The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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[Footnote 15: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Zarate, Conq.
del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 5. - Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. 143.
- Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 15. - Herrera,
Hist. General, dec. 7, lib. 3, cap. 14.

The last historian, in dismissing his account of the expedition,
passes a panegyric on the courage and constancy of his
countrymen, which we must admit to be well deserved.

"Finalmente, Goncalo Picarro entro en el Quito, triunfando del
valor, i sufrimiento, i de la constancia, recto, e immutable
vigor del animo, pues Hombres Humanos no se hallan haver tanto
sufrido ni padecido tantas desventuras.' Ibid., ubi supra.]

The few Christian inhabitants of the place, with their wives and
children, came out to welcome their countrymen. They ministered
to them all the relief and refreshment in their power; and, as
they listened to the sad recital of their sufferings, they
mingled their tears with those of the wanderers. The whole
company then entered the capital, where their first act - to
their credit be it mentioned - was to go in a body to the church,
and offer up thanksgivings to the Almighty for their miraculous
preservation through their long and perilous pilgrimage. *16 Such
was the end of the expedition to the Amazon; an expedition which,
for its dangers and hardships, the length of their duration, and
the constancy with which they were endured, stands, perhaps,
unmatched in the annals of American discovery.

[Footnote 16: Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 5.]

Chapter V

The Almagro Faction. - Their Desperate Condition. - Conspiracy
Against Francisco Pizarro. - Assassination Of Pizarro. - Acts Of
The Conspirators. - Pizarro's Character

1541.

When Gonzalo Pizarro reached Quito, he received tidings of an
event which showed that his expedition to the Amazon had been
even more fatal to his interests than he had imagined. A
revolution had taken place during his absence, which had changed
the whole condition of things in Peru.
In a preceding chapter we have seen, that, when Hernando Pizarro
returned to Spain, his brother the marquess repaired to Lima,
where he continued to occupy himself with building up his infant
capital, and watching over the general interests of the country.
While thus employed, he gave little heed to a danger that hourly
beset his path, and this, too, in despite of repeated warnings
from more circumspect friends.

After the execution of Almagro, his followers, to the number of
several hundred, remained scattered through the country; but,
however scattered, still united by a common sentiment of
indignation against the Pizarros, the murderers, as they regarded
them, of their leader. The governor was less the object of these
feelings than his brother Hernando, as having been less
instrumental in the perpetration of the deed. Under these
circumstances, it was clearly Pizarro's policy to do one of two
things; to treat the opposite faction either as friends, or as
open enemies. He might conciliate the most factious by acts of
kindness, efface the remembrance of past injury, if he could, by
present benefits; in short, prove to them that his quarrel had
been with their leader, not with themselves, and that it was
plainly for their interest to come again under his banner. This
would have been the most politic, as well as the most magnanimous
course; and, by augmenting the number of his adherents, would
have greatly strengthened his power in the land. But, unhappily,
he had not the magnanimity to pursue it. It was not in the
nature of a Pizarro to forgive an injury, or the man whom he had
injured. As he would not, therefore, try to conciliate Almagro's
adherents, it was clearly the governor's policy to regard them as
enemies, - not the less so for being in disguise, - and to take
such measures as should disqualify them for doing mischief. He
should have followed the counsel of his more prudent brother
Hernando, and distributed them in different quarters, taking care
that no great number should assemble at any one point, or, above
all, in the neighbourhood of his own residence.

But the governor despised the broken followers of Almagro too
heartily to stoop to precautionary measures. He suffered the son
of his rival to remain in Lima, where his quarters soon became
the resort of the disaffected cavaliers. The young man was well
known to most of Almagro's soldiers, having been trained along
with them in the camp under his father's eye, and, now that his
parent was removed, they naturally transferred their allegiance
to the son who survived him.

That the young Almagro, however, might be less able to maintain
this retinue of unprofitable followers, he was deprived by
Pizarro of a great part of his Indians and lands, while he was
excluded from the government of New Toledo, which had been
settled on him by his father's testament. *1 Stripped of all
means of support, without office or employment of any kind, the
men of Chili, for so Almagro's adherents continued to be called,
were reduced to the utmost distress. So poor were they, as is
the story of the time, that twelve cavaliers, who lodged in the
same house, could muster only one cloak among them all; and, with
the usual feeling of pride that belongs to the poor hidalgo,
unwilling to expose their poverty, they wore this cloak by turns,
those who had no right to it remaining at home. *2 Whether true
or not, the anecdote well illustrates the extremity to which
Almagro's faction was reduced. And this distress was rendered
yet more galling by the effrontery of their enemies, who,
enriched by their forfeitures, displayed before their eyes all
the insolent bravery of equipage and apparel that could annoy
their feelings.

[Footnote 1: Carta de Almagro, Ms.]

[Footnote 2: Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 8, cap. 6.]
Men thus goaded by insult and injury were too dangerous to be
lightly regarded. But, although Pizarro received various
intimations intended to put him on his guard, he gave no heed to
them. "Poor devils!" he would exclaim, speaking with
contemptuous pity of the men of Chili; "they have had bad luck
enough. We will not trouble them further." *3 And so little did
he consider them, that he went freely about, as usual, riding
without attendants to all parts of the town and to its immediate
environs. *4

[Footnote 3: Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. 144.]

[Footnote 4: Garcilasso, Com Real., Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 6.]
News now reached the colony of the appointment of a judge by the
Crown to take cognizance of the affairs of Peru. Pizarro,
although alarmed by the intelligence, sent orders to have him
well entertained on his landing, and suitable accommodations
prepared for him on the route. The spirits of Almagro's followers
were greatly raised by the tidings. They confidently looked to
this high functionary for the redress of their wrongs; and two of
their body, clad in suits of mourning, were chosen to go to the
north, where the judge was expected to land, and to lay their
grievances before him.

But months elapsed, and no tidings came of his arrival, till, at
length, a vessel, coming into port, announced that most of the
squadron had foundered in the heavy storms on the coast, and that
the commissioner had probably perished with them. This was
disheartening intelligence to the men of Chili, whose "miseries,"
to use the words of their young leader, "had become too grievous
to be borne." *5 Symptoms of disaffection had already begun
openly to manifest themselves. The haughty cavaliers did not
always doff their bonnets, on meeting the governor in the street;
and on one occasion, three ropes were found suspended from the
public gallows, with labels attached to them, bearing the names
of Pizarro, Velasquez the judge, and Picado the governor's
secretary. *6 This last functionary was peculiarly odious to
Almagro and his followers. As his master knew neither how to
read nor write, all his communications passed through Picado's
hands; and, as the latter was of a hard and arrogant nature,
greatly elated by the consequence which his position gave him, he
exercised a mischievous influence on the governor's measures.
Almagro's poverty-stricken followers were the objects of his open
ridicule, and he revenged the insult now offered him by riding
before their young leader's residence, displaying a tawdry
magnificence in his dress, sparkling with gold and silver, and
with the inscription, "For the Men of Chili," set in his bonnet.
It was a foolish taunt; but the poor cavaliers who were the
object of it, made morbidly sensitive by their sufferings, had
not the philosophy to despise it. *7

[Footnote 5: "My sufferings," says Almagro, in his letter to the
Royal Audience of Panama, "were enough to unsettle my reason."
See his Letter in the original, Appendix, No. 12.]

[Footnote 6: "Hizo Picado el secreptario del Marquez mucho dano a
muchos, porque el marquez don Francisco Picarro como no savia ler
ni escrivir fiavase del y no hacia mas de lo que el le aconsejava
y ansi hizo este mucho mal en estos rreinos, porque el que no
andava a su voluntad sirviendole aunque tuviese meritos le
destruya y este Picado fue causa de que los de Chile tomasen mas
odio al marquez por donde le mataron. Porque queria este que
todos lo reverenciasen, y los de chile no hazian caso del, y por
esta causa los perseguia este mucho, y ansi vinieron a hazer lo
que hizieron los de Chile." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. -
Also Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 6.]

[Footnote 7: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Garcilasso,
Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 6. - Herrera, Hist. General,
dec. 6, lib. 10, cap. 2.]

At length, disheartened by the long protracted coming of Vaca de
Castro, and still more by the recent reports of his loss,
Almagro's faction, despairing of redress from a legitimate
authority, determined to take it into their own hands. They came
to the desperate resolution of assassinating Pizarro. The day
named for this was Sunday, the twenty-sixth of June, 1541. The
conspirators, eighteen or twenty in number, were to assemble in
Almagro's house, which stood in the great square next to the
cathedral, and, when the governor was returning from mass, they
were to issue forth and fall on him in the street. A white flag,
unfurled at the same time from an upper window in the house, was
to be the signal for the rest of their comrades to move to the
support of those immediately engaged in the execution of the
deed. *8
[Footnote 8: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Montesinos,
Annales, Ms., ano 1541. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 4, cap.
6.]

These arrangements could hardly have been concealed from Almagro,
since his own quarters were to be the place of rendezvous. Yet
there is no good evidence of his having taken part in the
conspiracy. *9 He was, indeed, too young to make it probable that
he took a leading part in it. He is represented by contemporary
writers to have given promise of many good qualities, though,
unhappily, he was not placed in a situation favorable for their
development. He was the son of an Indian woman of Panama; but
from early years had followed the troubled fortunes of his
father, to whom he bore much resemblance in his free and generous
nature, as well as in the violence of his passions. His youth
and inexperience disqualified him from taking the lead in the
perplexing circumstances in which he was placed, and made him
little more than a puppet in the hands of others. *10

[Footnote 9: Yet this would seem to be contradicted by Almagro's
own letter to the audience of Panama, in which he states, that,
galled by intolerable injuries, he and his followers had resolved
to take the remedy into their own hands, by entering the
governor's house and seizing his person. (See the original in
Appendix, No. 12.) It is certain, however, that in the full
accounts we have of the affair by writers who had the best means
of information, we do not find Almagro's name mentioned as one
who took an active part in the tragic drama. His own letter
merely expresses that it was his purpose to have taken part in it
with the further declaration, that it was simply to seize, not to
slay, Pizarro; - a declaration that no one who reads the history
of the transaction will be very ready to credit.]

[Footnote 10: "Mancebo virtuoso, i de grande Animo, i bien
ensenado: i especialmente se havia exercitado mucho en cavalgar a
Caballo, de ambas sillas, lo qual hacia con mucha gracia, i
destreca, i tambien en escrevir, i leer, lo qual hacia mas
liberalmente, i mejor de lo que requeria su Profesion. De este
tenia cargo, como Aio, Juan de Herrada." Zarate, Conq. del Peru,
lib. 4, cap. 6.]

The most conspicuous of his advisers was Juan de Herrada, or
Rada, as his name is more usually spelt, - a cavalier of
respectable family, but who, having early enlisted as a common
soldier, had gradually risen to the highest posts in the army by
his military talents. At this time he was well advanced in
years; but the fires of youth were not quenched in his bosom, and
he burned with desire to avenge the wrongs done to his ancient
commander. The attachment which he had ever felt for the elder
Almagro he seems to have transferred in full measure to his son;
and it was apparently with reference to him, even more than to
himself, that he devised this audacious plot, and prepared to
take the lead in the execution of it.

There was one, however, in the band of conspirators who felt some
compunctions of conscience at the part he was acting, and who
relieved his bosom by revealing the whole plot to his confessor.
The latter lost no time in reporting it to Picado, by whom in
turn it was communicated to Pizarro. But, strange to say, it
made little more impression on the governor's mind than the vague
warnings he had so frequently received. "It is a device of the
priest," said he; "he wants a mitre." *11 Yet he repeated the
story to the judge Velasquez, who, instead of ordering the
conspirators to be seized, and the proper steps taken for
learning the truth of the accusation, seemed to be possessed with
the same infatuation as Pizarro; and he bade the governor be
under no apprehension, "for no harm should come to him, while the
rod of justice," not a metaphorical badge of authority in
Castile, "was in his hands." *12 Still, to obviate every
possibility of danger, it was deemed prudent for Pizarro to
abstain from going to mass on Sunday, and to remain at home on
pretence of illness.

[Footnote 11: "Pues un dia antes un sacerdote clerigo llamado
Benao fue de noche y avisso a Picado el secreptario y dixole
manana Domingo quando el marquez saliere a misa tienen concertado
los de Chile de matar al marquez y a vos y a sus amigos. Esto me
a dicho vno en confision para que os venga a avisar. Pues savido
esto Picado se fue luego y lo conto al marquez y el le
rrespondio. Ese clerigo obispado quiere." Pedro Pizarro, Descub.
y Conq., Ms.]

[Footnote 12: "El Juan Velazquez le dixo. No tema vuestra
senoria que mientras yo tuviere esta vara en la mano nadie se
atrevera." Pedro Pizarro, Descub, y Conq., Ms.]

On the day appointed, Rada and his companions met in Almagro's
house, and waited with anxiety for the hour when the governor
should issue from the church. But great was their consternation,
when they learned that he was not there, but was detained at
home, as currently reported, by illness. Little doubting that
their design was discovered, they felt their own ruin to be the
inevitable consequence, and that, too, without enjoying the
melancholy consolation of having struck the blow for which they
had incurred it. Greatly perplexed, some were for disbanding, in
the hope that Pizarro might, after all, be ignorant of their
design. But most were for carrying it into execution at once, by
assaulting him in his own house. The question was summarily
decided by one of the party, who felt that in this latter course
lay their only chance of safety. Throwing open the doors, he
rushed out, calling on his comrades "to follow him, or he would
proclaim the purpose for which they had met." There was no longer
hesitation, and the cavaliers issued forth, with Rada at their
head, shouting, as they went, "Long live the king! Death to the
tyrant!" *13
[Footnote 13: Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 10, cap. 6. -
Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru,
lib. 4, cap. 8. - Naharro, Rel. Sumaria, Ms. - Carta del Maestro,
Martin de Arauco, Ms., 15 de Julio, 1541.]

It was the hour of dinner, which, in this primitive age of the
Spanish colonies, was at noon. Yet numbers, roused by the cries
of the assailants, came out into the square to inquire the cause.
"They are going to kill the marquess," some said very coolly;
others replied, "It is Picado." No one stirred in their defence.
The power of Pizarro was not seated in the hearts of his people.

As the conspirators traversed the plaza, one of the party made a
circuit to avoid a little pool of water that lay in their path.
"What!" exclaimed Rada, "afraid of wetting your feet, when you
are to wade up to your knees in blood!" And he ordered the man to
give up the enterprise and go home to his quarters. The anecdote
is characteristic. *14
[Footnote 14: "Gomez Perez por haver alli agua derramada de una
acequia, rodeo algun tanto por no mojarse; reparo en ello Juan de
Rada, y entrandose atrevido por e agua le dijo: i Bamos a
banarnos en sangre humana, y rehusais mojaros los pies en agua?
Ea volveos. hizolo volver y no asistio al hecho.' Montesinos,
Annales, Ms., ano 1541.]
The governor's palace stood on the opposite side of the square.
It was approached by two courtyards. The entrance to the outer
one was protected by a massive gate, capable of being made good
against a hundred men or more. But it was left open, and the
assailants, hurrying through to the inner court, still shouting
their fearful battle-cry, were met by two domestics loitering in
the yard. One of these they struck down. The other, flying in
all haste towards the house, called out, "Help, help! the men of
Chili are all coming to murder the marquess!"

Pizarro at this time was at dinner, or, more probably, had just
dined. He was surrounded by a party of friends, who had dropped
in, it seems, after mass, to inquire after the state of his
health, some of whom had remained to partake of his repast.
Among these was Don Martinez de Alcantara, Pizarro's half-brother
by the mother's side, the judge Velasquez, the bishop elect of
Quito, and several of the principal cavaliers in the place, to
the number of fifteen or twenty. Some of them, alarmed by the
uproar in the court-yard, left the saloon, and, running down to
the first landing on the stairway, inquired into the cause of the
disturbance. No sooner were they informed of it by the cries of
the servant, than they retreated with precipitation into the
house; and, as they had no mind to abide the storm unarmed, or at
best imperfectly armed, as most of them were, they made their way
to the a corridor that overlooked the gardens, into which they
easily let themselves down without injury. Velasquez, the judge,
the better to have the use of his hands in the descent, held his
rod of office in his mouth, thus taking care, says a caustic old
chronicler, not to falsify his assurance, that "no harm should
come to Pizarro while the rod of justice was in his hands"! *15
[Footnote 15: "En lo qual no paresce haver quebrantado su
palabra, porque despues huiendo (como adelante se dira) al
tiempo, que quisieron matar al Marques, se hecho de vna Ventana
abajo, a la Huerta, llevando la Vara en la boca." Zarate, Conq.
del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 7.

Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Naharro, Relacion Sumaria,
Ms. - Carta del Maestro, Martin de Arauco, Ms. - Carta de Fray
Vicente de Valverde a la Audiencia de Panama, Ms., desde Tumbez,
15 Nov. 1541. - Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. 145.]

Meanwhile, the marquess, learning the nature of the tumult,
called out to Francisco de Chaves, an officer high in his
confidence, and who was in the outer apartment opening on the
staircase, to secure the door, while he and his brother Alcantara
buckled on their armour. Had this order, coolly given, been as
coolly obeyed, it would have saved them all, since the entrance
could easily have been maintained against a much larger force,
till the report of the cavaliers who had fled had brought support
to Pizarro. But unfortunately, Chaves, disobeying his commander,
half opened the door, and attempted to enter into a parley with
the conspirators. The latter had now reached the head of the
stairs, and cut short the debate by running Chaves through the
body, and tumbling his corpse down into the area below. For a
moment they were kept at bay by the attendants of the slaughtered
cavalier, but these too, were quickly despatched; and Rada and
his companions, entering the apartment, hurried across it,
shouting out, "Where is the marquess? Death to the tyrant!"
Martinez de Alcantara, who in the adjoining room was assisting
his brother to buckle on his mail, no sooner saw that the
entrance to the antechamber had been gained, than he sprang to
the doorway of the apartment, and, assisted by two young men,
pages of Pizarro, and by one or two cavaliers in attendance,
endeavoured to resist the approach of the assailants. A
desperate struggle now ensued. Blows were given on both sides,
some of which proved fatal, and two of the conspirators were
slain, while Alcantara and his brave companions were repeatedly
wounded.
At length, Pizarro, unable, in the hurry of the moment, to adjust
the fastenings of his cuirass threw it away, and enveloping one
arm in his cloak, with the other seized his sword, and sprang to
his brother's assistance. It was too late; for Alcantara was
already staggering under the loss of blood, and soon fell to the
ground. Pizarro threw himself on his invaders, like a lion
roused in his lair, and dealt his blows with as much rapidity and
force, as if age had no power to stiffen his limbs. "What ho!" he
cried, "traitors! have you come to kill me in my own house?" The
conspirators drew back for a moment, as two of their body fell
under Pizarro's sword; but they quickly rallied, and, from their
superior numbers, fought at great advantage by relieving one
another in the assault. Still the passage was narrow, and the
struggle lasted for some minutes, till both of Pizarro's pages
were stretched by his side, when Rada, impatient of the delay,
called out, "Why are we so long about it? Down with the tyrant!"
and taking one of his companions, Narvaez, in his arms, he thrust
him against the marquess. Pizarro, instantly grappling with his
opponent, ran him through with his sword. But at that moment he
received a wound in the throat, and reeling, he sank on the
floor, while the swords of Rada and several of the conspirators
were plunged into his body. "Jesu!" exclaimed the dying man and,
tracing a cross with his finger on the bloody floor, he bent down
his head to kiss it, when a stroke, more friendly than the rest,
put an end to his existence. *16
[See Assassination Of Pizarro: He traced a cross with his finger
on the bloody floor and bent his head down to kiss it, when a
stroke, more friendly than the rest, put an end to his
existence.]

[Footnote 16: Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 8. - Naharro,
Relacion Sumaria, Ms. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. -
Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 10, cap. 6. - Carta de la
Justicia y Regimiento de la Ciudad de los Reyes, Ms., 15 de
Julio, 1541. - Carta del Maestro, Martin de Arauco, Ms. - Carta
de Fray Vicente Valverde, desde Tumbez, Ms. - Gomara, Hist. de
las Ind., ubi supra. - Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1541.

Pizarro y Orellana seems to have no doubt that his slaughtered
kinsman died in the odor of sanctity. - "Alli le acabaron los
traidores enemigos, dandole cruelissimas heridas, con que acabo
el Julio Cesar Espanol, estando tan en si que pidiendo confession
con gran acto de contricion, haziendo la senal de la Cruz con su
misma sangre, y besandola murio." Varones Ilustres, p. 186.

According to one authority, the mortal blow was given by a
soldier named Borregan, who, when Pizarro was down, struck him on
the back of the head with a water-jar, which he had snatched from
the table. (Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 10, cap. 6.)
Considering the hurry and confusion of the scene, the different
narratives of the catastrophe, though necessarily differing in
minute details have a remarkable agreement with one another.]

The conspirators, having accomplished their bloody deed, rushed
into the street, and, brandishing their dripping weapons, shouted
out, "The tyrant is dead! The laws are restored! Long live our
master the emperor, and his governor, Almagro!" The men of Chili,
roused by the cheering cry, now flocked in from every side to
join the banner of Rada, who soon found himself at the head of
nearly three hundred followers, all armed and prepared to support
his authority. A guard was placed over the houses of the
principal partisans of the late governor, and their persons were
taken into custody. Pizarro's house, and that of his secretary
Picado, were delivered up to pillage, and a large booty in gold
and silver was found in the former. Picado himself took refuge
in the dwelling of Riquelme, the treasurer; but his hiding-place
was detected, - betrayed, according to some accounts, by the
looks, though not the words, of the treasurer himself, - and he
was dragged forth and committed to a secure prison. *17 The whole
city was thrown into consternation, as armed bodies hurried to
and fro on their several errands, and all who were not in the
faction of Almagro trembled lest they should be involved in the
proscription of their enemies. So great was the disorder, that
the Brothers of Mercy, turning out in a body, paraded the streets
in solemn procession, with the host elevated in the air, in hopes
by the presence of the sacred symbol to calm the passions of the
multitude.