The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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[Footnote 30: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p.
234. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Conq. i Pob. del
Piru, Ms. - Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 400.

The garrote is a mode of execution by means of a noose drawn
round the criminal's neck, to the back part of which a stick is
attached. By twisting this stick, the noose is tightened and
suffocation is produced. This was the mode, probably, of
Atahuallpa execution. In Spain, instead of the cord, an iron
collar is substituted, which, by means of a screw is compressed
round the throat of the sufferer.]

The unhappy monarch asked if this were really so, and, on its
being confirmed by Pizarro, he consented to abjure his own
religion, and receive baptism. The ceremony was performed by
Father Valverde, and the new convert received the name of Juan de
Atahuallpa, - the name of Juan being conferred in honor of John
the Baptist, on whose day the event took place. *31

[Footnote 31: Velasco, Hist. de Quito, tom. I. p. 372.]

Atahuallpa expressed a desire that his remains might be
transported to Quito, the place of his birth, to be preserved
with those of his maternal ancestors. Then turning to Pizarro,
as a last request, he implored him to take compassion on his
young children, and receive them under his protection. Was there
no other one in that dark company who stood grimly around him, to
whom he could look for the protection of his offspring? Perhaps
he thought there was no other so competent to afford it, and that
the wishes so solemnly expressed in that hour might meet with
respect even from his Conqueror. Then, recovering his stoical
bearing, which for a moment had been shaken, he submitted himself
calmly to his fate, - while the Spaniards, gathering around,
muttered their credos for the salvation of his soul! *32 Thus by
the death of a vile malefactor perished the last of the Incas!

[Footnote 32: "Ma quando se lo vidde appressare per douer esser
morto, disse che raccomandaua al Gouernatore i suoi piccioli
figliuoli che volesse tenersegli appresso, & con queste valme
parole, & dicendo per l'anima sua li Soagnuoli che erano all
intorno il Credo, fu subito affogato." Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap.
Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 399. Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia,
tom. III. p. 234. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. -
Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms. - Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms. -
Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib.
2, cap. 7.]

The death of Atahuallpa has many points of resemblance with that
of Caupolican, the great Araucanian chief, as described in the
historical epic of Ercilla. Both embraced the religion of their
conquerors at the stake, though Caupolican was so far less
fortunate than the Peruvian monarch, that his conversion did not
save him from the tortures of a most agonizing death. He was
impaled and shot with arrows. The spirited verses reflect so
faithfully the character of these early adventurers, in which the
fanaticism of the Crusader was mingled with the cruelty of the
conqueror, and they are so germane to the present subject, that I
would willingly quote the passage were it not too long. See La
Araucana, Parte 2, canto 24.]
I have already spoken of the person and the qualities of
Atahuallpa. He had a handsome countenance, though with an
expression somewhat too fierce to be pleasing. His frame was
muscular and well-proportioned; his air commanding; and his
deportment in the Spanish quarters had a degree of refinement,
the more interesting that it was touched with melancholy. He is
accused of having been cruel in his wars, and bloody in his
revenge. *33 It may be true, but the pencil of an enemy would be
likely to overcharge the shadows of the portrait. He is allowed
to have been bold, high-minded, and liberal. *34 All agree that
he showed singular penetration and quickness of perception. His
exploits as a warrior had placed his valor beyond dispute. The
best homage to it is the reluctance shown by the Spaniards to
restore him to freedom. They dreaded him as an enemy, and they
had done him too many wrongs to think that he could be their
friend. Yet his conduct towards them from the first had been
most friendly; and they repaid it with imprisonment, robbery, and
death.

[Footnote 33: "Thus he paid the penalty of his errors and
cruelties," says Xerez, "for he was the greatest butcher, as all
agree, that the world ever saw; making nothing of razing a whole
town to the ground for the most trifling offence, and massacring
a thousand persons for the fault of one!" (Conq. del Peru, ap.
Barcia, tom. III. p. 234.) Xerez was the private secretary of
Pizarro. Sancho, who, on the departure of Xerez for Spain,
succeeded him in the same office, pays a more decent tribute to
the memory of the Inca, who, he trusts, "is received into glory,
since he died penitent for his sins, and in the true faith of a
Christian." Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 399.]

[Footnote 34: "El hera muy regalado, y muy Senor," says Pedro
Pizarro. (Descub. y Conq., Ms.) "Mui dispuesto, sabio, animoso,
franco," says Gomara. (Hist. de las Ind., cap. 118.)]

The body of the Inca remained on the place of execution through
the night. The following morning it was removed to the church of
San Francisco, where his funeral obsequies were performed with
great solemnity. Pizarro and the principal cavaliers went into
mourning, and the troops listened with devout attention to the
service of the dead from the lips of Father Valverde. *35 The
ceremony was interrupted by the sound of loud cries and wailing,
as of many voices at the doors of the church. These were
suddenly thrown open, and a number of Indian women, the wives and
sisters of the deceased, rushing up the great aisle, surrounded
the corpse. This was not the way, they cried, to celebrate the
funeral rites of an Inca; and they declared their intention to
sacrifice themselves on his tomb, and bear him company to the
land of spirits. The audience, outraged by this frantic
behaviour, told the intruders that Atahuallpa had died in the
faith of a Christian, and that the God of the Christians abhorred
such sacrifices. They then caused the women to be excluded from
the church, and several, retiring to their own quarters, laid
violent hands on themselves, in the vain hope of accompanying
their beloved lord to the bright mansions of the Sun. *36

[Footnote 35: The secretary Sancho seems to think that the
Peruvians must have regarded these funeral honors as an ample
compensation to Atahuallpa for any wrongs he may have sustained,
since they at once raised him to a level with the Spaniards!
Ibid., loc. cit.]

[Footnote 36: Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.

See Appendix, No. 10, where I have cited in the original several
of the contemporary notices of Atahuallpa's execution, which
being in manuscript are not very accessible, even to Spaniards.]

Atahuallpa's remains, notwithstanding his request, were laid in
the cemetery of San Francisco. *37 But from thence, as is
reported, after the Spaniards left Caxamalca, they were secretly
removed, and carried, as he had desired, to Quito. The colonists
of a later time supposed that some treasures might have been
buried with the body. But, on excavating the ground, neither
treasure nor remains were to be discovered. *38

[Footnote 37: "Oi dicen los indios que esta su sepulcro junto a
una Cruz de Piedra Blanca que esta en el Cementerio del Convento
de Sn Francisco." Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1533.]

[Footnote 38: Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8,
cap. 22.

According to Stevenson, "In the chapel belonging to the common
gaol, which was formerly part of the palace, the altar stands on
the stone on which Atahuallpa was placed by the Spaniards and
strangled, and under which he was buried." (Residence in South
America, vol. II. p. 163.) Montesinos, who wrote more than a
century after the Conquest, tells us that "spots of blood were
still visible on a broad flagstone, in the prison of Caxamalca,
on which Atahuallpa was beheaded." (Annales, Ms., ano 1533.) -
Ignorance and credulity could scarcely go farther.]

A day or two after these tragic events, Hernando de Soto returned
from his excursion. Great was his astonishment and indignation
at learning what had been done in his absence. He sought out
Pizarro at once, and found him, says the chronicler, "with a
great felt hat, by way of mourning, slouched over his eyes," and
in his dress and demeanour exhibiting all the show of sorrow. *39
"You have acted rashly," said De Soto to him bluntly; "Atahuallpa
has been basely slandered. There was no enemy as Guamachucho; no
rising among the natives. I have met with nothing on the road
but demonstrations of good-will, and all is quiet. If it was
necessary to bring the Inca to trial, he should have been taken
to Castile and judged by the Emperor. I would have pledged
myself to see him safe on board the vessel." *40 Pizarro
confessed that he had been precipitate, and said that he had been
deceived by Riquelme, Valverde, and the others. These charges
soon reached the ears of the treasurer and the Dominican, who, in
their turn, exculpated themselves, and upbraided Pizarro to his
face, as the only one responsible for the deed. The dispute ran
high; and the parties were heard by the by-standers to give one
another the lie! *41 This vulgar squabble among the leaders, so
soon after the event, is the best commentary on the iniquity of
their own proceedings and the innocence of the Inca.

[Footnote 39: "Hallaronle monstrando mucho centimiento con un
gran sombrero de fieltro puesto en la cabeza por luto e muy
calado sobre los ojos." Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte
3, lib. 8, cap. 22.]

[Footnote 40: Ibid., Ms., ubi supra. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y
Conq., Ms. - See Appendix, no. 10.]

[Footnote 41: This remarkable account is given by Oviedo, not in
the body of his narrative, but in one of those supplementary
chapters, which he makes the vehicle of the most miscellaneous,
yet oftentimes important gossip, respecting the great
transactions of his history. As he knew familiarly the leaders
in these transactions, the testimony which he collected, somewhat
at random, is of high authority. The reader will find Oviedo's
account of the Inca's death extracted, in the original, among the
other notices of this catastrophe in Appendix, No. 10]

The treatment of Atahuallpa, from first to last, forms
undoubtedly one of the darkest chapters in Spanish colonial
history. There may have been massacres perpetrated on a more
extended scale, and executions accompanied with a greater
refinement of cruelty. But the blood-stained annals of the
Conquest afford no such example of cold-hearted and systematic
persecution, not of an enemy, but of one whose whole deportment
had been that of a friend and a benefactor.

From the hour that Pizarro and his followers had entered within
the sphere of Atahuallpa's influence, the hand of friendship had
been extended to them by the natives. Their first act, on
crossing the mountains, was to kidnap the monarch and massacre
his people. The seizure of his person might be vindicated, by
those who considered the end as justifying the means, on the
ground that it was indispensable to secure the triumphs of the
Cross. But no such apology can be urged for the massacre of the
unarmed and helpless population, - as wanton as it was wicked.

The long confinement of the Inca had been used by the Conquerors
to wring from him his treasures with the hard gripe of avarice.
During the whole of this dismal period, he had conducted himself
with singular generosity and good faith. He had opened a free
passage to the Spaniards through every part of his empire; and
had furnished every facility for the execution of their plans.
When these were accomplished, and he remained an encumbrance on
their hands, notwithstanding their engagement, expressed or
implied, to release him, - and Pizarro, as we have seen, by a
formal act acquitted his captive of any further obligation on the
score of the ransom, - he was arraigned before a mock tribunal,
and, under pretences equally false and frivolous, was condemned
to an excruciating death. From first to last, the policy of the
Spanish conquerors towards their unhappy victim is stamped with
barbarity and fraud.

It is not easy to acquit Pizarro of being in a great degree
responsible for this policy. His partisans have labored to show,
that it was forced on him by the necessity of the case, and that
in the death of the Inca, especially, he yielded reluctantly to
the importunities of others. *42 But weak as is this apology, the
historian who has the means of comparing the various testimony of
the period will come to a different conclusion. To him it will
appear, that Pizarro had probably long felt the removal of
Atahuallpa as essential to the success of his enterprise. He
foresaw the odium that would be incurred by the death of his
royal captive without sufficient grounds; while he labored to
establish these, he still shrunk from the responsibility of the
deed, and preferred to perpetrate it in obedience to the
suggestions of others, rather than his own. Like many an
unprincipled politician, he wished to reap the benefit of a bad
act, and let others take the blame of it.

[Footnote 42: "Contra su voluntad sentencio a muerte a
Atabalipa." (Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.) "Contra
voluntad del dicho Gobernador." (Relacion del Primer. Descub.,
Ms.) "Ancora che molto li dispiacesse di venir a questo atto."
(Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 399.) Even Oviedo
seems willing to admit it possible that Pizarro may have been
somewhat deceived by others. "Que tambien se puede creer que era
enganado." Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 22.]

Almagro and his followers are reported by Pizarro's secretaries
to have first insisted on the Inca's death. They were loudly
supported by the treasurer and the royal officers, who considered
it as indispensable to the interests of the Crown; and, finally,
the rumors of a conspiracy raised the same cry among the
soldiers, and Pizarro, with all his tenderness for his prisoner,
could not refuse to bring him to trial. - The form of a trial was
necessary to give an appearance of fairness to the proceedings.
That it was only form is evident from the indecent haste with
which it was conducted, - the examination of evidence, the
sentence, and the execution, being all on the same day. The
multiplication of the charges, designed to place the guilt of the
accused on the strongest ground, had, from their very number, the
opposite effect, proving only the determination to convict him.
If Pizarro had felt the reluctance to his conviction which he
pretended, why did he send De Soto, Atahuallpa's best friend,
away, when the inquiry was to be instituted? Why was the
sentence so summarily executed, as not to afford opportunity, by
that cavalier's return, of disproving the truth of the principal
charge, - the only one, in fact, with which the Spaniards had any
concern? The solemn farce of mourning and deep sorrow affected
by Pizarro, who by these honors to the dead would intimate the
sincere regard he had entertained for the living, was too thin a
veil to impose on the most credulous.

It is not intended by these reflections to exculpate the rest of
the army, and especially its officers, from their share in the
infamy of the transaction. But Pizarro, as commander of the
army, was mainly responsible for its measures. For he was not a
man to allow his own authority to be wrested from his grasp, or
to yield timidly to the impulses of others. He did not even
yield to his own. His whole career shows him, whether for good
or for evil, to have acted with a cool and calculating policy.
A story has been often repeated, which refers the motives of
Pizarro's conduct, in some degree at least, to personal
resentment. The Inca had requested one of the Spanish soldiers
to write the name of God on his nail. This the monarch showed to
several of his guards successively, and, as they read it, and
each pronounced the same word, the sagacious mind of the
barbarian was delighted with what seemed to him little short of a
miracle, - to which the science of his own nation afforded no
analogy. On showing the writing to Pizarro, that chief remained
silent; and the Inca, finding he could not read, conceived a
contempt for the commander who was even less informed than his
soldiers. This he did not wholly conceal, and Pizarro, aware of
the cause of it, neither forgot nor forgave it. *43 The anecdote
is reported not on the highest authority. It may be true; but it
is unnecessary to look for the motives of Pizarro's conduct in
personal pique, when so many proofs are to be discerned of a dark
and deliberate policy.

[Footnote 43: The story is to be found in Garcilasso de la Vega,
(Com. Real., Parte 2, cap. 38,) and in no other writer of the
period, so far as I am aware.]

Yet the arts of the Spanish chieftain failed to reconcile his
countrymen to the atrocity of his proceedings. It is singular to
observe the difference between the tone assumed by the first
chroniclers of the transaction, while it was yet fresh, and that
of those who wrote when the lapse of a few years had shown the
tendency of public opinion. The first boldly avow the deed as
demanded by expediency, if not necessity; while they deal in no
measured terms of reproach with the character of their
unfortunate victim. *44 The latter, on the other hand, while they
extenuate the errors of the Inca, and do justice to his good
faith, are unreserved in their condemnation of the Conquerors, on
whose conduct, they say, Heaven set the seal of its own
reprobation, by bringing them all to an untimely and miserable
end. *45 The sentence of contemporaries has been fully ratified
by that of posterity; *46 and the persecution of Atahuallpa is
regarded with justice as having left a stain, never to be
effaced, on the Spanish arms in the New World.

[Footnote 44: I have already noticed the lavish epithets heaped
by Xerez on the Inca's cruelty. This account was printed in
Spain, in 1534, the year after the execution. "The proud
tyrant," says the other secretary, Sancho, "would have repaid the
kindness and good treatment he had received from the governor and
every one of us with the same coin with which he usually paid his
own followers, without any fault on their part, - by putting them
to death." (Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 399.)
"He deserved to die," says the old Spanish Conqueror before
quoted, "and all the country was rejoiced that he was put out of
the way." Rel. d'un Capitano Spagn., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol.
377.]

[Footnote 45: "Las demostraciones que despues se vieron bien
manifiestan lo mui injusta que fue, . . . . puesto que todos
quantos entendieron en ella tuvieron despues mui desastradas
muertes." (Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms.) Gomara uses nearly the
same language. "No ai que reprehender a los que le mataron, pues
el tiempo, i sus pecados los castigaron despues; ca todos ellos
acabaron mal." (Hist. de las Ind., cap. 118.) According to the
former writer, Felipillo paid the forfeit of his crimes sometime
afterwards, - being hanged by Almagro on the expedition to Chili,
- when, as "some say, he confessed having perverted testimony
given in favor of Atahuallpa's innocence, directly against that
monarch." Oviedo, usually ready enough to excuse the excesses of
his countrymen, is unqualified in his condemnation of this whole
proceeding, (see Appendix, No. 10,) which, says another
contemporary, "fills every one with pity who has a spark of
humanity in his bosom." Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.]

[Footnote 46: The most eminent example of this is given by
Quintana in his memoir of Pizarro, (Espanoles Celebres, tom.
II.,) throughout which the writer, rising above the mists of
national prejudice, which too often blind the eyes of his
countrymen, holds the scale of historic criticism with an
impartial hand, and deals a full measure of reprobation to the
actors in these dismal scenes.]

Chapter VIII

Disorders In Peru. - March To Cuzco. - Encounter With The
Natives. - Challcuchima Burnt. - Arrival In Cuzco. - Description
Of The City. - Treasure Found There.

1533-1534.

The Inca of Peru was its sovereign in a peculiar sense. He
received an obedience from his vassals more implicit than that of
any despot; for his authority reached to the most secret conduct,
- to the thoughts of the individual. He was reverenced as more
than human. *1 He was not merely the head of the state, but the
point to which all its institutions converged, as to a common
centre, - the keystone of the political fabric, which must fall
to pieces by its own weight when that was withdrawn. So it fared
on the death of Atahuallpa. *2 His death not only left the throne
vacant, without any certain successor, but the manner of it
announced to the Peruvian people that a hand stronger than that
of their Incas had now seized the sceptre, and that the dynasty
of the Children of the Sun had passed away for ever.

[Footnote 1: "Such was the awe in which the Inca was held," says
Pizarro, "that it was only necessary for him to intimate his
commands to that effect, and a Peruvian would at once jump down a
precipice, hang himself, or put an end to his life in any way
that was prescribed." Descub. y Conq., Ms.]

[Footnote 2: Oviedo tells us, that the Inca's right name was
Atabaliva, and that the Spaniards usually misspelt it, because
they thought much more of getting treasure for themselves, than
they did of the name of the person who owned it. (Hist. de las
Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 16.) Nevertheless, I have
preferred the authority of Garcilasso, who, a Peruvian himself,
and a near kinsman of the Inca, must be supposed to have been
well informed. His countrymen, he says, pretended that the cocks
imported into Peru by the Spaniards, when they crowed, uttered
the name of Atahuallpa; "and I and the other Indian boys," adds
the historian, "when we were at school, used to mimic them." Com.
Real., Parte 1, lib. 9, cap. 23.]
The natural consequences of such a conviction followed. The
beautiful order of the ancient institutions was broken up, as the
authority which controlled it was withdrawn. The Indians broke
out into greater excesses from the uncommon restraint to which
they had been before subjected. Villages were burnt, temples and
palaces were plundered, and the gold they contained was scattered
or secreted. Gold and silver acquired an importance in the eyes
of the Peruvian, when he saw the importance attached to them by
his conquerors. The precious metals, which before served only
for purposes of state or religious decoration, were now hoarded
up and buried in caves and forests. The gold and silver
concealed by the natives were affirmed greatly to exceed in
quantity that which fell into the hands of the Spaniards. *3 The
remote provinces now shook off their allegiance to the Incas.
Their great captains, at the head of distant armies, set up for
themselves. Ruminavi, a commander on the borders of Quito,
sought to detach that kingdom from the Peruvian empire, and to
reassert its ancient independence. The country, in short, was in
that state, in which old things are passing away, and the new
order of things has not yet been established. It was in a state
of revolution.

[Footnote 3: "That which the Inca gave the Spaniards, said some
of the Indian nobles to Benalcazar, the conqueror of Quito, was
but as a kernel of corn, compared with the heap before him."
(Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8 cap. 22.) See
also Pedro Pizarro Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Relacion del Primer.
Descub., Ms.]

The authors of the revolution, Pizarro and his followers,
remained meanwhile at Caxamalca. But the first step of the
Spanish commander was to name a successor to Atahuallpa. It
would be easier to govern under the venerated authority to which
the homage of the Indians had been so long paid; and it was not
difficult to find a successor. The true heir to the crown was a
second son of Huayna Capac, named Manco, a legitimate brother of
the unfortunate Huascar. But Pizarro had too little knowledge of
the dispositions of this prince; and he made no scruple to prefer
a brother of Atahuallpa, and to present him to the Indian nobles
as their future Inca. We know nothing of the character of the
young Toparca, who probably resigned himself without reluctance
to a destiny which, however humiliating in some points of view,
was more exalted than he could have hoped to obtain in the
regular course of events. The ceremonies attending a Peruvian
coronation were observed, as well as time would allow; the brows
of the young Inca were encircled with the imperial borla by the
hands of his conqueror, and he received the homage of his Indian
vassals. They were the less reluctant to pay it, as most of
those in the camp belonged to the faction of Quito.
All thoughts were now eagerly turned towards Cuzco, of which the
most glowing accounts were circulated among the soldiers, and
whose temples and royal palaces were represented as blazing with
gold and silver. With imaginations thus excited, Pizarro and his
entire company, amounting to almost five hundred men, of whom
nearly a third, probably, were cavalry, took their departure
early in September from Caxamalca, - a place ever memorable as
the theatre of some of the most strange and sanguinary scenes
recorded in history. All set forward in high spirits, - the
soldiers of Pizarro from the expectation of doubling their
present riches, and Almagro's followers from the prospect of
sharing equally in the spoil with "the first conquerors." *4 The
young Inca and the old chief Challcuchima accompanied the march
in their litters, attended by a numerous retinue of vassals, and
moving in as much state and ceremony as if in the possession of
real power. *5