The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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[Footnote 7: Ibid., ubi supra. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 7,
lib. 9, cap. 22. - Garcilasso, Com. Real., lib. 9, cap. 26.]

But the viceroy had profited by the recent delay to gain
considerably on his pursuers. His road led across the valley of
Caxas, a broad, uncultivated district, affording little
sustenance for man or beast. Day after day, his troops held on
their march through this dreary region, intersected with
barrancas and rocky ravines that added incredibly to their toil.
Their principal food was the parched corn, which usually formed
the nourishment of the travelling Indians, though held of much
less account by the Spaniards; and this meagre fare was
reinforced by such herbs as they found on the way-side, which,
for want of better utensils, the soldiers were fain to boil in
their helmets. *8 Carbajal, mean while, pressed on them so close,
that their baggage, ammunition, and sometimes their mules, fell
into his hands. The indefatigable warrior was always on their
track, by day and by night, allowing them scarcely any repose.
They spread no tent, and lay down in their arms, with their
steeds standing saddled beside them; and hardly had the weary
soldier closed his eyes, when he was startled by the cry that the
enemy was upon him. *9
[Footnote 8: "Caminando, pues, comiendo algunas Jervas, que
cocian en las Celadas, quando paraban a dar aliento a los
Caballos." Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 7, lib. 9, cap 24.]

[Footnote 9: "I sin que en todo el camino los vnos, ni los otros,
quitasen las Sillas a los Caballos, aunque en este caso estaba
mas alerta la Gente del Visorei, porque si algun pequeno rato de
la Noche reposaban, era vestidos, i teniendo siempre los Caballos
del Cabestro, sin esperar a poner Toldos, ni a aderecar las otras
formas, que se suelen tener para atar los Caballos de Noche."
Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 5, cap. 29.]
At length, the harassed followers of Blasco Nunez reached the
depoblado, or desert of Paltos, which stretches towards the north
for many a dreary league. The ground, intersected by numerous
streams, has the character of a great quagmire, and men and
horses floundered about in the stagnant waters, or with
difficulty worked their way over the marsh, or opened a passage
through the tangled underwood that shot up in rank luxuriance
from the surface. The wayworn horses, without food, except such
as they could pick up in the wilderness, were often spent with
travel, and, becoming unserviceable, were left to die on the
road, with their hamstrings cut, that they might be of no use to
the enemy; though more frequently they were despatched to afford
a miserable banquet to their masters. *10 Many of the men now
fainted by the way from mere exhaustion, or loitered in the
woods, unable to keep up with the march. And woe to the straggler
who fell into the hands of Carbajal, at least if he had once
belonged to the party of Pizarro. The mere suspicion of treason
sealed his doom with the unrelenting soldier. *11

[Footnote 10: "I en cansandose el Caballo, le desjarretaba, i le
dexaba, porque sus contrarios no se aprovechasen de el." Ibid.,
loc. cit.]
[Footnote 11: "Had it not been for Gonzalo Pizarro's
interference," says Fernandez, "many more would have been hung up
by his lieutenant, who pleasantly quoted the old Spanish proverb,
- 'The fewer of our enemies the better.'" De los enemigos, los
menos. Hist. del Peru, Parte 1, lib. 1, cap. 40.]

The sufferings of Pizarro and his troop were scarcely less than
those of the viceroy; though they were somewhat mitigated by the
natives of the country, who, with ready instinct, discerned which
party was the strongest, and, of course, the most to be feared.
But, with every alleviation, the chieftain's sufferings were
terrible. It was repeating the dismal scenes of the expedition
to the Amazon. The soldiers of the Conquest must be admitted to
have purchased their triumphs dearly.
Yet the viceroy had one source of disquietude, greater, perhaps,
than any arising from physical suffering. This was the distrust
of his own followers. There were several of the principal
cavaliers in his suite whom he suspected of being in
correspondence with the enemy, and even of designing to betray
him into their hands. He was so well convinced of this, that he
caused two of these officers to be put to death on the march; and
their dead bodies, as they lay by the roadside, meeting the eye
of the soldier, told him that there were others to be feared in
these frightful solitudes besides the enemy in his rear. *12

[Footnote 12: "Los afligidos Soldados, que por el cansancio de
los Caballos iban a pie con terrible angustia, por la persecucion
de los Enemigos, que iban cerca, i por la fatiga de la hambre,
quando vieron los Cuerpos de los dos Capitanes muertos en aquel
camino quedaron atonitos." Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 7, lib.
9, cap. 25.]

Another cavalier, who held the chief command under the viceroy,
was executed, after a more formal investigation of his case, at
the first place where the army halted. At this distance of time,
it is impossible to determine how far the suspicions of Blasco
Nunez were founded on truth. The judgments of contemporaries are
at variance. *13 In times of political ferment, the opinion of
the writer is generally determined by the complexion of his
party. To judge from the character of Blasco Nunez, jealous and
irritable, we might suppose him to have acted without sufficient
cause. But this consideration is counterbalanced by that of the
facility with which his followers swerved from their allegiance
to their commander, who seems to have had so light a hold on
their affections, that they were shaken off by the least reverse
of fortune. Whether his suspicions were well or ill founded, the
effect was the same on the mind of the viceroy. With an enemy in
his rear whom he dared not fight, and followers whom he dared not
trust, the cup of his calamities was nearly full.

[Footnote 13: Fernandez, who held a loyal pen, and one
sufficiently friendly to the viceroy, after stating that the
officers, whom the latter put to death, had served him to that
time with their lives and fortunes, dismisses the affair with the
temperate reflection, that men formed different judgments on it.
"Sobre estas muertes uuo en el Peru varios y contrarios juyzios y
opiniones, de culpa y de su descargo." (Hist. del Peru, Parte 1,
lib. 1, cap. 41.) Gomara says, more unequivocally, "All condemned
it." (Hist. de las Ind., cap. 167.) The weight of opinion seems
to have been against the viceroy.]

At length, he issued forth on firm ground, and, passing through
Tomebamba, Blasco Nunez reentered his northern capital of Quito.
But his reception was not so cordial as that which he had before
experienced. He now came as a fugitive, with a formidable enemy
in pursuit; and he was soon made to feel that the surest way to
receive support is not to need it.

Shaking from his feet the dust of the disloyal city, whose
superstitious people were alive to many an omen that boded his
approaching ruin, *14 the unfortunate commander held on his way
towards Pastos, in the jurisdiction of Benalcazar. Pizarro and
his forces entered Quito not long after, disappointed, that, with
all his diligence, the enemy still eluded his pursuit. He halted
only to breathe his men, and, declaring that "he would follow up
the viceroy to the North Sea but he would overtake him," *15 he
resumed his march. At Pastos, he nearly accomplished his object.
His advance-guard came up with Blasco Nunez as the latter was
halting on the opposite bank of a rivulet. Pizarro's men,
fainting from toil and heat, staggered feebly to the water-side,
to slake their burning thirst, and it would have been easy for
the viceroy's troops, refreshed by repose, and superior in number
to their foes, to have routed them. But Blasco Nunez could not
bring his soldiers to the charge. They had fled so long before
their enemy, that the mere sight of him filled their hearts with
panic, and they would have no more thought of turning against him
than the hare would turn against the hound that pursues her.
Their safety, they felt, was to fly, not to fight, and they
profited by the exhaustion of their pursuers only to quicken
their retreat.
[Footnote 14: Some of these omens recorded by the historian - as
the howling of dogs - were certainly no miracles. "En esta
lamentable, i angustiosa partida, muchos afirmaron, haver visto
por el Aire muchos Cometas, i que quadrillas de Perros andaban
por las Calles, dando grandes i temerosos ahullidos, i los
Hombres andaban asombrados, i fuera de si." Herrera Hist.
General, dec. 7, lib. 10, cap. 4.]

[Footnote 15: Ibid., ubi supra.]

Gonzalo Pizarro continued the chase some leagues beyond Pastos;
when, finding himself carried farther than he desired into the
territories of Benalcazar, and not caring to encounter this
formidable captain at disadvantage, he came to a halt, and,
notwithstanding his magnificent vaunt about the North Sea,
ordered a retreat, and made a rapid countermarch on Quito. Here
he found occupation in repairing the wasted spirits of his
troops, and in strengthening himself with fresh reinforcements,
which much increased his numbers; though these were again
diminished by a body that he detached under Carbajal to suppress
an insurrection, which he now learned had broken out in the
south. It was headed by Diego Centeno, one of his own officers,
whom he had established in La Plata, the inhabitants of which
place had joined in the revolt and raised the standard for the
Crown. With the rest of his forces, Pizarro resolved to remain
at Quito, waiting the hour when the viceroy would reenter his
dominions; as the tiger crouches by some spring in the
wilderness, patiently waiting the return of his victims.

Meanwhile Blasco Nunez had pushed forward his retreat to Popayan,
the capital of Benalcazar's province. Here he was kindly
received by the people; and his soldiers, reduced by desertion
and disease to one fifth of their original number, rested from
the unparalleled fatigues of a march which had continued for more
than two hundred leagues. *16 It was not long before he was
joined by Cabrera, Benalcazar's lieutenant, with a stout
reinforcement, and, soon after, by that chieftain himself. His
whole force now amounted to near four hundred men, most of them
in good condition, and well trained in the school of American
warfare. His own men were sorely deficient both in arms and
ammunition; and he set about repairing the want by building
furnaces for manufacturing arquebuses and pikes. *17 - One
familiar with the history of these times is surprised to see the
readiness with which the Spanish adventurers turned their hands
to various trades and handicrafts usually requiring a long
apprenticeship. They displayed the dexterity so necessary to
settlers in a new country, where every man must become in some
degree his own artisan. But this state of things, however
favorable to the ingenuity of the artist, is not very propitious
to the advancement of the art; and there can be little doubt that
the weapons thus made by the soldiers of Blasco Nunez were of the
most rude and imperfect construction.

[Footnote 16: This retreat of Blasco Nunez may undoubtedly
compare, if not in duration, at least in sharpness of suffering,
with any expedition in the New World, - save, indeed, that of
Gonzalo Pizarro himself to the Amazon. The particulars of it may
be found, with more or less amplification, in Zarate, Conq. del
Peru, lib. 5, cap. 19, 29. - Carta de Gonzalo Pizarro a Valdivia,
Ms. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 7, lib. 9, cap. 20-26. -
Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 1, lib. 1, cap. 40, et seq. -
Relacion de los Sucesos del Peru, Ms - Relacion Anonima, Ms. -
Montesions, Annales, Ms., ano 1545.]

[Footnote 17: "Proveio, que se tragese alli todo el hierro que se
pudo haver en la Provincia, i busco Maestros, hico aderecar
Fraguas, i en breve tiempo se forjaron en ellas docien tos
Arcabuces, con todos sus aparejos." Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib.
5, cap 34.]

As week after week rolled away, Gonzalo Pizarro, though fortified
with the patience of a Spanish soldier, felt uneasy at the
protracted stay of Blasco Nunez in the north, and he resorted to
stratagem to decoy him from his retreat. He marched out of Quito
with the greater part of his forces, pretending that he was going
to support his lieutenant in the south, while he left a garrison
in the city under the command of Puelles, the same officer who
had formerly deserted from the viceroy. These tidings he took
care should be conveyed to the enemy's camp. The artifice
succeeded as he wished. Blasco Nunez and his followers,
confident in their superiority over Puelles, did not hesitate for
a moment to profit by the supposed absence of Pizarro.
Abandoning Popayan, the viceroy, early in January, 1546, moved by
rapid marches towards the south. But before he reached the place
of his destination, he became apprised of the snare into which he
had been drawn. He communicated the fact to his officers; but he
had already suffered so much from suspense, that his only desire
now was, to bring his quarrel with Pizarro to the final
arbitrament of arms.
That chief, meanwhile, had been well informed, through his
spies,of the viceroy's movements. On learning the departure of
the latter from Popayan, he had reentered Quito, joined his
forces with those of Puelles, and, issuing from the capital, had
taken up a strong position about three leagues to the north, on a
high ground that commanded a stream, across which the enemy must
pass. It was not long before the latter came in sight, and
Blasco Nunez, as night began to fall, established himself on the
opposite bank of the rivulet. It was so near to the enemy's
quarters, that the voices of the sentinels could be distinctly
heard in the opposite camps, and they did not fail to salute one
another with the epithet of "traitors." In these civil wars, as
we have seen, each party claimed for itself the exclusive merit
of loyalty. *18

[Footnote 18: "Que se llegaron a hablar los Corredores de ambas
partes, Ilamandose Traidores los vnos a los otros, fundando, que
cada vno sustentaba la voz del Rei, i asi estuvieron toda aquella
noche aguardando." Ibid., ubi supra.]

But Benalcazar soon saw that Pizarro's position was too strong to
be assailed with any chance of success. He proposed, therefore,
to the viceroy, to draw off his forces secretly in the night;
and, making a detour round the hills, to fall on the enemy's
rear, where he would be at least prepared to receive them. The
counsel was approved; and, no sooner were the two hosts shrouded
from each other's eyes by the darkness, than, leaving his
camp-fires burning to deceive the enemy, Blasco Nunez broke up
his quarters, and began his circuitous march in the direction of
Quito. But either he had been misinformed, or his guides misled
him; for the roads proved so impracticable, that he was compelled
to make a circuit of such extent, that dawn broke before he drew
near the point of attack. Finding that he must now abandon the
advantage of a surprise, he pressed forward to Quito, where he
arrived with men and horses sorely fatigued by a night-march of
eight leagues, from a point which, by the direct route, would not
have exceeded three. It was a fatal error on the eve of an
engagement. *19

[Footnote 19: For the preceding pages, see Zarate, Conq. del
Peru, lib. 5, cap. 34, 35. - Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. 167.
- Carta de Gonzalo Pizarro a Valdivia, Ms. - Montesinos, Annales,
Ms., ano 1546. - Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 1, lib. 1, cap.
50-52.

Herrera, in his account of these transactions, has fallen into a
strange confusion of dates, fixing the time of the viceroy's
entry into Quito on the 10th of January, and that of his battle
with Pizarro nine days later (Hist. General, dec. 8, lib. 1, cap
1.) This last event, which, by the testimony of Fernandez, was on
the eighteenth of the month, was by the agreement of such
contemporary authorities as I have consulted, - as stated in the
text, - on the evening of the same day in which the viceroy
entered Quito. Herrera, though his work is arranged on the
chronological system of annals, is by no means immaculate as to
his dates. Quintana has exposed several glaring anachronisms of
the historian in the earlier period of the Peruvian conquest.
See his Espanoles Celebres, tom. II. Appendix, No. 7.]

He found the capital nearly deserted by the men. They had all
joined the standard of Pizarro; for they had now caught the
general spirit of disaffection, and looked upon that chief as
their protector from the oppressive ordinances. Pizarro was the
representative of the people. Greatly moved at this desertion,
the unhappy viceroy, lifting his hands to heaven, exclaimed, -
"Is it thus, Lord, that thou abandonest thy servants?" The women
and children came out, and in vain offered him food, of which he
stood obviously in need, asking him, at the same time, "Why he
had come there to die?" His followers, with more indifference
than their commander, entered the houses of the inhabitants, and
unceremoniously appropriated whatever they could find to appease
the cravings of appetite.
Benalcazar, who saw the temerity of giving battle, in their
present condition, recommended the viceroy to try the effect of
negotiation, and offered himself to go to the enemy's camp, and
arrange, if possible, terms of accommodation with Pizarro. But
Blasco Nunez, if he had desponded for a moment, had now recovered
his wonted constancy, and he proudly replied, - "There is no
faith to be kept with traitors. We have come to fight, not to
parley; and we must do our duty like good and loyal cavaliers. I
will do mine," he continued, "and be assured I will be the first
man to break a lance with the enemy." *20

[Footnote 20: "Yo os prometo, que la primera laca que se rompa en
los enemigos, sea la mia (y assi lo cumplio). Fernandez, Hist.
del Peru, Parte 1, lib. 1, cap. 53.]

He then called his troops together, and addressed to them a few
words preparatory to marching "You are all brave men," he said,
"and loyal to your sovereign. For my own part, I hold life as
little in comparison with my duty to my prince. Yet let us not
distrust our success; the Spaniard, in a good cause, has often
overcome greater odds than these. And we are fighting for the
right; it is the cause of God, - the cause of God," *21 he
concluded, and the soldiers, kindled by his generous ardor,
answered him with huzzas that went to the heart of the
unfortunate commander, little accustomed of late to this display
of enthusiasm.

[Footnote 21: "Que de Dios es la causa, de Dios es la causa, de
Dios es la causa." Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 5, cap. 35.]

It was the eighteenth of January, 1546, when Blasco Nunez marched
out at the head of his array, from the ancient city of Quito. He
had proceeded but a mile, *22 when he came in view of the enemy
formed along the crest of some high lands, which by a gentle
swell, rose gradually from the plains of Anaquito. Gonzalo
Pizarro, greatly chagrined on ascertaining the departure of the
viceroy, early in the morning, had broken up his camp, and
directed his march on the capital, fully resolved that his enemy
should not escape him.

[Footnote 22: "Un quarto de legua de la ciudad." Carta de Gonzalo
Pizarro a Valdivia, Ms.]

The viceroy's troops, now coming to a halt, were formed in order
of battle. A small body of arquebusiers was stationed in the
advance to begin the fight. The remainder of that corps was
distributed among the spearmen, who occupied the centre,
protected on the flanks by the horse drawn up in two nearly equal
squadrons. The cavalry amounted to about one hundred and forty,
being little inferior to that on the other side, though the whole
number of the viceroy's forces, being less than four hundred, did
not much exceed the half of his rival's. On the right, and in
front of the royal banner, Blasco Nunez, supported by thirteen
chosen cavaliers, took his station, prepared to head the attack.

Pizarro had formed his troops in a corresponding manner with that
of his adversary. They mustered about seven hundred in all, well
appointed, in good condition, and officered by the best knights
in Peru. *23 As, notwithstanding his superiority of numbers,
Pizarro did not seem inclined to abandon his advantageous
position, Blasco Nunez gave orders to advance. The action
commenced with the arquebusiers, and in a few moments the dense
clouds of smoke, rolling over the field, obscured every object;
for it was late in the day when the action began, and the light
was rapidly fading.
[Footnote 23: The amount of the numbers on both sides is
variously given, as usual, making, however, more than the usual
difference in the relative proportions, since the sum total is so
small. I have conformed to the statements of the best-instructed
writers. Pizarro estimates his adversary's force at four hundred
and fifty men, and his own at only six hundred; an estimate, it
may be remarked, that does not make the given in the text any
less credible.]

The infantry, now levelling their pikes, advanced under cover of
the smoke, and were soon hotly engaged with the opposite files of
spearmen. Then came the charge of the cavalry, which -
notwithstanding they were thrown into some disorder by the fire
of Pizarro's arquebusiers, far superior in number to their own -
was conducted with such spirit that the enemy's horse were
compelled to reel and fall back before it. But it was only to
recoil with greater violence, as, like an overwhelming wave,
Pizarro's troopers rushed on their foes, driving them along the
slope, and bearing down man and horse in indiscriminate ruin.
Yet these, in turn, at length rallied, cheered on by the cries
and desperate efforts of their officers. The lances were
shivered, and they fought hand to hand with swords and
battle-axes mingled together in wild confusion. But the struggle
was of no long duration; for, though the numbers were nearly
equal, the viceroy's cavalry, jaded by the severe march of the
previous night, *24 were no match for their antagonists. The
ground was strewn with the wreck of their bodies; and horses and
riders, the dead and the dying, lay heaped on one another.
Cabrera, the brave lieutenant of Benalcazar, was slain, and that
commander was thrown under his horse's feet, covered with wounds,
and left for dead on the field. Alvarez, the judge, was mortally
wounded. Both he and his colleague Cepeda were in the action,
though ranged on opposite sides, fighting as if they had been
bred to arms, not to the peaceful profession of the law.

[Footnote 24: Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 5, cap. 35.]

Yet Blasco Nunez and his companions maintained a brave struggle
on the right of the field. The viceroy had kept his word by
being the first to break his lance against the enemy, and by a
well-directed blow had borne a cavalier, named Alonso de
Montalvo, clean out of his saddle. But he was at length
overwhelmed by numbers, and, as his companions, one after
another, fell by his side, he was left nearly unprotected. He
was already wounded, when a blow on the head from the battle-axe
of a soldier struck him from his horse, and he fell stunned on
the ground. Had his person been known, he might have been taken
alive, but he wore a sobre-vest of Indian cotton over his armour,
which concealed the military order of St. James, and the other
badges of his rank. *25

[Footnote 25: He wore this dress, says Garcilasso de la Vega,
that he might fare no better than a common soldier, but take his
chance with the rest. (Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 4, cap. 34.)
Pizarro gives him credit for no such magnanimous intent.
According to him, the viceroy assumed this disguise, that, his
rank being unknown, he might have the better chance for escape. -
It must be confessed that this is the general motive for a
disguise. "I Blasco Nunez puso mucha diligencia por poder huirse
si pudiera, porque venia vestido con una camiseta de Yndios por
no ser conocido, i no quiso Dios porque pagase quantos males por
su causa se havian hecho." Carta de Gonzalo Pizarro a Valdivia.
Ms.]

His person, however, was soon recognized by one of Pizarro's
followers, who, not improbably, had once followed the viceroy's
banner. The soldier immediately pointed him out to the Licentiate
Carbajal. This person was the brother of the cavalier whom, as
the reader may remember, Blasco Nunez had so rashly put to death
in his palace at Lima. The licentiate had afterwards taken
service under Pizarro, and, with several of his kindred, was
pledged to take vengeance on the viceroy. Instantly riding up,
he taunted the fallen commander with the murder of his brother,
and was in the act of dismounting to despatch him with his own
hand, when Puelles remonstrating on this, as an act of
degradation, commanded one of his attendants, a black slave, to
cut off the viceroy's head. This the fellow executed with a
single stroke of his sabre, while the wretched man, perhaps then
dying of his wounds, uttered no word, but with eyes imploringly
turned up towards heaven, received the fatal blow. *26 The head
was then borne aloft on a pike, and some were brutal enough to
pluck out the grey hairs from the beard and set them in their
caps, as grisly trophies of their victory. *27 The fate of the
day was now decided. Yet still the infantry made a brave stand,
keeping Pizarro's horse at bay with their bristling array of
pikes. But their numbers were thinned by the arquebusiers; and,
thrown into disorder, they could no longer resist the onset of
the horse, who broke into their column, and soon scattered and
drove them off the ground. The pursuit was neither long nor
bloody; for darkness came on, and Pizarro bade his trumpets
sound, to call his men together under their banners.