History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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The astonished natives made no attempt at resistance. But, gathering
more confidence as no violence was offered to their persons, they drew
nearer the white men, and inquired, "Why they did not stay at home and
till their own lands, instead of roaming about to rob others who had
never harmed them?"15 Whatever may have been their opinion as to.
the question of right, the Spaniards, no doubt, felt then that it would have
been wiser to do so. But the savages wore about their persons gold
ornaments of some size, though of clumsy workmanship. This furnished
the best reply to their demand. It was the golden bait which lured the
Spanish adventurer to forsake his pleasant home for the trials of the
wilderness. From the Indians Pizarro gathered a confirmation of the
reports he had so often received of a rich country lying farther south; and
at the distance of ten days' journey across the mountains, they told him,
there dwelt a mighty monarch whose dominions had been invaded by
another still more powerful, the Child of the Sun.16 It may have been
the invasion of Quito that was meant, by the valiant Inca Huayna Capac,
which took place some years previous to Pizarro's expedition.

At length, after the expiration of more than six weeks, the Spaniards
beheld with delight the return of the wandering bark that had borne away
their comrades, and Montenegro sailed into port with an ample supply of
provisions for his famishing countrymen. Great was his horror at the
aspect presented by the latter, their wild and haggard countenances and
wasted frames,--so wasted by hunger and disease, that their old
companions found it difficult to recognize them. Montenegro accounted
for his delay by incessant head winds and bad weather; and he himself
had also a doleful tale to tell of the distress to which he and his crew had
been reduced by hunger, on their passage to the Isle of Pearls.--It is
minute incidents like these with which we have been occupied, that
enable one to comprehend the extremity of suffering to which the
Spanish adventurer was subjected in the prosecution of his great work of
discovery.

Revived by the substantial nourishment to which they had so long been
strangers, the Spanish cavaliers, with the buoyancy that belongs to men
of a hazardous and roving life, forgot their past distresses in their
eagerness to prosecute their enterprise. Reembarking therefore on board
his vessel, Pizarro bade adieu to the scene of so much suffering, which
he branded with the appropriate name of Puerto de la Hambre, the Port
of Famine, and again opened his sails to a favorable breeze that bore him
onwards towards the south.

Had he struck boldly out into the deep, instead of hugging the
inhospitable shore, where he had hitherto found so little to recompense
him, he might have spared himself the repetition of wearisome and
unprofitable adventures, and reached by a shorter route the point of his
destination. But the Spanish mariner groped his way along these
unknown coasts, landing at every convenient headland, as if fearful lest
some fruitful region or precious mine might be overlooked, should a
single break occur in the line of survey. Yet it should be remembered,
that, though the true point of Pizarro's destination is obvious to us,
familiar with the topography of these countries, he was wandering in the
dark, feeling his way along, inch by inch, as it were, without chart to
guide him, without knowledge of the seas or of the bearings of the coast,
and even with no better defined idea of the object at which he aimed than
that of a land teeming with gold, that lay somewhere at the south! It was
a hunt after an El Dorado; on information scarcely more circumstantial
or authentic than that which furnished the basis of so many chimerical
enterprises in this land of wonders. Success only, the best argument with
the multitude, redeemed the expeditions of Pizarro from a similar
imputation of extravagance.

Holding on his southerly course under the lee of the shore, Pizarro, after
a short run, found himself abreast of an open reach of country, or at least
one less encumbered with wood, which rose by a gradual swell, as it
receded from the coast. He landed with a small body of men, and,
advancing a short distance into the interior, fell in with an Indian hamlet.
It was abandoned by the inhabitants, who, on the approach of the
invaders, had betaken themselves to the mountains; and the Spaniards,
entering their deserted dwellings, found there a good store of maize and
other articles of food, and rude ornaments of gold of considerable value.
Food was not more necessary for their bodies than was the sight of gold,
from time to time, to stimulate their appetite for adventure. One
spectacle, however, chilled their blood with horror. This was the sight of
human flesh, which they found roasting before the fire, as the barbarians
had left it, preparatory to their obscene repast. The Spaniards,
conceiving that they had fallen in with a tribe of Caribs, the only race in
that part of the New World known to be cannibals, retreated precipitately
to their vessel.17 They were not steeled by sad familiarity with the
spectacle, like the Conquerors of Mexico.

The weather, which had been favorable, now set in tempestuous, with
heavy squalls, accompanied by incessant thunder and lightning, and the
rain, as usual in these tropical tempests, descended not so much in drops
as in unbroken sheets of water. The Spaniards, however, preferred to
take their chance on the raging element rather than remain in the scene of
such brutal abominations. But the fury of the storm gradually subsided,
and the little vessel held on her way along the coast, till, coming abreast
of a bold point of land named by Pizarro Punts Quemada, he gave orders
to anchor. The margin of the shore was fringed with a deep belt of
mangrove-trees, the long roots of which, interlacing one another, formed
a kind of submarine lattice-work that made the place difficult of
approach. Several avenues, opening through this tangled thicket, led
Pizarro to conclude that the country must be inhabited, and he
disembarked, with the greater part of his force, to explore the interior.

He had not penetrated more than a league, when he found his conjecture
verified by the sight of an Indian town of larger size than those he had
hitherto seen, occupying the brow of an eminence, and well detended by
palisades. The inhabitants, as usual, had fled; but left in their dwellings a
good supply of provisions and some gold trinkets, which the Spaniards
made no difficulty of appropriating to themselves. Pizarro's flimsy bark
had been strained by the heavy gales it had of late encountered, so that it
was unsafe to prosecute the voyage further without more thorough
repairs than could be given to her on this desolate coast. He accordingly
determined to send her back with a few hands to be careened at Panama,
and meanwhile to establish his quarters in his present position, which
was so favorable for defence. But first he despatched a small party
under Montenegro to reconnoitre the country, and, if possible, to open a
communication with the natives.

The latter were a warlike race. They had left their habitations in order to
place their wives and children in safety. But they had kept an eye on the
movements of the invaders, and, when they saw their forces divided, they
resolved to fall upon each body singly before it could communicate with
the other. So soon, therefore, as Montenegro had penetrated through the
defiles of the lofty hills, which shoot out like spurs of the Cordilleras
along this part of the coast, the Indian warriors, springing from their
ambush, sent off a cloud of arrows and other missiles that darkened the
air, while they made the forest ring with their shrill warwhoop. The
Spaniards, astonished at the appearance of the savages, with their naked
bodies gaudily painted, and brandishing their weapons as they glanced
among the trees and straggling underbrush that choked up the defile,
were taken by surprise and thrown for a moment into disarray. Three of
their number were killed and several wounded. Yet, speedily rallying,
they returned the discharge of the assailants with their cross-bows,--for
Pizarro's troops do not seem to have been provided with muskets on this
expedition,--and then gallantly charging the enemy, sword in hand,
succeeded in driving them back into the fastnesses of the mountains. But
it only led them to shift their operations to another quarter, and make an
assault ,,n Pizarro before he could be relieved by his lieutenant.

Availing themselves of their superior knowledge of the passes, they
reached that commander's quarters long before Montenegro, who had
commenced a countermarch in the same direction. And issuing from the
woods, the bold savages saluted the Spanish garrison with a tempest of
darts and arrows, some of which found their way through the joints of the
harness and the quilted mail of the cavaliers. But Pizarro was too well
practised a soldier to be off his guard. Calling his men about him, he
resolved not to abide the assault tamely in the works, but to sally out, and
meet the enemy on their own ground. The barbarians, who had advanced
near the defences, fell back as the Spaniards burst forth with their valiant
leader at their head. But, soon returning with admirable ferocity to the
charge, they singled out Pizarro, whom, by his bold bearing and air of
authority, they easily recognized as the chief; and, hurling at him a storm
of missiles, wounded him, in spite of his armour, in no less than seven
places.18

Driven back by the fury of the assault directed against his own person,
the Spanish commander retreated down the slope of the hill, still
defending himself as he could with sword and buckler, when his foot
slipped and he fell. The enemy set up a fierce yell of triumph, and some
of the boldest sprang forward to despatch him. But Pizarro was on his
feet in an instant, and, striking down two of the foremost with his strong
arm, held the rest at bay till his soldiers could come to the rescue. The
barbarians, struck with admiration at his valor, began to falter, when
Montenegro luckily coming on the ground at the moment, and falling on
their rear, completed their confusion; and, abandoning the field, they
made the best of their way into the recesses of the mountains. The
ground was covered with their slain; but the victory was dearly
purchased by the death of two more Spaniards and a long list of
wounded.

A council of war was then called. The position had lost its charm in the
eyes of the Spaniards, who had met here with the first resistance they had
yet experienced on their expedition. It was necessary to place the
wounded in some secure spot, where their injuries could be attended to.
Yet it was not safe to proceed farther, in the crippled state of their vessel.
On the whole, it was decided to return and report their proceedings to the
governor; and, though the magnificent hopes of the adventurers had not
been realized, Pizarro trusted that enough had been done to vindicate the
importance of the enterprise, and to secure the countenance of Pedrarias
for the further prosecution of it.19

Yet Pizarro could not make up his mind to present himself, in the present
state of the undertaking, before the governor. He determined, therefore,
to be set on shore with the principal part of his company at Chicarea, a
place on the main land, at a short distance west of Panama From this
place, which he reached without any further accident, he despatched the
vessel, and in it his treasurer, Nicolas de Ribera, with the gold he had
collected, and with instructions to lay before the governor in full account
of his discoveries, and the result of the expedition.

While these events were passing, Pizarro's associate, Almagro, had been
busily employed in fitting out another vessel for the expedition at the
port of Panama. It was not till long after his friend's departure that he
was prepared to follow him. With the assistance of Luque, he at length
succeeded in equipping a small caravel and embarking a body of
between sixty and seventy adventurers, mostly of the lowest order of the
colonists. He steered in the track of his comrade, with the intention of
overtaking him as soon as possible. By a signal previously concerted of
notching the trees, he was able to identify the spots visited by Pizarro,--
Puerto de Pinas, Puerto de la Hambre, Pueblo Quemado--touching
successively at every point of the coast explored by his countrymen,
though in a much shorter time. At the last-mentioned place he was
received by the fierce natives with the same hostile demonstrations as
Pizarro, though in the present encounter the Indians did not venture
beyond their defences. But the hot blood of Almagro was so exasperated
by this check, that he assaulted the place and carried it sword in hand,
setting fire to the outworks and dwellings, and driving the wretched
inhabitants into the forests.

His victory cost him dear. A wound from a javelin on the head caused
an inflammation in one of his eyes, which, after great anguish, ended in
the loss of it. Yet the intrepid adventurer did not hesitate to pursue his
voyage, and, after touching at several places on the coast, some of which
rewarded him with a considerable booty in gold, he reached the mouth of
the Rio de San Juan, about the fourth degree of north latitude. He was
struck with the beauty of the stream, and with the cultivation on its
borders, which were sprinkled with Indian cottages showing some skill in
their construction, and altogether intimating a higher civilization than
any thing he had yet seen.

Still his mind was filled with anxiety for the fate of Pizarro and his
followers. No trace of them had been found on the coast for a long time,
and it was evident they must have foundered at sea, or made their way
back to Panama. This last he deemed most probable; as the vessel might
have passed him unnoticed under the cover of the night, or of the dense
fogs that sometimes hang over the coast.

Impressed with this belief, he felt no heart to continue his voyage of
discovery, for which, indeed, his single bark, with its small complement
of men, was altogether inadequate. He proposed, therefore, to return
without delay. On his way, he touched at the Isle of Pearls, and there
learned the result of his friend's expedition, and the place of his present
residence. Directing his course, at once, to Chicama, the two cavaliers
soon had the satisfaction of embracing each other, and recounting their
several exploits and escapes. Almagro returned even better freighted
with gold than his confederate, and at every step of his progress he had
collected fresh confirmation of the existence of some great and opulent
empire in the South. The confidence of the two friends was much
strengthened by their discoveries; and they unhesitatingly pledged
themselves to one another to die rather than abandon the enterprise.20

The best means of obtaining the levies requisite for so formidable an
undertaking--more formidable, as it now appeared to them, than before --
were made the subject of long and serious discussion. It was at length
decided that Pizarro should remain in his present quarters, inconvenient
and even unwholesome as they were rendered by the humidity of the
climate, and the pestilent swarms of insects that filled the atmosphere.
Almagro would pass over to Panama, lay the case before the governor,
and secure, if possible, his good-will towards the prosecution of the
enterprise. If no obstacle were thrown in their way from this quarter,
they might hope, with the assistance of Luque, to raise the necessary
supplies; while the results of the recent expedition were sufficiently
encouraging to draw adventurers to their standard in a community which
had a craving for excitement that gave even danger a charm, and which
held life cheap in comparison with gold.

Book 2

Chapter 3

The Famous Contract-Second Expedition--Ruiz Explores The Coast--
Pizarro's Sufferings In The Forests--Arrival Of New Recruits-
Fresh Discoveries And Disasters--Pizarro On The Isle Of Gallo

1526--1527

On his arrival at Panama, Almagro found that events had taken a turn
less favorable to his views than he had anticipated. Pedrarias, the
governor, was preparing to lead an expedition in person against a
rebellious officer in Nicaragua; and his temper, naturally not the most
amiable, was still further soured by this defection of his lieutenant, and
the necessity it imposed on him of a long and perilous march. When,
therefore, Almagro appeared before him with the request that he might
be permitted to raise further levies to prosecute his enterprise, the
governor received him with obvious dissatisfaction, listened coldly to the
narrative of his losses, turned an incredulous ear to his magnificent
promises for the future, and bluntly demanded an account of the lives,
which had been sacrificed by Pizarro's obstinacy, but which, had they
been spared, might have stood him in good stead in his present
expedition to Nicaragua. He positively declined to countenance the rash
schemes of the two adventurers any longer, and the conquest of Peru
would have been crushed in the bud, but for the efficient interposition of
the remaining associate, Fernando de Luque.

This sagacious ecclesiastic had received a very different impression from
Almagro's narrative, from that which had been made on the mind of the
irritable governor. The actual results of the enterprise in gold and silver,
thus far, indeed, had been small,--forming a mortifying contrast to the
magnitude of their expectations. But, in another point of view, they were
of the last importance; since the intelligence which the adventurers had
gained in every successive stage of their progress confirmed, in the
strongest manner, the previous accounts, received from Andogoya and
others, of a rich Indian empire at the south, which might repay the
trouble of conquering it as well as Mexico had repaid the enterprise of
Cortes. Fully entering, therefore, into the feelings of his military
associates, he used all his influence with the governor to incline him to a
more favorable view of Almagro's petition; and no one in the little
community of Panama exercised greater influence over the councils of
the executive than Father Luque, for which he was indebted no less to his
discretion and acknowledged sagacity than to his professional station.

But while Pedrarias, overcome by the arguments or importunity of the
churchman, yielded a reluctant assent to the application, he took care to
testify his displeasure with Pizarro, on whom he particularly charged the
loss of his followers, by naming Almagro as his equal in command in the
proposed expedition. This mortification sunk deep into Pizarro's mind.
He suspected his comrade, with what reason does not appear, of
soliciting this boon from the governor. A temporary coldness arose
between them, which subsided, in outward show, at least, on Pizarro's
reflecting that it was better to have this authority conferred on a friend
than on a stranger, perhaps an enemy. But the seeds of permanent
distrust were left in his bosom, and lay waiting for the due season to
ripen into a fruitful harvest of discord.1

Pedrarias had been originally interested in the enterprise, at least, so far
as to stipulate for a share of the gains, though he had not contributed, as
it appears, a single ducat towards the expenses. He was at length,
however, induced to relinquish all right to a share of the contingent
profits. But, in his manner of doing so, he showed a mercenary spirit,
better becoming a petty trader than a high officer of the Crown. He
stipulated that the associates should secure to him the sum of one
thousand pesos de oro in requital of his good-will, and they eagerly
closed with his proposal, rather than be encumbered with his pretensions.
For so paltry a consideration did he resign his portion of the rich spoil of
the Incas! 2 But the governor was not gifted with the eye of a prophet.
His avarice was of that short-sighted kind which defeats itself. He had
sacrificed the chivalrous Balboa just as that officer was opening to him
the conquest of Peru, and he would now have quenched the spirit of
enterprise, that was taking the same direction, in Pizarro and his
associates.

Not long after this, in the following year, he was succeeded in his
government by Don Pedro de los Rios, a cavalier of Cordova. It was the
policy of the Castilian Crown to allow no one of the great colonial
officers to occupy the same station so long as to render himself
formidable by his authority.3 It had, moreover, many particular causes
of disgust with Pedrarias. The functionary they sent out to succeed him
was fortified with ample instructions for the good of the colony, and
especially of the natives, whose religious conversion was urged as a
capital object, and whose personal freedom was unequivocally asserted,
as loyal vassals of the Crown. It is but justice to the Spanish government
to admit that its provisions were generally guided by a humane and
considerate policy, which was as regularly frustrated by the cupidity of
the colonist, and the capricious cruelty of the conqueror. The few
remaining years of Pedrarias were spent in petty squabbles, both of a
personal and official nature; for he was still continued in office, though
in one of less consideration than that which he had hitherto filled. He
survived but a few years, leaving behind him a reputation not to be
envied, of one who united a pusillanimous spirit with uncontrollable
passions; who displayed, notwithstanding, a certain energy of character,
or, to speak more correctly, an impetuosity of purpose, which might have
led to good results had it taken a right direction. Unfortunately, his lack
of discretion was such, that the direction he took was rarely of service to
his country or to himself.

Having settled their difficulties with the governor, and obtained his
sanction to their enterprise, the confederates lost no time in making the
requisite preparations for it. Their first step was to execute the
memorable contract which served as the basis of their future
arrangements; and, as Pizarro's name appears in this, it seems probable
that that chief had crossed over to Panama so soon as the favorable
disposition of Pedrarias had been secured.4 The instrument, after
invoking in the most solemn manner the names of the Holy Trinity and
Our Lady the Blessed Virgin, sets forth, that, whereas the parties have
full authority to discover and subdue the countries and provinces lying
south of the Gulf, belonging to the empire of Peru, and as Fernando de
Luque had advanced the funds for the enterprise in bars of gold of the
value of twenty thousand pesos, they mutually bind themselves to divide
equally among them the whole of the conquered territory. This
stipulation is reiterated over and over again, particularly with reference
to Luque, who, it is declared, is to be entitled to one third of all lands,
repartimientos, treasures of every kind, gold, silver, and precious stones,-
-to one third even of all vassals, rents, and emoluments arising from such
grants as may be conferred by the Crown on either of his military
associates, to be held for his own use, or for that of his heirs, assigns, or
legal representative.

The two captains solemnly engage to devote themselves exclusively to
the present undertaking until it is accomplished; and, in case of failure in
their part of the covenant, they pledge themselves to reimburse Luque for
his advances, for which all the property they possess shall be held
responsible, and this declaration is to be a sufficient warrant for the
execu. tion of judgment against them, in the same manner as if it had
proceed. ed from the decree of a court of justice.

The commanders, Pizarro and Almagro, made oath, in the name of God
and the Holy Evangelists, sacredly to keep this covenant, swearing it on
the missal, on which they traced with their own hands the sacred emblem
of the cross. To give still greater efficacy to the compact, Father Luque
administered the sacrament to the parties, dividing the consecrated wafer
into three portions, of which each one of them partook; while the
bystanders, says an historian, were affected to tears by this spectacle of
the solemn ceremonial with which these men voluntarily devoted
themselves to a sacrifice that seemed little short of insanity.5

The instrument, which was dated March 10, 1526, was subscribed by
Luque, and attested by three respectable citizens of Panama, one of
whom signed on behalf of Pizarro, and the other for Almagro; since
neither of these parties, according to the avowal of the instrument, was
able to subscribe his own name.6

Such was the singular compact by which three obscure individuals coolly
carved out and partitioned among themselves, an empire of whose
extent, power, and resources, of whose situation, of whose existence,
even, they had no sure or precise knowledge. The positive and
unhesitating manner in which they speak of the grandeur of this empire,
of its stores of wealth, so conformable to the event, but of which they
could have really known so little, forms a striking contrast with the
general skepticism and indifference manifested by nearly every other
person, high and low, in the community of Panama.7