(1471-1541)
[Footnote 18: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
[Illustration: Francisco Pizarro. [TN]]
The old Spanish province of Estremadura, though distant from the sea,
shut in by mountain-chains, furnished numerous adventurers for the
expeditions of discovery, conquest, and plunder that followed Columbus
to the New World; two of whom achieved astonishing renown. One was the
conqueror of Mexico; the other, the conqueror of Peru.
Of the early life of Francisco Pizarro not much is known with
certainty. He was born about the year 1471; but even that date is a
matter of conjecture, so little care was had of the coming into the
world of the actor who was to play so stirring a part in it. The
family from which he inherited his name must have been one of some
note in its day. His kinsman and great rival in fame, Cortes, was a
Pizarro on his mother's side.
Francisco was the second of four brothers, all of whom were men of
ability and valor, and all of whom fought in the Peruvian wars. Their
father was Colonel Gonzalo Pizarro, concerning whom little is known,
save that he was a soldier of Spain, and that he served creditably in
Italy and Navarre.
The mother of Francisco was Francisca Gonzales, a woman of low
condition, from whom he seems to have received hardly more parental
care than from his father, by whom he was utterly neglected. The story
told by Gomara, and quoted by Prescott, that, abandoned as a
foundling, he was nursed by a sow, though as mythical as that of
Romulus and the wolf, which probably suggested it, indicates
nevertheless the degradation of his childhood. He grew up in ignorance
and vagabondage. Of what the world calls education he had not the
first rudiments; to the day of his death he could neither read nor
write. The only occupation in which we hear of his being engaged in
his boyhood, was that of a swineherd.
At what age he escaped from this mean employment is not known. The
claim set up for him by his descendants, that he served with his
father in Italy, hardly deserves consideration. He was about
twenty-one years old when all Spain began to ring with the discoveries
of Columbus and his companions beyond the western seas. Pizarro left
his employer and his pigs, ran away to Seville, and embarked in one of
the early expeditions that sailed from that port to the New World.
Of his years of apprenticeship in the stern warfare of the times we
have no trustworthy details, until at Hispaniola, in 1510, he joined,
as second in command, Ojeda's disastrous expedition to Uraba, on the
main coast. Sanguinary fights with swarms of savages armed with
poisoned arrows, marked the fortunes of the adventurers. And when
Ojeda returned to the islands for assistance, which he did not bring,
Pizarro remained in command of the starving colony, amid hardships and
horrors from which only his resolute daring brought off a remnant
alive.
He was with Balboa in his famous march across the mountains to the
Pacific, which no European eyes had hitherto beheld; and shared with
him the joy of that discovery, which Keats wrongly ascribes to Cortes,
when the hardy band, first beholding the unknown ocean outspread
before them--
"Looked at each other with a wild surmise,
Silent, upon a peak in Darien."
He remained with Balboa on the isthmus until the death of that valiant
commander, when he united his fortunes with those of the governor,
Pedrarias, and headed various expeditions along the Pacific coast and
to the islands beyond, in quest of pearls and gold. He was occupied in
this way, or in cultivating with the aid of Indian slaves a malarious
tract of land he had acquired near Panama, when a new career invited
him.
Rumors of a rich empire far to the south, where gold was as common
with the natives as iron was with the Spaniards, had long inflamed the
imaginations of the colonists; then news came of the prodigious
exploits of Cortes in Mexico. Pizarro burned to emulate his kinsman.
Having formed a partnership with Diego de Almagro, a soldier of
experience, and Hernando de Luque, a priest supplied with worldly
means, he secured an old vessel that had been designed by Balboa for a
similar expedition, refitted it with Luque's money, and with a hundred
adventurers sailed from the port of Panama in November, 1524; leaving
Almagro to follow in a smaller vessel.
Pizarro was then more than fifty years old, but still in possession of
all his masterful qualities. And he had need of all, amid the perils
of sea and land, the tempests, swamps, battles, sickness, and famine,
which rendered his first voyage down the coast a deplorable failure.
Almagro met with no better success. Both returned to the isthmus
buffeted, baffled, humiliated, but too stout of heart to be cast down.
They brought back but little gold, but with that little they had
gathered evidence of the indubitable existence of the opulent empire
they sought.
The governor was hugely dissatisfied with the results of the
expedition, of which he had expected to share some of the profits; and
his consent to another could hardly have been obtained, but for the
persuasive eloquence of the priest, backed by the offer of a sum in
ready cash. For a thousand pesos de oro Pedrarias gave his consent,
and signed away his right to the spoils of an empire.
A new contract was entered into by the three partners, and an
elaborate and solemn document was drawn up, in sonorous Spanish, which
is curious reading at this day. Father Luque signed it with his own
hand, and the two soldiers by the hands of witnesses, since neither
Pizarro nor Almagro could write his name. About one hundred and sixty
men were enlisted, and again the two chiefs set sail from Panama in
separate ships.
They made their first landing at the mouth of the Rio San Juan, where
by the plunder of a small village, they secured some ornaments of gold
and a few prisoners. Almagro hastened to carry the treasure back to
Panama, as a bait to other followers, while Pizarro and his pilot Ruiz
remained to explore the interior and the coast. Ruiz sailed as far
south as the equator, and after a memorable voyage of some weeks,
returned to his chief with a cheering report. He had fallen in with
what seemed at first a ship at sea, where no European ship had ever
been, and found it to be an Indian _balsa_, a huge raft across which
was stretched a sail of cotton-cloth. It had a rudder and a keel. On
board were men and women clad in a curious sort of woollen stuff,
skilfully woven, and beautifully dyed and embroidered. They were
making a voyage of traffic along the coast. They wore ornaments of
gold, and had with them, besides vessels and mirrors of burnished
silver, balances for weighing the precious metals, which by signs they
assured Ruiz were common in their country.
Pizarro in the meanwhile vainly endeavored to pass the yawning gorges,
bottomless swamps, and dense dark forests that lay between him and the
snow-covered peaks of the Cordilleras. Entangled vines and trees of a
luxuriant tropical vegetation, huge boas coiling in the branches,
ready to spring upon their prey, screaming parrots, chattering and
grimacing monkeys, mosquitoes, alligators, prowling savages,--amid
such scenes as these he and his band had once more confronted famine
and death in the absence of Almagro and Ruiz.
Ruiz came opportunely with his good news, and Almagro returned with
eighty recruits. The expedition re-embarked and proceeded southward.
The aspect of the coast became more inviting as they advanced. There
were signs of an extensive civilization; fields cultivated with maize,
cacao, and potatoes; many villages; and at length a town of more than
two thousand houses, laid out with streets, and thronging with
inhabitants. Among the Spaniards wild enthusiasm prevailed. But it was
quickly checked by the hostile demonstrations with which they were
met, when they attempted to gain a foothold on the soil of the Incas.
It was useless to make front against such numbers as opposed them.
Divided counsels and a violent quarrel between the two captains
ensued, and the expedition sailed back northward. Once more Almagro
returned to Panama for more men, while Pizarro and his followers
remained to starve on the barren isle of Gallo.
[Illustration: Pizarro exhorting his band at Gallo.]
Instead of permitting any more of his people to depart on what seemed
so foolhardy and fatal a business, Rios, the new governor of Panama,
despatched to the island two vessels, under a commander named Tafur,
with orders to bring away every Spaniard left alive there. Then
occurred the famous episode that decided so dramatically the
fortunes of Pizarro and the fate of Peru. Tafur had brought supplies
of provisions to the famished and emaciated, but now jubilant
soldiers; and all except Pizarro appeared eager to abandon their
barren adventure and return in the ships. Pizarro alone refused
obedience to the governor's agent. Drawing a line on the sand with his
sword, he cried: "Comrades! on that side lie hunger and hardship; on
this side, ease and safety. There lies Peru with its riches; here,
Panama and poverty. Choose, every man for himself, like brave
Castilians. For me, I go to the south."
He stepped across the line. There was a minute of dismay and silence.
Then Ruiz followed, and after him twelve others went over, an act of
as desperate and resolute courage as ever inspired a forlorn band.
They saw the ships containing their comrades sail away without them;
Ruiz also returned, pledged to bring assistance to his companions left
behind; while Pizarro remained with his twelve Spaniards, and three or
four Indian captives whom he had made friends, on the desolate island.
Not even a ship was left them, and they had to build a raft to convey
them to a less inhospitable island, that of Gorgona, farther north.
There they lived seven months, subsisting on small game brought down
by their cross-bows, and shell-fish found on the shores, until Ruiz,
after weary delays, returned in a small vessel, bringing supplies, but
not the expected reinforcement of troops.
In this frail craft the dauntless rovers put to sea. Pizarro pursued
his explorations southward, beyond the point where he afterward
founded Truxillo, named after his native town; visited several
Peruvian ports, and learned much of the country he proposed to
subjugate. He then returned to Panama, which he reached after an
absence of eighteen months. The reappearance of the little group of
wanderers bringing news of their discoveries, was the cause of great
astonishment in the colony, and of joyful enthusiasm among their
friends, who had long given them up for dead.
The governor, however, resenting Pizarro's disobedience of his orders
at the isle of Gallo, refused to sanction another expedition; and
Pizarro resolved upon the bold course of returning to Spain and
appealing to the Crown. This was in the spring of 1528.
Arriving at Seville, he was immediately thrown into prison for a debt
incurred at Darien. But he was released by order of the emperor,
Charles V., who received him graciously at Toledo, heard the wondrous
story of his wanderings, which Pizarro knew how to tell, and saw the
vessels of gold and silver, the fine fabrics, the llamas, and other
evidences of the Peruvian civilization, which were displayed before
his royal eyes. He was also, no doubt influenced by the recent
achievements of Cortes, who was then at court, and who perhaps spoke
for his kinsman a friendly word.
The monarch turned over Pizarro and his enterprise, with his
recommendation, to the Council of the Indies. Yet a year passed, and
nothing was done. Pizarro was fast sinking into obscurity, and he
would likewise have sunk into despair, if he had been less stout of
heart. Then, as Queen Isabella had aided Columbus, so the queen of
Charles V. came to the assistance of Pizarro, and caused to be
executed the extraordinary instrument which bestowed on him, with the
rights of discovery and conquest, the titles of Governor and
Captain-General of New Castile, as Peru was then called, and a salary
of 725,000 maravedis, to be drawn however from the conquered country.
Almagro and Luque were also provided for, but in a more modest way,
which proved the beginning of a long, bitter, and deadly feud between
Almagro and his chief. Nor did the instrument fail to make the usual
provision for the conversion to Christianity of the nations to be
subjugated and plundered.
In mustering his recruits Pizarro had the satisfaction of revisiting
his native town of Truxillo, where he had lived in degradation, and to
which he now returned a renowned discoverer and soldier, and a titled
magnate. There he found his three brothers, the Pizarros, all poor and
proud and eager for adventure; and a fourth brother, on his mother's
side. With these and other followers, hardly exceeding one hundred, he
sailed from Seville, in January, 1530; and a year later, namely, in
January, 1531, after a solemn consecration of his enterprise in the
cathedral of Panama, he put forth from that port with one hundred and
eighty men and twenty-seven horses, on his fourth, last, and finally
successful expedition, to overthrow a populous empire.
That empire lay in the bosom and on both sides of the mighty ranges of
the Andes, occupying thirty-seven degrees of the coast south of the
equator, and extending eastward far over the valleys of the Amazon and
its numerous tributaries. It was under the rule of the Incas, a
parental despotism, which spread an iron network of laws over millions
of subjects of different races and languages. Its mountain slopes,
table-lands, sea-coasts, and plains comprised every variety of climate
and almost every diversity of physical features. Its capital was
Cuzco, where dwelt the adored Incas; there also was the famous Temple
of the Sun, with its gorgeous decorations of gold and gems. Canals,
aqueducts, complete systems of irrigation for the rainless regions;
magnificent mountain roads, built to endure for centuries; fine
textile fabrics, utensils of clay and copper, vessels and ornaments of
silver and gold; bridges, fortresses, and edifices of a rude but massy
and symmetrical architecture, well adapted to the climate and the
needs of the inhabitants; armies, magistrates, courts of
justice,--such were some of the tokens of a wide semi-civilized
prosperity, which less than two hundred Spanish adventurers were
proceeding ruthlessly to destroy.
With incredible difficulties still to overcome, Pizarro had in his
favor a circumstance of immense importance. The country was at that
time distracted by civil war. Two brothers, Huascar and Atahualpa,
sons of the last Inca, were engaged in a fratricidal strife for the
imperial power, and their armies were turned against each other.
Pizarro resolved to strike his first blow at Tumbez; but was
constrained by baffling winds to put into the Bay St. Matthew. There
he landed his force, and soon fell upon a peaceful village, putting
the inhabitants to flight and pillaging their dwellings. A
considerable treasure thus obtained was sent back to Panama, where it
had the desired effect of rallying new recruits for the conquest. A
most welcome reinforcement was headed by Hernando de Soto, afterwards
famed as the discoverer of the Mississippi, who sailed to join Pizarro
with one hundred men and a number of horses.
De Soto arrived in time to aid in extricating him from a harassing
situation on the island of Puna. Pizarro had been so indiscreet as to
get into a quarrel with the inhabitants, whom he had defeated in
battle and slaughtered in large numbers, and from whose incessant
attacks he was suffering great annoyance.
He now felt himself strong enough to invade the interior. The story of
that invasion is one of the most astonishing in history. It has been
many times told, but nowhere else so effectively as in the full,
flowing, and lucid narrative of Prescott. It can be but briefly
sketched here.
Having established near the sea-coast a settlement which he named San
Miguel, to serve as a key of communication between him and his ships,
Pizarro set out boldly on his march, having with him but one hundred
and seventy-seven men, nine of whom showing signs of sinking courage,
were soon sent back to the settlement. By pretences of a friendly
mission to their Inca, he won his way among such of the surprised
inhabitants as were not frightened from their villages by his
approach; and penetrated the wild defiles of the Cordilleras, behind
which, near Caxamalca--now Caxamarca--the Inca Atahualpa, with an
immense army lay encamped. He was fresh from a great and decisive
victory over his elder brother, and was resting, and enjoying the warm
baths near the city,--the "baths of the Incas," as they are called to
this day.
Instead of disputing the passage of the strangers in the mountain
fortresses, and hurling destruction upon them from a thousand crags,
the monarch sent to exchange gifts with them, and assurances of
friendship; and awaited them in his camp, the pavilions of which
whitened the wide hillsides for miles.
On a dull afternoon in November, 1532, Pizarro entered Caxamalca, and
undismayed by the innumerable host that confronted him, went to pay a
visit of courtesy to the Inca. He was gloomily received by Atahualpa,
who chanced to be observing a fast, but who promised to return his
visit on the following day.
Pizarro felt that a crisis in his audacious business was close at
hand; and endured the deepest anxiety until late the next afternoon,
that of November 16th, when, after long delays and apparent waverings
on the part of the Inca, which severely tried the patience of the
Spaniards lying in wait with their heavy armor on, he at length
appeared, borne in a gorgeous palanquin, and accompanied by an immense
and magnificent procession.
With ferocious satisfaction Pizarro beheld his august victim advancing
to his doom. The procession entered the grand plaza of Caxamalca, on
three sides of which, under cover of low buildings opening into it,
spearmen and horsemen stood to their arms. Not a Spaniard was to be
seen, until a priest with interpreters advanced to meet the monarch,
and to confuse him with an astonishing harangue concerning the true
faith and the supremacy of Spain. Pizarro saw that his opportunity
had come. He waved his scarf; from the fortress sounded a signal-gun;
and with fierce battle-cries the Spaniards rushed from all sides upon
the Peruvians.
The shouts, the blaze and smoke of fire-arms, the terrible
detonations, the sight of plunging horses and their riders, with the
sudden fury of the onset, paralyzed with terror the multitude of
unarmed attendants, who fell the victims of a horrible massacre. The
Inca was seized and borne off a captive. And yet the pursuit and
slaughter did not cease until thousands of the panic-stricken and
defenceless Peruvians had been slain, and more prisoners had been
taken than were required to provide every Spaniard with a retinue of
servants.
Pizarro treated his captive with the consideration due to a great but
fallen potentate; he granted him ample apartments, and the society of
his favorite wives and nobles. He at the same time endeavored to save
his soul, by enforcing upon his mind the truths of the Catholic faith.
Atahualpa accepted with dignity the fortunes of war; and as a ransom
offered to fill a large room in which he one day was, with vessels of
gold, as high as he could reach. Pizarro agreed to the proposal, and
by the Inca's orders messengers were despatched to Cuzco and other
important cities of the empire, for the required booty.
This arrangement reached the ears of Huascar, then a prisoner in the
hands of his younger brother's adherents; he thereupon sent word to
the Spaniards that he would pay a much larger reward if they would
espouse his cause and set him free. Unfortunately for both him and
Pizarro, the offer reached the ears of Atahualpa, who secretly caused
Huascar to be put to death.
The golden treasure soon began to come in, borne on the backs of
Indians,--goblets, vases, salvers, massy plates and tiles from the
walls of palaces and temples, and images of plants and animals. Some
of these objects weighed individually several pounds; and the art
displayed in their manufacture was often admirable. But they were all
ruthlessly melted down into ingots, to be divided among the
conquerors. Gold to the value of more than seventeen million dollars,
measured by our modern standard, was thus secured, besides a vast
amount of silver. Certainly no prince in all the world's history had
ever paid such a ransom.
The treasure was a long while coming in; and Pizarro had ample time to
consider how he should keep his part of the contract. He could never
have had any intention of giving the Inca his liberty; nor was he deep
enough in his craft to perceive the immense advantage he might gain by
holding him a captive. He resolved upon his death. The unhappy prince
was tried by a military court of his enemies, charged with the
usurpation of the empire, with the murder of his brother, and with
attempts to incite an insurrection against the Spaniards. He was
condemned, received as a convert to the Catholic faith, baptized, and
executed. This event occurred August 29, 1533.
Meanwhile Almagro had arrived with a much-needed reinforcement; and
adventurers of all sorts, from Spain and her western colonies, soon
began to flock to the newly opened land of gold. Pizarro marched upon
Cuzco, which he took after a fierce battle, and pillaged of what gold
had not been already removed for Atahualpa's ransom. He caused Manco
Capae, a young prince of the royal blood, to be proclaimed Inca; drove
him by his oppressions to revolt; and was besieged by him in Cuzco.
The Peruvians assaulted the city in countless numbers, set fire to the
houses with flaming arrows and red-hot stones, and might have starved
or destroyed the Spaniards, had not they themselves been forced by
starvation to raise the siege.
In June, 1538, the old feud between Pizarro and Almagro culminated in
a battle between their two factions, and Almagro was defeated and
killed. Pizarro now ruled the country with red-handed despotism. The
benignant laws of the Incas were replaced by the rapine of the
conquerors. Not only gold and silver, but the land itself and its
former peaceful occupants, were apportioned among them; and slavery
and concubinage prevailed in their most revolting forms. The rumors of
these wrongs reached Spain, and a commissioner was sent out to inquire
into them; but before his arrival Pizarro died by violence in his own
Ciudad de los Reyes, "City of the Kings,"--now Lima,--which he had
founded in 1535.
His death was worthy of his life. Attacked in his own house by the
avengers of Almagro, he fought furiously, and cut down three of his
assailants; but fell, overcome by numbers, and pierced by as many
blades as met in the body of Caesar. His last word was "Jesu!" and his
last act, to stoop and kiss the symbol of a cross which he traced with
his finger on the bloody floor.
Thus lived and died one of the most extraordinary men of his time,
indeed of all times. It is hard to sum up briefly the good and evil of
such a character. He was said to be of a pleasing and dignified
presence, simple and self-reliant. We know that he was possessed of
indomitable courage, endurance, and persistency of purpose;
avaricious, perfidious, devout; and conspicuous for his cruelty even
in a cruel age. Greedy as he was of gold, he spent little of it upon
himself, and seemed to desire it chiefly for the power and honor it
would command. He founded settlements and cities, and was lavish in
his expenditures upon public works; no doubt ambitious of building up
a new empire on the ruins of the one he had destroyed. But he
exhibited none of the great qualities of a born ruler and lawgiver; in
the coarseness of his moral nature, a swineherd to the last. He never
married, but by a daughter of Atahualpa he had a daughter, who
survived him. In his native town of Truxillo her descendants are still
to be found, with the mingled blood of the conqueror and of the last
of the Incas in their veins.
[Signature of the author.]