The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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While the governor, as we are henceforth to style him, lay at
Cuzco, he received repeated accounts of a considerable force in
the neighbourhood, under the command of Atahuallpa's officer,
Quizquiz. He accordingly detached Almagro, with a small body of
horse and a large Indian force under the Inca Manco to disperse
the enemy, and, if possible, to capture their leader. Manco was
the more ready to take part in the expedition, as the enemy were
soldiers of Quito, who, with their commander, bore no good-will
to himself.
Almagro, moving with his characteristic rapidity, was not long in
coming up with the Indian chieftain. Several sharp encounters
followed, as the army of Quito fell back on Xauxa, near which a
general engagement decided the fate of the war by the total
discomfiture of the natives. Quizquiz fled to the elevated plains
of Quito, where he still held out with undaunted spirit against a
Spanish force in that quarter, till at length his own soldiers,
wearied by these long and ineffectual hostilities, massacred
their commander in cold blood. *9 Thus fell the last of the two
great officers of Atahuallpa, who, if their nation had been
animated by a spirit equal to their own, might long have
successfully maintained their soil against the invader.

[Footnote 9: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Naharro,
Relacion Sumaria, Ms. - Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte
3, lib. 8, cap. 20. - Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap Ramusio, tom. III.
fol. 408. - Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.]

Some time before this occurrence, the Spanish governor, while in
Cuzco, received tidings of an event much more alarming to him
than any Indian hostilities. This was the arrival on the coast
of a strong Spanish force, under command of Don Pedro de
Alvarado, the gallant officer who had served under Cortes with
such renown in the war of Mexico. That cavalier, after forming a
brilliant alliance in Spain, to which he was entitled by his
birth and military rank, had returned to his government of
Guatemala, where his avarice had been roused by the magnificent
reports he daily received of Pizarro's conquests. These
conquests, he learned, had been confined to Peru; while the
northern kingdom of Quito, the ancient residence of Atahuallpa,
and, no doubt, the principal depository of his treasures, yet
remained untouched. Affecting to consider this country as falling
without the governor's jurisdiction, he immediately turned a
large fleet, which he had intended for the Spice Islands, in the
direction of South America; and in March, 1534, he landed in the
bay of Caraques, with five hundred followers, of whom half were
mounted, and all admirably provided with arms and ammunition. It
was the best equipped and most formidable array that had yet
appeared in the southern seas. *10

[Footnote 10: The number is variously reported by historians.
But from a egal investigation made in Guatemala, it appears that
the whole force amounted to 500, of which 230 were cavalry. -
Informacion echa en Santiago, Set. 15, 1536 Ms.]

Although manifestly an invasion of the territory conceded to
Pizarro by the Crown, the reckless cavalier determined to march
at once on Quito. With the assistance of an Indian guide, he
proposed to take the direct route across the mountains, a passage
of exceeding difficulty, even at the most favorable season.

After crossing the Rio Dable, Alvarado's guide deserted him, so
that he was soon entangled in the intricate mazes of the sierra;
and, as he rose higher and higher into the regions of winter, he
became surrounded with ice and snow, for which his men taken from
the warm countries of Guatemala, were but ill prepared. As the
cold grew more intense, many of them were so benumbed, that it
was with difficulty they could proceed. The infantry, compelled
to make exertions, fared best. Many of the troopers were frozen
stiff in their saddles. The Indians, still more sensible to the
cold, perished by hundreds. As the Spaniards huddled round their
wretched bivouacs, with such scanty fuel as they could glean, and
almost without food, they waited in gloomy silence the approach
of morning. Yet the morning light, which gleamed coldly on the
cheerless waste, brought no joy to them. It only revealed more
clearly the extent of their wretchedness. Still struggling on
through the winding Puertos Nevados, or Snowy Passes, their track
was dismally marked by fragments of dress, broken harness, golden
ornaments, and other valuables plundered on their march, - by the
dead bodies of men, or by those less fortunate, who were left to
die alone in the wilderness. As for the horses, their carcasses
were not suffered long to cumber the ground, as they were quickly
seized and devoured half raw by the starving soldiers, who, like
the famished condors, now hovering in troops above their heads,
greedily banqueted on the most offensive offal to satisfy the
gnawings of hunger.
Alvarado, anxious to secure the booty which had fallen into his
hands at an earlier part of his march, encouraged every man to
take what gold he wanted from the common heap, reserving only the
royal fifth. But they only answered, with a ghastly smile of
derision, "that food was the only gold for them." Yet in this
extremity, which might seem to have dissolved the very ties of
nature, there are some affecting instances recorded of
self-devotion; of comrades who lost their lives in assisting
others, and of parents and husbands (for some of the cavaliers
were accompanied by their wives) who, instead of seeking their
own safety, chose to remain and perish in the snows with the
objects of their love.

To add to their distress, the air was filled for several days
with thick clouds of earthy particles and cinders, which blinded
the men, and made respiration exceedingly difficult. *11 This
phenomenon, it seems probable, was caused by an eruption of the
distant Cotopaxi, which, about twelve leagues southeast of Quito,
rears up its colossal and perfectly symmetrical cone far above
the limits of eternal snow, - the most beautiful and the most
terrible of the American volcanoes. *12 At the time of Alvarado's
expedition, it was in a state of eruption, the earliest instance
of the kind on record, though doubtless not the earliest. *13
Since that period, it has been in frequent commotion, sending up
its sheets of flame to the height of half a mile, spouting forth
cataracts of lava that have overwhelmed towns and villages in
their career, and shaking the earth with subterraneous thunders,
that, at the distance of more than a hundred leagues, sounded
like the reports of artillery! *14 Alvarado's followers,
unacquainted with the cause of the phenomenon, as they wandered
over tracts buried in snow, - the sight of which was strange to
them, - in an atmosphere laden with ashes, became bewildered by
this confusion of the elements, which Nature seemed to have
contrived purposely for their destruction. Some of these men
were the soldiers of Cortes, steeled by many a painful march, and
many a sharp encounter with the Aztecs. But this war of the
elements, they now confessed, was mightier than all.

[Footnote 11: "It began to rain earthy particles from the
heavens," says Oviedo, "that blinded the men and horses, so that
the trees and bushes were full of dirt." Hist. de las Indias,
Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 20.]

[Footnote 12: Garcilasso says the shower of ashes came from the
"volcano of Quito." (Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 2, cap. 2.) Cieza
de Leon only says from one of the volcanoes in that region.
(Cronica, cap. 41.) Neither of them specify the name. Humboldt
accepts the common opinion, that Cotopaxi was intended.
Researches, I. 123.]

[Footnote 13: A popular tradition among the natives states, that
a large fragment of porphyry near the base of the cone was thrown
out in an eruption, which occurred at the moment of Atahuallpa's
death. - But such tradition will hardly pass for history.]

[Footnote 14: A minute account of this formidable mountain is
given by M. de Humboldt, (Researches, I. 118, et seq.,) and more
circumstantially by Condamine. (Voyage a l'Equateur, pp. 48 - 56
156 - 160.) The latter philosopher would have attempted to scale
the almost perpendicular walls of the volcano, but no one was
hardy enough to second him.]

At length, Alvarado, after sufferings, which even the most hardy,
probably, could have endured but a few days longer, emerged from
the Snowy Pass, and came on the elevated table-land, which
spreads out, at the height of more than nine thousand feet above
the ocean, in the neighbourhood of Riobamba. But one fourth of
his gallant army had been left to feed the condor in the
wilderness, besides the greater part, at least two thousand, of
his Indian auxiliaries. A great number of his horses, too, had
perished; and the men and horses that escaped were all of them
more or less injured by the cold and the extremity of suffering.
- Such was the terrible passage of the Puertos Nevados, which I
have only briefly noticed as an episode to the Peruvian conquest,
but the account of which, in all its details, though it occupied
but a few weeks in duration, would give one a better idea of the
difficulties encountered by the Spanish cavaliers, than volumes
of ordinary narrative. *15

[Footnote 15: By far the most spirited and thorough record of
Alvarado's march is given by Herrera, who has borrowed the pen of
Livy describing the Alpine march of Hannibal. (Hist. General,
dec. 5, lib. 6, cap. 1, 2, 7, 8, 9.) See also Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., Ms., - Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte
3, lib. 8, cap. 20, - and Carta de Pedro de Alvarado al
Emperador, San Miguel, 15 de Enero, 1535, Ms.

Alvarado, in the letter above cited, which is preserved in the
Munoz collection, explains to the Emperor the grounds of his
expedition, with no little effrontery. In this document he
touches very briefly on the march, being chiefly occupied by the
negotiations with Almagro, and accompanying his remarks with many
dark suggestions as to the policy pursued by the Conquerors]

As Alvarado, after halting some time to restore his exhausted
troops, began his march across the broad plateau, he was
astonished by seeing the prints of horses' hoofs on the soil.
Spaniards, then, had been there before him, and, after all his
toil and suffering, others had forestalled him in the enterprise
against Quito! It is necessary to say a few words in explanation
of this.

When Pizarro quitted Caxamalca, being sensible of the growing
importance of San Miguel, the only port of entry then in the
country, he despatched a person in whom he had great confidence
to take charge of it. This person was Sebastian Benalcazar, a
cavalier who afterwards placed his name in the first rank of the
South American conquerors, for courage, capacity, - and cruelty.
But this cavalier had hardly reached his government, when, like
Alvarado, he received such accounts of the riches of Quito, that
he determined, with the force at his command, though without
orders, to undertake its reduction.

At the head of about a hundred and forty soldiers, horse and
foot, and a stout body of Indian auxiliaries, he marched up the
broad range of the Andes, to where it spreads out into the
table-land of Quito, by a road safer and more expeditious than
that taken by Alvarado. On the plains of Riobamba, he
encountered the Indian general Ruminavi. Several engagements
followed, with doubtful success, when, in the end, science
prevailed where courage was well matched, and the victorious
Benalcazar planted the standard of Castile on the ancient towers
of Atahuallpa. The city, in honor of his general, Francis
Pizarro, he named San Francisco del Quito. But great was his
mortification on finding that either the stories of its riches
had been fabricated, or that these riches were secreted by the
natives. The city was all that he gained by his victories, - the
shell without the pearl of price which gave it its value. While
devouring his chagrin, as he best could, the Spanish captain
received tidings of the approach of his superior, Almagro. *16

[Footnote 16: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Herrera,
Hist. General, dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 11, 18; lib. 6, cap. 5, 6. -
Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 19. -
Carta de Benalcazar, Ms.]

No sooner had the news of Alvarado's expedition reached Cuzco,
than Almagro left the place with a small force for San Miguel,
proposing to strengthen himself by a reinforcement from that
quarter, and to march at once against the invaders. Greatly was
he astonished, on his arrival in that city, to learn the
departure of its commander. Doubting the loyalty of his motives,
Almagro, with the buoyancy of spirit which belongs to youth,
though in truth somewhat enfeebled by the infirmities of age, did
not hesitate to follow Benalcazar at once across the mountains.
With his wonted energy, the intrepid veteran, overcoming all the
difficulties of his march, in a few weeks placed himself and his
little company on the lofty plains which spread around the Indian
city of Riobamba; though in his progress he had more than one hot
encounter with the natives, whose courage and perseverance formed
a contrast sufficiently striking to the apathy of the Peruvians.
But the fire only slumbered in the bosom of the Peruvian. His
hour had not yet come.

At Riobamba, Almagro was soon joined by the commander of San
Miguel, who disclaimed, perhaps sincerely, any disloyal intent in
his unauthorized expedition. Thus reinforced, the Spanish
captain coolly awaited the coming of Alvarado. The forces of the
latter, though in a less serviceable condition, were much
superior in number and appointments to those of his rival. As
they confronted each other on the broad plains of Riobamba, it
seemed probable that a fierce struggle must immediately follow,
and the natives of the country have the satisfaction to see their
wrongs avenged by the very hands that inflicted them. But it was
Almagro's policy to avoid such an issue.

Negotiations were set on foot, in which each party stated his
claims to the country. Meanwhile Alvarado's men mingled freely
with their countrymen in the opposite army, and heard there such
magnificent reports of the wealth and wonders of Cuzco, that many
of them were inclined to change their present service for that of
Pizarro. Their own leader, too, satisfied that Quito held out no
recompense worth the sacrifices he had made, and was like to
make, by insisting on his claim, became now more sensible of the
rashness of a course which must doubtless incur the censure of
his sovereign. In this temper, it was not difficult for them to
effect an adjustment of difficulties; and it was agreed, as the
basis of it, that the governor should pay one hundred thousand
pesos de oro to Alvarado, in consideration of which the latter
was to resign to him his fleet, his forces, and all his stores
and munitions. His vessels, great and small, amounted to twelve
in number, and the sum he received, though large, did not cover
his expenses. This treaty being settled, Alvarado proposed,
before leaving the country, to have an interview with Pizarro.
*17

[Footnote 17: Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms. - Naharro, Relacion
Sumaria, Ms. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Herrera,
Hist. General, dec. 5, lib. 6, cap. 8 - 10. - Oviedo, Hist. de
las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap 20. - Carta de Benalcazar,
Ms.

The amount of the bonus paid to Alvarado is stated very
differently by writers. But both that cavalier and Almagro, in
their letters to the Emperor, which have hitherto been unknown to
historians, agree in the sum given in the text. Alvarado
complains that he had no choice but to take it, although it was
greatly to his own loss, and, by defeating his expedition, as he
modestly intimates, to the loss of the Crown. (Carta de Alvarado
al Emperador, Ms.) - Almagro, however, states that the sum paid
was three times as much as the armament was worth; "a sacrifice,"
he adds, "which he made to preserve peace, never dear at any
price." - Strange sentiment for a Castilian conqueror! Carta de
Diego de Almagro al Emperador, Ms., Oct. 15, 1534.]

The governor, meanwhile, had quitted the Peruvian capital for the
sea-coast, from his desire to repel any invasion that might be
attempted in that direction by Alvarado, with whose real
movements he was still unacquainted. He left Cuzco in charge of
his brother Juan, a cavalier whose manners were such as, he
thought, would be likely to gain the good-will of the native
population. Pizarro also left ninety of his troops, as the
garrison of the capital, and the nucleus of his future colony.
Then, taking the Inca Manco with him, he proceeded as far as
Xauxa. At this place he was entertained by the Indian prince
with the exhibition of a great national hunt, - such as has been
already described in these pages, - in which immense numbers of
wild animals were slaughtered, and the vicunas, and other races
of Peruvian sheep, which roam over the mountains, driven into
inclosures and relieved of their delicate fleeces. *18

[Footnote 18: Carta de la Just. y Reg. de Xauja, Ms. - Relacion
del Primer. Descub., Ms. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 5, lib.
6, cap. 16. - Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1534.

At this place, the author of the Relacion del Primer
Descubrimiento del Peru, the Ms. so often quoted in these pages,
abruptly terminates his labors. He is a writer of sense and
observation; and, though he has his share of the national
tendency to exaggerate and overcolor, he writes like one who
means to be honest, and who has seen what he describes.

At Xauxa, also, the notary Pedro Sancho ends his Relacion, which
embraces a much shorter period than the preceding narrative, but
which is equally authentic. Coming from the secretary of
Pizarro, and countersigned by that general himself, this
Relation, indeed, may be regarded as of the very highest
authority. And yet large deductions must obviously be made for
the source whence it springs; for it may be taken as Pizarro's
own account of his doings, some of which stood much in need of
apology. It must be added, in justice both to the general and to
his secretary, that the Relation does not differ substantially
from other contemporary accounts, and that the attempt to varnish
over the exceptionable passages in the conduct of the Conquerors
is not obtrusive.

For the publication of this journal, we are indebted to Ramusio,
whose enlightened labors have preserved to us more than one
contemporary production of value, though in the form of
translation]

The Spanish governor then proceeded to Pachacamac, where he
received the grateful intelligence of the accommodation with
Alvarado; and not long afterward he was visited by that cavalier
himself, previously to his embarkation.

The meeting was conducted with courtesy and a show, at least, of
good-will, on both sides, as there was no longer real cause for
jealousy between the parties; and each, as may be imagined,
looked on the other with no little interest, as having achieved
such distinction in the bold path of adventure. In the
comparison, Alvarado had somewhat the advantage; for Pizarro,
though of commanding presence, had not the brilliant exterior,
the free and joyous manner, which, no less than his fresh
complexion and sunny locks, had won for the conqueror of
Guatemala, in his campaigns against the Aztecs, the sobriquet of
Tonatiuh, or "Child of the Sun."

Blithe were the revels that now rang through the ancient city of
Pachacamac; where, instead of songs, and of the sacrifices so
often seen there in honor of the Indian deity, the walls echoed
to the noise of tourneys and Moorish tilts of reeds, with which
the martial adventurers loved to recall the sports of their
native land. When these were concluded, Alvarado reembarked for
his government of Guatemala, where his restless spirit soon
involved him in other enterprises that cut short his adventurous
career. His expedition to Peru was eminently characteristic of
the man. It was founded in injustice, conducted with rashness,
and ended in disaster. *19

[Footnote 19: Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms. - Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Carta Francisco Pizarro al Senor de
Molina, Ms.

Alvarado died in 1541, of an injury received from a horse which
rolled down on him as he was attempting to scale a precipitous
hill in New Galicia. In the same year, by a singular coincidence,
perished his beautiful wife, at her own residence in Guatemala,
which was overwhelmed by a torrent from the adjacent mountains.]

The reduction of Peru might now be considered as, in a manner,
accomplished. Some barbarous tribes in the interior, it is true,
still held out, and Alonso de Alvarado, a prudent and able
officer, was employed to bring them into subjection. Benalcazar
was still at Quito, of which he was subsequently appointed
governor by the Crown. There he was laying deeper the foundation
of the Spanish power, while he advanced the line of conquest
still higher towards the north. But Cuzco, the ancient capital
of the Indian monarchy, had submitted. The armies of Atahuallpa
had been beaten and scattered. The empire of the Incas was
dissolved; and the prince who now wore the Peruvian diadem was
but the shadow of a king, who held his commission from his
conqueror.

The first act of the governor was to determine on the site of the
future capital of this vast colonial empire. Cuzco, withdrawn
among the mountains, was altogether too far removed from the
sea-coast for a commercial people. The little settlement of San
Miguel lay too far to the north. It was desirable to select some
more central position, which could be easily found in one of the
fruitful valleys that bordered the Pacific. Such was that of
Pachacamac, which Pizarro now occupied. But, on further
examination, he preferred the neighbouring valley of Rimac, which
lay to the north, and which took its name, signifying in the
Quichua tongue "one who speaks," from a celebrated idol, whose
shrine was much frequented by the Indians for the oracles it
delivered. Through the valley flowed a broad stream, which, like
a great artery, was made, as usual by the natives, to supply a
thousand finer veins that meandered through the beautiful
meadows.

On this river Pizarro fixed the site of his new capital, at
somewhat less than two leagues' distance from its mouth, which
expanded into a commodious haven for the commerce that the
prophetic eye of the founder saw would one day - and no very
distant one - float on its waters. The central situation of the
spot recommended it as a suitable residence for the Peruvian
viceroy, whence he might hold easy communication with the
different parts of the country, and keep vigilant watch over his
Indian vassals. The climate was delightful, and, though only
twelve degrees south of the line, was so far tempered by the cool
breezes that generally blow from the Pacific, or from the
opposite quarter down the frozen sides of the Cordilleras, that
the heat was less than in corresponding latitudes on the
continent. It never rained on the coast; but this dryness was
corrected by a vaporous cloud, which, through the summer months,
hung like a curtain over the valley, sheltering it from the rays
of a tropical sun, and imperceptibly distilling a refreshing
moisture, that clothed the fields in the brightest verdure.

The name bestowed on the infant capital was Ciudad de los Reyes,
or City of the Kings, in honor of the day, being the sixth of
January, 1535, - the festival of Epiphany, - when it was said to
have been founded, or more probably when its site was determined,
as its actual foundation seems to have been twelve days later.
*20 But the Castilian name ceased to be used even within the
first generation, and was supplanted by that of Lima, into which
the original Indian name of Rimac was corrupted by the Spaniards.
*21

[Footnote 20: So says Quintana, who follows in this what he
pronounces a sure authority, Father Bernabe Cobo, in his book
entitled Fundacion de Lima. Espanoles Celebres, tom. II. p. 250,
nota.]

[Footnote 21: The Mss. of the old Conquerors show how, from the
very first, the name of Lima superseded the original Indian
title. "Y el marquez se passo a Lima y fundo la ciudad de los
rreyes que agora es." (Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.)
"Asimismo ordenaron que se pasasen el pueblo que tenian en Xauxa
poblado a este Valle de Lima donde agora es esta ciudad de los i
aqui se poblo." Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.]

The city was laid out on a very regular plan. The streets were
to be much wider than usual in Spanish towns, and perfectly
straight, crossing one another at right angles, and so far
asunder as to afford ample space for gardens to the dwellings,
and for public squares. It was arranged in a triangular form,
having the river for its base, the waters of which were to be
carried, by means of stone conduits, through all the principal
streets, affording facilities for irrigating the grounds around
the houses.
No sooner had the governor decided on the site and on the plan of
the city, than he commenced operations with his characteristic
energy. The Indians were collected from the distance of more
than a hundred miles to aid in the work. The Spaniards applied
themselves with vigor to the task, under the eye of their chief.
The sword was exchanged for the tool of the artisan. The camp was
converted into a hive of diligent laborers; and the sounds of war
were succeeded by the peaceful hum of a busy population. The
plaza, which was extensive, was to be surrounded by the
cathedral, the palace of the viceroy, that of the municipality,
and other public buildings; and their foundations were laid on a
scale, and with a solidity, which defied the assaults of time,
and, in some instances, even the more formidable shock of
earthquakes, that, at different periods, have laid portions of
the fair capital in ruins. *22