The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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[Footnote 13: "Desde a poco rato comenco a llover, i caer
granico." (Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 195.)
Caxamalca, in the Indian tongue, signifies "place of frost"; for
the temperature, though usually bland and genial, is sometimes
affected by frosty winds from the east, very pernicious to
vegetation. Stervenson, Residence in South America, vol. II. p.
129.]

[Footnote 14: Carta de Hern. Pizarro, Ms. The Letter of Hernando
Pizarro, addressed to the Royal Audience of St. Domingo, gives a
full account of the extraordinary events recorded in this and the
ensuing chapter, in which that cavalier took a prominent part.
Allowing for the partialities incident to a chief actor in the
scenes he describes, no authority can rank higher. The
indefatigable Oviedo, who resided in St. Domingo, saw its
importance, and fortunately incorporated the document in his
great work, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 15. -
The anonymous author of the Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.,
was also detached on this service.]
Between the city and the imperial camp was a causeway, built in a
substantial manner across the meadow land that intervened. Over
this the cavalry galloped at a rapid pace, and, before they had
gone a league, they came in front of the Peruvian encampment,
where it spread along the gentle slope of the mountains. The
lances of the warriors were fixed in the ground before their
tents, and the Indian soldiers were loitering without, gazing
with silent astonishment at the Christians cavalcade, as with
clangor of arms and shrill blast of trumpet it swept by, like
some fearful apparition, on the wings of the wind.

The party soon came to a broad but shallow stream, which, winding
through the meadow, formed a defence for the Inca's position.
Across it was a wooden bridge; but the cavaliers, distrusting its
strength, preferred to dash through the waters, and without
difficulty gained the opposite bank. A battalion of Indian
warriors was drawn up under arms on the farther side of the
bridge, but they offered no molestation to the Spaniards; and
these latter had strict orders from Pizarro - scarcely necessary
in their present circumstances - to treat the natives with
courtesy. One of the Indians pointed out the quarter occupied by
the Inca. *15

[Footnote 15: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Carta de Hern
Pizarro, Ms.]

It was an open court-yard, with a light building or
pleasure-house in the centre, having galleries running around it,
and opening in the rear on a garden. The walls were covered with
a shining plaster, both white and colored, and in the area before
the edifice was seen a spacious tank or reservoir of stone, fed
by aqueducts that supplied it with both warm and cold water. *16
A basin of hewn stone - it may be of a more recent construction -
still bears, on the spot, the name of the "Inca's bath." *17 The
court was filled with Indian nobles, dressed in gayly ornamented
attire, in attendance on the monarch, and with women of the royal
household. Amidst this assembly it was not difficult to
distinguish the person of Atahuallpa, though his dress was
simpler than that of his attendants. But he wore on his head the
crimson borla or fringe, which, surrounding the forehead, hung
down as low as the eyebrow. This was the well-known badge of
Peruvian sovereignty, and had been assumed by the monarch only
since the defeat of his brother Huascar. He was seated on a low
stool or cushion, somewhat after the Morisco or Turkish fashion,
and his nobles and principal officers stood around him, with
great ceremony, holding the stations suited to their rank. *18
[Footnote 16: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia. tom. III. p.
202.

"Y al estanque venian dos canos de agua, uno caliente y otro
frio, y alli se templava la una con la otra, para quando el Senor
se queria banar o sus mugeres que otra persona no osava entrar en
el so pena de la vida." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y. Conq., Ms.]

[Footnote 17: Stevenson, Residence in South America, vol. II. p.
164.]

[Footnote 18: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p.
196. - Carta de Hern. Pizarro, Ms.

The appearance of the Peruvian monarch is described in simple but
animated style by the Conqueror so often quoted, one of the
party. "Llegados al patio de la dicha casa que tenia delante
della, vimos estar en medio de gran muchedumbre de Indios
asentado aquel gran Senor Atabalica (de quien tanta noticia, y
tantas cosas nos habian dicho) con una corona en la cabeza, y una
borla que le salia della, y le cubria toda la frente, la cual era
la insinia real, sentado en una sillecita muy baja del suelo,
como los turcos y moros acostumbran sentarse, el cual estaba con
tanta magestad y aparato cual nunca se ha visto jamas, porque
estaba cercado de mas de seiscientos Senores de su tierra."
Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.]

The Spaniards gazed with much interest on the prince, of whose
cruelty and cunning they had heard so much, and whose valor had
secured to him the possession of the empire. But his countenance
exhibited neither the fierce passions nor the sagacity which had
been ascribed to him; and, though in his bearing he showed a
gravity and a calm consciousness of authority well becoming a
king, he seemed to discharge all expression from his features,
and to discover only the apathy so characteristic of the American
races. On the present occasion, this must have been in part, at
least, assumed. For it is impossible that the Indian prince
should not have contemplated with curious interest a spectacle so
strange, and, in some respects, appalling, as that of these
mysterious strangers, for which no previous description could
have prepared him.

Hernando Pizarro and Soto, with two or three only of their
followers, slowly rode up in front of the Inca; and the former,
making a respectful obeisance, but without dismounting, informed
Atahuallpa that he came as an ambassador from his brother, the
commander of the white men, to acquaint the monarch with their
arrival in his city of Caxamalca. They were the subjects of a
mighty prince across the waters, and had come, he said, drawn
thither by the report of his great victories, to offer their
services, and to impart to him the doctrines of the true faith
which they professed; and he brought an invitation from the
general to Atahuallpa that the latter would be pleased to visit
the Spaniards in their present quarters. quarter.
To all this the Inca answered not a word; nor did he make even a
sign of acknowledgment that he comprehended it; though it was
translated for him by Felipillo, one of the interpreters already
noticed. He remained silent, with his eyes fastened on the
ground; but one of his nobles, standing by his side, answered,
"It is well." *19 This was an embarrassing situation for the
Spaniards, who seemed to be as wide from ascertaining the real
disposition of the Peruvian monarch towards themselves, as when
the mountains were between them.

[Footnote 19: "Las cuales por el oidas, con ser su inclinacion
pereguntarnos y saber de donde veniamos, y que queriamos, y ver
nuestras personas y caballos, tubo tanta serenidad en el rostro,
y tanta gravedad en su persona, que no quiso responder palabra a
lo que se le decia, salvo que un Senor de aquellos que estaban
par de el respondia: bien esta." Relacion del Primer. Descub.,
Ms.]

In a courteous and respectful manner, Hernando Pizarro again
broke the silence by requesting the Inca to speak to them
himself, and to inform them what was his pleasure. *20 To this
Atahuallpa condescended to reply, while a faint smile passed over
his features, - "Tell your captain that I am keeping a fast,
which will end to-morrow morning. I will then visit him, with my
chieftains. In the mean time, let him occupy the public
buildings on the square, and no other, till I come, when I will
order what shall be done." *21

[Footnote 20: "Visto por el dicho Hernando Pizarro que el no
hablaba y que aquella tercera persona respondia de suyo, torno le
a suplicar, que el hablase por su boca, y le respondiese lo que
quisiese." Ibid., Ms., ubi supra.]

[Footnote 21: "El cual a esto volvio la cabeza a mirarle
sonriendose y le dijo: Decid a ese Capitan que os embia aca; que
yo estoy en ayuno, y le acabo manana por la manana, que en
bebiendo una vez, yo ire con algunos destos principales mios a
verme con el, que en tanto el se aposente en esas casas que estan
en la plaza que son comunes a todos, y que no entren en otra
ninguna hasta que Yo vaya, que Yo mandare lo que se ha de hacer."
Ibid., Ms., ubi supra.

In this singular interview I have followed the account of the
cavalier who accompanied Hernando Pizarro, in preference to the
latter, who represents himself as talking in a lordly key, that
savours too much of the vaunt of the hidalgo.]

Soto, one of the party present at this interview, as before
noticed, was the best mounted and perhaps the best rider in
Pizarro's troop. Observing that Atahuallpa looked with some
interest on the fiery steed that stood before him, champing the
bit and pawing the ground with the natural impatience of a
war-horse, the Spaniard gave him the rein, and, striking his iron
heel into his side, dashed furiously over the plain; then,
wheeling him round and round, displayed all the beautiful
movements of his charger, and his own excellent horsemanship.
Suddenly checking him in full career, he brought the animal
almost on his haunches, so near the person of the Inca, that some
of the foam that flecked his horse's sides was thrown on the
royal garments. But Atahuallpa maintained the same marble
composure as before, though several of his soldiers, whom De Soto
passed in the course, were so much disconcerted by it, that they
drew back in manifest terror, an act of timidity for which they
paid dearly, if, as the Spaniards assert, Atahuallpa caused them
to be put to death that same evening for betraying such unworthy
weakness to the strangers. *22

[Footnote 22: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Relacion del
Primer. Descub., Ms.

"I algunos Indios, con miedo, se desviaron de la Carrera, por lo
qual Atabalipa los hico luego matar." (Zarate, Conq. del Peru,
lib. 2, cap. 4.) - Xerez states that Atahuallpa confessed this
himself, in conversation with the Spaniards after he was taken
prisoner. - Soto's charger might well have made the Indians
start, if, as Balboa says, he took twenty feet at a leap, and
this with a knight in armour on his back! Hist. du Perou, chap.
22.]
Refreshments were now offered by the royal attendants to the
Spaniards, which they declined, being unwilling to dismount.
They did not refuse, however, to quaff the sparkling chicha from
golden vases of extraordinary size, presented to them by the
dark-eyed beauties of the harem. *23 Taking then a respectful
leave of the Inca, the cavaliers rode back to Caxamalca, with
many moody speculations on what they had seen; on the state and
opulence of the Indian monarch; on the strength of his military
array, their excellent appointments, and the apparent discipline
in their ranks, - all arguing a much higher degree of
civilization, and consequently of power, than any thing they had
witnessed in the lower regions of the country. As they
contrasted all this with their own diminutive force, too far
advanced, as they now were, for succour to reach them, they felt
they had done rashly in throwing themselves into the midst of so
formidable an empire, and were filled with gloomy forebodings of
the result. *24 Their comrades in the camp soon caught the
infectious spirit of despondency, which was not lessened as night
came on, and they beheld the watch-fires of the Peruvians
lighting up the sides of the mountains, and glittering in the
darkness, "as thick," says one who saw them, "as the stars of
heaven." *25

[Footnote 23: Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms. - Xerez, Conq.
del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 196.]

[Footnote 24: "Hecho esto y visto y atalayado la grandeza del
ejercito, y las tiendas que era bien de ver, nos bolvimos a donde
el dicho capitan nos estaba esperando, harto espantados de lo que
habiamos visto, habiendo y tomando entre nosotros muchos acuerdos
y opiniones de lo que se debia hacer, estando todos con mucho
temor por ser tan pocos, y estar tan metidos en la tierra donde
no podiamos ser socorridos." (Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.)
Pedro Pizarro is honest enough to confirm this account of the
consternation of the Spaniards. (Descub. y Conq., Ms.) Fear was
a strange sensation for the Castilian cavalier. But if he did
not feel some touch of it on that occasion, he must have been
akin to that doughty knight who, as Charles V. pronounced, "never
could have snuffed a candle with his fingers."]

[Footnote 25: "Hecimos la guardia en la plaza, de donde se vian
los fuegos del ejercito de los Indios, lo cual era cosa
espantable, que como estaban en una ladera la mayor parte, y tan
juntos unos de otros, no pa recia sino un cielo muy estrellado."
Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms]

Yet there was one bosom in that little host which was not touched
with the feeling either of fear or dejection. That was
Pizarro's, who secretly rejoiced that he had now brought matters
to the issue for which he had so long panted. He saw the
necessity of kindling a similar feeling in his followers, or all
would be lost. Without unfolding his plans, he went round among
his men, beseeching them not to show faint hearts at this crisis,
when they stood face to face with the foe whom they had been so
long seeking. "They were to rely on themselves, and on that
Providence which had carried them safe through so many fearful
trials. It would not now desert them; and if numbers, however
great, were on the side of their enemy, it mattered little when
the arm of Heaven was on theirs." *26 The Spanish cavalier acted
under the combined influence of chivalrous adventure and
religious zeal. The latter was the most effective in the hour of
peril; and Pizarro, who understood well the characters he had to
deal with, by presenting the enterprise as a crusade, kindled the
dying embers of enthusiasm in the bosoms of his followers, and
restored their faltering courage.

[Footnote 26: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p.
197. - Nanarro Relacion Sumaria, Ms]

He then summoned a council of his officers, to consider the plan
of operations, or rather to propose to them the extraordinary
plan on which he had himself decided. This was to lay an
ambuscade for the Inca, and take him prisoner in the face of his
whole army! It was a project full of peril, - bordering, as it
might well seem, on desperation. But the circumstances of the
Spaniards were desperate. Whichever way they turned, they were
menaced by the most appalling dangers; and better was it bravely
to confront the danger, than weakly to shrink from it, when there
was no avenue for escape.
To fly was now too late. Whither could they fly? At the first
signal of retreat, the whole army of the Inca would be upon them.
Their movements would be anticipated by a foe far better
acquainted with the intricacies of the sierra than themselves;
the passes would be occupied, and they would be hemmed in on all
sides; while the mere fact of this retrograde movement would
diminish the confidence and with it the effective strength of his
own men, while it doubled that of his enemy.

Yet to remain long inactive in his present position seemed almost
equally perilous. Even supposing that Atahuallpa should
entertain friendly feelings towards the Christians, they could
not confide in the continuance of such feelings. Familiarity
with the white men would soon destroy the idea of any thing
supernatural, or even superior, in their natures. He would feel
contempt for their diminutive numbers. Their horses, their arms
and showy appointments, would be an attractive bait in the eye of
the barbaric monarch, and when conscious that he had the power to
crush their possessors, he would not be slow in finding a pretext
for it. A sufficient one had already occurred in the high-handed
measures of the Conquerors, on their march through his dominions.

But what reason had they to flatter themselves that the Inca
cherished such a disposition towards them? He was a crafty and
unscrupulous prince, and, if the accounts they had repeatedly
received on their march were true, had ever regarded the coming
of the Spaniards with an evil eye. It was scarcely possible he
should do otherwise. His soft messages had only been intended to
decoy them across the mountains, where, with the aid of his
warriors, he might readily overpower them. They were entangled
in the toils which the cunning monarch had spread for them.

Their only remedy, then, was to turn the Inca's arts against
himself; to take him, if possible, in his own snare. There was
no time to be lost; for any day might bring back the victorious
legions who had recently won his battles at the south, and thus
make the odds against the Spaniards far greater than now.

Yet to encounter Atahuallpa in the open field would be attended
with great hazard; and even if victorious, there would be little
probability that the person of the Inca, of so much importance,
would fall into the hands of the victors. The invitation he had
so unsuspiciously accepted to visit them in their quarters
afforded the best means for securing this desirable prize. Nor
was the enterprise so desperate, considering the great advantages
afforded by the character and weapons of the invaders, and the
unexpectedness of the assault. The mere circumstance of acting
on a concerted plan would alone make a small number more than a
match for a much larger one. But it was not necessary to admit
the whole of the Indian force into the city before the attack;
and the person of the Inca once secured, his followers, astounded
by so strange an event, were they few or many, would have no
heart for further resistance; - and with the Inca once in his
power, Pizarro might dictate laws to the empire.

In this daring project of the Spanish chief, it was easy to see
that he had the brilliant exploit of Cortes in his mind, when he
carried off the Aztec monarch in his capital. But that was not
by violence, at least not by open violence, - and it received the
sanction, compulsory though it were, of the monarch himself. It
was also true that the results in that case did not altogether
justify a repetition of the experiment; since the people rose in
a body to sacrifice both the prince and his kidnappers. Yet this
was owing, in part, at least, to the indiscretion of the latter.
The experiment in the outset was perfectly successful; and, could
Pizarro once become master of the person of Atahuallpa, he
trusted to his own discretion for the rest. It would, at least,
extricate him from his present critical position, by placing in
his power an inestimable guaranty for his safety; and if he could
not make his own terms with the Inca at once, the arrival of
reinforcements from home would, in all probability, soon enable
him to do so.

Pizarro having concerted his plans for the following day, the
council broke up, and the chief occupied himself with providing
for the security of the camp during the night. The approaches to
the town were defended; sentinels were posted at different
points, especially on the summit of the fortress, where they were
to observe the position of the enemy, and to report any movement
that menaced the tranquillity of the night. After these
precautions, the Spanish commander and his followers withdrew to
their appointed quarters, - but not to sleep. At least, sleep
must have come late to those who were aware of the decisive plan
for the morrow; that morrow which was to be the crisis of their
fate, - to crown their ambitious schemes with full success, or
consign them to irretrievable ruin!

Chapter V:

Desperate Plan Of Pizarro. - Atahuallpa Visits The Spaniards. -
Horrible Massacre. - The Inca A Prisoner. - Conduct Of The
Conquerors. - Splendid Promises Of The Inca - Death Of Huascar.

1532.

The clouds of the evening had passed away, and the sun rose
bright on the following morning, the most memorable epoch in the
annals of Peru. It was Saturday, the sixteenth of November,
1532. The loud cry of the trumpet called the Spaniards to arms
with the first streak of dawn; and Pizarro, briefly acquainting
them with the plan of the assault, made the necessary
dispositions.

The plaza, as mentioned in the preceding chapter, was defended on
its three sides by low ranges of buildings, consisting of
spacious halls with wide doors or vomitories opening into the
square. In these halls he stationed his cavalry in two
divisions, one under his brother Hernando, the other under De
Soto. The infantry he placed in another of the buildings,
reserving twenty chosen men to act with himself as occasion might
require Pedro de Candia, with a few soldiers and the artillery, -
comprehending under this imposing name two small pieces of
ordnance, called falconets, - he established in the fortress. All
received orders to wait at their posts till the arrival of the
Inca. After his entrance into the great square, they were still
to remain under cover, withdrawn from observation, till the
signal was given by the discharge of a gun, when they were to cry
their war-cries, to rush out in a body from their covert, and,
putting the Peruvians to the sword, bear off the person of the
Inca. The arrangement of the immense halls, opening on a level
with the plaza, seemed to be contrived on purpose for a coup de
theatre. Pizarro particularly inculcated order and implicit
obedience, that in the hurry of the moment there should be no
confusion. Every thing depended on their acting with concert,
coolness, and celerity. *1

[Footnote 1: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Relacion del
Primer. Descub., Ms. - Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia tom.
III. p. 197. - Carta de Hern. Pizarro, Ms. - Oviedo, Hist. de las
Indias Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap 7]

The chief next saw that their arms were in good order; and that
the breastplates of their horses were garnished with bells, to
add by their noise to the consternation of the Indians.
Refreshments were, also, liberally provided, that the troops
should be in condition for the conflict. These arrangements
being completed, mass was performed with great solemnity by the
ecclesiastics who attended the expedition; the God of battles was
invoked to spread his shield over the soldiers who were fighting
to extend the empire of the Cross; and all joined with enthusiasm
in the chant, "Exsurge, Domine," "Rise, O Lord! and judge thine
own cause." *2 One might have supposed them a company of martyrs,
about to lay down their lives in defence of their faith, instead
of a licentious band of adventurers, meditating one of the most
atrocious acts of perfidy on the record of history! Yet,
whatever were the vices of the Castilian cavalier, hypocrisy was
not among the number. He felt that he was battling for the
Cross, and under this conviction, exalted as it was at such a
moment as this into the predominant impulse, he was blind to the
baser motives which mingled with the enterprise. With feelings
thus kindled to a flame of religious ardor, the soldiers of
Pizarro looked forward with renovated spirits to the coming
conflict; and the chieftain saw with satisfaction, that in the
hour of trial his men would be true to their leader and
themselves.

[Footnote 2: "Los Eclesiasticos i Religiosos se ocuparon toda
aquella noche en oracion, pidiendo a Dios el mas conveniente
suceso a su sagrado servicio, exaltacion de la fe e salvacion de
tanto numero de almas, derramando muchas lagrimas i sangre en las
disciplinas que tomaron. Francisco Pizarro animo a los soldados
con una mui cristiana platica que les hizo: con que, i
asegurarles los Eclesiasticos de parte de Dios i de su Madre
Santisima la vitoria, amanecieron todos mui deseosos de dar la
batalla, diciendo a voces, Exsurge Domine et judica causam tuam."
Naharro Relacion Sumaria, Ms.]

It was in the day before any movement was visible in the Peruvian
camp, where much preparation was making to approach the Christian
quarters with due state and ceremony. A message was received
from Atahuallpa, informing the Spanish commander that he should
come with his warriors fully armed, in the same manner as the
Spaniards had come to his quarters the night preceding. This was
not an agreeable intimation to Pizarro, though he had no reason,
probably, to expect the contrary. But to object might imply
distrust, or, perhaps, disclose, in some measure, his own
designs. He expressed his satisfaction, therefore, at the
intelligence, assuring the Inca, that, come as he would, he would
be received by him as a friend and brother. *3

[Footnote 3: "El governador respondio: Di a tu Senor, que venga
en hora buena como quisiere, que de la manera que viniere lo
recebire como Amigo, i Hermano." Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap.
Barcia, tom. III. p. 197. - Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms.,
Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 7. - Carta de Hern. Pizarro, Ms.]