The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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[Footnote 2: Zarate states the number with precision at five
hundred houses. "Sobrevino vn tan gran Terremoto, con temblor, i
tempestad de Agua, i Relampagos, i Raios, i grandes Truenos, que
abriendose la Tierra por muchas partes, se hundieron quinientas
Casas." (Conq. del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 2.) There is nothing so
satisfactory to the mind of the reader as precise numbers; and
nothing so little deserving of his confidence.]
On descending the eastern slopes, the climate changed; and, as
they came on the lower level, the fierce cold was succeeded by a
suffocating heat, while tempests of thunder and lightning,
rushing from out the gorges of the sierra, poured on their heads
with scarcely any intermission day or night, as if the offended
deities of the place were willing to take vengeance on the
invaders of their mountain solitudes. For more than six weeks
the deluge continued unabated, and the forlorn wanderers, wet,
and weary with incessant toil, were scarcely able to drag their
limbs along the soil broken up and saturated with the moisture.
After some months of toilsome travel, in which they had to cross
many a morass and mountain stream, they at length reached
Canelas, the Land of Cinnamon. *3 They saw the trees bearing the
precious bark, spreading out into broad forests; yet, however
valuable an article for commerce it might have proved in
accessible situations, in these remote regions it was of little
worth to them. But, from the wandering tribes of savages whom
they had occasionally met in their path, they learned that at ten
days' distance was a rich and fruitful land abounding with gold,
and inhabited by populous nations. Gonzalo Pizarro had already
reached the limits originally proposed for the expedition. But
this intelligence renewed his hopes, and he resolved to push the
adventure farther. It would have been well for him and his
followers, had they been content to return on their footsteps.

[Footnote 3: Canela is the Spanish for cinnamon.]

Continuing their march, the country now spread out into broad
savannas terminated by forests, which, as they drew near, seemed
to stretch on every side to the very verge of the horizon. Here
they beheld trees of that stupendous growth seen only in the
equinoctial regions. Some were so large, that sixteen men could
hardly encompass them with extended arms! *4 The wood was thickly
matted with creepers and parasitical vines, which hung in
gaudy-colored festoons from tree to tree, clothing them in a
drapery beautiful to the eye, but forming an impenetrable
network. At every step of their way, they were obliged to hew
open a passage with their axes, while their garments, rotting
from the effects of the drenching rains to which they had been
exposed, caught in every bush and bramble, and hung about them in
shreds. *5 Their provisions, spoiled by the weather, had long
since failed, and the live stock which they had taken with them
had either been consumed or made their escape in the woods and
mountain passes. They had set out with nearly a thousand dogs,
many of them of the ferocious breed used in hunting down the
unfortunate natives. These they now gladly killed, but their
miserable carcasses furnished a lean banquet for the famishing
travellers; and, when these were gone, they had only such herbs
and dangerous roots as they could gather in the forest. *6

[Footnote 4: This, allowing six feet for the spread of a man's
arms, would be about ninety-six feet in circumference, or
thirty-two feet in diameter; larger, probably, than the largest
tree known in Europe. Yet it falls short of that famous giant of
the forests mentioned by M. de Humboldt as still flourishing in
the intendancy of Oaxaca, which, by the exact measurement of a
traveller in 1839, was found to be a hundred and twelve feet in
circumference at the height of four feet from the ground. This
height may correspond with that of the measurement taken by the
Spaniards. See a curious and learned article on Forest-trees in
No. 124 of the North American Review.]
[Footnote 5: The dramatist Molina, in his play of "Las Amazonas
en las Indias," has devoted some dozen columns of redondillas to
an account of the sufferings of his countrymen in the expedition
to the Amazon. The poet reckoned confidently on the patience of
his audience. The following verses describe the miserable
condition to which the Spaniards were reduced by the incessant
rains.

"Sin que el Sol en este tiempo
Su cara ver nos permita,
Ni las nubes taberneras
Cessen de echamos encima
Dilubios inagotables,
Que hasta el alma nos bautizan.
Cayeron los mas enfermos,
Porque las ropas podridas
Con el eterno agua va,
Nos dexo en las carnes vivas."]

[Footnote 6: Capitulacion con Orellana, Ms. - Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. 143. -
Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 2. - Herrera, Hist. General,
dec. 6, lib. 8, cap. 6, 7. - Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 2,
lib. 3, cap. 2.

The last writer obtained his information, as he tells us, from
several who were present in the expedition. The reader may be
assured that it has lost nothing is coming through his hands.]

At length the way-worn company came on a broad expanse of water
formed by the Napo, one of the great tributaries of the Amazon,
and which, though only a third or fourth rate river in America,
would pass for one of the first magnitude in the Old World. The
sight gladdened their hearts, as, by winding along its banks,
they hoped to find a safer and more practicable route. After
traversing its borders for a considerable distance, closely beset
with thickets which it taxed their strength to the utmost to
overcome, Gonzalo and his party came within hearing of a rushing
noise that sounded like subterranean thunder. The river, lashed
into fury, tumbled along over rapids with frightful velocity, and
conducted them to the brink of a magnificent cataract, which, to
their wondering fancies, rushed down in one vast volume of foam
to the depth of twelve hundred feet! *7 The appalling sounds
which they had heard for the distance of six leagues were
rendered yet more oppressive to the spirits by the gloomy
stillness of the surrounding forests. The rude warriors were
filled with sentiments of awe. Not a bark dimpled the waters.
No living thing was to be seen but the wild tenants of the
wilderness, the unwieldy boa, and the loathsome alligator basking
on the borders of the stream. The trees towering in wide-spread
magnificence towards the heavens, the river rolling on in its
rocky bed as it had rolled for ages, the solitude and silence of
the scene, broken only by the hoarse fall of waters, or the faint
rustling of the woods, - all seemed to spread out around them in
the same wild and primitive state as when they came from the
hands of the Creator.

[Footnote 7: "Al cabo de este largo camino hallaron que el rio
hazia vn salto de una pena de mas de dozientas bracas de alto:
que hazia tan gran ruydo, que lo oyeron mas de seys leguas antes
que llegassen a el." (Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 2, nb. 3,
cap. 3.) I find nothing to confirm or to confute the account of
this stupendous cataract in later travellers, not very numerous
in these wild regions. The alleged height of the falls, twice
that of the great cataract of the Tequendama in the Bogota, as
measured by Humboldt, usually esteemed the highest in America, is
not so great as that of some of the cascades thrown over the
precipices in Switzerland. Yet the estimates of the Spaniards,
who, in the gloomy state of their feelings, were doubtless keenly
alive to impressions of the sublime and the terrible, cannot
safely be relied on.]

For some distance above and below the falls, the bed of the river
contracted so that its width did not exceed twenty feet. Sorely
pressed by hunger, the adventurers determined, at all hazards, to
cross to the opposite side, in hopes of finding a country that
might afford them sustenance. A frail bridge was constructed by
throwing the huge trunks of trees across the chasm, where the
cliffs, as if split asunder by some convulsion of nature,
descended sheer down a perpendicular depth of several hundred
feet. Over this airy causeway the men and horses succeeded in
effecting their passage with the loss of a single Spaniard, who,
made giddy by heedlessly looking down, lost his footing and fell
into the boiling surges below.

Yet they gained little by the exchange. The country wore the
same unpromising aspect, and the river-banks were studded with
gigantic trees, or fringed with impenetrable thickets. The
tribes of Indians, whom they occasionally met in the pathless
wilderness, were fierce and unfriendly, and they were engaged in
perpetual skirmishes with them. From these they learned that a
fruitful country was to be found down the river at the distance
of only a few days' journey, and the Spaniards held on their
weary way, still hoping and still deceived, as the promised land
flitted before them, like the rain bow, receding as they
advanced.
At length, spent with toil and suffering, Gonzalo resolved to
construct a bark large enough to transport the weaker part of his
company and his baggage. The forests furnished him with timber;
the shoes of the horses which had died on the road or been
slaughtered for food, were converted into nails; gum distilled
from the trees took the place of pitch, and the tattered garments
of the soldiers supplied a substitute for oakum. It was a work
of difficulty; but Gonzalo cheered his men in the task, and set
an example by taking part in their labors. At the end of two
months a brigantine was completed, rudely put together, but
strong and of sufficient burden to carry half the company, - the
first European vessel that ever floated on these inland waters.

Gonzalo gave the command to Francisco de Orellana, a cavalier
from Truxillo, on whose courage and devotion to himself he
thought he could rely. The troops now moved forward, still
following the descending course of the river, while the
brigantine kept alongside; and when a bold promontory or more
impracticable country intervened, it furnished timely aid by the
transportation of the feebler soldiers. In this way they
journeyed, for many a wearisome week, through the dreary
wilderness on the borders of the Napo. Every scrap of provisions
had been long since consumed. The last of their horses had been
devoured. To appease the gnawings of hunger, they were fain to
eat the leather of their saddles and belts. The woods supplied
them with scanty sustenance, and they greedily fed upon toads,
serpents, and such other reptiles as they occasionally found. *8

[Footnote 8: "Yeruas y rayzes, y fruta siluestre, sapos, y
culebras, y otras malas sauandijas, si las auia por aquellas
montanas que todo les hazia buen estomago a los Espanoles; que
peor les yua con la falta de cosas tan viles." Garcilasso, Com.
Real., Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 4 - Capitulacion con Orellana, Ms -
Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 8, cap. 7. - Zarate, Conq.
del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 3, 4. - Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap.
143.]

They were now told of a rich district, inhabited by a populous
nation, where the Napo emptied into a still greater river that
flowed towards the east. It was, as usual, at the distance of
several days' journey; and Gonzalo Pizarro resolved to halt where
he was and send Orellana down in his brigantine to the confluence
of the waters to procure a stock of provisions, with which he
might return and put them in condition to resume their march.
That cavalier, accordingly, taking with him fifty of the
adventurers, pushed off into the middle of the river, where the
stream ran swiftly, and his bark, taken by the current, shot
forward with the speed of an arrow, and was soon out of sight.
Days and weeks passed away, yet the vessel did not return; and no
speck was to be seen on the waters, as the Spaniards strained
their eyes to the farthest point, where the line of light faded
away in the dark shadows of the foliage on the borders.
Detachments were sent out, and, though absent several days, came
back without intelligence of their comrades. Unable longer to
endure this suspense, or, indeed, to maintain themselves in their
present quarters, Gonzalo and his famishing followers now
determined to proceed towards the junction of the rivers. Two
months elapsed before they accomplished this terrible journey, -
those of them who did not perish on the way, - although the
distance probably did not exceed two hundred leagues; and they at
length reached the spot so long desired, where the Napo pours its
tide into the Amazon, that mighty stream, which, fed by its
thousand tributaries, rolls on towards the ocean, for many
hundred miles, through the heart of the great continent, - the
most majestic of American rivers.

But the Spaniards gathered no tidings of Orellana, while the
country, though more populous than the region they had left, was
as little inviting in its aspect, and was tenanted by a race yet
more ferocious. They now abandoned the hope of recovering their
comrades, who they supposed must have miserably perished by
famine or by the hands of the natives. But their doubts were at
length dispelled by the appearance of a white man wandering
half-naked in the woods, in whose famine-stricken countenance
they recognized the features of one of their countrymen. It was
Sanchez de Vargas, a cavalier of good descent, and much esteemed
in the army. He had a dismal tale to tell.

Orellana, borne swiftly down the current of the Napo, had reached
the point of its confluence with the Amazon in less than three
days; accomplishing in this brief space of time what had cost
Pizarro and his company two months. He had found the country
altogether different from what had been represented; and, so far
from supplies for his country men, he could barely obtain
sustenance for himself. Nor was it possible for him to return as
he had come, and make head against the current of the river;
while the attempt to journey by land was an alternative scarcely
less formidable. In this dilemma, an idea flashed across his
mind. It was to launch his bark at once on the bosom of the
Amazon, and descend its waters to its mouth. He would then visit
the rich and populous nations that, as report said, lined its
borders, sail out on the great ocean, cross to the neighbouring
isles, and return to Spain to claim the glory and the guerdon of
discovery. The suggestion was eagerly taken up by his reckless
companions, welcoming any course that would rescue them from the
wretchedness of their present existence, and fired with the
prospect of new and stirring adventure, - for the love of
adventure was the last feeling to become extinct in the bosom of
the Castilian cavalier. They heeded little their unfortunate
comrades, whom they were to abandon in the wilderness! *9

[Footnote 9: This statement of De Vargas was confirmed by
Orellana, as appears from the language of the royal grant made to
that cavalier on his return to Castile. The document is
preserved entire in the Munoz collection of Mss.

"Haviendo vos ido con ciertos companeros un rio abajo a buscar
comida, con la corriente fuistes metidos por el dicho rio mas de
200 leguas donde no pudistes dar la buelta e por esta necesidad e
por la mucha noticia que tuvistes de la grandeza e riqueza de la
tierra, posponiendo vuestro peligro, sin interes ninguno por
servir a S. M. os aventurastes a saber lo que havia en aquellas
provincias, e ansi descubristes e hallastes grandes poblaciones."
Capitulacion con Orellana, Ms.]

This is not the place to record the circumstances of Orellana's
extraordinary expediton. expedition. He succeeded in his
enterprise. But it is marvellous that he should have escaped
shipwreck in the perilous and unknown navigation of that river.
Many times his vessel was nearly dashed to pieces on its rocks
and in its furious rapids; *10 and he was in still greater peril
from the warlike tribes on its borders, who fell on his little
troop whenever he attempted to land, and followed in his wake for
miles in their canoes. He at length emerged from the great
river; and, once upon the sea, Orellana made for the isle of
Cubagua; thence passing over to Spain, he repaired to court, and
told the circumstances of his voyage, - of the nations of Amazons
whom he had found on the banks of the river, the El Dorado which
report assured him existed in the neighbourhood, and other
marvels, - the exaggeration rather than the coinage of a
credulous fancy. His audience listened with willing ears to the
tales of the traveller; and in an age of wonders, when the
mysteries of the East and the West were hourly coming to light,
they might be excused for not discerning the true line between
romance and reality. *11
[Footnote 10: Condamine, who, in 1743, went down the Amazon, has
often occasion to notice the perils and perplexities in which he
was involved in the navigation of this river, too difficult, as
he says, to be undertaken without the guidance of a skilful
pilot. See his Relation Abregee d'un Voyage fait dans
l'Interieur de l'Amerique Meridionale. (Maestricht, 1778.)]

[Footnote 11: It has not been easy to discern the exact line in
later times, with all the lights of modern discovery. Condamine,
after a careful investigation, considers that there is good
ground for believing in the existence of a community of armed
women, once living somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Amazon,
though they have now disappeared. It would be hard to disprove
the fact, but still harder, considering the embarrassments in
perpetuating such a community, to believe it. Voyage dans
l'Amerique Meridionale, p. 99, et seq.]

He found no difficulty in obtaining a commission to conquer and
colonize the realms he had discovered. He soon saw himself at
the head of five hundred followers, prepared to share the perils
and the profits of his expedition. But neither he, nor his
country, was destined to realize these profits. He died on his
outward passage, and the lands washed by the Amazon fell within
the territories of Portugal. The unfortunate navigator did not
even enjoy the undivided honor of giving his name to the waters
he had discovered. He enjoyed only the barren glory of the
discovery, surely not balanced by the iniquitous circumstances
which attended it. *12

[Footnote 12: "His crime is, in some measure, balanced by the
glory of having ventured upon a navigation of near two thousand
leagues, through unknown nations, in a vessel hastily
constructed, with green timber, and by very unskilful hands,
without provisions, without a compass, or a pilot." (Robertson,
America, (ed. London, 1796,) vol. III. p. 84.) The historian of
America does not hold the moral balance with as unerring a hand
as usual, in his judgment of Orellana's splendid enterprise. No
success, however splendid, in the language of one, not too severe
a moralist,

"Can blazon evil deeds or consecrate a crime."]

One of Orellana's party maintained a stout opposition to his
proceedings, as repugnant both to humanity and honor. This was
Sanchez de Vargas and the cruel commander was revenged on him by
abandoning him to his fate in the desolate region where he was
now found by his countrymen. *13
[Footnote 13: An expedition more remarkable than that of Orellana
was performed by a delicate female, Madame Godin, who, in 1769,
attempted to descend the Amazon in an open boat to its mouth.
She was attended by seven persons, two of them her brothers, and
two her female domestics. The boat was wrecked, and Madame Godin,
narrowly escaping with her life, endeavoured with her party to
accomplish the remainder of her journey on foot. She saw them
perish, one after another, of hunger and disease, till she was
left alone in the howling wilderness. Still, like Milton's lady
in Comus, she was permitted to come safely out of all these
perils, and, after unparalleled sufferings, falling in with some
friendly Indians, she was conducted by them to a French
settlement. Though a young woman, it will not be surprising that
the hardships and terrors she endured turned her hair perfectly
white. The details of the extraordinary story are given in a
letter to M. de la Condamine by her husband, who tells them in an
earnest, unaffected way that engages our confidence. Voyage dans
l'Amerique Meridionale, p. 329, et seq.]
The Spaniards listened with horror to the recital of Vargas, and
their blood almost froze in their veins as they saw themselves
thus deserted in the heart of this remote wilderness, and
deprived of their only means of escape from it. They made an
effort to prosecute their journey along the banks, but, after
some toilsome days, strength and spirits failed, and they gave up
in despair!

Then it was that the qualities of Gonzalo Pizarro, as a fit
leader in the hour of despondency and danger, shone out
conspicuous. To advance farther was hopeless. To stay where
they were, without food or raiment, without defence from the
fierce animals of the forest and the fiercer natives, was
impossible. One only course remained; it was to return to Quito.
But this brought with it the recollection of the past, of
sufferings which they could too well estimate, - hardly to be
endured even in imagination. They were now at least four hundred
leagues from Quito, and more than a year had elapsed since they
had set out on their painful pilgrimage. How could they
encounter these perils again! *14
[Footnote 14: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 5. -
Herrera, Hist. General dec. 6, lib. 8, cap. 8. - Zarate, Conq.
del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 5. - Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. 143.

One must not expect from these wanderers in the wilderness any
exact computation of time or distance, destitute, as they were,
of the means of making a correct observation of either.]

Yet there was no alternative. Gonzalo endeavoured to reassure
his followers by dwelling on the invincible constancy they had
hitherto displayed; adjuring them to show themselves still worthy
of the name of Castilians. He reminded them of the glory they
would for ever acquire by their heroic achievement, when they
should reach their own country. He would lead them back, he
said, by another route, and it could not be but that they should
meet somewhere with those abundant regions of which they had os
so often heard. It was something, at least, that every step
would take them nearer home; and as, at all events, it was
clearly the only course now left, they should prepare to meet it
like men. The spirit would sustain the body; and difficulties
encountered in the right spirit were half vanquished already!

The soldiers listened eagerly to his words of promise and
encouragement. The confidence of their leader gave life to the
desponding. They felt the force of his reasoning, and, as they
lent a willing ear to his assurances, the pride of the old
Castilian honor revived in their bosoms, and every one caught
somewhat of the generous enthusiasm of their commander. He was,
in truth, entitled to their devotion. From the first hour of the
expedition, he had freely borne his part in its privations. Far
from claiming the advantage of his position, he had taken his lot
with the poorest soldier; ministering to the wants of the sick,
cheering up the spirits of the desponding, sharing his stinted
allowance with his famished followers, bearing his full part in
the toil and burden of the march, ever showing himself their
faithful comrade, no less than their captain. He found the
benefit of this conduct in a trying hour like the present.

I will spare the reader the recapitulation of the sufferings
endured by the Spaniards on their retrograde march to Quito.
They took a more northerly route than that by which they had
approached the Amazon; and, if it was attended with fewer
difficulties, they experienced yet greater distresses from their
greater inability to overcome them. Their only nourishment was
such scanty fare as they could pick up in the forest, or happily
meet with in some forsaken Indian settlement, or wring by
violence from the natives. Some sickened and sank down by the
way, for there was none to help them. Intense misery had made
them selfish; and many a poor wretch was abandoned to his fate,
to die alone in the wilderness, or, more probably, to be
devoured, while living, by the wild animals which roamed over it.

At length, in June, 1542, after somewhat more than a year
consumed in their homeward march, the way-worn company came on
the elevated plains in the neighbourhood of Quito. But how
different their aspect from that which they had exhibited on
issuing from the gates of the same capital, two years and a half
before, with high romantic hope and in all the pride of military
array! Their horses gone, their arms broken and rusted, the
skins of wild animals instead of clothes hanging loosely about
their limbs, their long and matted locks streaming wildly down
their shoulders, their faces burned and blackened by the tropical
sun, their bodies wasted by famine and sorely disfigured by
scars, - it seemed as if the charnel-house had given up its dead,
as, with uncertain step, they glided slowly onwards like a troop
of dismal spectres! More than half of the four thousand Indians
who had accompanied the expedition had perished, and of the
Spaniards only eighty, and many of these irretrievably broken in
constitution, returned to Quito. *15