PIZARRO, AND THE CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT OF PERU AND CHILI.
BY CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, F.R.S.
_Honorary Secretary of the Hakluyt Society._
WHEN the Isthmus of Darien was discovered by Vasco Nuñez de Balbóa,
during the six years between 1511 and 1517, there can be little doubt
that tidings, perhaps only in the form of vague rumors, were received
of the greatness and the riches of the Empire of the Yncas. The speech
which the son of the Cacique Comogre is said to have made to the
gold-seeking followers of the discoverer of the South Sea most probably
had reference to Peru; and still more certainly, when the Cacique of
Tumaco told Vasco Nuñez of the country far to the south which abounded
in gold, and moulded the figure of a llama in clay, he gave tidings
of the land of the Yncas. There was a chief in the territory to the
south of the Gulf of San Miguel, on the Pacific coast, named Biru, and
this country was visited by Gaspar de Morales and Francisco Pizarro
in 1515. For the next ten years Biru was the most southern land known
to the Spaniards; and the consequence was that the unknown regions
farther south, including the rumored empire abounding in gold, came
to be designated as _Biru_, or Peru. It was thus that the land of the
Yncas got the name of Peru from the Spaniards, some years before it was
actually discovered.[1467]
Pedro Arias de Avila, the governor of the mainland called Castilla del
Oro, founded the city of Panamá. He went there from the Pearl Islands,
in the vessels which had been built by his victim Vasco Nuñez, while
Gaspar de Espinosa, the _Alcalde Mayor_, led the rest of the colony by
land. The city was founded in 1519. The governor divided the land among
four hundred settlers from Darien. Among them were Pascual de Andagoya,
Hernando Luque (a priest), Francisco Pizarro, and Diego de Almagro.
Nombre de Dios, on the Atlantic side of the isthmus, was settled
towards the end of the same year by a captain named Diego Alviles, in
obedience to orders from Pedro Arias.[1468]
In the year 1522 Pascual de Andagoya, who had come out to Darien with
Pedro Arias in 1514 and was a cavalier of good family from the province
of Alava, was appointed inspector-general of the Indians on the
isthmus. He made a journey to a district called Chuchama, south of the
Gulf of San Miguel, where the chief told him that a certain people from
a province called Biru, farther south, came to make war upon them in
canoes at every full moon. Andagoya sent to Panamá for reinforcements,
in order to comply with the prayer of the people of Chuchama that he
would defend them, as well as to discover what there was farther south.
Having received an addition to his forces, he set out with the chief
of Chuchama, and in six days arrived at the province called Biru. It
had already been visited by Morales and Pizarro. After capturing their
principal stronghold, several chiefs of Biru made their submission to
Andagoya. From these people he collected information respecting the
great empire of the Yncas, and he then descended a river and continued
the examination of the coast in a small vessel which had followed him
from Chuchama. But he was attacked by a severe illness caused by having
been capsized in a canoe, and then kept for several hours in his wet
clothes. He therefore returned to Panamá, to report the knowledge he
had acquired, giving up his intention of conducting discovery to the
southward in person. It was fully three years before Andagoya had so
far recovered as to be able to ride on horseback.
The governor, Pedro Arias, therefore requested Andagoya to hand over
the enterprise to three partners who formed a company at Panamá. These
were Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque.
Francisco Pizarro was born about the year 1470[1469] in the province
of Estremadura, and was the illegitimate son of Gonzalo Pizarro, a
soldier who had served under the Great Captain in Italy. He had arrived
at Darien in the expedition of Alonzo de Ojeda in 1509. During fifteen
years he had been diligently serving as a brave, steady, much-enduring
man-at-arms; and on two or three occasions he found himself in
important and responsible positions. In 1524 he was a citizen of
Panamá with very limited means, but endowed with indomitable energy
and perseverance, and fifty-four years of age. Diego Almagro is said
to have been a foundling. At all events his parentage is unknown. He
had probably served for some years on the isthmus, but his name does
not occur until he entered into this partnership. Almagro is described
as a man of short stature, with a very plain face, and was at least as
old as Pizarro. He was hasty in temper, but generous and warm-hearted,
and his fine qualities attracted to him many faithfully attached
adherents. Luque had been schoolmaster at Darien, and was now the
principal parochial clergyman at Panamá, holding valuable property on
the adjacent island of Taboga, and in an influential position in the
colony.
Pizarro was to command the expedition; Almagro was to keep open
communications with Panamá and bring supplies; while Luque acted as
agent, and obtained the needful funds.
One of the small vessels which had been built for Vasco Nuñez was
obtained, and a force of eighty men (one hundred and twelve, according
to Xeres) and four horses was collected. Pizarro prepared to sail with
this single vessel and two canoes, having received all the information
and instructions that Andagoya could give him, and taking with him
the interpreters brought from Biru by that officer. It was arranged
that large trees near the sea-shore should be blazed, as guides to the
course taken by Pizarro, when his partner Almagro should follow with
supplies.
Pizarro sailed from Panamá Nov. 14, 1524, and after enduring terrible
sufferings on the coast of Biru, including famine, and losing
twenty-seven of his men, he went back to Chuchama, and sent the
treasurer Nicolas de Ribera to Panamá with the gold which he had
collected. Meanwhile Almagro had followed in another vessel with
provisions, and went on the traces of his companion by means of the
trees that had been marked, until he reached the Rio San Juan in 4°
north. Finding no further traces of Pizarro he returned, having lost
an eye in an encounter with natives. He also lost upwards of seventy
men;[1470] but he obtained some gold.
After this failure it was more difficult to obtain money and recruits
for a second attempt. Fortunately, the _Alcalde Mayor_, who was
impressed with the promising character of the undertaking, came
forward with the necessary funds, which he advanced through the agency
of Luque. Gaspar de Espinosa thus became one of the partners. The
agreement between the partners was signed March 10, 1526. Luque signed
as the agent of Espinosa. Pizarro and Almagro could neither read nor
write. One Juan de Pares signed on the part of Pizarro, and Alvaro del
Quiro for Almagro.
The second expedition sailed in 1526. It consisted of two vessels
commanded by Pizarro and Almagro respectively, with a very able and
gallant sailor named Bartolomé Ruiz, of Moguer, as pilot. There were
one hundred and sixty men all told. The adventurers made direct for the
river of San Juan, the farthest point reached by Almagro during the
previous voyage. Here Pizarro landed with his troops. Almagro returned
to Panamá in one vessel, for recruits and provisions, while Ruiz
proceeded on a voyage of discovery to the southward in the other.
Ruiz made a remarkable voyage, having rounded Cape Passado and reached
1° south. He was thus the first European to cross the equator on
the southern passage. He also fell in with a raft under sail, which
belonged to Tumbez in Peru, and thus obtained several curious specimens
of Ynca art, and some additional information. Almagro made a prosperous
voyage back to Panamá, and returned with supplies.
[Illustration: NATIVE RAFTS.
[This is Benzoni’s sketch of the rafts and boats used by the native on
the Pacific coast of the northern parts of South America. Edition of
1572, p. 165.—ED.]]
Pizarro had been left on a forest-covered, fever-haunted coast, which
has changed very little from that day to this. Hoping to find a
better country inland, he undertook long marches through the tangled
forest; but many of his men perished, and his party returned to the
coast, suffering from disease and famine. In this sorry plight the
all-enduring Pizarro was found, when Almagro and Ruiz returned.
Almagro had found a new governor installed at Panamá. Pedro de los Rios
had superseded Pedro Arias, who was transferred to Nicaragua, where he
died in 1532. With the new governor’s sanction, about eighty recruits
were collected, and with these and a fresh supply of stores Almagro
returned to the Rio de San Juan.
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF THE CONQUEST OF PERU.
[This map and map No. 2 show the modern geography. The development of
the cartography of Peru may be traced in Ramusio (1556) in the map of
the parts of the world newly discovered; in Ortelius (1584 and 1592)
and De Bry, part iii. (1592, a map of South America corrected in 1624);
in Wytfliet, 1597 (see map on a later page); in Van Baerle’s edition
of Herrera (1622); in Sanson, with the course of the Amazon (1656);
in Dudley’s _Arcano del mare_ (carta xxviii. 1647), for the coast; in
Vander Aa (1679), and in Boudouin’s translation of Garcilasso de la
Vega, published at Amsterdam in 1737. Markham, in his _Reports on the
Discovery of Peru_, gives a map showing the marches of Francisco and
Hernando Pizarro, May, 1532, to May, 1533. Other maps are given by
Prescott, H. H. Bancroft, and Helps. The best, however, is in Markham’s
_Travels of Cieza de Leon_.—ED.]]
The two partners then embarked, and under the guidance of the pilot
Ruiz they advanced along the coast as far as Atacames. They were
now in the province of Quito, a part of the Ynca empire. Here were
large towns, much ground under cultivation, and a formidable array
of well-armed troops to oppose their depredations. It was evident
that the Spanish force was too weak to make a successful settlement.
Pizarro proposed a return; Almagro opposed him, and there was a
violent quarrel, which was outwardly reconciled, leaving a permanent
feeling of suppressed jealousy and ill-will on both sides. Finally it
was resolved that Pizarro and part of the force should remain on the
island of Gallo, which had been discovered by Ruiz in 1° 57´ north,
while Almagro should return once more for recruits. The arrangements
caused much discontent. The men complained that they were being left to
starve. Some wrote letters home to Panamá, full of complaints, which
were seized by Almagro. One, however, named Saravia, concealed a note
in a large ball of cotton sent as a present to the governor’s wife. It
contained the following lines:—
“Pues Señor Gobernador,
Mírelo bien por entero,
Que allá va el recogedor,
Y acá queda el carnicero.”[1471]
Pizarro, soon after Almagro’s departure, sent off the other ship with
the most mutinous of his followers. But the governor, Los Rios, was
much incensed at the result of the expedition. He refused to give any
further countenance to the enterprise, and sent two vessels, under the
command of Don Pedro Tafur, of Cordova, to Gallo, with orders to take
every Spaniard off the island and bring them back to Panamá. Meanwhile
Pizarro and his people were suffering from famine and disease, and
from the incessant rains. Nearly all had lost every feeling of desire
for hazardous adventures. They longed only to be relieved from their
sufferings, and hailed the arrival of Tafur with unconcealed joy.
Then it was that Pizarro displayed that heroic resolution which has
made the famous act of himself and his sixteen companions immortal. The
story is differently told. Herrera says that Tafur stationed himself
in one part of the vessel, and drawing a line, placed Pizarro and his
soldiers on the other side of it. He then told those who wished to
return to Panamá to come over to him, and those who would remain, to
stay on Pizarro’s side of the line. But Garcilasso de la Vega tells us
that when Pizarro saw his men electing to return in the ship, he drew
his sword and made a long line with the point along the sand. Then,
turning to his men, he said, “Gentlemen! This line signifies labor,
hunger, thirst, fatigue, wounds, sickness, and every other kind of
danger that must be encountered in this conquest until life is ended.
Let those who have the courage to meet and overcome the dangers of this
heroic achievement cross the line, in token of their resolution, and as
a testimony that they will be my faithful companions. And let those who
feel unworthy, return to Panamá; for I do not wish to put force upon
any man. I trust in God that, for his greater honor and glory, his
Eternal Majesty will help those who remain with me, though they be few,
and that we shall not miss those who forsake us.” Of the two accounts,
that of Garcilasso is probably nearer the truth, because it is unlikely
that the embarkation would have taken place before the election was
made. It would naturally be made on the beach, before going on board.
Most of the authorities give the number of those who crossed the line
at thirteen. Xeres, Pizarro’s secretary, says there were sixteen.
Herrera gives the names of thirteen heroic men, Garcilasso supplying
the remaining three; and they deserve to be held in memory.[1472]
Nothing could shake the resolution of Pizarro. He would not return
until he had achieved greatness, and he found sixteen good men and
true to stand by him in his great need. They removed from Gallo to the
island of Gorgona, where there was some game and better water; while
the others returned with Tafur to Panamá.
The governor looked upon Pizarro’s conduct as an act of madness, and
refused all succor; but at length yielding to the entreaties of Luque
and Almagro, he allowed one vessel to be sent to Gorgona, with strict
orders to return in six months. So a small vessel was fitted out
under the command of the pilot Ruiz, and after seven weary months the
little forlorn hope at Gorgona descried the white sail, and joyfully
welcomed their friends with a supply of food and stores. Full of hope,
Pizarro and his gallant friends embarked; and the expert Ruiz, guided
by information obtained from the Peruvian sailors on the raft, made
direct for the Gulf of Guayaquil, performing the voyage in twenty days.
The year 1527 was now well advanced. Anchoring off the island of Santa
Clara, they stood across to the town of Tumbez on the following day.
Here they saw the undoubted signs of a great civilization, betokening
the existence of a powerful empire. Their impressions were confirmed
by a subsequent cruise along the Peruvian coast as far as Santa, in 9°
south latitude. They learned enough to justify a return to Panamá with
the report of a great discovery, the importance of which would justify
an application to the Spanish Government for some valuable concession
to Pizarro and his partners. Pizarro took with him, from Tumbez, a lad
who was to act as interpreter,—called Felipillo by the Spaniards,—and
also a few llamas. He then made the best of his way back to Panamá;
and it was agreed that he should proceed to Spain and make a direct
application to the Crown for authority to undertake the conquest of
the empire of the Yncas. In the spring of 1528, after having collected
the necessary funds with much difficulty, Pizarro set out for Spain,
accompanied by Pedro de Candia. Luque and Almagro waited at Panamá for
the result.
[Illustration: EMBARKING.
[Fac-simile of a cut made to do duty in various connections in Antwerp
publications of the last half of the sixteenth century. It is copied in
this case from fol. 23 of _De Wonderlijcke ende warachtighe Historie_
(Zarate), published by Willem Silvius in 1573.—ED.]]
Francisco Pizarro was well received by the Emperor Charles V. in an
interview at Toledo; but the sovereign set out for Italy immediately
afterwards, and subsequent arrangements were made with the Government
of the queen-mother. The capitulation was signed on the 26th of
July, 1529. Pizarro was appointed captain-general and _adelantado_,
and was decorated with the order of Santiago. He was also granted a
coat-of-arms, and thirteen out of the sixteen who crossed the line
at Gallo were ennobled by name. Almagro was made governor of Tumbez,
and afterwards received the title of marshal. Luque was to be bishop
of Tumbez, and protector of the Indians. Ruiz received the title of
grand pilot of the South Sea. Candia was appointed commander of the
artillery. Pizarro visited Estremadura, and from his home took back
with him to Peru his four brothers. Hernando, the eldest and only
legitimate son of his father, was a big tall man, with thick lips and
very red nose, brave and proud, with an uncompromising temper, and
ruthlessly cruel. Juan and Gonzalo were illegitimate, like Francisco,
and Francisco Martin de Alcantara was a uterine brother. His young
cousin Pedro Pizarro, the future historian, then only fifteen, went
out as the conqueror’s page; Fray Vicente de Valverde, a fanatical
Dominican, also went out; and Pizarro set sail from San Lucar on the
19th of January, 1530. On arriving at Panamá, he was upbraided by
Almagro for not having attended fairly to his (Almagro’s) interests,
while careful to secure everything for himself. From that time the old
partners were never really friends, and there was ill-concealed enmity
between Almagro and Hernando Pizarro. Meanwhile preparations for the
expedition were busily proceeded with at Panamá; and, as on former
occasions, Almagro was to follow with supplies and reinforcements.
[Illustration: PIZARRO’S DISCOVERIES.
[The map given in Ruge’s _Zeitalter der Entdeckungen_, p. 436.—ED.]]
Pizarro sailed from Panamá on the 28th of December, 1531, with
three small vessels carrying one hundred and eighty-three men and
thirty-seven horses. In thirteen days he arrived at the bay of San
Mateo, where he landed the horses and soldiers to march along the
shore, sending back the ships to get more men and horses at Panamá
and Nicaragua. They returned with twenty-six horses and thirty more
men. With this force Pizarro continued his march along the sea-coast,
which was well peopled; and on arriving at the bay of Guayaquil, he
crossed over in the ships to the island of Puna. Here a devastating war
was waged with the unfortunate natives, and from Puna the conqueror
proceeded again in his ships to the Peruvian town of Tumbez. The
country was in a state of confusion, owing to a long and desolating war
of succession between Huascar and Atahualpa, the two sons of the great
Ynca Huayna Capac, and was thus an easy prey to the invaders. Huascar
had been defeated and made prisoner by the generals of his brother,
and Atahualpa was on his way from Quito to Cusco, the capital of the
empire, to enjoy the fruits of his victory. He was reported to be at
Caxamarca, on the eastern side of the mountains; and Pizarro, with his
small force, set out from Tumbez on the 18th of May, 1532.
[Illustration: NATIVE HUTS IN TREES.
[Benzoni’s sketch of the native habitations on the coast towards Peru.
Edition of 1572, p. 161.—ED.]]
The coast of Peru is a rainless region of desert, crossed at intervals
by fertile valleys which follow the courses of the streams from the
Andes to the sea. Parallel with this coast region, to the eastward, is
the _sierra_, or mountainous country of the _cordilleras_ of the Andes,
the cradle and centre of the civilized tribes of Peru. Still farther
to the eastward are the great rivers and vast forests or _montaña_ of
the basin of the Amazons.[1473] Thus the length of Peru is divided into
three very different and distinctly marked regions,—the coast, the
_sierra_, and the _montaña_.
[Illustration: ATAHUALPA.
[From Herrera (1728), vol. iii. p. 5. Quaritch in 1870 (_Catalogue_,
259, no. 651) held at £105 the original oil paintings from which the
likenesses of thirteen Incas in Herrera’s _Hechos de los Castellanos_
were engraved, in 1599, with an extra one of Atahualpa, which was not
given in Herrera. The previous thirteen are given in small marginal
engravings in the border of the frontispiece of Herrera’s fifth
and sixth Decades, and copied in the edition of Barcia, who throws
discredit on the engravings which De Bry had given. These last are
reproduced in Tschudi’s _Antiquedades Peruanas_. Cf. _Catalogue of
Gallery of the New York Historical Society_, No. 378.—ED.]]
The first part of Pizarro’s march was southward from Tumbez, in
the rainless coast region. After crossing a vast desert he came to
Tangarara, in the fertile valleys of the Chira, where he founded the
city of San Miguel, the site of which was afterwards removed to the
valley of Piura. The accountant Antonio Navarro and the royal treasurer
Riquelme were left in command at San Miguel, and Pizarro resumed his
march in search of the Ynca Atahualpa on the 24th of September, 1532.
He detached the gallant cavalier, Hernando de Soto, into the _sierra_
of Huancabamba, to reconnoitre, and pacify the country. De Soto
rejoined the main body after an absence of about ten days. The brother
of Atahualpa, named Titu Atauchi, arrived as an envoy, with presents,
and a message to the effect that the Ynca desired friendship with the
strangers.
[Illustration: ATAHUALPA.
[Fac-simile of the copperplate in the English edition of Thevet’s
_Pourtraitures and Lives_ appended to North’s _Plutarch_, Cambridge,
England, 1676, p. 66. A somewhat famous picture by a Peruvian artist,
Monteros, representing the Spanish soldiers hustling the wailing
women out of the hall while the funeral rites over Atahualpa were in
progress, is heliotyped in the second volume of Hutchinson’s _Two Years
in Peru_.—ED.]]
Crossing the vast desert of Sechura, Pizarro reached the fertile valley
of Motupe, and marched thence to the foot of the _cordilleras_ in
the valley of the Jequetepeque. Here he rested for a day or two, to
arrange the order for the ascent. He took with him forty horses and
sixty foot, instructing Hernando de Soto to follow him with the main
body and the baggage. News arrived that the Ynca Atahualpa had reached
the neighborhood of Caxamarca about three days before, and that he
desired peace. Pizarro pressed forward, crossed the _cordillera_,
and on Friday, the 15th of November, 1532, he entered Caxamarca with
his whole force. Here he found excellent accommodation in the large
masonry buildings, and was well satisfied with the strategic position.
Atahualpa was established in a large camp outside, where Hernando de
Soto had an interview with him. Atahualpa announced his intention of
visiting the Christian commander, and Pizarro arranged and perpetrated
a black act of treachery. He kept all his men under arms. The Ynca,
suspecting nothing, came into the great square, walking in grand regal
procession. He was suddenly attacked and made prisoner, and his people
were massacred.
The Ynca offered a ransom, which he described as gold enough to fill a
room twenty-two feet long and seventeen wide, to a height equal to a
man’s stature and a half. He undertook to do this in two months, and
sent orders for the collection of golden vases and ornaments in all
parts of the empire.[1474] Soon the treasure began to arrive, while
Atahualpa was deceived by false promises; and he beguiled his captivity
by acquiring Spanish and learning to play at chess and cards.
Meanwhile Pizarro sent an expedition under his brother Hernando, to
visit the famous temple of Pachacamac on the coast; and three soldiers
were also despatched to Cusco, the capital of the empire, to hurry
forward the treasure. They set out in February, 1533, but behaved
with so much imprudence and insolence at Cusco as to endanger their
own lives and the success of their mission. Pizarro therefore ordered
two officers of distinction, Hernando de Soto and Pedro del Barco, to
follow them and remedy the mischief which they were doing. On Easter
eve, being the 14th of April, 1533, Almagro arrived at Caxamarca with a
reinforcement of one hundred and fifty Spaniards and eighty-four horses.
On the 3d of May it was ordered that the gold already arrived should
be melted down for distribution; but another large instalment came on
the 14th of June. An immense quantity consisted of slabs, with holes
at the corners, which had been torn off the walls of temples and
palaces; and there were vessels and ornaments of all shapes and sizes.
After the royal fifth had been deducted, the rest was divided among
the conquerors. The total sum of 4,605,670 ducats would be equal to
about £3,500,000 of modern money.[1475] After the partition of the
treasure, the murder of the Ynca was seriously proposed as a measure
of good policy. The crime was committed by order of Pizarro, and
with the concurrence of Almagro and the friar Valverde.[1476] It was
expected that the sovereign’s death would be followed by the dispersion
of his army, and the submission of the people. This judicial murder
was committed in the square of Caxamarca on the 29th of August, 1533.
Hernando de Soto was absent at the time, and on his return he expressed
the warmest indignation. Several other honorable cavaliers protested
against the execution. Their names are even more worthy of being
remembered than those of the heroic sixteen who crossed the line on
the sea-shore at Gallo.[1477]
[Illustration: DIEGO DE ALMAGRO.
[From Herrera (1728) vol. ii. p. 285. An original manuscript letter
of Almagro, Jan. 1, 1535, addressed to the Emperor, and asking
for a province beyond Pizarro’s, is noted in Stevens, _Bibliotheca
geographica_, no. 109.—ED.]]
Pizarro at first set up a son of Atahualpa as his successor; but the
boy died within two months. A more important matter was the despatch of
the treasure to Spain, with tidings of the conquest. The first ship,
laden with Peruvian gold, arrived at Seville on the 5th of December,
1534. The second ship followed in January, having on board, besides the
treasure, Hernando Pizarro, the conqueror’s brother. The excitement
caused by these arrivals was intense; and there was an eager desire
among adventurers, both of high and low degree, to become settlers in
this land of promise.
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF THE CONQUEST OF PERU. NO. 2.]
In September Pizarro began his march from Caxamarca to Cusco, the
capital of the empire, with five hundred Spaniards and about one
hundred and fifty horses. The artilleryman Candia had charge of two
falconets. The march was along the lofty valleys and over the passes
of the _sierra_, by Huamachuco, Huánuco, Xauxa, and Huamanga. The
rear-guard was attacked by Titu Atauchi, brother of Atahualpa, with
six thousand men; and eight Spaniards were taken prisoners, among them
Francisco de Chaves and Hernando de Haro, who had protested against the
murder of the Ynca Atahualpa, and Sancho de Cuellar, who had been clerk
to the court at the mock trial. They were taken to Caxamarca, which had
been abandoned by the Spaniards. Chaves and Haro were treated with the
greatest kindness. Cuellar was strangled on the spot where Atahualpa
was put to death. Hernando de Soto and Almagro led the van of the
Spanish army, and they had to fight a well-contested battle beyond the
Apurimac, with a native army led by one of the generals of Atahualpa.
Leaving a garrison at Xauxa, Pizarro followed more leisurely; and on
forming a junction with Almagro on the great plain of Sacsahuana,
near Cusco, he perpetrated another great crime. Challcuchima, one of
Atahualpa’s ablest generals, who had been taken prisoner, was burned
alive. Soon afterward the Ynca Manco, son of Huayna Capac, and the
rightful heir to the sovereignty, arrived at the Spanish camp to make
his submission and claim protection. His rights were recognized; and
on the 15th of November, 1533, the conqueror Pizarro entered the city
of Cusco in company with the rightful sovereign. The Ynca Manco was
inaugurated with the usual ceremonies and rejoicings; but in March,
1534, his beloved city of Cusco was converted into a Spanish town, and
a municipality was established. The palaces and spacious halls were
appropriated as churches and private houses of the conquerors. The
Dominicans received the great Temple of the Sun as their monastery; and
Friar Valverde, who became the first bishop of Cusco, in 1538, took the
spacious palace of the Ynca Uira-ccocha, in the great square, for his
cathedral.
[Illustration: PLAN OF YNCA FORTRESS NEAR CUSCO.
(From Markham’s _Royal Commentaries of the Yncas_, vol. ii. p. 305.)]
It was not long before the fame of the riches of Peru brought more
conquerors to seek for a share of the spoils. In March, 1534, Pedro
de Alvarado, one of the conquerors of Mexico, landed at Puerto Viejo,
close to the equator, with five hundred Spaniards, half of whom were
mounted. Among them was the noble cavalier Garcilasso de la Vega,
father of the future historian. After suffering dreadful hardships
in passing through the forests of the coast, the adventurers reached
Riobamba, with a loss of one fourth of their number. Pizarro, leaving
a garrison of ninety men under his brother Juan at Cusco, proceeded to
the sea-coast, where he had an interview with Alvarado at Pachacamac.
It was agreed that Alvarado should return to his government of
Guatemala, while many of his surviving followers attached themselves to
the fortunes of Pizarro.
The conqueror now resolved to fix the principal seat of his government
within a short distance of some convenient seaport. He finally selected
a site in the valley of the Rimac, six miles from the shores of the
Pacific Ocean. Here Pizarro founded the city of Lima on the festival of
Epiphany, the 6th of January, 1535. It was called “Ciudad de los Reyes”
(the city of the kings) in honor of Charles V. and his mother Juana,
and also in memory of the day. The city was laid out on a regular plan,
which has been little altered down to the present time, with broad
streets, at right angles, and a spacious square near the centre, one
side of which was to be occupied by the cathedral and another by the
palace. Pizarro appointed municipal officers, collected laborers, and
with great energy pushed on the work of building.
[Illustration: BUILDING OF A TOWN.
[Fac-simile of a cut made to do duty in various Antwerp imprints on
Peru of the latter half of the sixteenth century. It is copied in this
case from folio eighteen (reverse) of _De Wonderlijcke ende Warachtighe
Historie_ (Zarate), published by Willem Silvius, 1573.—ED.]]
Hernando Pizarro, arriving with such welcome treasure, was very
graciously received in Spain. Charles V. confirmed all his brother’s
previous grants, and created him a marquis;[1478] while Almagro,
with the title of marshal, was empowered to discover and occupy
territory for two hundred leagues, beginning from the southern boundary
of Pizarro’s government. Hernando himself was created a knight of
Santiago, and was authorized to enlist recruits, and equip a fleet
for his return to Peru. The return of Hernando was the signal for
the breaking out of a feud between the old partners. Almagro and his
friends declared that Cusco itself was to the south of the boundary
assigned to the territory of Pizarro. The conqueror hurried from his
work of building at Lima to Cusco, and made a solemn reconciliation
with Almagro, by a written agreement dated June 12, 1535.
[Illustration: GABRIEL DE ROJAS.
[Fac-simile of an engraving in Herrera, vol. iv. p. 260. He was one of
the distinguished cavaliers of the Conquest, to whom Muñoz—erroneously,
as Prescott thinks—assigned the authorship of the _Relacion primera_
of Ondegardo. He was distinguished at the defence of Cusco, when that
town was besieged by the Indians. Later, as governor of Cusco for
Almagro, he had charge of Gonzalo Pizarro while he was held a prisoner,
and had, later still, command of the artillery under Gasca. He died at
Charcas.—ED.]]
Almagro was induced to undertake an expedition for the discovery and
conquest of Chili. He was accompanied by a large army of Indians, led
by two Yncas of the blood royal; and he had with him about two hundred
Spaniards. He set out from Cusco in the autumn. Pizarro then returned
to the coast, to push forward the building of Lima, and to found the
cities of Truxillo (1535), Chachapoyas (1536), Huamanga (1539), and
Arequipa (1540). Hernando Pizarro, on his return, was sent to join his
brothers Juan and Gonzalo at Cusco, and to take command of that city
and fortress.
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF THE CONQUEST OF CHILI.]
The Spaniards had already begun to look upon the natives as their
slaves, and the young Ynca Manco was not only treated with neglect, but
exposed to every kind of humiliating insult. He escaped from Cusco,
and put himself at the head of a great army of his subjects in the
valley of Yucay. This was a signal; and immediately the whole country
was in revolt against the invaders. Juan Pizarro was driven back into
Cusco, and the city was closely besieged by the armies of the Ynca from
February, 1536. The besiegers succeeded in setting the thatched roofs
of the halls and palaces on fire, and the Spanish garrison was reduced
to the greatest straits. The Yncas had occupied the fortress which
commands the town, and Juan Pizarro was killed in an attempt to carry
it by storm. Finally Hernando Pizarro himself captured the fortress,
after a heroic defence by the Ynca garrison. Still the close siege of
the city continued, and the garrison was reduced to the last straits
by famine. Month after month passed away without tidings. At last the
season for planting arrived, and in August the Ynca was obliged to
raise the siege.
* * * * *
Chili, the long strip of land along the west coast of South America, to
the south of Peru, had been conquered by the Yncas as far as the river
Maule. Beyond that limit were the indomitable tribes of Araucanian
Indians. Bounded on one side by the _cordillera_ of the Andes, and on
the other by the sea, the country enjoys a temperate climate, suited
for the cultivation of wheat and the rearing of cattle. It can be
approached from Peru either by traversing the great desert of Atacama
on the coast, or by marching over the snowy plateaus and rocky passes
of the Andes. Almagro chose the latter route. The Indian auxiliaries,
led by Paullu, the brother of Ynca Manco, and by the Uillac Umu, or
high-priest, marched first, carrying provisions and making arrangements
for their supply, taking the road through the Collao and Charcas (the
modern republic of Bolivia). The Indian contingent was followed by one
hundred Spaniards under Don Juan Saavedra; and this advanced party
waited at Paria, in the south of Charcas, for the main body. This was
commanded by Don Rodrigo Orgoñez, a native of Oropesa, who had served
under the constable Bourbon at the sack of Rome. He was a brave and
experienced commander, ever faithful to his chief, the marshal Almagro.
The whole force, when united in the distant valley of Jujuy, consisted
of five hundred Spaniards, with two hundred horses. The march across
the Andes to Coquimbo, in Chili, during the winter of 1536, was a time
of intense suffering and hardship bravely endured; but it was stained
by the most revolting cruelties to the people of Charcas and Jujuy.
Almagro advanced from Coquimbo to the southward, and his Peruvian
contingent suffered a defeat from an army of Promauca Indians. He
was reinforced by Orgoñez and Juan Rada, another faithful adherent,
who brought with them the royal order appointing Almagro to be
_adelantado_, or governor, of New Toledo, which was to extend two
hundred leagues from the southern limit of Pizarro’s government of
New Castile. The explorers now desired to return and occupy this new
government, which they claimed to include the city of Cusco itself.
Almagro had arranged that three small vessels should sail from Callao,
the port of Lima, for the Chilian coast, with provisions. Only one ever
sailed, named the “Santiaguillo,” having a cargo of food, clothing,
and horse-shoes. She arrived in a port on the coast of Chili; and when
the tidings reached Almagro, he sent the gallant Juan de Saavedra, the
leader of his vanguard, with thirty horsemen, to communicate with her.
Saavedra found the little vessel anchored in a bay surrounded by rugged
hills covered with an undergrowth of shrubs, and having a distant view
of the snowy _cordillera_. In some way it reminded him of his distant
Spanish home. Saavedra was a native of the village of Valparaiso, near
Cuenca, in Castile. He named the bay, where the principal seaport
of Chili was destined to be established, Valparaiso. This was in
September, 1536. Landing the much-needed supplies, Saavedra rejoined
his chief, and the expedition of Almagro began its painful return
journey by the desert of Atacama. On arriving at Arequipa, Almagro
first heard of the great insurrection of the Yncas. Marching rapidly to
Cusco, his lieutenant, Orgoñez, defeated the Ynca Manco in the valley
of Yucay; and Almagro entered the ancient city, claiming to be its
lawful governor.
The royal grant had given Pizarro all the territory for two hundred and
seventy leagues southward from the river of Santiago, in 1° 20´ north,
and to Almagro two hundred leagues extending from Pizarro’s southern
limit. Herrera says that there were seventeen and one half leagues in
a degree. This would bring Pizarro’s boundary as far south as 14° 50´,
and would leave Cusco (13° 30´ 55″ south) well within it. But neither
the latitudes of the river Santiago nor of Cusco had been fixed, and
the question was open to dispute.
Almagro seized upon Cusco on the 8th of April, 1537, and placed the
brothers Hernando and Gonzalo Pizarro, who had defended the place
against the Yncas, in confinement. News then came that a large body
of men under Alonzo de Alvarado, sent by the governor Pizarro from
Lima, was approaching Cusco. Alvarado, with about five hundred men,
had advanced as far as the river Abancay, where he was surprised
and defeated by Orgoñez on the 12th of July, 1537. Meanwhile some
reinforcements were arriving at Lima, in reply to the appeals of
Pizarro for help against the native insurrection.
The ecclesiastic Luque had died; but the other partner who advanced the
money for the original expedition, the licentiate Gaspar de Espinosa,
still lived; and he now joined Pizarro at Lima, with a force of two
hundred and fifty men. Cortés also despatched a vessel with supplies
and military stores from Mexico.
The Marquis—as Pizarro was now styled—sent an embassy to Almagro at
Cusco, under the licentiate Espinosa, in the hope of settling the
dispute amicably. Almagro, elated by his successes, was in no mood for
moderating his demands; and, unfortunately, Espinosa died very suddenly
in the midst of the negotiation. It was broken off; and Almagro
declared his intention of retaining Cusco and marching to the coast, in
order to establish for himself a seaport. Orgoñez had again defeated
the Ynca Manco, dispersed his army, and forced him to take refuge, with
his family and little court, in the mountainous fastness of Vilcabamba.
Leaving Gonzalo Pizarro in prison at Cusco, Almagro marched to the
valley of Chincha, on the sea-coast, taking Hernando Pizarro with him.
At Chincha he began to lay out a city, to be called Almagro, which was
to rival Lima, one hundred miles to the northward. Chincha is nearly in
the same latitude as Cusco.
While he was at Chincha, Almagro received news that Gonzalo Pizarro and
Alonzo de Alvarado had escaped from their Cusco prison, and reached
the camp of the marquis, near Lima. After some correspondence, it was
agreed that a friar named Francisco de Bobadilla should arbitrate,
and that Pizarro and Almagro should have a personal interview in the
little town of Mala, near the coast, between Lima and Chincha. The
meeting took place on the 13th of November, 1537. There was a furious
altercation. They parted in anger; indeed Almagro, fearing treachery,
rode off very hastily. A cavalier of Pizarro’s party had hummed two
lines of an old song in his hearing,—
“Tiempo es el cavallero,
Tiempo es de andar de aqui.”
It was the last time the old partners ever saw each other. The friar’s
award was that a skilful pilot should be sent to fix the latitude of
the river of Santiago, and that meanwhile Almagro should deliver up
Cusco, and Hernando Pizarro should be set at liberty. But in order to
secure the safety of his brother, the marquis made the concession that
Almagro should hold Cusco until the boundaries were fixed. Hernando was
then allowed to leave the camp of Almagro.
But the marquis had no intention of allowing his rival to retain Cusco.
Too old to take the field himself, he intrusted the command of his
army to his brother Hernando. His rival was also broken down by age
and infirmities, and Rodrigo de Orgoñez became the actual commander
of Almagro’s forces. He retreated by short marches towards Cusco, the
old marshal being carried in a litter, and requiring long intervals of
rest. The marquis led his army down the coast to Yca, where he took
leave of it, and returned to Lima. His brother Hernando then proceeded
still farther along the coast to Nasca, and ascended the _cordilleras_
by way of Lucanas, reaching the neighborhood of Cusco in April, 1538.
Almagro had arrived at Cusco ten days before.
Orgoñez took up a position at a place called Salinas, about three miles
from Cusco, with a force of five hundred men and about two hundred
horses. His artillery consisted of six falconets, which, with the
cavalry, he stationed on the flanks of his infantry. On Saturday, the
26th of April, 1538 (or the 6th, the day of Saint Lazarus, according to
Garcilasso), Hernando Pizarro began the attack. The infantry was led
by his brother Gonzalo, and by Pedro de Valdivia, the future governor
of Chili. Crowds of Indians watched the battle, and rejoiced to see
their oppressors destroying one another. The cavalry charged at full
gallop, the infantry fought desperately; but Orgoñez was killed, and
after an hour the fortune of the day turned against the marshal. His
soldiers fled to Cusco, followed by the victorious party, and Almagro
himself was put in chains and confined in the same prison where he had
put the Pizarros. His young son Diego,—by an Indian girl of Panamá,—to
whom the old man was devotedly attached, was sent at once to the camp
of the marquis at Lima, in charge of Alcantara, the half-brother of the
Pizarros. Hernando then prepared a long string of accusations against
his defeated foe, obtained his condemnation, and caused him to be
garroted in the prison. Almagro was buried in the church of La Merced
at Cusco, in July, 1538.
The Marquis Francisco Pizarro received the young Almagro with kindness,
and sent him to Lima, ordering him to be treated as his son. The
governor himself remained for some time at Xauxa, and then proceeded
to Cusco, where he confiscated the property of Almagro’s followers.
He sent his brother Gonzalo to conquer the people of Charcas. In 1539
Hernando Pizarro set out for Spain; but the friends of Almagro were
before him. He was coldly received, and eventually committed to prison
for his conduct at Cusco, and lingered in captivity for upwards of
twenty years.
Pizarro returned to Lima, and despatched numerous expeditions in
various directions for discovery and conquest. Gomez de Alvarado
was intrusted with the settlement of Huánuco; Francisco de Chaves,
of Conchucos; Vergara and Mercadillo were to explore Bracamoras and
Chachapoyas; and Pedro de Candia was to settle the Collao. Gonzalo
Pizarro himself undertook an expedition to the land of cinnamon,—the
forest-covered region to the eastward of Quito. Leaving Pedro de
Puelles in command at Quito, Gonzalo entered the forests with three
hundred and fifty Spaniards and four thousand Indians on Christmas
Day, 1539. The hardships and sufferings of these dauntless explorers
have seldom been equalled by any body of men on record. Descending the
rivers Coca and Napo, Gonzalo intrusted the command of a small vessel
to Francisco de Orellana to go on in advance and seek for supplies. But
Orellana deserted his starving comrades, discovered the whole course
of the river Amazon, and returned to Spain. Out of the three hundred
and fifty Spaniards that started, fifty deserted with Orellana, two
hundred and ten died of hunger and disease, and the miserable remnant
eventually returned to Quito with their intrepid leader, Gonzalo
Pizarro, in June, 1542.
The marquis had also resolved to renew the attempt to conquer Chili,
which had been abandoned by Almagro. A cavalier had actually been
sent out from Spain, named Pedro Sanchez de Hoz, to undertake this
service. The marquis associated with him a commander on whose judgment,
resolution, and fidelity he could better rely. Pedro de Valdivia was a
native of Serena in Estremadura. He had seen much service in Italy; was
at the taking of Milan and at the battle of Pavia. He had arrived in
Peru in 1535, having been sent from Mexico by Hernando Cortés when the
governor of Peru appealed for help to resist the Ynca revolt. He did
important service for the Pizarros at the battle of Salinas.
Having collected one hundred and fifty soldiers at Cusco, Valdivia
began his march for Chili in March, 1540. His camp-master was Pedro
Gomez; his standard-bearer, Pedro de Mayor; his chief of the staff,
Alonso Monroy. Francisco de Aguirre and Jeronimo de Alderete were his
captains of cavalry; Francisco de Villagran led the arquebusiers, and
Rodrigo de Quiroga the pikemen. Two priests, named Bartolomé Rodrigo
and Gonzalo Marmolejo, accompanied the expedition. Before starting,
Valdivia went to the cathedral of Cusco, and swore, in presence of
Bishop Valverde, that the first church he built should be dedicated to
Our Lady of the Assumption, the patroness of Cusco, and that the first
city he founded should be named Santiago, after the patron of Spain.
Valdivia marched by way of the desert of Atacama, and at the very
outset he made an agreement with Sanchez de Hoz that the sole command
should rest with himself.
Valdivia had for a guide the friar Antonio Rondon, who had accompanied
Almagro’s expedition; and with his aid he overcame all the difficulties
of the march, and safely reached Copiapo in Chili. Advancing by Huasco
and Coquimbo, he defeated a large army of natives in the valley of
Chili or Aconcagua, and eventually selected a site for the foundation
of a new city on the banks of the river Mapocho, in the territory of
the Cacique Huelen-Guala. The foundation of the church, dedicated to
the Assumption, in accordance with the vow made at Cusco, was laid on
the 12th of February, 1541. The plan of the city was laid out, and it
received the name of Santiago. The officers of the municipality were
elected on the 7th of March, to remain in office for one year.
[Illustration: PEDRO DE VALDIVIA.
[From Herrera (1728), iv. 200.—ED.]]
It was not long before the natives of Chili took up arms to oppose
the intruders. Valdivia marched against a large body, leaving Monroy
in command at Santiago. But another force of Indians attacked the
city itself, with desperate valor, during fifteen days, killing four
Spaniards and twenty-three horses, and setting fire to the houses.
Valdivia hastily returned; and although the whole country was in
insurrection, Monroy nobly volunteered to make his way to Peru and
return with reinforcements and supplies. He set out Jan. 28, 1542.
Valdivia began to cultivate the land near Santiago, and to sow wheat,
in the hope of raising crops; and on the hill of Santa Lucia he
constructed a fort where provisions and valuables could be stored. But
the little colony continued to suffer much from scarcity of provisions.
Monroy, hiding in the woods during the day and travelling at night,
escaped from Chili and reached Cusco in safety. He succeeded in getting
a small vessel sent from the port of Arequipa to Valparaiso, while
he himself returned by the desert of Atacama, reaching Santiago in
December, 1543. Valdivia was now able to assume the offensive, and the
armed Indians retired to a distance from Santiago.
[Illustration: VALDIVIA.
[Fac-simile of a part of a copperplate, which appears in _Ovalle’s
Historica Relacion de Chile_, Rome, 1648.—ED.]]
The chief pilot of Panamá, an experienced Genoese seaman named Juan
Bautista Pastene, with Juan Calderon de la Barca, was ordered to
undertake a voyage of discovery along the coast of Chili at about the
same time. He sailed from Callao in July, 1544, and arrived at the port
of Valparaiso in August, in his little vessel the “San Pablo.”
[Illustration: PASTENE.
[Fac-simile of part of a copperplate in Ovalle’s _Hist. Rela. de
Chile_, Rome, 1648.—ED.]]
Here he was visited by Valdivia, who confirmed the name of Valparaiso
and officially declared it to be the port of Santiago. Valdivia
proclaimed the foundation of the town of Valparaiso on the 3d of
September, 1544, and appointed Pastene his lieutenant in command of the
Chilian seas. The two little vessels “San Pedro” and “Santiaguillo”
then took some men-at-arms on board, and proceeded on a voyage of
discovery to the southward on the 4th of September. Pastene went as
far as 41° south, discovering a harbor which was named Valdivia, the
mouths of several rivers, the island of Mocha and the Bay of Penco.
He returned to Valparaiso on the 30th of September, and reported his
success to the governor, who now had two hundred Spaniards at Santiago,
besides women and children. In the same year Valdivia sent a captain
named Bohan to found a town in the valley of Coquimbo, to serve as a
refuge and resting-place on the road between Santiago and Peru. It was
named La Serena, after the native place of Valdivia. The “San Pedro”
was sent to Coquimbo to be caulked and otherwise repaired.
[Illustration: PIZARRO.
[Fac-simile of engraving in Herrera, vol. ii. p. 280. De Bry (part
vi.) gives a small medallion likeness. Cf. Verne’s _La Découverte de
la Terre_. Prescott (vol. i.) gives an engraving after a painting in
the series of the line of the viceroys, preserved at that time in the
viceregal palace at Lima. It gives the conqueror in civic costume, with
cap and cloak, and a letter in one hand and a glove in the other. A
colored representation of the royal standard borne by Pizarro is given
in _El General San Martin_, Buenos Ayres, 1863. They continue to show,
or did exhibit till recently, a body claimed to be that of Pizarro, in
the cathedral at Lima. (Hutchinson’s _Two Years in Peru_, vol. i. p.
309.)—ED.]]
The governor then undertook an expedition to the south, crossed the
river Maule, defeated a large body of Indians at a place called
Quilacara, and advanced as far as the banks of the river Biobio,
returning to Santiago, after an absence of forty days, in March, 1546.
Pastene had made another voyage to Callao, taking with him the gallant
Alonso Monroy, who died on the passage. He returned to Valparaiso, with
a melancholy account of the disturbed state of Peru, Dec. 1, 1547; and
Valdivia determined, after much deliberation, to take up arms against
Gonzalo Pizarro, as a loyal servant of the Spanish Crown. He went on
board Pastene’s ship, made sail Dec. 10, 1547, and arrived at Callao,
the port of Lima. He had founded a new colony, and left it securely
established in Chili.
[Illustration: PIZARRO.
[Fac-simile of the engraving as given in Montanus and Ogilby.—ED.]]
During the seven years of Valdivia’s absence in Chili, stirring
events had occurred in the land of the Yncas. The marquis returned
to Lima, where he was busily engaged in the work of building, and in
administering the affairs of his vast command. Many of the ruined
followers of Almagro were there also, driven to desperation by the
confiscation of their property. They were called, in derision, the “men
of Chili.” Pizarro treated them with contemptuous indifference, and
expelled the young Almagro from his house.
The most conspicuous of the malcontents was Juan de Rada; and he
matured a plot for the assassination of the governor. On the 26th of
June, 1541, the conspirators, headed by Rada, ran across the great
square during the dinner hour, and entered the court of Pizarro’s
house.[1479] The marquis had just dined, and his brother Martin de
Alcantara, the judge Velasquez, Francisco de Chaves, and others were
with him. Being unarmed, several of those present, on hearing the
outcry, let themselves down into a garden from the corridor, and
escaped. Chaves went out on the stairs, where he was murdered by the
conspirators, who were running up. The marquis had thrown off his
robe, put on a cuirass, and seized a spear. He was past seventy. His
brother, a cavalier named Gomez de Luna, and two pages were with him.
The assassins numbered nineteen strong men. Pizarro fought valiantly,
until Rada thrust one of his companions on the spear and rushed in.
Alcantara, Luna, and the two pages were despatched. Pizarro continued
to defend himself until a wound in the throat brought him to the
ground. He made the sign of the cross on the floor, and kissed it.
He then breathed his last. The conspirators rushed into the street
shouting, “The tyrant is dead!” The houses of the governor and his
secretary were pillaged. Juan de Rada coerced the municipality and
proclaimed Diego Almagro, the young half-caste lad, governor of Peru.
The body of Pizarro was buried in the cathedral, by stealth, and at
night.
But the colonists did not immediately submit to the new rule. Alvarez
de Holguin, one of Pizarro’s captains, held Cusco with a small force,
and Alonzo de Alvarado opposed the conspiracy in the north of Peru.
The bishop Valverde, of Cusco, and the judge Velasquez were allowed to
embark at Callao in November, 1541; but they fell into the hands of the
Indians on the island of Puna, in the Gulf of Guayaquil, and were both
killed.
[Illustration: VACA DE CASTRO.
[From Herrera (1728), vol. iv. p. 1.—ED.]]
The followers of Almagro the lad, as he was called, determined to march
from Lima in the direction of Cusco, so as to get between Alvarado
and Holguin. At Xauxa the youthful adventurer had the misfortune to
lose his most trusty adherent. Juan de Rada died of fever. The two most
influential of his supporters who remained were Cristóval de Sotelo and
Garcia de Alvarado,—and they had quarrelled with one another. Their
delays enabled Holguin to pass to the north, and unite his forces with
Alvarado’s. Almagro then established himself at Cusco, where Sotelo was
murdered by his rival Alvarado; and the latter was put to death by the
young Almagro, who assumed the direction of his own affairs. He was
barely twenty-two years of age.
The Emperor Charles V., long before the death of Pizarro, had decided
upon sending out a royal judge to act as the old conqueror’s coadjutor
and adviser, especially with regard to the treatment of the Indians.
For this delicate post the emperor’s choice fell upon Dr. Don Cristóval
Vaca de Castro, a Judge of the Audience of Valladolid. After a long
voyage the new judge had landed at Buenaventura, a town recently
founded by Pascual de Andagoya, near that river San Juan where Pizarro
had waited in such dire distress during his first voyage. He had a
royal order to assume the post of governor of Peru in the event of
Pizarro’s death; and on arriving at Popayan he received tidings of
the assassination. He then proclaimed his commission as governor,
and advanced southwards, by way of Quito, along the Peruvian coast.
At Huara he was joined by Alvarado and Holguin with their forces.
He entered Lima, and then proceeded, by way of Xauxa, in search of
the assassins. Young Almagro had a force of five hundred Spaniards,
with two hundred horses; and he had a park of artillery consisting of
sixteen pieces under the direction of the veteran Pedro de Candia.
With this force he left Cusco in July, 1542. Vaca de Castro marched
in great haste to Guamanga, in order to secure that important post
before Almagro could reach it from Cusco. The rebels, as they must
be called, took a route along the skirts of the _cordillera_, until
they reached an elevated plateau called Chupas, above and a little to
the south of the newly built town of Guamanga. Their object appears
to have been to cut off the communications of Vaca de Castro with the
coast. In order to approach them, it was necessary for the royal army
to evacuate Guamanga, and ascend a very steep slope to the terrace-like
plateau where Almagro’s army was posted. It was the 16th of September,
1542, and the ascent from Guamanga must have occupied the greater part
of the day. The army of Vaca de Castro was marshalled by the veteran
Francisco de Carbajal, an old soldier who had seen forty years’ service
in Italy before he crossed the Atlantic. Carbajal led the troops into
action with such skill that they were protected by intervening ground
until they were close to the enemy; and when Almagro’s artillery opened
fire on them, the guns were so elevated as to do no execution. This
led young Almagro to suspect Pedro de Candia of treachery, and he
there and then ran the old gunner through the body, and pointed one of
the guns himself with good effect. The royal army now began to suffer
severely from the better-directed artillery fire. Then the opposing
bodies of cavalry charged, while Carbajal led a desperate attack with
the infantry, and captured Almagro’s guns. Holguin fell dead; Alvarado
was driven back, and young Almagro behaved with heroic valor. Yet when
night closed in, the army of Vaca de Castro was completely victorious,
and five hundred were left dead on the field. It was a desperately
contested action. Almagro fled to Cusco with a few followers, where he
was arrested by the magistrates. Vaca de Castro followed closely, and
on arriving in the city he condemned the lad to death. Almagro suffered
in the great square, and was buried by the side of his father in the
church of La Merced.
Vaca de Castro assumed the administration of affairs in Peru as royal
governor. In the same year the Dominican Friar Geronimo de Loaysa,
a native of Talavera, became bishop of Lima. He was promoted to
the rank of archbishop in 1545. Another Dominican, Juan de Solano,
succeeded Valverde as bishop of Cusco in 1543. Gonzalo Pizarro, when
he returned from his terrible expedition in the forests east of
Quito, was induced by the governor to retire peaceably to his estates
in Charcas. The efforts of Vaca de Castro as an administrator were
directed to regulating the employment of the natives, and to improving
communications.
* * * * *
When the good Bartolomé Las Casas returned to Spain, in 1538, he
published his famous work on the destruction of the native race of
America. He protested against the Indians being given to the Spaniards
in _encomienda_, or vassalage for personal service.[1480] At last the
emperor appointed a committee consisting of churchmen and lawyers of
the highest position, to sit at Valladolid in 1542, and to consider the
whole subject. The result was the promulgation of what were called the
“New Laws.”
I. After the death of the conquerors, the _repartimientos_ of Indians,
given to them in _encomienda_, were not to pass to their heirs, but
be placed directly under the king. Officers of his majesty were to
renounce the _repartimientos_ at once.
II. All _encomenderos_ in Peru who had been engaged in the factious
wars between the Pizarros and Almagros were to be deprived.
III. Personal service of the Indians was to be entirely abolished.
Blasco Nuñez Vela was appointed viceroy of Peru to enforce the “New
Laws,” assisted by a court of justice, of which he was president,
called the _Audiencia_ of Lima. There were four other judges, called
_oidores_, or auditors, named Cepeda, Zarate, Alvarez, and Tejada.
The viceroy and his colleagues embarked at San Lucar on the 3d of
November, 1543. Leaving the judges sick at Panamá, the viceroy landed
at Tumbez on the 4th of March, 1544, with great magnificence, and
proceeded by land to Lima, proclaiming the “New Laws” as he advanced.
The Spanish conquerors were thrown into a state of dismay and
exasperation. They entreated Gonzalo Pizarro to leave his retirement
and protect their interests, and when he entered Cusco he was hailed
as procurator-general of Peru. He seized the artillery at Guamanga,
and assembled a force of four hundred men, while old Francisco de
Carbajal, the hero of the battle of Chupas, became his lieutenant.
The viceroy was a headstrong, violent man, without judgment or capacity
for affairs. His first act after entering Lima was to imprison the
late governor, Vaca de Castro. The principal citizens entreated him
not to enforce the “New Laws” with imprudent haste. But he would
listen to no arguments; and when the auditors arrived from Panamá, he
quarrelled with them, and acted in defiance of their protests. At last
the auditors ventured upon the bold step of arresting the viceroy in
his palace, and placing him in confinement. He was sent to the island
of San Lorenzo, and a government was formed with the auditor Cepeda
as president, who suspended the “New Laws” until further instructions
could be received from Spain. The auditor Alvarez was commissioned to
embark on board a vessel with the viceroy, and take him to Panamá.
Meanwhile Gonzalo Pizarro was approaching Lima by rapid marches, and he
entered the capital on the 28th of October, 1544, at the head of twelve
hundred Spaniards and several thousand Indians dragging the artillery,
which had formed the special strength of young Almagro. The _Audiencia_
submitted; the judges administered the oaths, and Gonzalo was declared
governor and captain-general of Peru. At the same time Vaca de Castro
persuaded the captain of a vessel on board of which he was confined
in Callao Bay to get under way and convey him to Panamá. Accusations
were brought against him in Spain, and he was kept in prison for twelve
years, but was eventually acquitted and reinstated.
As soon as the ship conveying the viceroy to Panamá was at sea, the
judge Alvarez liberated him. He landed at Tumbez in October, 1544,
denounced Gonzalo Pizarro and the judge Cepeda as traitors, and called
upon all loyal subjects to support him. Volunteers arrived, and Blasco
Nuñez raised his standard at San Miguel de Piura. Gonzalo Pizarro
assembled a rival force at Truxillo; but the viceroy retreated before
him towards Quito, Carbajal pressing closely on his rear. The retreat
was almost a rout. Passing through Quito, the viceroy took refuge at
Pasto, within the jurisdiction of Sebastian Benalcazar, the governor of
Popayan. Early in January, 1546, having received reinforcements, Blasco
Nuñez ventured to advance once more towards Quito. Gonzalo Pizarro
took up a strong position outside; but the viceroy, now accompanied by
Benalcazar, made a detour and entered Quito. On the 18th of January,
1546, the viceroy led his followers to the plains of Anaquito, near the
town, where his enemy was posted, seven hundred strong. The battle was
not long doubtful. Alvarez the judge was mortally wounded. Benalcazar
was left for dead on the field. The viceroy was unhorsed and wounded,
and while lying on the ground his head was struck off by order of Pedro
de Puelles, Pizarro’s governor of Quito. The slaughter was terrific.
Cruel old Carbajal never showed any mercy, and no quarter was given.
Benalcazar, when he recovered, was allowed to return to Popayan; and
Gonzalo Pizarro attended as chief mourner at the funeral of the
viceroy in the cathedral of Quito.
Leaving a garrison at Quito, under Puelles, Gonzalo began his journey
southwards in July, 1546, and entered Lima in triumph. The only
resistance throughout Peru was from an officer in Charcas named Diego
Centeno, a native of Ciudad Rodrigo, who had come to Peru in 1534 with
Pedro Alvarado. He declared in favor of the viceroy at Chucuito; but
Alonzo Toro, who had been left in command at Cusco by Gonzalo Pizarro,
marched against him, and he fled into the fastnesses of Chichas, in the
far south. Pizarro was undisputed master of Peru, and his lieutenant
Carbajal retired to Charcas to work the silver mines.
[Illustration: GASCA.
[This follows the engraving given by Prescott (_History of the Conquest
of Peru_) of the portrait hanging in the sacristy of Saint Mary
Magdalene at Valladolid,—an inscription on which says that Gasca died
in 1567 at the age of seventy-one.—ED.]]
News of the revolt had reached Spain, and the licentiate Pedro de la
Gasca, an astute and very able ecclesiastic, was appointed to proceed
to Peru, and mediate between the viceroy and the malcontents. He
received very full powers, with large discretion, and was entitled
president of the _Audiencia_. He was very ugly, with a dwarfish body
and exceedingly long, ungainly legs. The president sailed from Spain on
the 26th of May, 1546, and received the news of the viceroy’s death on
his arrival at the isthmus. He brought out with him the announcement
of the revocation of the “New Laws,” owing to the dangerous spirit of
discontent they had caused throughout the Indies. They were withdrawn
by a decree dated at Malines on the 20th of October, 1545.
[Illustration: PEDRO DE LA GASCA.
[From Herrera (1728), vol. iv. p. 215.—ED.]]
The president arrived at Panamá on the 11th of August, 1546, where
he found the fleet of Gonzalo Pizarro, under the command of Pedro
de Hinojosa. Soon afterward Lorenzo de Aldana arrived as an envoy
from Pizarro, but was induced to submit to the president’s authority.
Hinojosa followed the example, and thus Gasca gained possession of the
fleet. When the offer of pardon reached Lima, Gonzalo was advised by
his lieutenant Carbajal to accept the terms; but the auditor Cepeda,
who had turned against the viceroy and administered the oaths of
office to a rebel, felt that there could be no pardon for him. The mad
ambition of Pizarro induced him to listen to Cepeda rather than to
Carbajal, and he finally rejected the offer of pardon; but many of his
old followers deserted him.
Lorenzo de Aldana was despatched from Panamá, with several vessels,
in February, 1547, and arrived in Callao Bay; while Diego Centeno
once more rose in the south, and began to collect troops. Gonzalo
Pizarro resolved to abandon Lima and march to Arequipa with only five
hundred men, so numerous had been the desertions from his ranks. Aldana
then entered the capital, while Gasca himself sailed from Panamá on
the 10th of April, 1547, landing at Tumbez on the 13th of June. He
advanced to Xauxa, and great numbers flocked to his standard. Pedro de
Valdivia, the governor of Chili, had landed at Callao, and overtook the
president, on his march towards Cusco, at Andahuaylas.
Gonzalo Pizarro, despairing of being able to make head against the
president Gasca with all the prestige of royal approval on his side,
had determined to retreat into Chili. But he feared to leave Centeno
hanging on his rear, and thought it necessary first to disperse his
forces. Centeno occupied a position near Huarina, at the southeastern
angle of Lake Titicaca, upwards of twelve thousand feet above the level
of the sea. Pizarro’s troops advanced to the attack over an open plain.
He had about four hundred and eighty men, the strength of his army
being in his infantry armed with arquebuses, and disciplined under the
direct supervision of Carbajal. Centeno had a larger force, and was
accompanied by Solano, the bishop of Cusco. Carbajal waited for the
attack of the enemy, and then poured a deadly volley into their ranks.
Centeno’s footmen broke and fled; but his cavalry defeated Pizarro,
and would have won the day, if they too had not been repelled and
broken by the admirable steadiness of Carbajal’s arquebusiers. As it
was, Pizarro’s victory was complete, and three hundred and fifty of
Centeno’s followers were killed. All fugitives taken by Carbajal were
put to death without mercy.
The doomed Pizarro now abandoned all idea of retreating into Chili. He
marched in triumph to Cusco, while the president Gasca approached by
leisurely marches, gathering reinforcements by the way. With him were
the bishops of Lima and Cusco, the marshal Alonzo de Alvarado, the
veteran Hinojosa, Pascual de Andagoya the first adventurer in search of
Peru, Valdivia the governor of Chili, Centeno, escaped from Huarina,
Cieza de Leon the future historian, and many others well known to fame.
The president’s army crossed the river Apurimac, and advanced to the
plain of Sacsahuana, near Cusco, whither Gonzalo Pizarro came out to
meet him. On the morning of the 9th of April, 1548, the commanders of
both armies made ready for battle. But soon there were symptoms of
desertion on Pizarro’s side. An important cavalier, Garcilasso de la
Vega, galloped across to the army of Gasca. He was followed by the
treacherous auditor Cepeda. Soldiers began to follow in small parties.
Old Carbajal was humming two lines of an old song,—
“Estos mis cabellicos madre,
Dos á dos me los lleva el ayre.”
Then desertions took place by companies and squadrons. Pizarro
sorrowfully took his way to the royal camp and gave himself up.
Carbajal was seized by the soldiers. He was hanged and quartered the
following day, and soon afterwards Gonzalo Pizarro was executed in
presence of the army.
The president entered Cusco on the 12th of April, and began a bloody
assize. Scarcely a day passed without followers of Gonzalo Pizarro
being hanged, flogged, or sent in large batches to the galleys. Two
priests were executed. A canon of Quito, who was tutor to Gonzalo
Pizarro’s little son, was hanged for writing a book called _De bello
justo_. At length, sated with blood, the president left Cusco on the
11th of July with Archbishop Loaysa, and went to a small village called
Huayna-rimac in the neighborhood. He retired into this seclusion to
escape the importunities of his partisans. Here he proceeded to arrange
the distribution of _encomiendas_, or grants of lands and Indians,
among his followers. He allowed a tenth of the Indians to be employed
on forced labor in the mines, thus reversing the humane legislation
advocated by Las Casas. Having completed his work, the president sent
the archbishop to announce his awards at Cusco, and they caused a howl
of rage and disappointed greed. Gasca himself went down to Lima by
the unfrequented route of Nasca, and when a positive order from the
emperor arrived, that all personal service among the Indians should
be abolished, he suspended its publication until he was safe out of
Peru. In January, 1550, the president Gasca sailed for Panamá, leaving
the country in the greatest confusion, and all the most difficult
administrative points to be solved by his successors. The municipality
of Lima wrote a complaint to the emperor, representing the untimely
departure of the president. His abilities and his services have been
much overstated. He himself is the witness to his own revolting
cruelties at Cusco.
Gasca left the government of Peru, with none of the difficulties
settled, in the hands of the auditors or judges of the royal
_Audiencia_, of which Don Andres de Cianca was president. His
colleagues were Melchor Bravo de Sarabia, Hernando de Santillan,
and Pedro Maldonado. The judges were in charge of the executive
from January, 1550, to the 23d of September, 1551, when Don Antonio
de Mendoza arrived from Mexico as viceroy. They had taken steps to
organize a systematic plan for the instruction of the natives, under
the auspices of Archbishop Loaysa, Friar Thomas de San Martin, and
the indefatigable friar Domingo de Santo Tomas, the first Quichua
scholar. They worked harmoniously under the viceroy Mendoza, who was a
statesman of high rank and great experience. He promulgated the royal
order against the enforced personal service of Indians, anticipating
serious discontents and troubles, which he was resolved to meet and
overcome. But his premature death at Lima, on the 21st of July, 1552,
left the country once more in the hands of the judges, who had to meet
a storm which would sorely test their administrative abilities.
The ringleader of the malcontents was a cavalier of good family named
Francisco Hernandez Giron. Born at Caceres, in Estremadura, he crossed
the Atlantic in 1535, and joined the unfortunate viceroy Blasco Nuñez
de Vela at Quito, fighting under his banner in the fatal battle of
Anaquito. He also did good service in the army of President Gasca, and
was in the left wing at the rout of Sacsahuana. Gasca had assigned the
plain of Sacsahuana to him, as his _repartimiento_; but he grumbled
loudly, and all the malcontents looked upon him as their leader. The
promulgation of the abolition of personal service was received with
a howl of execration among the conquerors, who looked forward to the
accumulation of wealth by the use of forced labor in the silver mines.
Troubles broke out in Charcas, and Giron resolved to raise the standard
of revolt at Cusco.
The 12th of November, 1553, was the wedding day of Don Alonzo de
Loaysa, a nephew of the archbishop, who married a young lady named
Maria de Castilla. The _corregidor_ of Cusco and most of the leading
citizens were at the supper. Suddenly Giron presented himself in
cuirass and helmet, with his sword drawn, and a crowd of conspirators
behind him. The street was occupied by a body of cavalry under his
lieutenant, Tomas Vasquez. The guests sprang from their seats,
but Giron told them not to fear, as he only wished to arrest the
_corregidor_. He and the others then put out the lights and drew
their swords. The _corregidor_ took refuge with the ladies in the
drawing-room, and shut the doors. Two guests were stabbed. Many
escaped by the windows and climbed a wall at the back of the house.
The _corregidor_ and other officials were seized and imprisoned. Giron
issued a proclamation declaring that the conquerors would not be robbed
of the fruits of their labors. He soon had a respectable force under
his command; but most of the leading citizens fled to Lima. The rebel
declared that his object was the public good, and to induce the king to
listen to the prayers of his subjects. The _Audiencia_ was called upon
to restore matters to the state they were in at the time of Gasca’s
departure. Tomas Vasquez was sent to Arequipa, and Guamanga also
declared in favor of Giron.
The governing judges were in great perplexity at Lima. After some
hesitation they put the archbishop Loaysa in command of their army,
with the judge Bravo de Saravia as his colleague. The marshal Alonzo
de Alvarado was in upper Peru, and he also got some loyal cavaliers
round him, and assembled a small force. Giron entered Guamanga Jan.
27, 1554, where he was joined by Tomas Vasquez, from Arequipa; and he
then marched down to the coast. The judges encamped at Até, outside
Lima, with five hundred arquebusiers, four hundred and fifty pikemen,
three hundred cavalry, and fourteen field-pieces. Giron arrived at
Pachacamac on the shores of the Pacific, and the judges advanced to
Surco. But instead of boldly attacking, the rebels turned their backs
and marched southwards along the coast to Yca, followed by a detachment
under an officer named Meneses. Giron turned, and defeated his pursuers
at Villacuri, in the desert between Pisco and Yca, but continued his
retreat to Nasca. He had lost a great opportunity.
[Illustration: ALONZO DE ALVARADO.
[Fac-simile of engraving in Herrera, iii. 235.—ED.]]
The royal army advanced to Chincha; but the archbishop quarrelled with
Bravo de Saravia, and where so many commanded, and none were military
men, efficient operations were impossible. Meanwhile Alvarado had
assembled an army for the judges, of seven hundred men, the rendezvous
being La Paz in upper Peru. With this force he entered Cusco on the
30th of March, 1554, and continued his march in search of Giron, who
remained at Nasca, on the coast, until the 8th of May. On that day
the rebels once more ascended the wild passes of the _cordillera_ to
Lucanas, and were soon in the neighborhood of Alvarado’s army, which
now numbered eleven hundred men. The rebels encamped at Chuquinga, in
the wildest part of the Andes, on a mountain terrace by the side of
a deep ravine, with the river Abancay in front. The marshal Alvarado
was on the other side of the ravine, and was advised not to attack,
but to harass the retreat of Giron. But on the 21st of May, under
every possible disadvantage, he ordered the river to be forded, and an
attack to be made. The river was crossed, but the men could not form
on the other side in the face of an active enemy. They fell back, and
the retreat was soon converted into a rout. Alvarado was wounded, but
contrived to escape with Lorenzo de Aldana and the learned Polo de
Ondegardo who accompanied him, leaving seventy dead on the field, and
two hundred and eighty wounded.
Giron entered Cusco in triumph. The judges, on receiving news of the
disastrous battle of Chuquinga, decided that their army should advance
to Xauxa, and eventually towards Cusco. The _Audiencia_ now consisted
of Dr. Melchor Bravo de Saravia, Hernando de Santillan, Diego Gonzalez
Altamirano, and Martin Mercado. Altamirano was to remain in charge of
the government at Lima, while the other judges marched with the army,
preceded by their officer Pablo de Meneses with the royal standard.
In July, 1554, the three judges, Saravia, Santillan, and Mercado
reached Guamanga, and in August they entered Cusco, having met with no
opposition. Giron had retreated to Pucara, near Lake Titicaca, a very
strong position consisting of a lofty rock rising out of the plain. The
royal army encamped in front of the rock, and the judges sent promises
of pardon to all who would return to their allegiance. Giron hoped that
the royal army would attack him, repeating the error at Chuquinga; but
the judges had resolved to play a waiting game. A night attack led by
Giron was repulsed. Then desertions began, Tomas Vasquez setting the
example. The unfortunate rebel could trust no one. He feared treachery.
He bade a heart-rending farewell to his noble-minded wife, Doña Mencia,
leaving her to the care of the judge Saravia. He rode away in the dead
of night, almost alone, and Pucara was surrendered. Meneses was sent in
chase of Giron, who was captured near Xauxa. He was brought to Lima,
Dec. 6, 1554, and beheaded. His head was put in an iron cage, and
nailed up by the side of those of Gonzalo Pizarro and Carbajal. Ten
years afterward a friend of his wife secretly took all three down, and
they were buried in a convent. Doña Mencia, the widow of Giron, founded
the first nunnery in Lima,—that of “La Encarnacion,”—and died there as
abbess.
Thus the judges succeeded in putting down this formidable insurrection,
and were able to hand over the country, in a state of outward
tranquillity, to the great viceroy who now came out to establish order
in Peru.
* * * * *
Don Andrea Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Cañete, was nominated by
Charles V., at Brussels, to be viceroy of Peru for six years. He came
out with the intention of checking with a firm hand the turbulence of
the military adventurers who were swarming over the country. Writing
to the emperor before he sailed, May 9, 1555, he said that there were
eight thousand Spaniards in Peru, of whom four hundred and eighty-nine
held _repartimientos_, and about one thousand were employed officially
or otherwise. A large portion desired to live in idleness. He proposed
to employ them on expeditions into unknown regions, and he submitted
that no more Spaniards ought to be allowed to come to Peru without good
cause assigned. In a letter to his daughter, the governess Juana, the
emperor approved the policy sketched out by the new viceroy.
The Marquis of Cañete landed at Payta, and travelling by land, entered
Lima on the 29th of June, 1556. He assumed office with unprecedented
state and solemnity. He was fully resolved to put down sedition once
and for all. He ordered that no Spaniard should leave his town without
permission of the authorities, and for good cause. As regards the
_Audiencia_, he reported to the emperor that the judges were hostile
to each other, and that they lived in such discord that all peace was
hopeless. He spoke favorably of two, and requested that the others
might be recalled. He also reported that the _corregidors_ maintained
quantities of idle soldiers waiting for opportunities of mischief. He
estimated the number of the idlers at three thousand, and said that
the peace of the country was endangered by the immorality, license,
and excesses of these men. The viceroy kept all the artillery in the
country under his own eye, ordering guns to be seized and brought to
him wherever they could be found; and he formed a permanent guard of
four hundred arquebusiers. He then sent for a number of settlers,
of turbulent antecedents, who came to Lima joyfully, expecting that
they were about to receive _repartimientos_. But he disarmed them,
shipped them at Callao, and sent them out of the country. Among these
banished men were included the most notorious disturbers of the peace
in the late civil wars. Altogether thirty-seven were sent to Spain.
Tomas Vasquez and Juan Piedrahita, the chief supporters of Giron, were
beheaded, and the _corregidors_ were authorized to seize and execute
any turbulent or dangerous persons within their jurisdictions. These
were very strong measures, but they were necessary. The intolerable
anarchy under which Peru had groaned for so many years was thus stamped
out. Moderate _encomiendas_ were then granted to deserving officers.
While the turbulence and cruelty of the Spanish conquerors were checked
with relentless severity, the policy of the Marquis of Cañete towards
the people and their ancient rulers was liberal and conciliatory. In
both courses of action there was wisdom. After the siege of Cusco,
the Ynca Manco, with his family and chief nobles, had taken refuge in
the mountain fastness of Vilcabamba, and there he met his death in
1553, after a disastrous reign of twenty years. He was succeeded by
his son Sayri Tupac, who continued in his secluded hiding-place. The
viceroy thought it important, for the tranquillity of the country and
the peace of mind of the Indians, that the descendant of their ancient
kings should be induced to reside among the Spaniards. The negotiation
was intrusted to the Ynca’s aunt, a princess who had married a Spanish
cavalier, and to Juan de Betanzos, an excellent Quichua scholar. It
was settled that the Ynca should receive the _encomienda_ forfeited
by Giron (the valley of Yucay near Cusco, where he was to reside),
together with a large pension. All was finally arranged, and on the
6th of January, 1558, the Ynca entered Lima, and was most cordially
received by the viceroy. From that time he resided in the valley of
Yucay, surrounded by his family and courtiers, until his death in 1560.
Several of the Spanish conquerors had married Ynca ladies of the
blood royal, and a number of half-caste youths were growing up in the
principal cities of Peru, who formed links between the Yncas and their
conquerors. There was a school at Cusco where they were educated,
and the Ynca Garcilasso de la Vega records many anecdotes of his
early days, and enumerates the names of most of his school-fellows.
The Marquis of Cañete also founded schools at Lima and Truxillo,
and took great pains to supply the Indians with parochial clergy of
good conduct, who were strictly prohibited from trading. In 1558 the
_curacas_, or native chiefs, who had proved their rights by descent
before the _Audiencia_, were allowed to exercise jurisdiction as
magistrates.
The Marquis of Cañete founded the towns of Cuenca in the province of
Quito, of Santa on the coast to the north of Lima, and of Cañete in a
rich and fertile valley to the south. He also established the hospital
of San Andres at Lima, and built the first bridge over the Rimac. Very
great activity was shown in the introduction of useful plants and
domestic animals. Vines were sent out from Spain and the Canaries, and
a harvest of grapes was reaped near Cusco in 1555. Wheat was first
reaped in the valley of Cañete by a lady named Maria de Escobar, and
olives were planted in 1560. Other fruit trees and garden vegetables
soon followed.
The king, Philip II., determined to supersede this able viceroy in
1560, appointing a young nobleman named Diego Lopez de Zuñiga y
Velasco, Conde de Nieva, in his place. But the Marquis of Cañete died
at Lima before his successor arrived, on the 30th of March, 1561,
having governed nearly five years. He was buried in the church of San
Francisco, but his bones were afterwards taken to Spain and deposited
with those of his ancestors at Cuenca. The Conde de Nieva entered Lima
on the 27th of April,—a month after the death of the marquis. He was
a handsome young cavalier, of loose morals, and fond of every sort of
pleasure. There is very little doubt that he lost his life owing to
a powerful husband’s jealousy. He was set upon in the street, after
leaving the lady’s house, in the dead of night. He was found dead on
the 20th of February, 1564, and the matter was hushed up to prevent
scandal. The judges of the _Audiencia_ took charge of the government
until the arrival of a successor.
* * * * *
During this period the Chilian colony was holding its own, with
difficulty, against the indomitable Araucanian Indians. After the rout
of Sacsahuana, the governor Valdivia took his leave of the president
Gasca, and embarked at Arica on the 21st of January, 1549, with two
hundred men. His lieutenant, Francisco de Villagra, had ruled at
Santiago in his absence, vigilantly thwarting a plot of Alonzo de
Hoz, whom he executed, and suppressing a revolt of the Indians of
Coquimbo and Copiapo. He met Valdivia on his landing at Valparaiso and
accompanied him to the capital. The first expedition of the governor,
after his return, was undertaken with a view to establishing Spanish
influence in the south of Chili. In January, 1550, with two hundred
men, he crossed the Biobio, and intrenched himself in the valley of the
Penco, where he founded the town of Concepcion, repulsing an attack
from a large army of Indians with great slaughter. In the following
year he founded the towns of Imperial and Valdivia still farther south.
[Illustration: CONCEPTION BAY.
[Fac-simile of a cut in Ovalle’s _Historica Relacion de Chile_, Rome,
1648.—ED.]]
The Araucanians now flew to arms in defence of their fatherland, at
the call of their aged chief, Colo-colo. A younger but equally brave
leader, named Caupolican, was elected _toqui_, or general, of the army;
and they began operations by attempting to destroy a Spanish fort
at Tucapel. Valdivia hurried from Concepcion, at the head of fifty
cavalry, and attacked the Araucanian host. The governor had with him
a young Indian lad of eighteen, named Lautaro, as groom. There was
great slaughter among the Araucanians, and they were beginning to give
way, when all the best feelings of Lautaro were aroused at the sight
of his countrymen in peril. On the instant he felt the glow of ardent
patriotism. He went over to the enemy, exhorted them to rally, and
led them once more to the attack. The Spanish force was annihilated,
and the governor was taken prisoner. Led before the _toqui_, young
Lautaro interceded for his master, and the generous Caupolican listened
favorably; but the savage chief Leucaton protested, and felled Valdivia
by a deadly blow with a club on the back of the head. This disaster
took place on the last day of December, 1553. Don Pedro de Valdivia was
in his fifty-sixth year, and by his conquest and settlement of Chili
he won a place in history side by side with Cortés and Pizarro. He was
childless.
Francisco de Villagra succeeded his old chief as governor of Chili, and
made preparations to repair the disaster. Lautaro became the second
leader of his countrymen, under Caupolican. Their tactics were to allow
the Spaniards to penetrate into their country as far as they pleased,
but to cut off supplies, and harass their retreat. Thus Villagra easily
marched from Arauco to Tucapel; but he was attacked by an immense
army under Lautaro, which stopped his retreat, and he suffered such
severe loss in the battle of Mariguanu that the town of Concepcion was
abandoned in November, 1555. There was hard fighting again in 1556,
in defence of the garrisons at Imperial and Valdivia. Early in the
following year Lautaro was intrenched with an army on the banks of the
Mataquito, when he was surprised at dawn by Villagra. He made a gallant
defence, but was killed; and six hundred warriors fell with him. Thus
died one of the noblest patriots of the American race.
In the same year the viceroy, Marquis of Cañete, appointed his son,
Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, a youth barely twenty-two years of age,
to be governor of Chili. His cavalry, under Luis de Toledo, marched by
land over the desert of Atacama, while the young governor embarked at
Callao, and sailed for Chili with three vessels conveying seven hundred
infantry. Among the officers was Don Alonso de Ercilla, whose epic poem
records the events of this famous war. Don Garcia landed at Coquimbo
on the 25th of April, 1557, and the cavalry arrived on the following
day. After having assumed the government at Santiago, and ungratefully
dismissed Villagra, to secure the tranquillity of his own rule, he
continued the interminable war. His first operation was to occupy the
island of Quiriquina, off Talcahuano, and to build the fort of Pinto
on the west side of the valley of the Penco. Here he was attacked by
Caupolican with a great army. There were marvellous individual acts
of bravery on both sides; Don Garcia himself was wounded, and two
thousand Araucanians were slain. The governor then crossed the river
Biobio and fought another great battle, Caupolican retreating with
heavy loss. Don Garcia disgraced his victory by hanging twelve captive
chiefs, including the heroic Galvarino.
[Illustration: GARCIA HURTADO DE MENDOZA.
[Fac-simile of a copperplate in Ovalle’s _Historica Relacion de Chile_,
Rome, 1648.—ED.]]
Penetrating far to the south, the town of Osorno was founded beyond
Valdivia, and the archipelago of Chiloe was discovered. During the
governor’s absence in the far south, the _toqui_ Caupolican was
betrayed into the hands of Alonso de Reinosa, the captain in command at
Tucapel, who put him to a horrible death by impalement.
[Illustration: PERUVIANS WORSHIPPING THE SUN.
[After the sketch in Benzoni, edition of 1572, p. 168.—ED.]]
There was now a brief interval of peace. Don Garcia had brought with
him to Chili the good licentiate Gonzalez Marmolejo, afterwards first
bishop of Santiago, who prepared rules for the humane treatment of
the peaceful natives. Only a sixth were allowed to be employed at
the mines; no one was to work who was under eighteen or over fifty;
no laborer was to be forced to work on feast days, and all were to
be paid and supplied with food. On the 5th of February, 1561, Don
Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza embarked at Valparaiso and left Chili,
being succeeded by Francisco de Villagra, the old companion in arms
of Valdivia. Villagra died in 1563, and was succeeded by Rodrigo de
Quiroga. In 1563 the bishopric of Santiago was founded, and in 1565
the royal _Audiencia_ of Chili was instituted, with Dr. Melchor Bravo
de Saravia as its first president. Its seat was fixed in the city of
Concepcion.
* * * * *
We must now return to the course of events in Peru. The scandalous
death of the viceroy Conde de Nieva seems to have induced the king to
choose his successor from among men learned in the law rather than from
the nobility, and to drop the title of viceroy. Lope Garcia de Castro
had been a judge of the _Audiencia_ of Valladolid, and afterwards a
member of the council of the Indies. He was appointed governor and
captain-general of Peru, and president of the _Audiencia_ of Lima,
where he made his public entry Sept. 22, 1564. To avoid scandal, the
belief had been encouraged that the Conde de Nieva had been murdered
in bed. But everybody knew that he had been struck to the ground by
several stout negroes with bags full of sand; that the blows had been
continued until life was extinct; and that after the murder people came
out of the house of the Zarates, and carried the body to the palace.
The culprit was Don Rodrigo Manrique de Lara, a powerful citizen of
proud lineage, who had discovered love passages between his young wife
and her near relative the viceroy. But the judges thought there would
be grave scandal if the delinquent was brought to justice, and the new
governor took the same view. The affair was hushed up.
Lope de Castro established a mint, imposed the _almojarifazgo_,
or customs dues, and organized the work at the newly-discovered
quicksilver mines of Huancavelica, and at the silver mines. In 1567
the Jesuits arrived in Peru, and in the same year the second council
of Lima was convoked by Archbishop Loaysa, the governor assisting as
representative of the king. The first council was in 1552. At the
second the decisions of the council of Trent were accepted, and the
parochial arrangements were made; while the governor proceeded with the
work of fixing the divisions of land among the Indians, and marking out
the country into _corregimientos_, or provinces, under _corregidors_.
In 1567 Castro despatched an expedition from Callao, under the command
of his nephew, Alvaro de Mendaña, who discovered the Solomon Islands.
Lope Garcia de Castro governed Peru for five years, handing over his
charge to his successor, in 1569, to return to Spain and resume his
seat at the council board of the Indies.
Don Francisco de Toledo, second son of the third Count of Oropesa, was
the king’s major-domo, and was advanced in years when he was selected
to succeed the licentiate Lope de Castro. In his case the title of
viceroy was revived, and was retained by his successors until the
independence. Landing at Payta, the viceroy Toledo travelled along
the coast, closely observing the condition both of Spaniards and
Indians; and he then made up his mind to visit every province within
his government. He made his public entrance into Lima on the 26th of
November, 1569.
Toledo was assisted by statesmen of great ability and experience, who
warmly sympathized with the aboriginal races, and were anxious for
their welfare. Chief among his advisers was the licentiate Polo de
Ondegardo, who had now been several years in Peru, had filled important
administrative posts,—especially as _corregidor_ of Charcas and of
Cusco,—and had studied the system of the government and civilization
of the Yncas with minute attention, especially as regards the tenures
of land, and always with a view to securing justice to the natives.
The licentiate Juan Matienzo was another upright and learned minister
who had studied the indigenous civilization and the requirements
of colonial policy with great care; while in affairs relating to
religion and the instruction of the people, the viceroy consulted the
accomplished Jesuit author, José de Acosta.