First Civil War--Almagro Retreats To Cuzco--Battle Of Las Salinas--
Cruelty Of The Conquerors--Trial And Execution Of Almagro-
His Character
1537--1538
Scarcely had Almagro's officers left the governor's quarters, when the
latter, calling his little army together, briefly recapitulated the many
wrongs which had been done him by his rival, the seizure of his capital,
the imprisonment of his brothers, the assault and defeat of his troops; and
he concluded with the declaration,--heartily echoed back by his military
audience,--that the time had now come for revenge. All the while that
the negotiations were pending, Pizarro had been busily occupied with
military preparations. He had mustered a force considerably larger than
that of his rival, drawn from various quarters, but most of them familiar
with service. He now declared, that, as he was too old to take charge of
the campaign himself, he should devolve that duty on his brothers; and
he released Hernando from all his engagements to Almagro, as a
measure justified by necessity. That cavalier, with graceful pertinacity,
intimated his design to abide by the pledges he had given, but, at length,
yielded a reluctant assent to the commands of his brother, as to a
measure imperatively demanded by his duty to the Crown.1
The governor's next step was to advise Almagro that the treaty was at an
end. At the same time, he warned him to relinquish his pretensions to
Cuzco, and withdraw into his own territory, or the responsibility of the
consequences would lie on his own head.
Reposing in his false security, Almagro was now fully awakened to the
consciousness of the error he had committed; and the warning voice of
his lieutenant may have risen to his recollection. The first part of the
prediction was fulfilled. And what should prevent the latter from being
so? To add to his distress, he was laboring at this time under a grievous
malady, the result of early excesses, which shattered his constitution, and
made him incapable alike of mental and bodily exertion.2
In this forlorn condition, he confided the management of his affairs to
Orgonez, on whose loyalty and courage he knew he might implicitly rely.
The first step was to secure the passes of the Guaitara, a chain of hills
that hemmed in the valley of Zangalla, where Almagro was at present
established. But, by some miscalculation, the passes were not secured in
season; and the active enemy, threading the dangerous defiles, effected a
passage across the sierra, where a much inferior force to his own might
have taken him at advantage. The fortunes of Almagro were on the
wane.
His thoughts were now turned towards Cuzco, and he was anxious to get
possession of this capital before the arrival of the enemy. Too feeble to
sit on horseback, he was obliged to be carried in a litter; and, when he
reached the ancient town of Bilcas, not far from Guamanga, his
indisposition was so severe that he was compelled to halt and remain
there three weeks before resuming his march.
The governor and his brothers, in the mean time, after traversing the pass
of Guaitara, descended into the valley of Ica, where Pizarro remained a
considerable while, to get his troops in order and complete his
preparations for the campaign. Then, taking leave of the army, he
returned to Lima, committing the prosecution of the war, as he had
before announced, to his younger and more active brothers. Hernando,
soon after quitting Ica, kept along the coast as far as Nasca, proposing to
penetrate the country by a circuitous route in order to elude the enemy,
who might have greatly embarrassed him in some of the passes of the
Cordilleras. But unhappily for him, this plan of operations, which would
have given him such manifest advantage, was not adopted by Almagro;
and his adversary, without any other impediment than that arising from
the natural difficulties of the march, arrived, in the latter part of April,
1538, in the neighborhood of Cuzco.
But Almagro was already in possession of that capital, which he had
reached ten days before. A council of war was held by him respecting
the course to be pursued. Some were for making good the defence of the
city. Almagro would have tried what could be done by negotiation. But
Orgonez bluntly replied,--"It is too late; you have liberated Hernando
Pizarro, and nothing remains but to fight him." The opinion of Orgonez
finally prevailed, to march out and give the enemy battle on the plains.
The marshal, still disabled by illness from taking the command, devolved
it on his trusty lieutenant, who, mustering his forces, left the city, and
took up a position at Las Salinas, less than a league distant from Cuzco.
The place received its name from certain pits or vats in the ground, used
for the preparation of salt, that was obtained from a natural spring in the
neighborhood. It was an injudicious choice of ground, since its broken
character was most unfavorable to the free action of cavalry, in which the
strength of Almagro's force consisted. But, although repeatedly urged by
the officers to advance into the open country, Orgonez persisted in his
position, as the most favorable for defence, since the front was protected
by a marsh, and by a little stream that flowed over the plain. His forces
amounted in all to about five hundred, more than half of them horse. His
infantry was deficient in firearms, the place of which was supplied by the
long pike. He had also six small cannon, or falconets, as they were
called, which, with his cavalry, formed into two equal divisions, he
disposed on the flanks of his infantry. Thus prepared, he calmly awaited
the approach of the enemy.
It was not long before the bright arms and banners of the Spaniards
under Hernando Pizarro were seen emerging from the mountain passes,
The troops came forward in good order, and like men whose steady step
showed that they had been spared in the march, and were now fresh for
action. They advanced slowly across the plain, and halted on the
opposite border of the little stream which covered the front of Orgonez.
Here Hernando, as the sun had set, took up his quarters for the night,
proposing to defer the engagement till daylight.3
The rumors of the approaching battle had spread far and wide over the
country; and the mountains and rocky heights around were thronged with
multitudes of natives, eager to feast their eyes on a spectacle, where,
whichever side were victorious, the defeat would fall on their enemies.4
The Castilian women and children, too, with still deeper anxiety, had
thronged out from Cuzco to witness the deadly strife in which brethren
and kindred were to contend for mastery.5 The whole number of the
combatants was insignificant; though not as compared with those usually
engaged in these American wars. It is not, however, the number of the
players, but the magnitude of the stake, that gives importance and
interest to the game; and in this bloody game, they were to play for the
possession of an empire.
The night passed away in silence, unbroken by the vast assembly which
covered the surrounding hill-tops. Nor did the soldiers of the hostile
camps, although keeping watch within hearing of one another, and with
the same blood flowing in their veins, attempt any communication. So
deadly was the hate in their bosoms! 6
The sun rose bright, as usual in this beautiful climate, on Saturday, the
twenty-sixth day of April, 1538.7 But long before his beams were on the
plain, the trumpet of Hernando Pizarro had called his men to arms. His
forces amounted in all to about seven hundred. They were drawn from
various quarters, the veterans of Pizarro, the followers of Alonso de
Alvarado,--many of whom, since their defeat, had found their way back
to Lima,--and the late reinforcement from the isles, most of them
seasoned by many a toilsome march in the Indian campaigns, and many a
hard-fought field. His mounted troops were inferior to those of
Almagro; but this was more than compensated by the strength of his
infantry, comprehending a well-trained corps of arquebusiers, sent from
St. Domingo, whose weapons were of the improved construction
recently introduced from Flanders. They were of a large calibre, and
threw double-headed shot, consisting of bullets linked together by an
iron chain. It was doubtless a clumsy weapon compared with modern
firearms, but, in hands accustomed to wield it, proved a destructive
instrument.8
Hernando Pizarro drew up his men in the same order of battle as that
presented by the enemy,--throwing his infantry into the centre, and
disposing his horse on the flanks; one corps of which he placed under
command of Alonso de Alvarado, and took charge of the other himself.
The infantry was headed by his brother Gonzalo, supported by Pedro de
Valdivia, the future hero of Arauco, whose disastrous story forms the
burden of romance as well as of chronicle.9
Mass was said, as if the Spaniards were about to fight what they deemed
the good fight of the faith, instead of imbruing their hands in the blood of
their countrymen. Hernando Pizarro then made a brief address to his
soldiers. He touched on the personal injuries he and his family had
received from Almagro; reminded his brother's veterans that Cuzco had
been wrested from their possession; called up the glow of shame on the
brows of Alvarado's men as he talked of the rout of Abancay, and,
pointing out the Inca metropolis that sparkled in the morning sunshine,
he told them that there was the prize of the victor. They answered his
appeal with acclamations; and the signal being given, Gonzalo Pizarro,
heading his battalion of infantry, led it straight across the river. The
water was neither broad nor deep, and the soldiers found no difficulty in
gaining a landing, as the enemy's horse was prevented by the marshy
ground from approaching the borders. But, as they worked their way
across the morass, the heavy guns of Orgonez played with effect on the
leading files, and threw them into disorder. Gonzalo and Valdivia threw
themselves into the midst of their followers, menacing some,
encouraging others, and at length led them gallantly forward to the firm
ground. Here the arquebusiers, detaching themselves from the rest of the
infantry, gained a small eminence, whence, in their turn, they opened a
galling fire on Orgonez, scattering his array of spearmen, and sorely
annoying the cavalry on the flanks.
Meanwhile, Hernando, forming his two squadrons of horse into one
column, crossed under cover of this well-sustained fire, and, reaching the
firm ground, rode at once against the enemy. Orgonez, whose infantry
was already much crippled, advancing his horse, formed the two
squadrons into one body, like his antagonist, and spurred at full gallop
against the assailants. The shock was terrible; and it was hailed by the
swarms of Indian spectators on the surrounding heights with a fiendish
yell of triumph, that rose far above the din of battle, till it was lost in
distant echoes among the mountains.10
The struggle was desperate. For it was not that of the white man against
the defenceless Indian, but of Spaniard against Spaniard; both parties
cheering on their comrades with their battlecries of "El Rey y Almagro,"
or "El Rey y Pizarro,"--while they fought with a hate, to which national
antipathy was as nothing; a hate strong in proportion to the strength of
the ties that had been rent asunder.
In this bloody field well did Orgonez do his duty, fighting like one to
whom battle was the natural element. Singling out a cavalier, whom,
from the color of the sobre-vest on his armour, he erroneously supposed
to be Hernando Pizarro, he charged him in full career, and overthrew
him with his lance. Another he ran through in like manner, and a third
he struck down with his sword as he was prematurely shouting
"Victory!" But while thus doing the deeds of a paladin of romance, he
was hit by a chain-shot from an arquebuse, which, penetrating the bars of
his visor, grazed his forehead, and deprived him for a moment of reason.
Before he had fully recovered, his horse was killed under him, and
though the fallen cavalier succeeded in extricating himself from the
stirrups, he was surrounded, and soon overpowered by numbers. Still
refusing to deliver up his sword, he asked "if there was no knight to
whom he could surrender." One Fuentes, a menial of Pizarro, presenting
himself as such, Orgonez gave his sword into his hands,--and the dastard,
drawing his dagger, stabbed his defenceless prisoner to the heart! His
head, then struck off, was stuck on a pike, and displayed, a bloody
trophy, in the great square of Cuzco, as the head of a traitor.11 Thus
perished as loyal a cavalier, as decided in council, and as bold in action,
as ever crossed to the shores of America.
The fight had now lasted more than an hour, and the fortune of the day
was turning against the followers of Almagro. Orgonez being down,
their confusion increased. The infantry, unable to endure the fire of the
arquebusiers, scattered and took refuge behind the stone-walls, that here
and there straggled across the country. Pedro de Lerma, vainly striving
to rally the cavalry, spurred his horse against Hernando Pizarro, with
whom he had a personal feud. Pizarro did not shrink from the encounter.
The lances of both the knights took effect. That of Hernando penetrated
the thigh of his opponent, while Lerma's weapon, glancing by his
adversary's saddle-bow, struck him with such force above the groin, that
it pierced the joints of his mail, slightly wounding the cavalier, and
forcing his horse back on his haunches. But the press of the fight soon
parted the combatants, and, in the turmoil that ensued, Lerma was
unhorsed, and left on the field covered with wounds.12
There was no longer order, and scarcely resistance, among the followers
of Almagro. They fled, making the best of their way to Cuzco, and
happy was the man who obtained quarter when he asked it. Almagro
himself, too feeble to sit so long on his horse, reclined on a litter, and
from a neighboring eminence surveyed the battle, watching its
fluctuations with all the interest of one who felt that honor, fortune, life
itself, hung on the issue. With agony not to be described, he had seen
his faithful followers, after their hard struggle, borne down by their
opponents, till, convinced that all was lost, he succeeded in mounting a
mule, and rode off for a temporary refuge to the fortress of Cuzco.
Thither he was speedily followed, taken, and brought in triumph to the
capital, where, ill as he was, he was thrown into irons, and confined in
the same apartment of the stone building in which he had imprisoned the
Pizarros.
The action lasted not quite two hours. The number of killed, variously
stated, was probably not less than a hundred and fifty,--one of the
combatants calls it two hundred,13--a great number, considering the
shortness of the time, and the small amount of forces engaged. No
account is given of the wounded. Wounds were the portion of the
cavalier. Pedro de Lerma is said to have received seventeen, and yet was
taken alive from the field! The loss fell chiefly on the followers of
Almagro. But the slaughter was not confined to the heat of the action.
Such was the deadly animosity of the parties, that several were murdered
in cold blood, like Orgonez, after they had surrendered. Pedro de Lerma
himself, while lying on his sick couch in the quarters of a friend in
Cuzco, was visited by a soldier, named Samaniego, whom he had once
struck for an act of disobedience. This person entered the solitary
chamber of the wounded man took his place by his bed-side, and then,
upbraiding him for the insult, told him that he had come to wash it away
in his blood! Lerma in vain assured him, that, when restored to health,
he would give him the satisfaction he desired. The miscreant, exclaimed
"Now is the hour!" plunged his sword into his bosom. He lived several
years to vaunt this atrocious exploit, which he proclaimed as a reparation
to his honor. It is some satisfaction to know that the insolence of this
vaunt cost him his life.14 --Such anecdotes, revolting as they are,
illustrate not merely the spirit of the times, but that peculiarly ferocious
spirit which is engendered by civil wars,--the most unforgiving in their
character of any, but wars of religion.
In the hurry of the flight of one party, and the pursuit by the other, all
pouring towards Cuzco, the field of battle had been deserted. But it soon
swarmed with plunderers, as the Indians, descending like vultures from
the mountains, took possession of the bloody ground, and, despoiling the
dead, even to the minutest article of dress, left their corpses naked on the
plain.15 It has been thought strange that the natives should not have
availed themselves of their superior numbers to fall on the victors after
they had been exhausted by the battle. But the scattered bodies of the
Peruvians were without a leader; they were broken in spirits, moreover,
by recent reverses, and the Castilians, although weakened for the
moment by the struggle, were in far greater strength in Cuzco than they
had ever been before.
Indeed, the number of troops now assembled within its walls, amounting
to full thirteen hundred, composed, as they were, of the most discordant
materials, gave great uneasiness to Hernando Pizarro. For there were
enemies glaring on each other and on him with deadly though smothered
rancor, and friends, if not so dangerous, not the less troublesome from
their craving and unreasonable demands. He had given the capital up to
pillage, and his followers found good booty in the quarters of Almagro's
officers. But this did not suffice the more ambitious cavaliers; and they
clamorously urged their services, and demanded to be placed in charge
of some expedition, nothing doubting that it must prove a golden one.
All were in quest of an El Dorado. Hernando Pizarro acquiesced as far
as possible in these desires, most willing to relieve himself of such
importunate creditors. The expeditions, it is true, usually ended in
disaster; but the country was explored by them. It was the lottery of
adventure; the prizes were few, but they were splendid; and in the
excitement of the game, few Spaniards paused to calculate the chances of
success.
Among those who left the capital was Diego, the son of Almagro.
Hernando was mindful to send him, with a careful escort, to his brother
the governor, desirous to remove him at this crisis from the
neighborhood of his father. Meanwhile the marshal himself was pining
away in prison under the combined influence of bodily illness and
distress of mind. Before the battle of Salinas, it had been told to
Hernando Pizarro that Almagro was like to die. "Heaven forbid," he
exclaimed, "that this should come to pass before he falls into my
hands!"16 Yet the gods seemed now disposed to grant but half of this
pious prayer, since his captive seemed about to escape him just as he had
come into his power. To console the unfortunate chief, Hernando paid
him a visit in his prison, and cheered him with the assurance that he only
waited for the governor's arrival to set him at liberty; adding, "that, if
Pizarro did not come soon to the capital, he himself would assume the
responsibility of releasing him, and would furnish him with a conveyance
to his brother's quarters." At the same time, with considerate attention to
his comfort, he inquired of the marshal "what mode of conveyance
would be best suited to his state of health." After this he continued to
send him delicacies from his own table to revive his faded appetite.
Almagro, cheered by these kind attentions, and by the speedy prospect of
freedom, gradually mended in health and spirits.17
He little dreamed that all this while a process was industriously preparing
against him. It had been instituted immediately on his capture, and every
one, however humble, who had any cause of complaint against the
unfortunate prisoner, was invited to present it. The summons was readily
answered; and many an enemy now appeared in the hour of his fallen
fortunes, like the base reptiles crawling into light amidst the ruins of
some noble edifice; and more than one, who had received benefits from
his hands, were willing to court the favor of his enemy by turning on
their benefactor. From these loathsome sources a mass of accusations
was collected which spread over two thousand folio pages! Yet Almagro
was the idol of his soldiers! 18
Having completed the process, (July 8th, 1538,) it was not difficult to
obtain a verdict against the prisoner. The principal charges on which he
was pronounced guilty were those of levying war against the Crown, and
thereby occasioning the death of many of his Majesty's subjects; of
entering into conspiracy with the Inca; and finally, of dispossessing the
royal governor of the city of Cuzco. On these charges he was
condemned to suffer death as a traitor, by being publicly beheaded in
the great square of the city. Who were the judges, or what was the
tribunal that condemned him, we are not informed. Indeed, the whole
trial was a mockery; if that can be called a trial, where the accused
himself is not even aware of the accusation.
The sentence was communicated by a friar deputed for the purpose to
Almagro. The unhappy man, who all the while had been unconsciously
slumbering on the brink of a precipice, could not at first comprehend the
nature of his situation. Recovering from the first shock, "It was
impossible," he said, "that such wrong could be done him,--he would not
believe it." He then besought Hernando Pizarro to grant him an
interview. That cavalier, not unwilling, it would seem, to witness the
agony of his captive, consented: and Almagro was so humbled by his
misfortunes, that he condescended to beg for his life with the most
piteous supplications. He reminded Hernando of his ancient relations
with his brother, and the good offices he had rendered him and his family
in the earlier part of their career. He touched on his acknowledged
services to his country, and besought his enemy "to spare his gray hairs,
and not to deprive him of the short remnant of an existence from which
he had now nothing more to fear."--To this the other coldly replied, that
"he was surprised to see Almagro demean himself in a manner so
unbecoming a brave cavalier; that his fate was no worse than had
befallen many a soldier before him; and that, since God had given him
the grace to be a Christian, he should employ his remaining moments in
making up his account with Heaven!"19
But Almagro was not to be silenced. He urged the service he had
rendered Hernando himself. "This was a hard requital," he said, "for
having spared his life so recently under similar circumstances, and that,
too, when he had been urged again and again by those around him to
take it away." And he concluded by menacing his enemy with the
vengeance of the emperor, who would never suffer this outrage on one
who had rendered such signal services to the Crown to go unrequited. It
was all in vain; and Hernando abruptly closed the conference by
repeating, that "his doom was inevitable, and he must prepare to meet
it."20
Almagro, finding that no impression was to be made on his ironhearted
conqueror, now seriously addressed himself to the settlement of his
affairs. By the terms of the royal grant he was empowered to name his
successor. He accordingly devolved his office on his son, appointing
Diego de Alvarado, on whose integrity he had great reliance,
administrator of the province during his minority. All his property and
possessions in Peru, of whatever kind, he devised to his master the
emperor, assuring him that a large balance was still due to him in his
unsettled accounts with Pizarro. By this politic bequest, he hoped to
secure the monarch's protection for his son, as well as a strict scrutiny
into the affairs of his enemy.
The knowledge of Almagro's sentence produced a deep sensation in the
community of Cuzco. All were amazed at the presumption with which
one, armed with a little brief authority, ventured to sit in judgment on a
person of Almagro's station. There were few who did not call to mind
some generous or good-natured act of the unfortunate veteran. Even
those who had furnished materials for the accusation, now startled by the
tragic result to which it was to lead, were heard to denounce Hernando's
conduct as that of a tyrant. Some of the principal cavaliers, and among
them Diego de Alvarado, to whose intercession, as we have seen,
Hernando Pizarro, when a captive, had owed his own life, waited on that
commander, and endeavored to dissuade him from so highhanded and
atrocious a proceeding. It was in vain. But it had the effect of changing
the mode of execution, which, instead of the public square, was now to
take place in prison.21
On the day appointed, a strong corps of arquebusiers was drawn up in
the plaza. The guards were doubled over the houses where dwelt the
principal partisans of Almagro. The executioner, attended by a priest,
stealthily entered his prison; and the unhappy man, after confessing and
receiving the sacrament, submitted without resistance to the garrote.
Thus obscurely, in the gloomy silence of a dungeon, perished the hero of
a hundred battles! His corpse was removed to the great square of the
city, where, in obedience to the sentence, the head was severed from the
body. A herald proclaimed aloud the nature of the crimes for which he
had suffered; and his remains, rolled in their bloody shroud, were borne
to the house of his friend Hernan Ponce de Leon, and the next day laid
with all due solemnity in the church of Our Lady of Mercy. The Pizarros
appeared among the principal mourners. It was remarked, that their
brother had paid similar honors to the memory of Atahuallpa.22
Almagro, at the time of his death, was probably not far from seventy
years of age. But this is somewhat uncertain; for Almagro was a
foundling, and his early history is lost in obscurity.23 He had many
excellent qualities by nature; and his defects, which were not few, may
reasonably be palliated by the circumstances of his situation. For what
extenuation is not authorized by the position of a foundling,--without
parents, or early friends, or teacher to direct him,--his little bark set adrift
on the ocean of life, to take its chance among the rude billows and
breakers, without one friendly hand stretched forth to steer or to save it!
The name of "foundling" comprehends an apology for much, very much,
that is wrong in after life.24
He was a man of strong passions, and not too well used to control
them.25 But he was neither vindictive nor habitually cruel. I have
mentioned one atrocious outrage which he committed on the natives.
But insensibility to the rights of the Indian he shared with many a better
instructed Spaniard. Yet the Indians, after his conviction, bore testimony
to his general humanity, by declaring that they had no such friend among
the white men.26 Indeed, far from being vindictive, he was placable and
easily yielded to others. The facility with which he yielded, the result of
good-natured credulity, made him too often the dupe of the crafty; and it
showed, certainly, a want of that self-reliance which belongs to great
strength of character. Yet his facility of temper, and the generosity of his
nature, made him popular with his followers. No commander was ever
more beloved by his soldiers. His generosity was often carried to
prodigality. When he entered on the campaign of Chili, he lent a
hundred thousand gold ducats to the poorer cavaliers to equip themselves
and afterwards gave them up the debt.27 He was profuse to ostentation.
But his extravagance did him no harm among the roving spirits of the
camp, with whom prodigality is apt to gain more favor than a strict and
well-regulated economy.
He was a good soldier, careful and judicious in his plans, patient and
intrepid in their execution. His body was covered with the scars of his
battles, till the natural plainness of his person was converted almost into
deformity. He must not be judged by his closing campaign, when,
depressed by disease, he yielded to the superior genius of his rival; but
by his numerous expeditions by land and by water for the conquest of
Peru and the remote Chili. Yet it may be doubted whether he possessed
those uncommon qualities, either as a warrior or as a man, that, in
ordinary circumstances, would have raised him to distinction. He was
one of the three, or, to speak more strictly, of the two associates, who
had the good fortune and the glory to make one of the most splendid
discoveries in the Western World. He shares largely in the credit of this
with Pizarro; for, when he did not accompany that leader in his perilous
expeditions, he contributed no less to their success by his exertions in the
colonies.
Yet his connection with that chief can hardly be considered a fortunate
circumstance in his career. A partnership between individuals for
discovery and conquest is not likely to be very scrupulously observed,
especially by men more accustomed to govern others than to govern
themselves. If causes for discord do not arise before, they will be sure to
spring up on division of the spoil. But this association was particularly
ill-assorted. For the free, sanguine, and confiding temper of Almagro
was no match for the cool and crafty policy of Pizarro; and he was
invariably circumvented by his companion, whenever their respective
interests came in collision.
Still the final ruin of Almagro may be fairly imputed to himself. He
made two capital blunders. The first was his appeal to arms by the
seizure of Cuzco. The determination of a boundary-line was not to be
settled by arms. It was a subject for arbitration; and, if arbitrators could
not be trusted, it should have been referred to the decision of the Crown.
But, having once appealed to arms, he should not then have resorted to
negotiation,--above all, to negotiation with Pizarro. This was his second
and greatest error. He had seen enough of Pizarro to know that he was
not to be trusted. Almagro did trust him, and he paid for it with his life.