretensions to strength, if not to elegance. Among them were a
church, a magazine for public stores, a hall of justice, and a
fortress. A municipal government was organized, consisting of
regidores, alcaldes, and the usual civic functionaries. The
adjacent territory was parcelled out among the residents, and
each colonist had a certain number of the natives allotted to
assist him in his labors; for, as Pizarro's secretary remarks,
"it being evident that the colonists could not support themselves
without the services of the Indians, the ecclesiastics and the
leaders of the expedition all agreed that a repartimiento of the
natives would serve the cause of religion, and tend greatly to
their spiritual welfare, since they would thus have the
opportunity of being initiated in the true faith." *5

[Footnote 5: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y. Conq., Ms. - Conq. i. Pob.
del Peru, Ms. - Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 55. - Relacion del
Primer. Descub., Ms.

"Porque los Vecinos, sin aiuda i servicios de los Naturales no se
podian sostener, ni poblarse el Pueblo . . . . . . A esta causa,
con acuerdo de el Religioso, i de los Oficiales que les parecio
convenir asi al servicio de Dios, i bien de los Naturales, el
Governador deposito los Caciques, i Indios en los Vecinos de este
Pueblo, porque los aiudasen a sostener, i los Christianos los
doctrinasen en nuestra Santa Fe, conforme a los Mandamientos de
su Magestad." Xerez Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p.
187.]
Having made these arrangements with such conscientious regard to
the welfare of the benighted heathen, Pizarro gave his infant
city the name of San Miguel, in acknowledgment of the service
rendered him by that saint in his battles with the Indians of
Puna. The site originally occupied by the settlement was
afterward found to be so unhealthy, that it was abandoned for
another on the banks of the beautiful Piura. The town is still
of some note for its manufactures, though dwindled from its
ancient importance; but the name of San Miguel de Piura, which it
bears, still commemorates the foundation of the first European
colony in the empire of the Incas.
Before quitting the new settlement, Pizarro caused the gold and
silver ornaments which he had obtained in different parts of the
country to be melted down into one mass, and a fifth to be
deducted for the Crown. The remainder, which belonged to the
troops, he persuaded them to relinquish for the present; under
the assurance of being repaid from the first spoils that fell
into their hands. *6 With these funds, and other articles
collected in the course of the campaign, he sent back the vessels
to Panama. The gold was applied to paying off the ship-owners,
and those who had furnished the stores for the expedition. That
he should so easily have persuaded his men to resign present
possession for a future contingency is proof that the spirit of
enterprise was renewed in their bosoms in all its former vigor,
and that they looked forward with the same buoyant confidence to
the results.

[Footnote 6: "E sacado el quinto para su Magestad, lo restante
que pertenecio al Egercito de la Conquista, el Gobernador le tomo
prestado de los companeros para se lo pagal del primer oro que se
obiese." Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms. Parte 3, lib. 8, cap.
2.]

In his late tour of observation, the Spanish commander had
gathered much important intelligence in regard to the state of
the kingdom. He had ascertained the result of the struggle
between the Inca brothers, and that the victor now lay with his
army encamped at the distance of only ten or twelve days' journey
from San Miguel. The accounts he heard of the opulence and power
of that monarch, and of his great southern capital, perfectly
corresponded with the general rumors before received; and
contained, therefore, something to stagger the confidence, as
well as to stimulate the cupidity, of the invaders.

Pizarro would gladly have seen his little army strengthened by
reinforcements, however small the amount; and on that account
postponed his departure for several weeks. But no reinforcement
arrived; and, as he received no further tidings from his
associates, he judged that longer delay would, probably, be
attended with evils greater than those to be encountered on the
march; that discontents would inevitably spring up in a life of
inaction, and the strength and spirits of the soldier sink under
the enervating influence of a tropical climate. Yet the force at
his command, amounting to less than two hundred soldiers in all,
after reserving fifty for the protection of the new settlement,
seemed but a small one for the conquest of an empire. He might,
indeed, instead of marching against the Inca, take a southerly
direction towards the rich capital of Cuzco. But this would only
be to postpone the hour of reckoning. For in what quarter of the
empire could he hope to set his foot, where the arm of its master
would not reach him? By such a course, moreover, he would show
his own distrust of himself. He would shake that opinion of his
invincible prowess, which he had hitherto endeavoured to impress
on the natives, and which constituted a great secret of his
strength; which, in short, held sterner sway over the mind than
the display of numbers and mere physical force. Worse than all,
such a course would impair the confidence of his troops in
themselves and their reliance on himself. This would be to palsy
the arm of enterprise at once. It was not to be thought of.