The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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Among those who left the capital was Diego, the son of Almagro.
Hernando was mindful to send him, with a careful escort, to his
brother the governor, desirous to remove him at this crisis from
the neighbourhood of his father. Meanwhile the marshal himself
was pining away in prison under the combined influence of bodily
illness and distress of mind. Before the battle of Salinas, it
had been told to Hernando Pizarro that Almagro was like to die.
"Heaven forbid," he exclaimed, "that this should come to pass
before he falls into my hands!" *16 Yet the gods seemed now
disposed to grant but half of this pious prayer, since his
captive seemed about to escape him just as he had come into his
power. To console the unfortunate chief, Hernando paid him a
visit in his prison, and cheered him with the assurance that he
only waited for the governor's arrival to set him at liberty;
adding, 'that, if Pizarro did not come soon to the capital, he
himself would assume the responsibility of releasing him, and
would furnish him with a conveyance to his brother's quarters."
At the same time, with considerate attention to his comfort, he
inquired of the marshal "what mode of conveyance would be best
suited to his state of health." After this he continued to send
him delicacies from his own table to revive his faded appetite.
Almagro, cheered by these kind attentions, and by the speedy
prospect of freedom, gradually mended in health and spirits. *17

[Footnote 16: "Respondia Hernando Pizarro, que no le haria Dios
tan gran mal, que le dexase morir, sin que le huviese a las
manos." Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6 lib. 4, cap. 5.]

[Footnote 17: Ibid., dec. 6, lib. 4, cap. 9.]

He little dreamed that all this while a process was industriously
preparing against him. It had been instituted immediately on his
capture, and every one, however humble, who had any cause of
complaint against the unfortunate prisoner, was invited to
present it. The summons was readily answered; and many an enemy
now appeared in the hour of his fallen fortunes, like the base
reptiles crawling into light amidst the ruins of some noble
edifice; and more than one, who had received benefits from his
hands, were willing to court the favor of his enemy by turning on
their benefactor. From these loath some sources a mass of
accusations was collected which spread over four thousand folio
pages! Yet Almagro was the idol of his soldiers! *18
[Footnote 18: "De tal manera que los Escrivanos no se davan
manos, i ia tenian oscritas mas de dos mil hojas." Ibid., dec. 6,
lib. 4, cap. 7.
Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms. - Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms. -
Carta de Gutierrez, Ms. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. -
Carta de Espinall, Ms.]
Having completed the process, (July 8th, 1538,) it was not
difficult to obtain a verdict against the prisoner. The
principal charges on which he was pronounced guilty were those of
levying war against the Crown, and thereby occasioning the death
of many of his Majesty's subjects; of entering into conspiracy
with the Inca; and finally, of dispossessing the royal governor
of the city of Cuzco. On these charges he was condemned to
suffer death as a traitor, by being publicly beheaded in the
great square of the city. Who were the judges, or what was the
tribunal that condemned him, we are not informed. Indeed, the
whole trial was a mockery; if that can be called a trial, where
the accused himself is not even aware of the accusation.

The sentence was communicated by a friar deputed for the purpose
to Almagro. The unhappy man, who all the while had been
unconsciously slumbering on the brink of a precipice, could not
at first comprehend the nature of his situation. Recovering from
the first shock, "It was impossible," he said, "that such wrong
could be done him, - he would not believe it." He then besought
Hernando Pizarro to grant him an interview. That cavalier, not
unwilling, it would seem, to witness the agony of his captive,
consented; and Almagro was so humbled by his misfortunes, that he
condescended to beg for his life with the most piteous
supplications. He reminded Hernando of his ancient relations
with his brother, and the good offices he had rendered him and
his family in the earlier part of their career. He touched on
his acknowledged services to his country, and besought his enemy
"to spare his gray hairs, and not to deprive him of the shore
remnant of an existence from which he had now nothing more to
fear." - To this the other coldly replied, that "he was surprised
to see Almagro demean himself in a manner so unbecoming a brave
cavalier; that his fate was no worse than had befallen many a
soldier before him; and that, since God had given him the grace
to be a Christian, he should employ his remaining moments in
making up his account with Heaven!" *19
[Footnote 19: "I que pues tuvo tanta gracia de Dios, que le hico
Christiano, ordenase su Alma, i temiese a Dios." Herrera, Hist.
General, dec. 6, lib. 5, cap. 1.]

But Almagro was not to be silenced. He urged the service he had
rendered Hernando himself. "This was a hard requital," he said,
"for having spared his life so recently under similar
circumstances, and that, too, when he had been urged again and
again by those around him to take it away." And he concluded by
menacing his enemy with the vengeance of the emperor, who would
never suffer this outrage on one who had rendered such signal
services to the Crown to go unrequited. It was all in vain; and
Hernando abruptly closed the conference by repeating, that "his
doom was inevitable, and he must prepare to meet it." *20
[Footnote 20: Ibid., ubi supra.

The marshal appealed from the sentence of his judges to the
Crown, supplicating his conqueror, (says the treasurer Espinall,
in his letter to the emperor,) in terms that would have touched
the heart of an infidel. "De la qual el dicho Adelantado apelo
para ante V. M. i le rogo que por amor de Dios hincado de
rodillas le otorgase el apelacion, diciendole que mirase sus
canas e vejez e quanto havia servido a V. M. i qe el havia sido
el primer escalon para que el 1 sus hermanos subiesen en el
estado en que estavan, i diciendole otras muchas palabras de
dolor e compasion que despues de muerto supe que dixo, que a
qualquier hombre, aunque fuera infiel, moviera a piedad." Carta,
Ms.]

Almagro, finding that no impression was to be made on his
iron-hearted conqueror, now seriously addressed himself to the
settlement of his affairs. By the terms of the royal grant he
was empowered to name his successor. He accordingly devolved his
office on his son, appointing Diego de Alvarado, on whose
integrity he had great reliance, administrator of the province
during his minority. All his property and possessions in Peru,
of whatever kind, he devised to his master the emperor, assuring
him that a large balance was still due to him in his unsettled
accounts with Pizarro. By this politic bequest, he hoped to
secure the monarch's protection for his son, as well as a strict
scrutiny into the affairs of his enemy.

The knowledge of Almagro's sentence produced a deep sensation in
the community of Cuzco. All were amazed at the presumption with
which one, armed with a little brief authority, ventured to sit
in judgment on a person of Almagro's station. There were few who
did not call to mind some generous or good-natured act of the
unfortunate veteran. Even those who had furnished materials for
the accusation, now startled by the tragic result to which it was
to lead, were heard to denounce Hernando's conduct as that of a
tyrant. Some of the principal cavaliers, and among them Diego de
Alvarado, to whose intercession, as we have seen Hernando
Pizarro, when a captive, had owed his own life, waited on that
commander, and endeavoured to dissuade him from so high-handed
and atrocious a proceeding. It was in vain. But it had the
effect of changing the mode of execution, which, instead of the
public square, was now to take place in prison. *21

[Footnote 21: Carta de Espinall, Ms. - Montesinos, Annales, Ms.,
ano 1538.
Bishop Valverde, as he assures the emperor, remonstrated with
Francisco Pizarro in Lima, against allowing violence towards the
marshal; urging it on him, as an imperative duty, to go himself
at once to Cuzco, and set him at liberty. "It was too grave a
matter," he rightly added, "to trust to a third party." (Carta al
Emperador, Ms.) The treasurer Espinall, then in Cuzco, made a
similar ineffectual attempt to turn Hernando from his purpose.]

On the day appointed, a strong corps of arquebusiers was drawn up
in the plaza. The guards were doubled over the houses were dwelt
the principal partisans of Almagro. The executioner, attended by
a priest, stealthily entered his prison; and the unhappy man,
after confessing and receiving the sacrament, submitted without
resistance to the garrote. Thus obscurely, in the gloomy silence
of a dungeon, perished the hero of a hundred battles! His corpse
was removed to the great square of the city, where, in obedience
to the sentence, the head was severed from the body. A herald
proclaimed aloud the nature of the crimes for which he had
suffered; and his remains, rolled in their bloody shroud, were
borne to the house of his friend Hernan Ponce de Leon, and the
next day laid with all due solemnity in the church of Our Lady of
Mercy. The Pizarros appeared among the principal mourners. It
was remarked, that their brother had paid similar honors to the
memory of Atahuallpa. *22
[Footnote 22: Carta de Espinall, Ms. - Herrera, Hist. General,
loc. cit. - Carta de Valverde al Emperador, Ms. - Carta de
Gutierrez, Ms. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. -
Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1538.
The date of Almagro's execution is not given; a strange omission;
but of little moment, as that event must have followed soon on
the condemnation.]

Almagro, at the time of his death, was probably not far from
seventy years of age. But this is somewhat uncertain; for
Almagro was a foundling, and his early history is lost in
obscurity. *23 He had many excellent qualities by nature; and his
defects, which were not few, may reasonably be palliated by the
circumstances of his situation. For what extenuation is not
authorized by the position of a foundling, - without parents, or
early friends, or teacher to direct him, - his little bark set
adrift on the ocean of life, to take its chance among the rude
billows and breakers, without one friendly hand stretched forth
to steer or to save it! The name of "foundling" comprehends an
apology for much, very much, that is wrong in after life. *24

[Footnote 23: Ante, vol. I. p. 207.]

[Footnote 24: Montesinos, for want of a better pedigree, says, -
"He was the son of his own great deeds, and such has been the
parentage of many a famous hero!" (Annales, Ms., ano 1538.) It
would go hard with a Castilian, if he could not make out
something like a genealogy, - however shadowy.]
He was a man of strong passions, and not too well used to control
them. *25 But he was neither vindictive nor habitually cruel. I
have mentioned one atrocious outrage which he committed on the
natives. But insensibility to the rights of the Indian he shared
with many a better-instructed Spaniard. Yet the Indians, after
his conviction, bore testimony to his general humanity, by
declaring that they had no such friend among the white men. *26
Indeed, far from being vindictive, he was placable, and easily
yielded to others. The facility with which he yielded, the
result of good-natured credulity, made him too often the dupe of
the crafty; and it showed, certainly, a want of that
self-reliance which belongs to great strength of character. Yet
his facility of temper, and the generosity of his nature, made
him popular with his followers. No commander was ever more
beloved by his soldiers. His generosity was often carried to
prodigality. When he entered on the campaign of Chili, he lent a
hundred thousand gold ducats to the poorer cavaliers to equip
themselves, and afterwards gave them up the debt. *27 He was
profuse to ostentation. But his extravagance did him no harm
among the roving spirits of the camp, with whom prodigality is
apt to gain more favor than a strict and well-regulated economy.

[Footnote 25: "Hera vn hombre muy profano, de muy mala lengua,
que en enojandose tratava muy mal a todos los que con el andavan
aunque fuesen cavalleros. "(Descub. y Conq., Ms.) It is the
portrait drawn by an enemy.]

[Footnote 26: "Los Indios lloraban amargamente, diciendo, que de
el nunca recibieron mal tratamiento." Herrera, Hist. General,
dec. 6, lib. 5, cap. 1.]

[Footnote 27: If we may credit Herrera, he distributed a hundred
and eighty roads of silver and twenty of gold among his
followers! "Mando sacar de su Posada mas de ciento i ochenta
cargas de Plata i veinte de Oro, i las repartio." (Dec. 5, lib.
7, cap. 9.) A load was what a man could easily carry. Such a
statement taxes our credulity, but it is difficult to set the
proper limits to one's credulity, in what relates to this land of
gold.]
He was a good soldier, careful and judicious in his plans,
patient and intrepid in their execution. His body was covered
with the scars of his battles, till the natural plainness of his
person was converted almost into deformity. He must not be
judged by his closing campaign, when, depressed by disease, he
yielded to the superior genius of his rival; but by his numerous
expeditions by land and by water for the conquest of Peru and the
remote Chili. Yet it may be doubted whether he possessed those
uncommon qualities, either as a warrior or as a man, that, in
ordinary circumstances, would have raised him to distinction. He
was one of the three, or, to speak more strictly, of the two
associates, who had the good fortune and the glory to make one of
the most splendid discoveries in the Western World. He shares
largely in the credit of this with Pizarro; for, when he did not
accompany that leader in his perilous expeditions, he contributed
no less to their success by his exertions in the colonies.

Yet his connection with that chief can hardly be considered a
fortunate circumstance in his career. A partnership between
individuals for discovery and conquest is not likely to be very
scrupulously observed, especially by men more accustomed to
govern others than to govern themselves. If causes for discord
do not arise before, they will be sure to spring up on division
of the spoil. But this association was particularly
ill-assorted. For the free, sanguine, and confiding temper of
Almagro was no match for the cool and crafty policy of Pizarro;
and he was invariably circumvented by his companion, whenever
their respective interests came in collision.

Still the final ruin of Almagro may be fairly imputed to himself.
He made two capital blunders. The first was his appeal to arms
by the seizure of Cuzco. The determination of a boundary-line
was not to be settled by arms. It was a subject for arbitration;
and, if arbitrators could not be trusted, it should have been
referred to the decision of the Crown. But, having once appealed
to arms, he should not then have resorted to negotiation, - above
all, to negotiation with Pizarro. This was his second and
greatest error. He had seen enough of Pizarro to know that he
was not to be trusted. Almagro did trust him, and he paid for it
with his life.

Chapter III

Pizarro Revisits Cuzco. - Hernando Returns To Castile. - His long
Imprisonment. - Commissioner Sent To Peru. - Hostilities With The
Inca. -Pizarro's Active Administration. - Gonzalo Pizarro.

1539-1540.

On the departure of his brother in pursuit of Almagro, the
Marquess Francisco Pizarro, as we have seen, returned to Lima.
There he anxiously awaited the result of the campaign; and on
receiving the welcome tidings of the victory of Las Salinas, he
instantly made preparations for his march to Cuzco. At Xauxa,
however, he was long detained by the distracted state of the
country, and still longer, as it would seem, by a reluctance to
enter the Peruvian capital while the trial of Almagro was
pending.

He was met at Xauxa by the marshal's son Diego, who had been sent
to the coast by Hernando Pizarro. The young man was filled with
the most gloomy apprehensions respecting his father's fate, and
he besought the governor not to allow his brother to do him any
violence. Pizarro, who received Diego with much apparent
kindness, bade him take heart, as no harm should come to his
father; *1 adding, that he trusted their ancient friendship would
soon be renewed. The youth, comforted by these assurances, took
his way to Lima, where, by Pizarro's orders, he was received into
his house, and treated as a son.

[Footnote 1: "I dixo, que no tuviese ninguna pena, porque no
consentiria, que su Padre fuese muerto." Herrera, Hist. General,
dec. 6, lib. 6, cap. 3.]
The same assurances respecting the marshal's safety were given by
the governor to Bishop Valverde, and some of the principal
cavaliers who interested themselves in behalf of the prisoner. *2
Still Pizarro delayed his march to the capital; and when he
resumed it, he had advanced no farther than the Rio de Abancay
when he received tidings of the death of his rival. He appeared
greatly shocked by the intelligence, his whole frame was
agitated, and he remained for some time with his eyes bent on the
ground, showing signs of strong emotion. *3

[Footnote 2: "Que lo haria asi como lo decia, i que su de seo no
era otro, sino ver el Reino en paz; i que en lo que tocaba al
Adelantado, perdiese cuidado, que bolveria a tener el antigua
amistad con el." Ibid., dec. 6, lib. 4, cap. 9.]

[Footnote 3: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.

He even shed many tears, derramo muchas lagrimas, according to
Herrera, who evidently gives him small credit for them. Ibid.,
dec. 6, lib. 6, cap. 7. - Conf. lib 5 cap. 1.]

Such is the account given by his friends. A more probable
version of the matter represents him to have been perfectly aware
of the state of things at Cuzco. When the trial was concluded,
it is said he received a message from Hernando, inquiring what
was to be done with the prisoner. He answered in a few words: -
"Deal with him so that he shall give us no more trouble." *4 It
is also stated that Hernando, afterwards, when laboring under the
obloquy caused by Almagro's death, shielded himself under
instructions affirmed to have been received from the governor. *5
It is quite certain, that, during his long residence at Xauxa,
the latter was in constant communication with Cuzco; and that had
he, as Valverde repeatedly urged him, *6 quickened his march to
that capital, he might easily have prevented the consummation of
the tragedy. As commander-in-chief, Almagro's fate was in his
hands; and, whatever his own partisans may affirm of his
innocence, the impartial judgment of history must hold him
equally accountable with Hernando for the death of his associate.
[Footnote 4: "Respondio, que hiciese de manera, que el Adelantado
no los pusiese en mas alborotos." (Ibid., dec. 6, lib. 6, cap.
7.) "De todo esto," says Espinall, "fue sabidor el dicho
Governador Pizarro a lo que mi juicio i el de otros que en ello
quisieron mirar alcanzo." Carta de Espinall, Ms.]
[Footnote 5: Ibid., dec. 6, lib. 5, cap. 1.

Herrera's testimony is little short of that of a contemporary,
since it was derived, he tells us, from the correspondence of the
Conquerors, and the accounts given him by their own sons. Lib.
6, cap. 7.]

[Footnote 6: Carta de Valverde al Emperador, Ms.]

Neither did his subsequent conduct show any remorse for these
proceedings. He entered Cuzco, says one who was present there to
witness it, amidst the flourish of clarions and trumpets, at the
head of his martial cavalcade, and dressed in the rich suit
presented him by Cortes, with the proud bearing and joyous mien
of a conqueror. *7 When Diego de Alvarado applied to him for the
government of the southern provinces, in the name of the young
Almagro, whom his father, as we have seen, had consigned to his
protection, Pizarro answered, that "the marshal, by his
rebellion, had forfeited all claims to the government." And, when
he was still further urged by the cavalier, he bluntly broke off
the conversation by declaring that "his own territory covered all
on this side of Flanders"! *8 - intimating, no doubt, by this
magnificent vaunt, that he would endure no rival on this side of
the water.

[Footnote 7: "En este medio tiempo vino a la dicha cibdad del
Cuzco el Gobernador D. Franco Pizarro, el qual entro con
tronpetas i chirimias vestido con ropa de martas que fue e luto
con que entro." Carta de Espinall, Ms.]

[Footnote 8: Carta de Espinall, Ms.

"Mui asperamente le respondio el Governador, diciendo, que su
Governacion no tenia Termino, i que llegaba hasta Flandes."
Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 6, cap. 7.]

In the same spirit, he had recently sent to supersede Benalcazar,
the conqueror of Quito, who, he was informed, aspired to an
independent government. Pizarro's emissary had orders to send
the offending captain to Lima; but Benalcazar, after pushing his
victorious career far into the north, had returned to Castile to
solicit his guerdon from the emperor.
To the complaints of the injured natives, who invoked his
protection, he showed himself strangely insensible, while the
followers of Almagro he treated with undisguised contempt. The
estates of the leaders were confiscated, and transferred without
ceremony to his own partisans. Hernando had made attempts to
conciliate some of the opposite faction by acts of liberality,
but they had refused to accept any thing from the man whose hands
were stained with the blood of their commander. *9 The governor
held to them no such encouragement; and many were reduced to such
abject poverty, that, too proud to expose their wretchedness to
the eyes of their conquerors, they withdrew from the city, and
sought a retreat among the neighbouring mountains. *10

[Footnote 9: "Avia querido hazer amigos de los principales de
Chile, y ofrecidoles daria rrepartimientos y no lo avian aceptado
ni querido." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]

[Footnote 10: "Viendolas oy en dia, muertos de ambre, fechos
pedazos e adeudados, andando por los montes desesperados por no
parecer ante gentes, porque no tienen otra cosa que se vestir
sino ropa de los Indios, ni dineros con que lo comprar" Carta de
Espinall, Ms.]

For his own brothers he provided by such ample repartimientos, as
excited the murmurs of his adherents. He appointed Gonzalo to
the command of a strong force destined to act against the natives
of Charcas, a hardy people occupying the territory assigned by
the Crown to Almagro. Gonzalo met with a sturdy resistance, but,
after some severe fighting, succeeded in reducing the province to
obedience. He was recompensed, together with Hernando, who aided
him in the conquest, by a large grant in the neighbourhood of
Porco, the productive mines of which had been partially wrought
under the Incas. The territory, thus situated, embraced part of
those silver hills of Potosi which have since supplied Europe
with such stores of the precious metals. Hernando comprehended
the capabilities of the ground, and he began working the mines on
a more extensive scale than that hitherto adopted, though it does
not appear that any attempt was then made to penetrate the rich
crust of Potosi. *11 A few years more were to elapse before the
Spaniards were to bring to light the silver quarries that lay
hidden in the bosom of its mountains. *12

[Footnote 11: "Con la quietud," writes Hernando Pizarro to the
emperor, "questa tierra agora tiene han descubierto i descubren
cada dia los vecinos muchas minas ricas de oro i plata, de que
los quintos i rentas reales de V. M. cada dia se le ofrecen i
hacer casa a todo el Mundo." Carta al Emperador, Ms., de Puerto
Viejo, 6 de Julii, 1539.]
[Footnote 12: Carta de Carbajal al Emperador, Ms., del Cuzco, 3
de Nov. 1539. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Montesinos,
Annales, Ms., ano 1539.

The story is well known of the manner in which the mines of
Potosi were discovered by an Indian, who pulled a bush out of the
ground to the fibres of which a quantity of silver globules was
attached. The mine was not registered till 1545. The account is
given by Acosta, lib. 4, cap. 6.]
It was now the great business of Hernando to collect a sufficient
quantity of treasure to take with him to Castile. Nearly a year
had elapsed since Almagro's death; and it was full time that he
should return and present himself at court, where Diego de
Alvarado and other friends of the marshal, who had long since
left Peru, were industriously maintaining the claims of the
younger Almagro, as well as demanding redress for the wrongs done
to his father. But Hernando looked confidently to his gold to
dispel the accusations against him.

Before his departure, he counselled his brother to beware of the
"men of Chili," as Almagro's followers were called; desperate
men, who would stick at nothing, he said, for revenge. He
besought the governor not to allow them to consort together in
any number within fifty miles of his person; if he did, it would
be fatal to him. And he concluded by recommending a strong
body-guard; "for I," he added, "shall not be here to watch over
you." But the governor laughed at the idle fears, as he termed
them, of his brother, bidding the latter take no thought of him,
"as every hair in the heads of Almagro's followers was a guaranty
for his safety." *13 He did not know the character of his enemies
so well as Hernando.