History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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Among the colonial governors, who were indebted for their situation to
their rank at home, was Don Pedro Arias de Avila, or Pedrarias, as
usually called. He was married to a daughter of Dona Beatriz de
Bobadilla, the celebrated Marchioness of Moya, best known as the friend
of Isabella the Catholic. He was a man of some military experience and
considerable energy of character. But, as it proved, he was of a
malignant temper; and the base qualities, which might have passed
unnoticed in the obscurity of private life, were made conspicuous, and
perhaps created in some measure, by sudden elevation to power; as the
sunshine, which operates kindly on a generous soil, and stimulates it to
production, calls forth from the unwholesome marsh only foul and
pestilent vapors. This man was placed over the territory of Castilla del
Oro, the ground selected by Nunez de Balboa for the theatre of his
discoveries. Success drew on this latter the jealousy of his superior, for
it was crime enough in the eyes of Pedrarias to deserve too well. The
tragical history of this cavalier belongs to a period somewhat earlier than
that with which we are to be occupied. It has been traced by abler hands
than mine, and, though brief, forms one of the most brilliant passages in
the annals of the American conquerors.4

But though Pedrarias was willing to cut short the glorious career of his
rival, he was not insensible to the important consequences of his
discoveries. He saw at once the unsuitableness of Darien for prosecuting
expeditions on the Pacific, and, conformably to the original suggestion of
Balboa, in 1519, he caused his rising capital to be transferred from the
shores of the Atlantic to the ancient site of Panama, some distance east of
the present city of that name.5 This most unhealthy spot, the cemetery of
many an unfortunate colonist, was favorably situated for the great object
of maritime enterprise; and the port, from its central position, afforded
the best point of departure for expeditions, whether to the north or south,
along the wide range of undiscovered coast that lined the Southern
Ocean. Yet in this new and more favorable position, several years were
suffered to elapse before the course of discovery took the direction of
Peru. This was turned exclusively towards the north, or rather west, in'
obedience to the orders of government, which had ever at heart the
detection of a strait that, as was supposed, must intersect some part or
other of the long-extended Isthmus. Armament after armament was
fitted out with this chimerical object; and Pedrarias saw his domain
extending every year farther and farther without deriving any
considerable advantage from his acquisitions. Veragua, Costa Rica,
Nicaragua, were successively occupied; and his brave cavaliers forced a
way across forest and mountain and warlike tribes of savages, till, at
Honduras, they came in collision with the companions of Cortes, the
Conquerors of Mexico, who had descended from the great northern
plateau on the regions of Central America, and thus completed the
survey of this wild and mysterious land.

It was not till 1522 that a regular expedition was despatched in the
direction south of Panama, under the conduct of Pascual de Andagoya, a
cavalier of much distinction in the colony. But that officer penetrated
only to the Puerto de Pinas, the limit of Balboa's discoveries, when the
bad state of his health compelled him to reembark and abandon his
enterprise at its commencement.6

Yet the floating rumors of the wealth and civilization of a mighty nation
at the South were continually reaching the ears and kindling the dreamy
imaginations of the colonists; and it may seem astonishing that an
expedition in that direction should have been so long deferred. But the
exact position and distance of this fairy realm were matter of conjecture.
The long tract of intervening country was occupied by rude and warlike
races; and the little experience which the Spanish navigators had already
had of the neighboring coast and its inhabitants, and still more, the
tempestuous character of the seas--for their expeditions had taken place
at the most unpropitious seasons of the year--enhanced the apparent
difficulties of the undertaking, and made even their stout hearts shrink
from it.

Such was the state of feeling in the little community of Panama for
several years after its foundation. Meanwhile, the dazzling conquest of
Mexico gave a new impulse to the ardor of discovery, and, in 1524, three
men were found in the colony, in whom the spirit of adventure triumphed
over every consideration of difficulty and danger that obstructed the
prosecution of the enterprise. One among them was selected as fitted by
his character to conduct it to a successful issue. That man was Francisco
Pizarro; and as he held the same conspicuous post in the Conquest of
Peru that was occupied by Cortes in that of Mexico it will be necessary
to take a brief review of his early history.

Book 2

Chapter 2

Francisco Pizarro--His Early History--First Expedition To The South--
Distresses Of The Voyagers--Sharp Encounters--Return To Panama--
Almagro's Expedition

1524-1525

Francisco Pizarro was born at Truxillo, a city of Estremadura, in Spain.
The period of his birth is uncertain; but probably it was not far from
1471.1 He was an illegitimate child, and that his parents should not have
taken pains to perpetuate the date of his birth is not surprising. Few care
to make a particular record of their transgressions. His father, Gonzalo
Pizarro, was a colonel of infantry, and served with some distinction in
the Italian campaigns under the Great Captain, and afterwards in the
wars of Navarre. His mother, named Francisca Gonzales, was a person
of humble condition in the town of Truxillo.2

But little is told of Francisco's early years, and that little not always
deserving of credit. According to some, he was deserted by both his
parents, and left as a foundling at the door of one of the principal
churches of the city. It is even said that he would have perished, had he
not been nursed by a sow.3 This is a more discreditable fountain of
supply than that assigned to the infant Romulus. The early history of
men who have made their names famous by deeds in after-life, like the
early history of nations, affords a fruitful field for invention.

It seems certain that the young Pizarro received little care from either of
his parents, and was suffered to grow up as nature dictated. He was
neither taught to read nor write, and his principal occupation was that of
a swineherd. But this torpid way of life did not suit the stirring spirit of
Pizarro, as he grew older, and listened to the tales, widely circulated and
se captivating to a youthful fancy, of the New World. He shared in the
popular enthusiasm, and availed himself of a favorable moment to
abandon his ignoble charge, and escape to Seville, the port where the
Spanish adventurers embarked to seek their fortunes in the West. Few of
them could have turned their backs on their native land with less cause
for regret than Pizarro.4

In what year this important change in his destiny took place we are not
informed. The first we hear of him in the New World is at the island of
Hispaniola, in 1510, where he took part in the expedition to Uraba in
Terra Firma, under Alonzo de Ojeda, a cavalier whose character and
achievements find no parallel but in the pages of Cervantes. Hernando
Cortes, whose mother was a Pizarro, and related, it is said, to the father
of Francis, was then in St. Domingo, and prepared to accompany
Ojeda's expedition, but was prevented by a temporary lameness. Had he
gone, the fall of the Aztec empire might have been postponed for some
time longer, and the sceptre of Montezuma have descended in peace to
his posterity. Pizarro shared in the disastrous fortunes of Ojeda's colony,
and, by his discretion, obtained so far the confidence of his commander,
as to be left in charge of the settlement, when the latter returned for
supplies to the islands. The lieutenant continued at his perilous post for
nearly two months, waiting deliberately until death should have thinned
off the colony sufficiently to allow the miserable remnant to be
embarked in the single small vessel that remained to it.5

After this, we find him associated with Balboa, the discoverer of the
Pacific, and cooperating with him in establishing the settlement at
Darien. He had the glory of accompanying this gallant cavalier in his
terrible march across the mountains, and of being among the first
Europeans, therefore, whose eyes were greeted with the long-promised
vision of the Southern Ocean.

After the untimely death of his commander, Pizarro attached himself to
the fortunes of Pedrarias, and was employed by that governor in several
military expeditions, which, if they afforded nothing else, gave him the
requisite training for the perils and privations that lay in the path of the
future Conqueror of Peru.

In 1515, he was selected, with another cavalier named Morales, to cross
the Isthmus and traffic with the natives on the shores of the Pacific. And
there, while engaged in collecting his booty of gold and pearls from the
neighbouring islands, as his eye ranged along the shadowy line of coast
till it faded in the distance, his imagination may have been first fired with
the idea of, one day, attempting the conquest of the mysterious regions
beyond the mountains. On the removal of the seat of government across
the Isthmus to Panama, Pizarro accompanied Pedrarias, and his name
became conspicuous among the cavaliers who extended the line of
conquest to the north over the martial tribes of Veragua. But all these
expeditions, whatever glory they may have brought him, were productive
of very little gold; and, at the age of fifty, the captain Pizarro found
himself in possession only of a tract of unhealthy land in the
neighborhood of the capital, and of such repartimientos of the natives as
were deemed suited to his military services.6 The New World was a
lottery, where the great prizes were so few that the odds were much
against the player; yet in the game he was content to stake health,
fortune, and, too often, his fair fame.

Such was Pizarro's situation when, in 1522, Andagoya returned from his
unfinished enterprise to the south of Panama, bringing back with him
more copious accounts than any hitherto received of the opulence and
grandeur of the countries that lay beyond.7 It was at this time, too, that
the splendid achievements of Cortes made their impression on the public
mind, and gave a new impulse to the spirit of adventure. The southern
expeditions became a common topic of speculation among the colonists
of Panama. But the region of gold, as it lay behind the mighty curtain of
the Cordilleras, was still veiled in obscurity. No idea could be formed of
its actual distance; and the hardships and difficulties encountered by the
few navigators who had sailed in that direction gave a gloomy character
to the undertaking, which had hitherto deterred the most daring from
embarking in it. There is no evidence that Pizarro showed any particular
alacrity in the cause. Nor were his own funds such as to warrant any
expectation of success without great assistance from others. He found
this in two individuals of the colony, who took too important a part in the
subsequent transactions not to be particularly noticed.

One of them, Diego de Almagro, was a soldier of fortune somewhat
older, it seems probable, than Pizarro; though little is known of his birth,
and even the place of it is disputed. It is supposed to have been the town
of Almagro in New Castile, whence his own name, for want of a better
source was derived; for, like Pizarro, he was a foundling.8 Few
particulars are known of him till the present period of our history; for he
was one of those whom the working of turbulent times first throws upon
the surface,--less fortunate, perhaps, than if left in their original
obscurity. In his military career, Almagro had earned the reputation of a
gallant soldier. He was frank and liberal in his disposition, somewhat
hasty and ungovernable in his passions, but, like men of a sanguine
temperament, after the first sallies had passed away, not difficult to be
appeased. He had, in short, the good qualities and the defects incident to
an honest nature, not improved by the discipline of early education or
self-control.

The other member of the confederacy was Hernando de Luque, a
Spanish ecclesiastic, who exercised the functions of vicar at Panama, and
had formerly filled the office of schoolmaster in the Cathedral of Darien.
He seems to have been a man of singular prudence and knowledge of the
world; and by his respectable qualities had acquired considerable
influence in the little community to which he belonged, as well as the
control of funds, which made his cooperation essential to the success of
the present enterprise.

It was arranged among the three associates, that the two cavaliers should
contribute their little stock towards defraying the expenses of the
armament, but by far the greater part of the funds was to be furnished by
Luque. Pizarro was to take command of the expedition, and the business
of victualling and equipping the vessels was assigned to Almagro. The
associates found no difficulty in obtaining the consent of the governor to
their undertaking. After the return of Andagoya, he had projected
another expedition, but the officer to whom it was to be intrusted died.
Why he did not prosecute his original purpose, and commit the affair to
an experienced captain like Pizarro, does not appear. He was probably
not displeased that the burden of the enterprise should be borne by
others, so long as a good share of the profits went into his own coffers.
This he did not overlook in his stipulations.9

Thus fortified with the funds of Luque, and the consent of the governor,
Almagro was not slow to make preparations for the voyage. Two small
vessels were purchased, the larger of which had been originally built by
Balboa, for himself, with a view to this same expedition. Since his
death, it had lain dismantled in the harbor of Panama. It was now
refitted as well as circumstances would permit, and put in order for sea,
while the stores and provisions were got on board with an alacrity which
did more credit, as the event proved, to Almagro's zeal than to his
forecast.

There was more difficulty in obtaining the necessary complement of
hands; for a general feeling of distrust had gathered round expeditions in
this direction, which could not readily be overcome. But there were
many idle hangers-on in the colony, who had come out to mend their
fortunes, and were willing to take their chance of doing so, however
desperate. From such materials as these, Almagro assembled a body of
somewhat more than a hundred men;10 and every thing being ready,
Pizarro assumed the command, and, weighing anchor, took his departure
from the little port of Panama, about the middle of November, 1524..
Almagro was to follow in a second vessel of inferior size, as soon as it
could be fitted out.11

The time of year was the most unsuitable that could have been selected
for the voyage; for it was the rainy season, when the navigation to the
south, impeded by contrary winds, is made doubly dangerous by the
tempests that sweep over the coast. But this was not understood by the
adventurers. After touching at the Isle of Pearls, the frequent resort of
navigators, at a few leagues' distance from Panama, Pizarro hold his way
across the Gulf of St. Michael, and steered almost due south for the
Puerto de Pinas, a headland in the province of Biruquete, which marked
the limit of Andagoya's voyage. Before his departure, Pizarro had
obtained all the information which he could derive from that officer in
respect to the country, and the route he was to follow. But the cavalier's
own experience had been too limited to enable him to be of much
assistance.

Doubling the Puerto de Pinas, the little vessel entered the river Biru, the
misapplication of which name is supposed by some to have given rise to
that of the empire of the Incas.12 After sailing up this stream for a
couple of leagues, Pizarro came to anchor, and disembarking his whole
force except the sailors, proceeded at the head of it to explore the
country. The land spread out into a vast swamp, where the heavy rains
had settled in pools of stagnant water, and the muddy soil afforded no
footing to the traveller. This dismal morass was fringed with woods,
through whose thick and tangled undergrowth they found it difficult to
penetrate and emerging from them, they came out on a hilly country, so
rough and rocky in its character, that their feet were cut to the bone, and
the weary soldier, encumbered with his heavy mail or thick-padded
doublet of cotton, found it difficult to drag one foot after the other. The
heat at times was oppressive; and, fainting with toil and famished for
want of food, they sank down on the earth from mere exhaustion. Such
was the ominous commencement of the expedition to Peru.

Pizarro, however, did not lose heart. He endeavored to revive the spirits
of his men, and besought them not to be discouraged by difficulties
which a brave heart would be sure to overcome, reminding them of the
golden prize which awaited those who persevered. Yet it was obvious
that nothing was to be gained by remaining longer in this desolate region.
Returning to their vessel, therefore, it was suffered to drop down the
river and proceed along its southern course on the great ocean.

After coasting a few leagues, Pizarro anchored off a place not very
inviting in its appearance, where he took in a supply of wood and water.
Then, stretching more towards the open sea, he held on in the same
direction towards the south. But in this he was baffled by a succession of
heavy tempests, accompanied with such tremendous peals of thunder and
floods of rain as are found only in the terrible storms of the tropics. The
sea was lashed into fury, and, swelling into mountain billows, threatened
every moment to overwhelm the crazy little bark, which opened at every
seam. For ten days the unfortunate voyagers were tossed about by the
pitiless elements, and it was only by incessant exertions--the exertions of
despair--that they preserved the ship from foundering. To add to their
calamities, their provisions began to fail, and they were short of water, of
which they had been furnished only with a small number of casks; for
Almagro had counted on their recruiting their scanty supplies, from time
to time, from the shore. Their meat was wholly consumed, and they
were reduced to the wretched allowance of two ears of Indian corn a day
for each man.

Thus harassed by hunger and the elements, the battered voyagers were
too happy to retrace their course and regain the port where they had last
taken in supplies of wood and water. Yet nothing could be more
unpromising than the aspect of the country. It had the same character of
low, swampy soil, that distinguished the former landing-place; while
thick-matted forests, of a depth which the eye could not penetrate,
stretched along the coast to an interminable length. It was in vain that

840
the wearied Spaniards endeavored to thread the mazes of this tangled
thicket, where the creepers and flowering vines, that shoot up luxuriant
in a hot and humid atmosphere, had twined themselves round the huge
trunks of the forest-trees, and made a network that could be opened only
with the axe. The rain, in the mean time, rarely slackened, and the
ground, strewed with leaves and saturated with moisture, seemed to slip
away beneath their feet.

Nothing could be more dreary and disheartening than the aspect of these
funereal forests; where the exhalations from the overcharged surface of
the ground poisoned the air, and seemed to allow no life, except that,
indeed, of myriads of insects, whose enamelled wings glanced to and fro,
like sparks of fire, in every opening of the woods. Even the brute
creation appeared instinctively to have shunned the fatal spot, and
neither beast nor bird of any description was seen by the wanderers.
Silence reigned unbroken in the heart of these dismal solitudes; at least,
the only sounds that could be heard were the plashing of the rain-drops
on the leaves, and the tread of the forlorn adventurers.13

Entirely discouraged by the aspect of the country, the Spaniards began to
comprehend that they had gained nothing by changing their quarters
from sea to shore, and they felt the most serious apprehensions of
perishing from famine in a region which afforded nothing but such
unwholesome berries as they could pick up here and there in the woods.
They loudly complained of their hard lot, accusing their commander as
the author of all their troubles, and as deluding them with promises of a
fairy land, which seemed to recede in proportion as they advanced. It
was of no use, they said, to contend against fate, and it was better to take
their chance of regaining the port of Panama in time to save their lives,
than to wait where they were to die of hunger.

But Pizarro was prepared to encounter much greater evils than these,
before returning to Panama, bankrupt in credit, an object of derision as a
vainglorious dreamer, who had persuaded others to embark in an
adventure which he had not the courage to carry through himself. The
present was his only chance. To return would be ruin. He used every
argument, therefore, that mortified pride or avarice could suggest to turn
his followers from their purpose; represented to them that these were the
troubles that necessarily lay in the path of the discoverer; and called to
mind the brilliant successes of their countrymen in other quarters, and
the repeated reports, which they had themselves received, of the rich
regions along the coast, of which it required only courage and constancy
on their part to become the masters. Yet, as their present exigencies
were pressing, he resolved to send back the vessel to the Isle of Pearls, to
lay in a fresh stock of provisions for his company, which might enable
them to go forward with renewed confidence. The distance was not
great, and in a few days they would all be relieved from their perilous
position. The officer detached on this service was named Montenegro;
and taking with him nearly half the company, after receiving Pizarro's
directions, he instantly weighed anchor, and steered for the Isle of Pearls.

On the departure of his vessel, the Spanish commander made an attempt
to explore the country, and see if some Indian settlement might not be
found, where he could procure refreshments for his followers. But his
efforts were vain, and no trace was visible of a human dwelling; though,
in the dense and impenetrable foliage of the equatorial regions, the
distance of a few rods might suffice to screen a city from observation.
The only means of nourishment left to the unfortunate adventurers were
such shell-fish as they occasionally picked up on the shore, or the bitter
buds of the palm-tree, and such berries and unsavory herbs as grew wild
in the woods. Some of these were so poisonous, that the bodies of those
who ate them swelled up and were tormented with racking pains. Others,
preferring famine to this miserable diet, pined away from weakness and
actually died of starvation. Yet their resolute leader strove to maintain
his own cheerfulness and to keep up the drooping spirits of his men. He
freely shared with them his scanty stock of provisions, was unwearied in
his endeavors to procure them sustenance, tended the sick, and ordered
barracks to be constructed for their accommodation, which might, at
least, shelter them from the drenching storms of the season. By this
ready sympathy with his followers in their sufferings, he obtained an
ascendency over their rough natures, which the assertion of authority, at
least in the present extremity, could never have secured to him.

Day after day, week after week, had now passed away, and no tidings
were heard of the vessel that was to bring relief to the wanderers. In vain
did they strain their eyes over the distant waters to catch a glimpse of
their coming friends. Not a speck was to be seen in the blue distance,
where the canoe of the savage dared not venture, and the sail of the white
man was not yet spread. Those who had borne up bravely at first now
gave way to despondency, as they felt themselves abandoned by their
countrymen on this desolate shore. They pined under that sad feeling
which "maketh the heart sick." More than twenty of the little band had
already died, and the survivors seemed to be rapidly following.14

At this crisis reports were brought to Pizarro of a light having been seen
through a distant opening in the woods. He hailed the tidings with
eagerness, as intimating the existence of some settlement in the
neighborhood; and, putting himself at the head of a small party, went in
the direction pointed out, to reconnoitre. He was not disappointed, and,
after extricating himself from a dense wilderness of underbrush and
foliage, he emerged into an open space, where a small Indian village was
planted. The timid inhabitants, on the sudden apparition of the strangers,
quitted their huts in dismay; and the famished Spaniards, rushing in,
eagerly made themselves masters of their contents. These consisted of
different articles of food, chiefly maize and cocoanuts. The supply,
though small, was too seasonable not to fill them with rapture.