History Of The Conquest Of Peru

W >> William Hickling Prescott >> History Of The Conquest Of Peru

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51

The capital of the Incas, though falling short of the El Dorado which had
engaged their credulous fancies, astonished the Spaniards by the beauty
of its edifices, the length and regularity of its streets, and the good order
and appearance of comfort, even luxury, visible in its numerous
population. It far surpassed all they had yet seen in the New World. The
population of the city is computed by one of the Conquerors at two
hundred thousand inhabitants, and that of the suburbs at as many
more.30 This account is not confirmed, as far as I have seen, by any
other writer. But however it may be exaggerated, it is certain that Cuzco
was the metropolis of a great empire, the residence of the Court and the
chief nobility; frequented by the most skilful mechanics and artisans of
every description, who found a demand for their ingenuity in the royal
precincts; while the place was garrisoned by a numerous soldiery, and
was the resort, finally, of emigrants from the most distant provinces. The
quarters whence this motley population came were indicated by their
peculiar dress, and especially their head-gear, so rarely found at all on
the American Indian, which, with its variegated colors, gave a
picturesque effect to the groups and masses in the streets. The habitual
order and decorum maintained in this multifarious assembly showed the
excellent police of the capital, where the only sounds that disturbed the
repose of the Spaniards were the noises of feasting and dancing, which
the natives, with happy insensibility, constantly prolonged to a late hour
of the night.31

The edifices of the better sort--and they were very numerous--were of
stone, or faced with stone.32 Among the principal were the royal
residences; as each sovereign built a new palace for himself, covering,
though low, a large extent of ground. The walls were sometimes stained
or painted with gaudy tints, and the gates, we are assured, were
sometimes of colored marble.33 "In the delicacy of the stone-work,"
says another of the Conquerors, "the natives far excelled the Spaniards,
though the roofs of their dwellings, instead of tiles, were only of thatch,
but put together with the nicest art." 34 The sunny climate of Cuzco did
not require a very substantial material for defence against the weather.

The most important building was the fortress, planted on a solid rock,
that rose boldly above the city. It was built of hewn stone, so finely
wrought that it was impossible to detect the line of junction between the
blocks; and the approaches to it were defended by three semicircular
parapets, composed of such heavy masses of rock, that it bore
resemblance to the kind of work known to architects as the Cyclopean.
The fortress was raised to a height rare in Peruvian architecture; and
from the summit of the tower the eye of the-spectator ranged over a
magnificent prospect, in which the wild features of the mountain scenery,
rocks, woods, and waterfalls, were mingled with the rich verdure of the
valley, and the shining city filling up the foreground,--all blended in
sweet harmony under the deep azure of a tropical sky.

The streets were long and narrow. They were arranged with perfect
regularity, crossing one another at right angles; and from the great square
diverged four principal streets connecting with the high roads of the
empire. The square itself, and many parts of the city, were paved with a
fine pebble.35 Through the heart of the capital ran a river of pure water,
if it might not be rather termed a canal, the banks or sides of which, for
the distance of twenty leagues, were faced with stone.36 Across this
stream, bridges, constructed of similar broad flags, were thrown, at
intervals, so as to afford an easy communication between the different
quarters of the capital.37

The most sumptuous edifice in Cuzco, in the times of the Incas, was
undoubtedly the great temple dedicated to the Sun, which, studded with
gold plates, as already noticed, was surrounded by convents and
dormitories for the priests, with their gardens and broad parterres
sparkling with gold. The exterior ornaments had been already removed
by the Conquerors,--all but the frieze of gold, which, imbedded in the
stones, still encircled the principal building. It is probable that the tales
of wealth, so greedily circulated among the Spaniards, greatly exceeded
the truth. If they did not, the natives must have been very successful in
concealing their treasures from the invaders. Yet much still remained,
not only in the great House of the Sun, but in the inferior temples which
swarmed in the capital.

Pizarro, on entering Cuzco, had issued an order forbidding any soldier to
offer violence to the dwellings of the inhabitants.38 But the palaces
were numerous, and the troops lost no time in plundering them of their
contents, as well as in despoiling the religious edifices. The interior
decorations supplied them with considerable booty. They stripped off
the jewels and rich ornaments that garnished the royal mummies in the
temple of Coricancha. Indignant at the concealment of their treasures,
they put the inhabitants, in some instances, to the torture, and endeavored
to extort from them a confession of their hiding-places.39 They invaded
the repose of the sepulchres, in which the Peruvians often deposited their
valuable effects, and compelled the grave to give up its dead. No place
was left unexplored by the rapacious Conquerors, and they occasionally
stumbled on a mine of wealth that rewarded their labors.

In a cavern near the city they found a number of vases of pure gold,
richly embossed with the figures of serpents, locusts, and other animals.
Among the spoil were four golden llamas and ten or twelve statues of
women, some of gold, others of silver, "which merely to see," says one
of the Conquerors, with some naivete, "was truly a great satisfaction."
The gold was probably thin, for the figures were all as large as life; and
several of them, being reserved for the royal fifth, were not recast, but
sent in their original form to Spain.40 The magazines were stored with
curious commodities; richly tinted robes of cotton and feather-work, gold
sandals, and slippers of the same material, for the women, and dresses
composed entirely of beads of gold.41 The grain and other articles of
food, with which the magazines were filled, were held in contempt by the
Conquerors, intent only on gratifying their lust for gold.42 The time
came when the grain would have been of far more value.

Yet the amount of treasure in the capital did not equal the sanguine
expectations that had been formed by the Spaniards. But the deficiency
was supplied by the plunder which they had collected at various places
on their march. In one place, for example, they met with ten planks or
bars of solid silver, each piece being twenty feet in length, one foot in
breadth, and two or three inches thick. They were intended to decorate
the dwelling of an Inca noble.43

The whole mass of treasure was brought into a common heap, as in
Caxamalca; and after some of the finer specimens had been deducted for
the Crown, the remainder was delivered to the Indian goldsmiths to be
melted down into ingots of a uniform standard. The division of the spoil
was made on the same principle as before. There were four hundred and
eighty soldiers, including the garrison of Xauxa, who were each to
receive a share, that of the cavalry being double that of the infantry. The
amount of booty is stated variously by those present at the division of it.
According to some it considerably exceeded the ransom of Atahuallpa.
Others state it as less. Pedro Pizarro says that each horseman got six
thousand pesos de oro, and each one of the infantry half that sum; 44
though the same discrimination was made by Pizarro as before, in
respect to the rank of the parties, and their relative services. But Sancho,
the royal notary, and secretary of the commander, estimates the whole
amount as far less,--not exceeding five hundred and eighty thousand and
two hundred pesos de oro, and two hundred and fifteen thousand marks
of silver.45 In the absence of the official returns, it is impossible to
determine which is correct. But Sancho's narrative is countersigned, it
may be remembered, by Pizarro and the royal treasurer Riquelme, and
doubtless therefore, shows the actual amount for which the Conquerors
accounted to the Crown.

Whichever statement we receive, the sum, combined with that obtained
at Caxamalca, might well have satisfied the cravings of the most
avaricious. The sudden influx of so much wealth, and that, too, in so
transferable a form, among a party of reckless adventurers little
accustomed to the possession of money, had its natural effect. it
supplied them with the means of gaming, so strong and common a
passion with the Spaniards, that it may be considered a national vice.
Fortunes were lost and won in a single day, sufficient to render the
proprietors independent for life; and many a desperate gamester, by an
unlucky throw of the dice or turn of the cards, saw himself stripped in a
few hours of the fruits of years of toil, and obliged to begin over again
the business of rapine. Among these, one in the cavalry service is
mentioned, named Leguizano, who had received as his share of the booty
the image of the Sun, which, raised on a plate of burnished gold, spread
over the walls in a recess of the great temple, and which, for some reason
or other,--perhaps because of its superior fineness,--was not recast like
the other ornaments. This rich prize the spendthrift lost in a single night;
whence it came to be a proverb in Spain, Juega el Sol antes que
amanezca, "Play away the Sun before sunrise." 46

The effect of such a surfeit of the precious metals was instantly felt on
prices. The most ordinary articles were only to be had for exorbitant
sums. A quire of paper sold for ten pesos de oro; a bottle of wine, for
sixty; a sword, for forty or fifty; a cloak, for a hundred,--sometimes
more; a pair of shoes cost thirty or forty pesos de oro, and a good horse
could not be had for less than twenty-five hundred.47 Some brought a
still higher price. Every article rose in value, as gold and silver, the
representatives of all, declined. Gold and silver, in short, seemed to be
the only things in Cuzco that were not wealth. Yet there were some few
wise enough to return contented with their present gains to their native
country. Here their riches brought them consideration and competence,
and while they excited the envy of their countrymen, stimulated them to
seek their own fortunes in the like path of adventure.

Book 3

Chapter 9

New Inca Crowned--Municipal Regulations--Terrible March Of Alvarado--
Interview With Pizarro--Foundation Of Lima--
Hernando Pizarro Reaches Spain--Sensation At Court--
Feuds Of Almagro And The Pizarros

1534--1535

The first care of the Spanish general, after the division of the booty, was
to place Manco on the throne, and to obtain for him the recognition of
his countrymen. He, accordingly, presented the young prince to them as
their future sovereign, the legitimate son of Huayna Capac, and the true
heir of the Peruvian sceptre. The annunciation was received with
enthusiasm by the people, attached to the memory of his illustrious
father, and pleased that they were still to have a monarch rule over them
of the ancient line of Cuzco.

Everything was done to maintain the illusion with the Indian population.
The ceremonies of a coronation were studiously observed. The young
prince kept the prescribed fasts and vigils; and on the appointed day, the
nobles and the people, with the whole Spanish soldiery, assembled in the
great square of Cuzco to witness the concluding ceremony. Mass was
publicly performed by Father Valverde, and the Inca Manco received the
fringed diadem of Peru, not from the hand of the high-priest of his
nation, but from his Conqueror, Pizarro. The Indian lords then tendered
their obeisance in the customary form; after which the royal notary read
aloud the instrument asserting the supremacy of the Castilian Crown, and
requiring the homage of all present to its authority. This address was
explained by an interpreter, and the ceremony of homage was performed
by each one of the parties waving the royal banner of Castile twice or
thrice with his hands. Manco then pledged the Spanish commander in a
golden goblet of the sparkling chicha; and, the latter having cordially
embraced the new monarch, the trumpets announced the conclusion of
the ceremony.1 But it was not the note of triumph, but of humiliation;
for it proclaimed that the armed foot of the stranger was in the halls of
the Peruvian Incas; that the ceremony of coronation was a miserable
pageant; that their prince himself was but a puppet in the hands of his
Conquerors; and that the glory of the Children of the Sun had departed
forever!

Yet the people readily gave in to the illusion, and seemed willing to
accept this image of their ancient independence. The accession of the
young monarch was greeted by all the usual fetes and rejoicings. The
mummies of his royal ancestors, with such ornaments as were still left to
them, were paraded in the great square. They were attended each by his
own numerous retinue, who performed all the menial offices, as if the
object of them were alive and could feel their import. Each ghostly form
took its seat at the banquet-table--now, alas! stripped of the magnificent
service with which it was wont to blaze at these high festivals--and the
guests drank deep to the illustrious dead. Dancing succeeded the
carousal, and the festivities, prolonged to a late hour, were continued
night after night by the giddy population, as if their conquerors had not
been intrenched in the capital!2 --What a contrast to the Aztecs in the
conquest of Mexico!

Pizarro's next concern was to organize a municipal government for
Cuzco, like those in the cities of the parent country. Two alcaldes were
appointed, and eight regidores, among which last functionaries were his
brothers Gonzalo and Juan. The oaths of office were administered with
great solemnity, on the twenty-fourth of March, 1534, in presence both
of Spaniards and Peruvians, in the public square; as if the general were
willing by this ceremony to intimate to the latter, that, while they
retained the semblance of their ancient institutions, the real power was
henceforth vested in their conquerors.3 He invited Spaniards to settle in
the place by liberal grants of land and houses, for which means were
afforded by the numerous palaces and public buildings of the Incas; and
many a cavalier, who had been too poor in his own country to find a
place to rest in, now saw himself the proprietor of a spacious mansion
that might have entertained the retinue of a prince.4 From this time, says
an old chronicler, Pizarro, who had hitherto been distinguished by his
military title of "Captain-General," was addressed by that of "Governor."
5 Both had been bestowed on him by the royal grant.

Nor did the chief neglect the interests of religion. Father Valverde,
whose nomination as Bishop of Cuzco not long afterwards received the
Papal sanction, prepared to enter on the duties of his office. A place was
selected for the cathedral of his diocese, facing the plaza. A spacious
monastery subsequently rose on the ruins of the gorgeous House of the
Sun; its walls were constructed of the ancient stones; the altar was raised
on the spot where shone the bright image of the Peruvian deity, and the
cloisters of the Indian temple were trodden by the friars of St. Dominic.6
To make the metamorphosis more complete, the House of the Virgins of
the Sun was replaced by a Roman Catholic nunnery.7 Christian churches
and monasteries gradually supplanted the ancient edifices, and such of
the latter as were suffered to remain, despoiled of their heathen insignia,
were placed under the protection of the Cross.

The Fathers of St. Dominic, the Brethren of the Order of Mercy, and
other missionaries, now busied themselves in the good work of
conversion. We have seen that Pizarro was required by the Crown to
bring out a certain number of these holy men in his own vessels; and
every succeeding vessel brought an additional reinforcement of
ecclesiastics. They were not all like the Bishop of Cuzco, with hearts so
seared by fanaticism as to be closed against sympathy with the
unfortunate natives.8 They were, many of them, men of singular
humility, who followed in the track of the conqueror to scatter the seeds
of spiritual truth, and, with disinterested zeal, devoted themselves to the
propagation of the Gospel. Thus did their pious labors prove them the
true soldiers of the Cross, and showed that the object so ostentatiously
avowed of carrying its banner among the heathen nations was not an
empty vaunt.

The effort to Christianize the heathen is an honorable characteristic of
the Spanish conquests. The Puritan, with equal religious zeal, did
comparatively little for the conversion of the Indian, content, as it would
seem, with having secured to himself the inestimable privilege of
worshipping God in his own way. Other adventurers who have occupied
the New World have often had too little regard for religion themselves,
to be very solicitous about spreading it among the savages. But the
Spanish missionary, from first to last, has shown a keen interest in the
spiritual welfare of the natives. Under his auspices, churches on a
magnificent scale have been erected, schools for elementary instruction
founded, and every rational means taken to spread the knowledge of
religious truth, while he has carried his solitary mission into remote and
almost inaccessible regions, or gathered his Indian disciples into
communities, like the good Las Casas in Cumana, or the Jesuits in
California and Paraguay. At all times, the courageous ecclesiastic has
been ready to lift his voice against the cruelty of the conqueror, and the
no less wasting cupidity of the colonist; and when his remonstrances, as
was too often the case, have proved unavailing, he has still followed to
bind up the broken-hearted, to teach the poor Indian resignation under
his lot, and light up his dark intellect with the revelation of a holier and
happier existence.--In reviewing the blood-stained records of Spanish
colonial history, it is but fair, and at the same time cheering, to reflect,
that the same nation which sent forth the hard-hearted conqueror from its
bosom sent forth the missionary to do the work of beneficence, and
spread the light of Christian civilization over the farthest regions of the
New World.

While the governor, as we are henceforth to style him, lay at Cuzco, he
received repeated accounts of a considerable force in the neighborhood,
under the command of Atahuallpa's officer, Quizquiz. He accordingly
detached Almagro, with a small body of horse and a large Indian force
under the Inca Manco, to disperse the enemy, and, if possible, to capture
their leader. Manco was the more ready to take part in the expedition, as
the enemy were soldiers of Quito, who, with their commander, bore no
good-will to himself.

Almagro, moving with his characteristic rapidity, was not long in coming
up with the Indian chieftain. Several sharp encounters followed, as the
army of Quito fell back on Xauxa, near which a general engagement
decided the fate of the war by the total discomfiture of the natives.
Quizquiz fled to the elevated plains of Quito, where he still held out with
undaunted spirit against a Spanish force in that quarter, till at length his
own soldiers, wearied by these long and ineffectual hostilities, massacred
their commander in cold blood.9 Thus fell the last of the two great
officers of Atahuallpa, who, if their nation had been animated by a spirit
equal to their own, might long have successfully maintained their soil
against the invader.

Some time before this occurrence, the Spanish governor, while in Cuzco,
received tidings of an event much more alarming to him than any Indian
hostilities. This was the arrival on the coast of a strong Spanish force,
under command of Don Pedro de Alvarado, the gallant officer who had
served under Cortes with such renown in the war of Mexico. That
cavalier, after forming a brilliant alliance in Spain, to which he was
entitled by his birth and military rank, had returned to his government of
Guatemala, where his avarice had been roused by the magnificent reports
he daily received of Pizarro's conquests. These conquests, he learned,
had been confined to Peru; while the northern kingdom of Quito, the
ancient residence of Atahuallpa, and, no doubt, the principal depository
of his treasures, yet remained untouched. Affecting to consider this
country as falling without the governor's jurisdiction, he immediately
turned a large fleet, which he had intended for the Spice Islands, in the
direction of South America; and in March, 1534, he landed in the bay of
Caraques, with five hundred followers, of whom half were mounted, and
all admirably provided with arms and ammunition. It was the best
equipped and the most formidable array that had yet appeared in the
southern seas.10

Although manifestly an invasion of the territory conceded to Pizarro by
the Crown, the reckless cavalier determined to march at once on Quito.
With the assistance of an Indian guide, he proposed to take the direct
route across the mountains, a passage of exceeding difficulty, even at the
most favorable season.

After crossing the Rio Dable, Alvarado's guide deserted him, so that he
was soon entangled in the intricate mazes of the sierra; and, as he rose
higher and higher into the regions of winter, he became surrounded with
ice and snow, for which his men, taken from the warm countries of
Guatemala, were but ill prepared. As the cold grew more intense, many
of them were so benumbed, that it was with difficulty they could
proceed. The infantry, compelled to make exertions, fared best. Many
of the troopers were frozen stiff in their saddles. The Indians, still more
sensible to the cold, perished by hundreds. As the Spaniards huddled
round their wretched bivouacs, with such scanty fuel as they could glean,
and almost without food, they waited in gloomy silence the approach of
morning. Yet the morning light, which gleamed coldly on the cheerless
waste, brought no joy to them. It only revealed more clearly the extent
of their wretchedness. Still struggling on through the winding Puertos
Nevados, or Snowy Passes, their track was dismally marked by
fragments of dress, broken harness, golden ornaments, and other
valuables plundered on their march,--by the dead bodies of men, or by
those less fortunate, who were left to die alone in the wilderness. As for
the horses, their carcasses were not suffered long to cumber the ground,
as they were quickly seized and devoured half raw by the starving
soldiers, who, like the famished condors, now hovering in troops above
their heads, greedily banqueted on the most offensive offal to satisfy the
gnawings of hunger.

Alvarado, anxious to secure the booty which had fallen into his hands at
an earlier part of his march, encouraged every man to take what gold he
wanted from the common heap, reserving only the royal fifth. But they
only answered, with a ghastly smile of derision, "that food was the only
gold for them." Yet in this extremity, which might seem to have
dissolved the very ties of nature, there are some affecting instances
recorded of self-devotion; of comrades who lost their lives in assisting
others, and of parents and husbands (for some of the cavaliers were
accompanied by their wives) who, instead of seeking their own safety,
chose to remain and perish in the snows with the objects of their love.

To add to their distress, the air was filled for several days with thick
clouds of earthy particles and cinders, which blinded the men, and made
respiration exceedingly difficult.11 This phenomenon, it seems
probable, was caused by an eruption of the distant Cotopaxi, which,
about twelve leagues southeast of Quito, rears up its colossal and
perfectly symmetrical cone far above the limits of eternal snow,--the
most beautiful and the most terrible of the American volcanoes.12 At
the time of Alvarado's expedition, it was in a state of eruption, the
earliest instance of the kind on record, though doubtless not the
earliest.13 Since that period, it has been in frequent commotion, sending
up its sheets of flame to the height of half a mile, spouting forth cataracts
of lava that have overwhelmed towns and villages in their career, and
shaking the earth with subterraneous thunders, that, at the distance of
more than a hundred leagues, sounded like the reports of artillery!14
Alvarado's followers, unacquainted with the cause of the phenomenon, as
they wandered over tracts buried in snow,--the sight of which was
strange to them,--in an atmosphere laden with ashes, became bewildered
by this confusion of the elements, which Nature seemed to have
contrived purposely for their destruction. Some of these men were the
soldiers of Cortes, steeled by many a painful march, and many a sharp
encounter with the Aztecs. But this war of the elements, they now
confessed, was mightier than all.