History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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The tumultuous life on which he now entered roused all the slumbering
passions of his soul, which lay there, perhaps unconsciously to himself;
cruelty, avarice, revenge. He found ample exercise for them in the war
with his countrymen; for civil war is proverbially the most sanguinary
and ferocious of all. The atrocities recorded of Carbajal, in his new
career, and the number of his victims, are scarcely credible. For the
honor of humanity, we may trust the accounts are greatly exaggerated;
but that he should have given rise to them at all is sufficient to consign
his name to infamy.8

He even took a diabolical pleasure, it is said, in amusing himself with the
sufferings of his victims, and in the hour of execution would give
utterance to frightful jests, that made them taste more keenly the
bitterness of death! He had a sportive vein, if such it could be called,
which he freely indulged on every occasion. Many of his sallies were
preserved by the soldiery; but they are, for the most part, of a coarse,
repulsive character, flowing from a mind familiar with the weak and
wicked side of humanity, and distrusting every other. He had his jest for
every thing,--for the misfortunes of others, and for his own. He looked
on life as a farce,--though he too often made it a tragedy.

Carbajal must be allowed one virtue; that of fidelity to his party. This
made him less tolerant to perfidy in others. He was never known to
show mercy to a renegade. This undeviating fidelity, though to a bad
cause, may challenge something like a feeling of respect, where fidelity
was so rare.9

As a military man, Carbajal takes a high rank among the soldiers of the
New World. He was strict, even severe, in enforcing discipline, so that
he was little loved by his followers. Whether he had the genius for
military combinations requisite for conducting war on an extended scale
may be doubted; but in the shifts and turns of guerilla warfare he was
unrivalled. Prompt, active, and persevering, he was insensible to danger
or fatigue, and, after days spent in the saddle, seemed to attach little
value to the luxury of a bed.10

He knew familiarly every mountain pass, and, such were the sagacity and
the resources displayed in his roving expeditions, that he was vulgarly
believed to be attended by a familiar.11 With a character so
extraordinary, with powers prolonged so far beyond the usual term of
humanity, and passions so fierce in one tottering on the verge of the
grave, it was not surprising that many fabulous stories should be eagerly
circulated respecting him, and that Carbajal should be clothed with
mysterious terrors as a sort of supernatural being,--the demon of the
Andes!

Very different were the circumstances attending the closing scene of
Gonzalo Pizarro. At his request, no one had been allowed to visit him in
his confinement. He was heard pacing his tent during the greater part of
the day, and when night came, having ascertained from Centeno that his
execution was to take place on the following noon, he laid himself down
to rest. He did not sleep long, however, but soon rose, and continued to
traverse his apartment, as if buried in meditation, till dawn. He then sent
for a confessor, and remained with him till after the hour of noon, taking
little or no refreshment. The officers of justice became impatient; but
their eagerness was sternly rebuked by the soldiery, many of whom,
having served under Gonzalo's banner, were touched with pity for his
misfortunes.

When the chieftain came forth to execution, he showed in his dress the
same love of magnificence and display as in happier days. Over his
doublet he wore a superb cloak of yellow velvet, stiff with gold
embroidery, while his head was protected by a cap of the same materials,
richly decorated, in like manner, with ornaments of gold.12 In this
gaudy attire he mounted his mule, and the sentence was so far relaxed
that his arms were suffered to remain unshackled. He was escorted by a
goodly number of priests and friars, who held up the crucifix before his
eyes, while he carried in his own hand an image of the Virgin. She had
ever been the peculiar object of Pizarro's devotion; so much so, that
those who knew him best in the hour of his prosperity were careful, when
they had a petition, to prefer it in the name of the blessed Mary.

Pizarro's lips were frequently pressed to the emblem of his divinity,
while his eyes were bent on the crucifix in apparent devotion, heedless of
the objects around him. On reaching the scaffold, he ascended it with a
firm step, and asked leave to address a few words to the soldiery
gathered round it. "There are many among you," said he, "who have
grown rich on my brother's bounty, and my own. Yet, of all my riches,
nothing remains to me but the garments I have on; and even these are not
mine, but the property of the executioner. I am without means, therefore,
to purchase a mass for the welfare of my soul; and I implore you, by the
remembrance of past benefits, to extend this charity to me when I am
gone, that it may be well with you in the hour of death." A profound
silence reigned throughout the martial multitude, broken only by sighs
and groans, as they listened to Pizarro's request; and it was faithfully
responded to, since, after his death, masses were said in many of the
towns for the welfare of the departed chieftain.

Then, kneeling down before a crucifix placed on a table, Pizarro
remained for some minutes absorbed in prayer; after which, addressing
the soldier who was to act as the minister of justice, he calmly bade him
"do his duty with a steady hand" He refused to have his eyes bandaged,
and, bending forward his neck, submitted it to the sword of the
executioner, who struck off the head with a single blow, so true that the
body remained for some moments in the same erect posture as in life.13
The head was taken to Lima, where it was set in a cage or frame, and
then fixed on a gibbet by the side of Carbajal's. On it was placed a label,
bearing,-"This is the head of the traitor Gonzalo Pizarro, who rebelled
in Peru against his sovereign, and battled in the cause of tyranny and
treason against the royal standard in the valley of Xaquixaguana." 14
His large estates, including the rich mines in Potosi, were confiscated;
his mansion in Lima was razed to the ground, the place strewed with salt,
and a stone pillar set up, with an inscription interdicting any one from
building on a spot which had been profaned by the residence of a traitor.

Gonzalo's remains were not exposed to the indignities inflicted on
Carbajal's, whose quarters were hung in chains on the four great roads
leading to Cuzco. Centeno saved Pizarro's body from being stripped, by
redeeming his costly raiment from the executioner, and in this sumptuous
shroud it was laid in the chapel of the convent of Our Lady of Mercy in
Cuzco. It was the same spot where, side by side, lay the bloody remains
of the Almagros, father and son, who in like manner had perished by the
hand of justice, and were indebted to private charity for their burial. All
these were now consigned "to the same grave," says the historian, with
some bitterness, "as if Peru could not afford land enough for a burial-
place to its conquerors." 15

Gonzalo Pizarro had reached only his forty-second year at the time of his
death,--being just half the space allotted to his follower Carbajal. He
was the youngest of the remarkable family to whom Spain was indebted
for the acquisition of Peru. He came over to the country with his brother
Francisco, on the return of the latter from his visit to Castile. Gonzalo
was present in all the remarkable passages of the Conquest. He
witnessed the seizure of Atahuallpa, took an active part in suppressing
the insurrection of the Incas, and especially in the reduction of Charcas.
He afterwards led the disastrous expedition to the Amazon; and, finally,
headed the memorable rebellion which ended so fatally to himself.
There are but few men whose lives abound in such wild and romantic
adventure, and, for the most part, crowned with success. The space
which he occupies in the page of history is altogether disproportioned to
his talents. It may be in some measure ascribed to fortune, but still more
to those showy qualities which form a sort of substitute for mental talent,
and which secured his popularity with the vulgar.

He had a brilliant exterior; excelled in all martial exercises; rode well,
fenced well, managed his lance to perfection, was a first-rate marksman
with the arquebuse, and added the accomplishment of being an excellent
draughtsman. He was bold and chivalrous, even to temerity; courted
adventure, and was always in the front of danger. He was a knight-
errant, in short, in the most extravagant sense of the term, and, "mounted
on his favorite charger," says one who had often seen him, "made no
more account of a squadron of Indians than of a swarm of flies."16

While thus, by his brilliant exploits and showy manners, he captivated
the imaginations of his countrymen, he won their hearts no less by his
soldier-like frankness, his trust in their fidelity,--too often abused,-and
his liberal largesses; for Pizarro, though avaricious of the property of
others, was, like the Roman conspirator, prodigal of his own. This was
his portrait in happier days, when his heart had not been corrupted by
success; for that some change was wrought on him by his prosperity is
well attested. His head was made giddy by his elevation; and it is proof
of a want of talent equal to his success, that he knew not how to profit by
it. Obeying the dictates of his own rash judgment, he rejected the
warnings of his wisest counsellors, and relied with blind confidence on
his destiny. Garcilasso imputes this to the malignant influence of the
stars.17 But the superstitious chronicler might have better explained it
by a common principle of human nature; by the presumption nourished
by success; the insanity, as the Roman, or rather Grecian, proverb calls
it, with which the gods afflict men when they design to ruin them.18

Gonzalo was without education, except such as he had picked up in the
rough school of war. He had little even of that wisdom which springs
from natural shrewdness and insight into character. In all this he was
inferior to his elder brothers, although he fully equalled them in
ambition. Had he possessed a tithe of their sagacity, he would not have
madly persisted in rebellion, after the coming of the president. Before
this period, he represented the people. Their interests and his were
united. He had their support, for he was contending for the redress of
their wrongs. When these were redressed by the government, there was
nothing to contend for. From that time, he was battling only for himself.
The people had no part nor interest in the contest. Without a common
sympathy to bind them together, was it strange that they should fall off
from him, like leaves in winter, and leave him exposed, a bare and
sapless trunk, to the fury of the tempest?

Cepeda, more criminal than Pizarro, since he had both superior
education and intelligence, which he employed only to mislead his
commander, did not long survive him. He had come to the country in an
office of high responsibility. His first step was to betray the viceroy
whom he was sent to support; his next was to betray the Audience with
whom he should have acted; and lastly, he betrayed the leader whom he
most affected to serve. His whole career was treachery to his own
government. His life was one long perfidy.

After his surrender, several of the cavaliers, disgusted at his coldblooded
apostasy, would have persuaded Gasca to send him to execution along
with his commander; but the president refused, in consideration of the
signal service he had rendered the Crown by his defection. He was put
under arrest, however, and sent to Castile. There he was arraigned for
high-treason. He made a plausible defence, and as he had friends at
court, it is not improbable he would have been acquitted; but, before the
trial was terminated, he died in prison. It was the retributive justice not
always to be found in the affairs of this world.19

Indeed, it so happened, that several of those who had been most forward
to abandon the cause of Pizarro survived their commander but a short
time. The gallant Centeno, and the Licentiate Carbajal, who deserted
him near Lima, and bore the royal standard on the field of
Xaquixaguana, both died within a year after Pizarro. Hinojosa was
assassinated but two years later in La Plata; and his old comrade
Valdivia, after a series of brilliant exploits in Chili, which furnished her
most glorious theme to the epic Muse of Castile, was cut off by the
invincible warriors of Arauco. The Manes of Pizarro were amply
avenged.

Acosta, and three or four other cavaliers who surrendered with Gonzalo,
were sent to execution on the same day with their chief; and Gasca, on
the morning following the dismal tragedy, broke up his quarters and
marched with his whole army to Cuzco, where he was received by the
politic people with the same enthusiasm which they had so recently
shown to his rival. He found there a number of the rebel army who bad
taken refuge in the city after their late defeat, where they were
immediately placed under arrest. Proceedings, by Gasca's command,
were instituted against them. The principal cavaliers, to the number of
ten or twelve, were executed; others were banished or sent to the galleys.
The same rigorous decrees were passed against such as had fled and
were not yet taken; and the estates of all were confiscated. The estates of
the rebels supplied a fund for the recompense of the loyal.20 The
execution of justice may seem to have been severe; but Gasca was
willing that the rod should fall heavily on those who had so often
rejected his proffers of grace. Lenity was wasted on a rude, licentious
soldiery, who hardly recognized the existence of government, unless they
felt its rigor.

A new duty now devolved on the president,--that of rewarding his
faithful followers,--not less difficult, as it proved, than that of punishing
the guilty. The applicants were numerous; since every one who had
raised a finger in behalf of the government claimed his reward. They
urged their demands with a clamorous importunity which perplexed the
good president, and consumed every moment of his time.

Disgusted with this unprofitable state of things, Gasca resolved to rid
himself of the annoyance at once, by retiring to the valley of
Guaynarima, about twelve leagues distant from the city, and there
digesting, in quiet, a scheme of compensation, adjusted to the merits of
the parties. He was accompanied only by his secretary, and by Loaysa,
now archbishop of Lima, a man of sense, and well acquainted with the
affairs of the country. In this seclusion the president remained three
months, making a careful examination into the conflicting claims, and
apportioning the forfeitures among the parties according to their
respective services. The repartimientos, it should be remarked, were
usually granted only for life, and, on the death of the incumbent, reverted
to the Crown, to be reassigned or retained at its pleasure.

When his arduous task was completed, Gasca determined to withdraw to
Lima, leaving the instrument of partition with the archbishop, to be
communicated to the army. Notwithstanding all the care that had been
taken for an equitable adjustment, Gasca was aware that it was
impossible to satisfy the demands of a jealous and irritable soldiery,
where each man would be likely to exaggerate his own deserts, while he
underrated those of his comrades; and he did not care to expose himself
to importunities and complaints that could serve no other purpose than to
annoy him.

On his departure, the troops were called together by the archbishop in
the cathedral, to learn the contents of the schedule intrusted to him. A
discourse was first preached by a worthy Dominican, the prior of
Arequipa, in which the reverend father expatiated on the virtue of
contentment, the duty of obedience, and the folly, as well as wickedness,
of an attempt to resist the constituted authorities,--topics, in short, which
he conceived might best conciliate the good-will and conformity of his
audience.

A letter from the president was then read from the pulpit. It was
addressed to the officers and soldiers of the army. The writer began with
briefly exposing the difficulties of his task, owing to the limited amount
of the gratuities, and the great number and services of the claimants. He
had given the matter the most careful consideration, he said, and
endeavored to assign to each his share, according to his deserts, without
prejudice or partiality. He had, no doubt, fallen into errors, but he
trusted his followers would excuse them, when they reflected that he had
done according to the best of his poor abilities; and all, he believed,
would do him the justice to acknowledge he had not been influenced by
motives of personal interest. He bore emphatic testimony to the services
they had rendered to the good cause, and concluded with the most
affectionate wishes for their future prosperity and happiness. The letter
was dated at Guaynarima, August 17, 1548, and bore the simple
signature of the Licentiate Gasca.21

The archbishop next read the paper containing the president's award.
The annual rent of the estates to be distributed amounted to a hundred
and thirty thousand pesos ensayados;22 a large amount, considering the
worth of money in that day,--in any other country than Peru, where
money was a drug.23

The repartimientos thus distributed varied in value from one hundred to
thirty-five hundred pesos of yearly rent; all, apparently, graduated with
the nicest precision to the merits of the parties. The number of
pensioners was about two hundred and fifty; for the fund would not have
sufficed for general distribution, nor were the services of the greater part
deemed worthy of such a mark of consideration.24

The effect produced by the document, on men whose minds were filled
with the most indefinite expectations, was just such as had been
anticipated by the president. It was received with a general murmur of
disapprobation. Even those who had got more than they expected were
discontented, on comparing their condition with that of their comrades,
whom they thought still better remunerated in proportion to their deserts.
They especially inveighed against the preference shown to the old
partisans of Gonzalo Pizarro--as Hinojosa, Centeno, and Aldana-over
those who had always remained loyal to the Crown. There was some
ground for such a preference; for none had rendered so essential services
in crushing the rebellion; and it was these services that Gasca proposed
to recompense. To reward every man who had proved himself loyal,
simply for his loyalty, would have frittered away the donative into
fractions that would be of little value to any.25

It was in vain, however, that the archbishop, seconded by some of the
principal cavaliers, endeavored to infuse a more contented spirit into the
multitude. They insisted that the award should be rescinded, and a new
one made on more equitable principles; threatening, moreover, that, if
this were not done by the president, they would take the redress of the
matter into their own hands. Their discontent, fomented by some
mischievous persons who thought to find their account in it, at length
proceeded so far as to menace a mutiny; and it was not suppressed till the
commander of Cuzco sentenced one of the ringleaders to death, and
several others to banishment. The iron soldiery of the Conquest required
an iron hand to rule them.

Meanwhile, the president had continued his journey towards Lima; and
on the way was everywhere received by the people with an enthusiasm,
the more grateful to his heart that he felt he had deserved it. As he drew
near the capital, the loyal inhabitants prepared to give him a magnificent
reception. The whole population came forth from the gates, led by the
authorities of the city, with Aldana as corregidor at their head. Gasca
rode on a mule, dressed in his ecclesiastical robes. On his right, borne
on a horse richly caparisoned, was the royal seal, in a box curiously
chased and ornamented. A gorgeous canopy of brocade was supported
above his head by the officers of the municipality, who, in their robes of
crimson velvet, walked bareheaded by his side. Gay troops of dancers,
clothed in fantastic dresses of gaudy-colored silk, followed the
procession, strewing flowers and chanting verses as they went, in honor
of the president. They were designed as emblematical of the different
cities of the colony; and they bore legends or mottoes in rhyme on their
caps, intimating their loyal devotion to the Crown, and evincing much
more loyalty in their composition, it may be added, than poetical
merit.26 In this way, without beat of drum, or noise of artillery, or any
of the rude accompaniments of war, the good president made his
peaceful entry into the City of the Kings, while the air was rent with the
acclamations of the people, who hailed him as their "Father and
Deliverer, the Saviour of their country!" 27

But, however grateful was this homage to Gasca's heart, he was not a
man to waste his time in idle vanities. He now thought only by what
means he could eradicate the seeds of disorder which shot up so readily
in this fruitful soil, and how he could place the authority of the
government on a permanent basis. By virtue of his office, he presided
over the Royal Audience, the great judicial, and, indeed, executive
tribunal of the colony; and he gave great despatch to the business, which
had much accumulated during the late disturbances. In the unsettled
state of property, there was abundant subject for litigation; but,
fortunately, the new Audience was composed of able, upright judges,
who labored diligently with their chief to correct the mischief caused by
the misrule of their predecessors.

Neither was Gasca unmindful of the unfortunate natives; and he occupied
himself earnestly with that difficult problem,--the best means practicable
of ameliorating their condition. He sent a number of commissioners, as
visitors, into different parts of the country, whose business it was to
inspect the encomiendas, and ascertain the manner in which the Indians
were treated, by conversing not only with the proprietors, but with the
natives themselves. They were also to learn the nature and extent of the
tributes paid in former times by the vassals of the Incas.28

In this way, a large amount of valuable information was obtained, which
enabled Gasca, with the aid of a council of ecclesiastics and jurists, to
digest a uniform system of taxation for the natives, lighter even than that
imposed on them by the Peruvian princes. The president would gladly
have relieved the conquered races from the obligations of personal
service; but, on mature consideration, this was judged impracticable in
the present state of the country, since the colonists, more especially in
the tropical regions, looked to the natives for the performance of labor,
and the latter, it was found from experience, would not work at all,
unless compelled to do so. The president, however, limited the amount
of service to be exacted with great precision, so that it was in the nature
of a moderate personal tax. No Peruvian was to be required to change
his place of residence, from the climate to which he had been
accustomed, to another; a fruitful source of discomfort, as well as of
disease, in past times. By these various regulations, the condition of the
natives, though not such as had been contemplated by the sanguine
philanthropy of Las Casas, was improved far more than was compatible
with the craving demands of the colonists; and all the firmness of the
Audience was required to enforce provisions so unpalatable to the latter.
Still they were enforced. Slavery, in its most odious sense, was no
longer tolerated in Peru. The term "slave" was not recognized as having
relation to her institutions; and the historian of the Indies makes the
proud boast,--it should have been qualified by the limitations I have
noticed, --that every Indian vassal might aspire to the rank of a
freeman.29

Besides these reforms, Gasca introduced several in the municipal
government of the cities, and others yet more important in the
management of the finances, and in the mode of keeping the accounts.
By these and other changes in the internal economy of the colony, he
placed the administration on a new basis, and greatly facilitated the way
for a more sure and orderly government by his successors. As a final
step, to secure the repose of the country after he was gone, he detached
some of the more aspiring cavaliers on distant expeditions, trusting that
they would draw off the light and restless spirits, who might otherwise
gather together and disturb the public tranquillity; as we sometimes see
the mists which have been scattered by the genial influence of the sun
become condensed, and settle into a storm, on his departure.30