Execution Of Carbajal--Gonzalo Pizarro Beheaded--Spoils Of Victory-
Wise Reforms By Gasca--He Returns To Spain-
His Death And Character
1548--1550
It was now necessary to decide on the fate of the prisoners; and Alonso
de Alvarado, with the Licentiate Cianca, one of the new Royal Audience,
was instructed to prepare the process. It did not require a long time. The
guilt of the prisoners was too manifest, taken, as they had been, with
arms in their hands. They were all sentenced to be executed, and their
estates were confiscated to the use of the Crown. Gonzalo Pizarro was
to be beheaded, and Carbajal to be drawn and quartered. No mercy was
shown to him who had shown none to others. There was some talk of
deferring the execution till the arrival of the troops in Cuzco; but the fear
of disturbances from those friendly to Pizarro determined the president
to carry the sentence into effect the following day, on the field of battle.1
When his doom was communicated to Carbajal, he heard it with his
casual indifference. "They can but kill me," he said, as if he had already
settled the matter in his own mind.2 During the day, many came to see
him in his confinement; some to upbraid him with his cruelties; but most,
from curiosity to see the fierce warrior who had made his name so
terrible through the land. He showed no unwillingness to talk with them,
though it was in those sallies of caustic humor in which he usually
indulged at the expense of his hearer. Among these visitors was a
cavalier of no note, whose life, it appears, Carbajal had formerly spared,
when in his power. This person expressed to the prisoner his strong
desire to serve him; and as he reiterated his professions, Carbajal cut
them short by exclaiming,--"And what service can you do me? Can you
set me free? If you cannot do that, you can do nothing. If I spared your
life, as you say, it was probably because I did not think it worth while to
take it."
Some piously disposed persons urged him to see a priest, if it were only
to unburden his conscience before leaving the world. "But of what use
would that be?" asked Carbajal. "I have nothing that lies heavy on my
conscience, unless it be, indeed, the debt of half a real to a shopkeeper in
Seville, which I forgot to pay before leaving the country!" 3
He was carried to execution on a hurdle, or rather in a basket, drawn by
two mules. His arms were pinioned, and, as they forced his bulky body
into this miserable conveyance, he exclaimed,---"Cradles for infants, and
a cradle for the old man too, it seems!" 4 Notwithstanding the
disinclination he had manifested to a confessor, he was attended by
several ecclesiastics on his way to the gallows; and one of them
repeatedly urged him to give some token of penitence at this solemn
hour, if it were only by repeating the Pater Noster and Ave Maria.
Carbajal, to rid himself of the ghostly father's importunity, replied by
coolly repeating the words, "Pater Noster," "Ave Maria"! He then
remained obstinately silent. He died, as he had lived, with a jest, or
rather a scoff, upon his lips.5
Francisco de Carbajal was one of the most extraordinary characters of
these dark and turbulent times; the more extraordinary from his great
age; for, at the period of his death, he was in his eighty-fourth year;--an
age when the bodily powers, and, fortunately, the passions, are usually
blunted; when, in the witty words of the French moralist, "We flatter
ourselves we are leaving our vices, whereas it is our vices that are
leaving us." 6 But the fires of youth glowed fierce and unquenchable in
the bosom of Carbajal.
The date of his birth carries us back towards the middle of the fifteenth
century, before the times of Ferdinand and Isabella. He was of obscure
parentage, and born, as it is said, at Arevalo. For forty years he served in
the Italian wars, under the most illustrious captains of the day, Gonsalvo
de Cordova, Navarro, and the Colonnas. He was an ensign at the battle
of Ravenna; witnessed the capture of Francis the First at Pavia; and
followed the banner of the ill-starred Bourbon at the sack of Rome. He
got no gold for his share of the booty, on this occasion, but simply the
papers of a notary's office, which, Carbajal shrewdly thought, would be
worth gold to him. And so it proved; for the notary was fain to redeem
them at a price which enabled the adventurer to cross the seas to Mexico,
and seek his fortune in the New World. On the insurrection of the
Peruvians, he was sent to the support of Francis Pizarro, and was
rewarded by that chief with a grant of land in Cuzco. Here he remained
for several years, busily employed in increasing his substance; for the
love of lucre was a ruling passion in his bosom. On the arrival of Vaca
de Castro, we find him doing good service under the royal banner; and at
the breaking out of the great rebellion under Gonzalo Pizarro, he
converted his property into gold, and prepared to return to Castile. He
seemed to have a presentiment that to remain where he was would be
fatal. But, although he made every effort to leave Peru, he was
unsuccessful, for the viceroy had laid an embargo on the shipping.7 He
remained in the country, therefore, and took service, as we have seen,
though reluctantly, under Pizarro. It was his destiny.
The tumultuous life on which he now entered roused all the slumbering
passions of his soul, which lay there, perhaps unconsciously to himself;
cruelty, avarice, revenge. He found ample exercise for them in the war
with his countrymen; for civil war is proverbially the most sanguinary
and ferocious of all. The atrocities recorded of Carbajal, in his new
career, and the number of his victims, are scarcely credible. For the
honor of humanity, we may trust the accounts are greatly exaggerated;
but that he should have given rise to them at all is sufficient to consign
his name to infamy.8
He even took a diabolical pleasure, it is said, in amusing himself with the
sufferings of his victims, and in the hour of execution would give
utterance to frightful jests, that made them taste more keenly the
bitterness of death! He had a sportive vein, if such it could be called,
which he freely indulged on every occasion. Many of his sallies were
preserved by the soldiery; but they are, for the most part, of a coarse,
repulsive character, flowing from a mind familiar with the weak and
wicked side of humanity, and distrusting every other. He had his jest for
every thing,--for the misfortunes of others, and for his own. He looked
on life as a farce,--though he too often made it a tragedy.
Carbajal must be allowed one virtue; that of fidelity to his party. This
made him less tolerant to perfidy in others. He was never known to
show mercy to a renegade. This undeviating fidelity, though to a bad
cause, may challenge something like a feeling of respect, where fidelity
was so rare.9
As a military man, Carbajal takes a high rank among the soldiers of the
New World. He was strict, even severe, in enforcing discipline, so that
he was little loved by his followers. Whether he had the genius for
military combinations requisite for conducting war on an extended scale
may be doubted; but in the shifts and turns of guerilla warfare he was
unrivalled. Prompt, active, and persevering, he was insensible to danger
or fatigue, and, after days spent in the saddle, seemed to attach little
value to the luxury of a bed.10
He knew familiarly every mountain pass, and, such were the sagacity and
the resources displayed in his roving expeditions, that he was vulgarly
believed to be attended by a familiar.11 With a character so
extraordinary, with powers prolonged so far beyond the usual term of
humanity, and passions so fierce in one tottering on the verge of the
grave, it was not surprising that many fabulous stories should be eagerly
circulated respecting him, and that Carbajal should be clothed with
mysterious terrors as a sort of supernatural being,--the demon of the
Andes!
Very different were the circumstances attending the closing scene of
Gonzalo Pizarro. At his request, no one had been allowed to visit him in
his confinement. He was heard pacing his tent during the greater part of
the day, and when night came, having ascertained from Centeno that his
execution was to take place on the following noon, he laid himself down
to rest. He did not sleep long, however, but soon rose, and continued to
traverse his apartment, as if buried in meditation, till dawn. He then sent
for a confessor, and remained with him till after the hour of noon, taking
little or no refreshment. The officers of justice became impatient; but
their eagerness was sternly rebuked by the soldiery, many of whom,
having served under Gonzalo's banner, were touched with pity for his
misfortunes.
When the chieftain came forth to execution, he showed in his dress the
same love of magnificence and display as in happier days. Over his
doublet he wore a superb cloak of yellow velvet, stiff with gold
embroidery, while his head was protected by a cap of the same materials,
richly decorated, in like manner, with ornaments of gold.12 In this
gaudy attire he mounted his mule, and the sentence was so far relaxed
that his arms were suffered to remain unshackled. He was escorted by a
goodly number of priests and friars, who held up the crucifix before his
eyes, while he carried in his own hand an image of the Virgin. She had
ever been the peculiar object of Pizarro's devotion; so much so, that
those who knew him best in the hour of his prosperity were careful, when
they had a petition, to prefer it in the name of the blessed Mary.
Pizarro's lips were frequently pressed to the emblem of his divinity,
while his eyes were bent on the crucifix in apparent devotion, heedless of
the objects around him. On reaching the scaffold, he ascended it with a
firm step, and asked leave to address a few words to the soldiery
gathered round it. "There are many among you," said he, "who have
grown rich on my brother's bounty, and my own. Yet, of all my riches,
nothing remains to me but the garments I have on; and even these are not
mine, but the property of the executioner. I am without means, therefore,
to purchase a mass for the welfare of my soul; and I implore you, by the
remembrance of past benefits, to extend this charity to me when I am
gone, that it may be well with you in the hour of death." A profound
silence reigned throughout the martial multitude, broken only by sighs
and groans, as they listened to Pizarro's request; and it was faithfully
responded to, since, after his death, masses were said in many of the
towns for the welfare of the departed chieftain.
Then, kneeling down before a crucifix placed on a table, Pizarro
remained for some minutes absorbed in prayer; after which, addressing
the soldier who was to act as the minister of justice, he calmly bade him
"do his duty with a steady hand" He refused to have his eyes bandaged,
and, bending forward his neck, submitted it to the sword of the
executioner, who struck off the head with a single blow, so true that the
body remained for some moments in the same erect posture as in life.13
The head was taken to Lima, where it was set in a cage or frame, and
then fixed on a gibbet by the side of Carbajal's. On it was placed a label,
bearing,-"This is the head of the traitor Gonzalo Pizarro, who rebelled
in Peru against his sovereign, and battled in the cause of tyranny and
treason against the royal standard in the valley of Xaquixaguana." 14
His large estates, including the rich mines in Potosi, were confiscated;
his mansion in Lima was razed to the ground, the place strewed with salt,
and a stone pillar set up, with an inscription interdicting any one from
building on a spot which had been profaned by the residence of a traitor.
Gonzalo's remains were not exposed to the indignities inflicted on
Carbajal's, whose quarters were hung in chains on the four great roads
leading to Cuzco. Centeno saved Pizarro's body from being stripped, by
redeeming his costly raiment from the executioner, and in this sumptuous
shroud it was laid in the chapel of the convent of Our Lady of Mercy in
Cuzco. It was the same spot where, side by side, lay the bloody remains
of the Almagros, father and son, who in like manner had perished by the
hand of justice, and were indebted to private charity for their burial. All
these were now consigned "to the same grave," says the historian, with
some bitterness, "as if Peru could not afford land enough for a burial-
place to its conquerors." 15
Gonzalo Pizarro had reached only his forty-second year at the time of his
death,--being just half the space allotted to his follower Carbajal. He
was the youngest of the remarkable family to whom Spain was indebted
for the acquisition of Peru. He came over to the country with his brother
Francisco, on the return of the latter from his visit to Castile. Gonzalo
was present in all the remarkable passages of the Conquest. He
witnessed the seizure of Atahuallpa, took an active part in suppressing
the insurrection of the Incas, and especially in the reduction of Charcas.
He afterwards led the disastrous expedition to the Amazon; and, finally,
headed the memorable rebellion which ended so fatally to himself.
There are but few men whose lives abound in such wild and romantic
adventure, and, for the most part, crowned with success. The space
which he occupies in the page of history is altogether disproportioned to
his talents. It may be in some measure ascribed to fortune, but still more
to those showy qualities which form a sort of substitute for mental talent,
and which secured his popularity with the vulgar.
He had a brilliant exterior; excelled in all martial exercises; rode well,
fenced well, managed his lance to perfection, was a first-rate marksman
with the arquebuse, and added the accomplishment of being an excellent
draughtsman. He was bold and chivalrous, even to temerity; courted
adventure, and was always in the front of danger. He was a knight-
errant, in short, in the most extravagant sense of the term, and, "mounted
on his favorite charger," says one who had often seen him, "made no
more account of a squadron of Indians than of a swarm of flies."16
While thus, by his brilliant exploits and showy manners, he captivated
the imaginations of his countrymen, he won their hearts no less by his
soldier-like frankness, his trust in their fidelity,--too often abused,-and
his liberal largesses; for Pizarro, though avaricious of the property of
others, was, like the Roman conspirator, prodigal of his own. This was
his portrait in happier days, when his heart had not been corrupted by
success; for that some change was wrought on him by his prosperity is
well attested. His head was made giddy by his elevation; and it is proof
of a want of talent equal to his success, that he knew not how to profit by
it. Obeying the dictates of his own rash judgment, he rejected the
warnings of his wisest counsellors, and relied with blind confidence on
his destiny. Garcilasso imputes this to the malignant influence of the
stars.17 But the superstitious chronicler might have better explained it
by a common principle of human nature; by the presumption nourished
by success; the insanity, as the Roman, or rather Grecian, proverb calls
it, with which the gods afflict men when they design to ruin them.18
Gonzalo was without education, except such as he had picked up in the
rough school of war. He had little even of that wisdom which springs
from natural shrewdness and insight into character. In all this he was
inferior to his elder brothers, although he fully equalled them in
ambition. Had he possessed a tithe of their sagacity, he would not have
madly persisted in rebellion, after the coming of the president. Before
this period, he represented the people. Their interests and his were
united. He had their support, for he was contending for the redress of
their wrongs. When these were redressed by the government, there was
nothing to contend for. From that time, he was battling only for himself.
The people had no part nor interest in the contest. Without a common
sympathy to bind them together, was it strange that they should fall off
from him, like leaves in winter, and leave him exposed, a bare and
sapless trunk, to the fury of the tempest?
Cepeda, more criminal than Pizarro, since he had both superior
education and intelligence, which he employed only to mislead his
commander, did not long survive him. He had come to the country in an
office of high responsibility. His first step was to betray the viceroy
whom he was sent to support; his next was to betray the Audience with
whom he should have acted; and lastly, he betrayed the leader whom he
most affected to serve. His whole career was treachery to his own
government. His life was one long perfidy.
After his surrender, several of the cavaliers, disgusted at his coldblooded
apostasy, would have persuaded Gasca to send him to execution along
with his commander; but the president refused, in consideration of the
signal service he had rendered the Crown by his defection. He was put
under arrest, however, and sent to Castile. There he was arraigned for
high-treason. He made a plausible defence, and as he had friends at
court, it is not improbable he would have been acquitted; but, before the
trial was terminated, he died in prison. It was the retributive justice not
always to be found in the affairs of this world.19
Indeed, it so happened, that several of those who had been most forward
to abandon the cause of Pizarro survived their commander but a short
time. The gallant Centeno, and the Licentiate Carbajal, who deserted
him near Lima, and bore the royal standard on the field of
Xaquixaguana, both died within a year after Pizarro. Hinojosa was
assassinated but two years later in La Plata; and his old comrade
Valdivia, after a series of brilliant exploits in Chili, which furnished her
most glorious theme to the epic Muse of Castile, was cut off by the
invincible warriors of Arauco. The Manes of Pizarro were amply
avenged.
Acosta, and three or four other cavaliers who surrendered with Gonzalo,
were sent to execution on the same day with their chief; and Gasca, on
the morning following the dismal tragedy, broke up his quarters and
marched with his whole army to Cuzco, where he was received by the
politic people with the same enthusiasm which they had so recently
shown to his rival. He found there a number of the rebel army who bad
taken refuge in the city after their late defeat, where they were
immediately placed under arrest. Proceedings, by Gasca's command,
were instituted against them. The principal cavaliers, to the number of
ten or twelve, were executed; others were banished or sent to the galleys.
The same rigorous decrees were passed against such as had fled and
were not yet taken; and the estates of all were confiscated. The estates of
the rebels supplied a fund for the recompense of the loyal.20 The
execution of justice may seem to have been severe; but Gasca was
willing that the rod should fall heavily on those who had so often
rejected his proffers of grace. Lenity was wasted on a rude, licentious
soldiery, who hardly recognized the existence of government, unless they
felt its rigor.
A new duty now devolved on the president,--that of rewarding his
faithful followers,--not less difficult, as it proved, than that of punishing
the guilty. The applicants were numerous; since every one who had
raised a finger in behalf of the government claimed his reward. They
urged their demands with a clamorous importunity which perplexed the
good president, and consumed every moment of his time.
Disgusted with this unprofitable state of things, Gasca resolved to rid
himself of the annoyance at once, by retiring to the valley of
Guaynarima, about twelve leagues distant from the city, and there
digesting, in quiet, a scheme of compensation, adjusted to the merits of
the parties. He was accompanied only by his secretary, and by Loaysa,
now archbishop of Lima, a man of sense, and well acquainted with the
affairs of the country. In this seclusion the president remained three
months, making a careful examination into the conflicting claims, and
apportioning the forfeitures among the parties according to their
respective services. The repartimientos, it should be remarked, were
usually granted only for life, and, on the death of the incumbent, reverted
to the Crown, to be reassigned or retained at its pleasure.
When his arduous task was completed, Gasca determined to withdraw to
Lima, leaving the instrument of partition with the archbishop, to be
communicated to the army. Notwithstanding all the care that had been
taken for an equitable adjustment, Gasca was aware that it was
impossible to satisfy the demands of a jealous and irritable soldiery,
where each man would be likely to exaggerate his own deserts, while he
underrated those of his comrades; and he did not care to expose himself
to importunities and complaints that could serve no other purpose than to
annoy him.
On his departure, the troops were called together by the archbishop in
the cathedral, to learn the contents of the schedule intrusted to him. A
discourse was first preached by a worthy Dominican, the prior of
Arequipa, in which the reverend father expatiated on the virtue of
contentment, the duty of obedience, and the folly, as well as wickedness,
of an attempt to resist the constituted authorities,--topics, in short, which
he conceived might best conciliate the good-will and conformity of his
audience.
A letter from the president was then read from the pulpit. It was
addressed to the officers and soldiers of the army. The writer began with
briefly exposing the difficulties of his task, owing to the limited amount
of the gratuities, and the great number and services of the claimants. He
had given the matter the most careful consideration, he said, and
endeavored to assign to each his share, according to his deserts, without
prejudice or partiality. He had, no doubt, fallen into errors, but he
trusted his followers would excuse them, when they reflected that he had
done according to the best of his poor abilities; and all, he believed,
would do him the justice to acknowledge he had not been influenced by
motives of personal interest. He bore emphatic testimony to the services
they had rendered to the good cause, and concluded with the most
affectionate wishes for their future prosperity and happiness. The letter
was dated at Guaynarima, August 17, 1548, and bore the simple
signature of the Licentiate Gasca.21
The archbishop next read the paper containing the president's award.
The annual rent of the estates to be distributed amounted to a hundred
and thirty thousand pesos ensayados;22 a large amount, considering the
worth of money in that day,--in any other country than Peru, where
money was a drug.23
The repartimientos thus distributed varied in value from one hundred to
thirty-five hundred pesos of yearly rent; all, apparently, graduated with
the nicest precision to the merits of the parties. The number of
pensioners was about two hundred and fifty; for the fund would not have
sufficed for general distribution, nor were the services of the greater part
deemed worthy of such a mark of consideration.24
The effect produced by the document, on men whose minds were filled
with the most indefinite expectations, was just such as had been
anticipated by the president. It was received with a general murmur of
disapprobation. Even those who had got more than they expected were
discontented, on comparing their condition with that of their comrades,
whom they thought still better remunerated in proportion to their deserts.
They especially inveighed against the preference shown to the old
partisans of Gonzalo Pizarro--as Hinojosa, Centeno, and Aldana-over
those who had always remained loyal to the Crown. There was some
ground for such a preference; for none had rendered so essential services
in crushing the rebellion; and it was these services that Gasca proposed
to recompense. To reward every man who had proved himself loyal,
simply for his loyalty, would have frittered away the donative into
fractions that would be of little value to any.25
It was in vain, however, that the archbishop, seconded by some of the
principal cavaliers, endeavored to infuse a more contented spirit into the
multitude. They insisted that the award should be rescinded, and a new
one made on more equitable principles; threatening, moreover, that, if
this were not done by the president, they would take the redress of the
matter into their own hands. Their discontent, fomented by some
mischievous persons who thought to find their account in it, at length
proceeded so far as to menace a mutiny; and it was not suppressed till the
commander of Cuzco sentenced one of the ringleaders to death, and
several others to banishment. The iron soldiery of the Conquest required
an iron hand to rule them.
Meanwhile, the president had continued his journey towards Lima; and
on the way was everywhere received by the people with an enthusiasm,
the more grateful to his heart that he felt he had deserved it. As he drew
near the capital, the loyal inhabitants prepared to give him a magnificent
reception. The whole population came forth from the gates, led by the
authorities of the city, with Aldana as corregidor at their head. Gasca
rode on a mule, dressed in his ecclesiastical robes. On his right, borne
on a horse richly caparisoned, was the royal seal, in a box curiously
chased and ornamented. A gorgeous canopy of brocade was supported
above his head by the officers of the municipality, who, in their robes of
crimson velvet, walked bareheaded by his side. Gay troops of dancers,
clothed in fantastic dresses of gaudy-colored silk, followed the
procession, strewing flowers and chanting verses as they went, in honor
of the president. They were designed as emblematical of the different
cities of the colony; and they bore legends or mottoes in rhyme on their
caps, intimating their loyal devotion to the Crown, and evincing much
more loyalty in their composition, it may be added, than poetical
merit.26 In this way, without beat of drum, or noise of artillery, or any
of the rude accompaniments of war, the good president made his
peaceful entry into the City of the Kings, while the air was rent with the
acclamations of the people, who hailed him as their "Father and
Deliverer, the Saviour of their country!" 27
But, however grateful was this homage to Gasca's heart, he was not a
man to waste his time in idle vanities. He now thought only by what
means he could eradicate the seeds of disorder which shot up so readily
in this fruitful soil, and how he could place the authority of the
government on a permanent basis. By virtue of his office, he presided
over the Royal Audience, the great judicial, and, indeed, executive
tribunal of the colony; and he gave great despatch to the business, which
had much accumulated during the late disturbances. In the unsettled
state of property, there was abundant subject for litigation; but,
fortunately, the new Audience was composed of able, upright judges,
who labored diligently with their chief to correct the mischief caused by
the misrule of their predecessors.
Neither was Gasca unmindful of the unfortunate natives; and he occupied
himself earnestly with that difficult problem,--the best means practicable
of ameliorating their condition. He sent a number of commissioners, as
visitors, into different parts of the country, whose business it was to
inspect the encomiendas, and ascertain the manner in which the Indians
were treated, by conversing not only with the proprietors, but with the
natives themselves. They were also to learn the nature and extent of the
tributes paid in former times by the vassals of the Incas.28
In this way, a large amount of valuable information was obtained, which
enabled Gasca, with the aid of a council of ecclesiastics and jurists, to
digest a uniform system of taxation for the natives, lighter even than that
imposed on them by the Peruvian princes. The president would gladly
have relieved the conquered races from the obligations of personal
service; but, on mature consideration, this was judged impracticable in
the present state of the country, since the colonists, more especially in
the tropical regions, looked to the natives for the performance of labor,
and the latter, it was found from experience, would not work at all,
unless compelled to do so. The president, however, limited the amount
of service to be exacted with great precision, so that it was in the nature
of a moderate personal tax. No Peruvian was to be required to change
his place of residence, from the climate to which he had been
accustomed, to another; a fruitful source of discomfort, as well as of
disease, in past times. By these various regulations, the condition of the
natives, though not such as had been contemplated by the sanguine
philanthropy of Las Casas, was improved far more than was compatible
with the craving demands of the colonists; and all the firmness of the
Audience was required to enforce provisions so unpalatable to the latter.
Still they were enforced. Slavery, in its most odious sense, was no
longer tolerated in Peru. The term "slave" was not recognized as having
relation to her institutions; and the historian of the Indies makes the
proud boast,--it should have been qualified by the limitations I have
noticed, --that every Indian vassal might aspire to the rank of a
freeman.29
Besides these reforms, Gasca introduced several in the municipal
government of the cities, and others yet more important in the
management of the finances, and in the mode of keeping the accounts.
By these and other changes in the internal economy of the colony, he
placed the administration on a new basis, and greatly facilitated the way
for a more sure and orderly government by his successors. As a final
step, to secure the repose of the country after he was gone, he detached
some of the more aspiring cavaliers on distant expeditions, trusting that
they would draw off the light and restless spirits, who might otherwise
gather together and disturb the public tranquillity; as we sometimes see
the mists which have been scattered by the genial influence of the sun
become condensed, and settle into a storm, on his departure.30
Gasca had been now more than fifteen months in Lima, and nearly three
years had elapsed since his first entrance into Peru. In that time, he had
accomplished the great objects of his mission. When he landed, he
found the colony in a state of anarchy, or rather organized rebellion
under a powerful and popular chief. He came without funds or forces to
support him. The former he procured through the credit which he
established in his good faith; the latter he won over by argument and
persuasion from the very persons to whom they had been confided by his
rival. Thus he turned the arms of that rival against himself. By a calm
appeal to reason he wrought a change in the hearts of the people; and,
without costing a drop of blood to a single loyal subject, he suppressed a
rebellion which had menaced Spain with the loss of the wealthiest of her
provinces. He had punished the guilty, and in their spoils found the
means to recompense the faithful. He had, moreover, so well husbanded
the resources of the country, that he was enabled to pay off the large loan
he had negotiated with the merchants of the colony, for the expenses of
the war, exceeding nine hundred thousand pesos de oro.31 Nay, more,
by his economy he had saved a million and a half of ducats for the
government, which for some years had received nothing from Peru; and
he now proposed to carry back this acceptable treasure to swell the royal
coffers.32 All this had been accomplished without the cost of out-fit or
salary, or any charge to the Crown except that of his own frugal
expenditure.33 The country was now in a state of tranquillity. Gasca
felt that his work was done; and that he was free to gratify his natural
longing to return to his native land.
Before his departure, he arranged a distribution of those repartimientos
which had lapsed to the Crown during the past year by the death of the
incumbents. Life was short in Peru; since those who lived by the sword,
if they did not die by the sword, too often fell early victims to the
hardships incident to their adventurous career. Many were the applicants
for the new bounty of government; and, as among them were some of
those who had been discontented with the former partition, Gasca was
assailed by remonstrances, and sometimes by reproaches couched in no
very decorous or respectful language. But they had no power to disturb
his equanimity; he patiently listened, and replied to all in the mild tone of
expostulation best calculated to turn away wrath; "by this victory over
himself," says an old writer, "acquiring more real glory, than by all his
victories over his enemies." 34
An incident occurred on the eve of his departure, touching in itself, and
honorable to the parties concerned. The Indian caciques of the
neighboring country, mindful of the great benefits he had rendered their
people, presented him with a considerable quantity of plate in token of
their gratitude. But Gasca refused to receive it, though in doing so he
gave much concern to the Peruvians, who feared they had unwittingly
fallen under his displeasure.
Many of the principal colonists, also, from the same wish to show their
sense of his important services, sent to him, after he had embarked, a
magnificent donative of fifty thousand gold castellanos. "As he had
taken leave of Peru," they said, "there could be no longer any ground for
declining it." But Gasca was as decided in his rejection of this present,
as he had been of the other. "He had come to the country," he remarked,
"to serve the king, and to secure the blessings of peace to the inhabitants;
and now that, by the favor of Heaven, he had been permitted to
accomplish this, he would not dishonor the cause by any act that might
throw suspicion on the purity of his motives." Notwithstanding his
refusal, the colonists contrived to secrete the sum of twenty thousand
castellanos on board his vessel, with the idea, that, once in his own
country, with his mission concluded, the president's scruples would be
removed. Gasca did, indeed, accept the donative; for he felt that it
would be ungracious to send it back; but it was only till he could
ascertain the relatives of the donors, when he distributed it among the
most needy.35
Having now settled all his affairs, the president committed the
government, until the arrival of a viceroy, to his faithful partners of the
Royal Audience; and in January, 1550 he embarked with the royal
treasure on board of a squadron for Panama. He was accompanied to the
shore by a numerous crowd of the inhabitants, cavaliers and common
people, persons of all ages and conditions, who followed to take their
last look of their benefactor, and watch with straining eyes the vessel that
bore him away from their land.
His voyage was prosperous, and early in March the president reached his
destined port. He stayed there only till he could muster horses and mules
sufficient to carry the treasure across the mountains; for he knew that this
part of the country abounded in wild, predatory spirits, who would be
sorely tempted to some act of violence by a knowledge of the wealth
which he had with him. Pushing forward, therefore, he crossed the
rugged Isthmus, and, after a painful march, arrived in safety at Nombre
de Dios.
The event justified his apprehensions. He had been gone but three days,
when a ruffian horde, after murdering the bishop of Guatemala, broke
into Panama with the design of inflicting the same fate on the president,
and of seizing the booty. No sooner were the tidings communicated to
Gasca, than, with his usual energy, he levied a force and prepared to
march to the relief of the invaded capital. But Fortune--or, to speak
more correctly, Providence--favored him here, as usual; and, on the eve
of his departure, he learned that the marauders had been met by the
citizens, and discomfited with great slaughter. Disbanding his forces,
therefore, he equipped a fleet of nineteen vessels to transport himself and
the royal treasure to Spain, where he arrived in safety, entering the
harbor of Seville after a little more than four years from the period when
he had sailed from the same port.36
Great was the sensation throughout the country caused by his arrival.
Men could hardly believe that results so momentous had been
accomplished in so short a time by a single individual,--a poor
ecclesiastic, who, unaided by government, had, by his own strength, as it
were, put down a rebellion which had so long set the arms of Spain at
defiance!
The emperor was absent in Flanders. He was overjoyed on learning the
complete success of Gasca's mission; and not less satisfied with the
tidings of the treasure he had brought with him; for the exchequer, rarely
filled to overflowing, had been exhausted by the recent troubles in
Germany. Charles instantly wrote to the president, requiring his
presence at court, that he might learn from his own lips the particulars of
his expedition. Gasca, accordingly, attended by a numerous retinue of
nobles and cavaliers,--for who does not pay homage to him whom the
king delighteth to honor?--embarked at Barcelona, and, after a favorable
voyage, joined the Court in Flanders.
He was received by his royal master, who fully appreciated his services,
in a manner most grateful to his feelings; and not long afterward he was
raised to the bishopric of Palencia,--a mode of acknowledgment best
suited to his character and deserts. Here he remained till 1561, when he
was promoted to the vacant see of Siguenza. The rest of his days he
passed peacefully in the discharge of his episcopal functions; honored by
his sovereign, and enjoying the admiration and respect of his
countrymen.37
In his retirement, he was still consulted by the government in matters of
importance relating to the Indies. The disturbances of that unhappy land
were renewed, though on a much smaller scale than before, soon after
the president's departure. They were chiefly caused by discontent with
the repartimientos, and with the constancy of the Audience in enforcing
the benevolent restrictions as to the personal services of the natives. But
these troubles subsided, after a very few years, under the wise rule of the
Mendozas,--two successive viceroys of that illustrious house which has
given so many of its sons to the service of Spain. Under their rule, the
mild yet determined policy was pursued, of which Gasca had set the
example. The ancient distractions of the country were permanently
healed. With peace, prosperity returned within the borders of Peru; and
the consciousness of the beneficent results of his labors may have shed a
ray of satisfaction, as it did of glory, over the evening of the president's
life.
That life was brought to a close in November, 1567, at an age, probably,
not far from the one fixed by the sacred writer as the term of human
existence.38 He died at Valladolid, and was buried in the church of
Santa Maria Magdalena, in that city, which he had built and liberally
endowed. His monument, surmounted by the sculptured effigy of a
priest in his sacerdotal robes, is still to be seen there, attracting the
admiration of the traveller by the beauty of its execution. The banners
taken from Gonzalo Pizarro on the field of Xaquixaguana were
suspended over his tomb, as the trophies of his memorable mission to
Peru.39 The banners have long since mouldered into dust, with the
remains of him who slept beneath them; but the memory of his good
deeds will endure for ever.40
Gasca was plain in person, and his countenance was far from comely, He
was awkward and ill-proportioned; for his limbs were too long for his
body,--so that when he rode, he appeared to be much shorter than he
really was.41 His dress was humble, his manners simple, and there was
nothing imposing in his presence. But, on a nearer intercourse, there was
a charm in his discourse that effaced every unfavorable impression
produced by his exterior, and won the hearts of his hearers.
The president's character may be thought to have been sufficiently
portrayed in the history already given of his life. It presented a
combination of qualities which generally serve to neutralize each other,
but which were mixed in such proportions in him as to give it additional
strength. He was gentle, yet resolute; by nature intrepid, yet preferring to
rely on the softer arts of policy. He was frugal in his personal
expenditure, and economical in the public; yet caring nothing for riches
on his own account, and never stinting his bounty when the public good
required it. He was benevolent and placable, yet could deal sternly with
the impenitent offender; lowly in his deportment, yet with a full measure
of that self-respect which springs from conscious rectitude of purpose;
modest and unpretending, yet not shrinking from the most difficult
enterprises; deferring greatly to others, yet, in the last resort, relying
mainly on himself; moving with deliberation,--patiently waiting his time;
but, when that came, bold, prompt, and decisive.
Gasca, was not a man of genius, in the vulgar sense of that term. At
least, no one of his intellectual powers seems to have received an
extraordinary development, beyond what is found in others. He was not
a great writer, nor a great orator, nor a great general. He did not affect to
be either. He committed the care of his military matters to military men;
of ecclesiastical to the clergy; and his civil and judicial concerns he
reposed on the members of the Audience. He was not one of those little
great men who aspire to do every thing themselves, under the conviction
that nothing can be done so well by others. But the president was a keen
judge of character. Whatever might be the office, he selected the best
man for it. He did more. He assured himself of the fidelity of his agents,
presided at their deliberations; dictated a general line of policy, and thus
infused a spirit of unity into their plans, which made all move in concert
to the accomplishment of one grand result.
A distinguishing feature of his mind was his common sense,--the best
substitute for genius in a ruler who has the destinies of his fellow-men at
his disposal, and more indispensable than genius itself. In Gasca, the
different qualities were blended in such harmony, that there was no room
for excess. They seemed to regulate each other. While his sympathy
with mankind taught him the nature of their wants, his reason suggested
to what extent these were capable of relief, as well as the best mode of
effecting it. He did not waste his strength on illusory schemes of
benevolence, like Las Casas, on the one hand; nor did he countenance
the selfish policy of the colonists, on the other. He aimed at the
practicable,--the greatest good practicable.
In accomplishing his objects, he disclaimed force equally with fraud. He
trusted for success to his power over the convictions of his hearers; and
the source of this power was the confidence he inspired in his own
integrity. Amidst all the calumnies of faction, no imputation was ever
cast on the integrity of Gasca.42 No wonder that a virtue so rare should
be of high price in Peru.
There are some men whose characters have been so wonderfully adapted
to the peculiar crisis in which they appeared, that they seem to have been
specially designed for it by Providence. Such was Washington, in our
own country, and Gasca in Peru. We can conceive of individuals with
higher qualities, at least with higher intellectual qualities, than belonged
to either of these great men. But it was the wonderful conformity of their
characters to the exigencies of their situation, the perfect adaptation of
the means to the end, that constituted the secret of their success; that
enabled Gasca so gloriously to crush revolution, and Washington still
more gloriously to achieve it.
Gasca's conduct on his first coming to the colonies affords the best
illustration of his character. Had he come backed by a military array, or
even clothed in the paraphernalia of authority, every heart and hand
would have been closed against him. But the humble ecclesiastic excited
no apprehension; and his enemies were already disarmed, before he had
begun his approaches. Had Gasca, impatient of Hinojosa's tardiness,
listened to the suggestions of those who advised his seizure, he would
have brought his cause into jeopardy by this early display of violence
But he wisely chose to win over his enemy by operating on his
conviction.
In like manner, he waited his time for making his entry into Peru. He
suffered his communications to do their work in the minds of the people,
and was careful not to thrust in the sickle before the harvest was ripe.
In this way, wherever he went, every thing was prepared for his coming;
and when he set foot in Peru, the country was already his own.
After the dark and turbulent spirits with which we have been hitherto
occupied, it is refreshing to dwell on a character like that of Gasca. In
the long procession which has passed in review before us, we have seen
only the mail-clad cavalier, brandishing his bloody lance, and mounted
on his war-horse, riding over the helpless natives, or battling with his
own friends and brothers; fierce, arrogant, and cruel, urged on by the lust
of gold, or the scarce more honorable love of a bastard glory. Mingled
with these qualities, indeed, we have seen sparkles of the chivalrous and
romantic temper which belongs to the heroic age of Spain. But, with
some honorable exceptions, it was the scum of her chivalry that resorted
to Peru, and took service under the banner of the Pizarros. At the close
of this long array of iron warriors, we behold the poor and humble
missionary coming into the land on an errand of mercy, and everywhere
proclaiming the glad tidings of peace. No warlike trumpet heralds his
approach, nor is his course to be tracked by the groans of the wounded
and the dying. The means he employs are in perfect harmony with his
end. His weapons are argument and mild persuasion. It is the reason he
would conquer, not the body. He wins his way by conviction, not by
violence. It is a moral victory to which he aspires, more potent, and
happily more permanent, than that of the blood-stained conqueror. As he
thus calmly, and imperceptibly, as it were, comes to his great results, he
may remind us of the slow, insensible manner in which Nature works out
her great changes in the material world, that are to endure when the
ravages of the hurricane are passed away and forgotten.
With the mission of Gasca terminates the history of the Conquest of
Peru. The Conquest, indeed, strictly terminates with the suppression of
the Peruvian revolt, when the strength, if not the spirit, of the Inca race
was crushed for ever. The reader, however, might feel a natural curiosity
to follow to its close the fate of the remarkable family who achieved the
Conquest. Nor would the story of the invasion itself be complete without
some account of the civil wars which grew out of it; which serve,
moreover, as a moral commentary on preceding events, by showing that
the indulgence of fierce, unbridled passions is sure to recoil, sooner or
later, even in this life, on the heads of the guilty.
It is true, indeed, that the troubles of the country were renewed on the
departure of Gasca. The waters had been too fearfully agitated to be
stilled, at once, into a calm; but they gradually subsided, under the
temperate rule of his successors, who wisely profited by his policy and
example. Thus the influence of the good president remained after he was
withdrawn from the scene of his labors; and Peru, hitherto so distracted,
continued to enjoy as large a share of repose as any portion of the
colonial empire of Spain. With the benevolent mission of Gasca, then,
the historian of the Conquest may be permitted to terminate his labors, -
with feelings not unlike those of the traveller who, having long journeyed
among the dreary forests and dangerous defiles of the mountains, at
length emerges on some pleasant landscape smiling in tranquillity and
peace.
Augustin de Zarate--a highly respectable authority, frequently cited in
the later portion of this work--was Contador de Mercedes, Comptroller
of Accounts, for Castile. This office he filled for fifteen years; after
which he was sent by the government to Peru to examine into the state of
the colonial finances, which had been greatly deranged by the recent
troubles, and to bring them, if possible, into order.
Zarate went out accordingly in the train of the viceroy Blasco Nunez,
and found himself, through the passions of his imprudent leader,
entangled, soon after his arrival, in the inextricable meshes of civil
discord. In the struggle which ensued, he remained with the Royal
Audience; and we find him in Lima, on the approach of Gonzalo Pizarro
to that capital, when Zarate was deputed by the judges to wait on the
insurgent chief, and require him to disband his troops and withdraw to
his own estates. The historian executed the mission, for which he seems
to have had little relish, and which certainly was not without danger.
From this period, we rarely hear of him in the troubled scenes that
ensued. He probably took no further part in affairs than was absolutely
forced on him by circumstances; but the unfavorable bearing of his
remarks on Gonzalo Pizarro intimates, that, however he may have been
discontented with the conduct of the viceroy, he did not countenance, for
a moment, the criminal ambition of his rival. The times were certainly
unpropitious to the execution of the financial reforms for which Zarate
had come to Peru. But he showed so much real devotion to the interests
of the Crown, that the emperor, on his return, signified his satisfaction by
making him Superintendent of the Finances in Flanders.
Soon after his arrival in Peru, he seems to have conceived the idea of
making his countrymen at home acquainted with the stirring events
passing in the colony, which, moreover, afforded some striking passages
for the study of the historian. Although he collected notes and diaries, as
he tells us, for this purpose, he did not dare to avail himself of them till
his return to Castile. "For to have begun the history in Peru," he says,
"would have alone been enough to put my life in jeopardy; since a
certain commander, named Francisco de Carbajal, threatened to take
vengeance on any one who should be so rash as to attempt the relation of
his exploits, ---far less deserving, as they were, to be placed on record,
than to be consigned to eternal oblivion." In this same commander, the
reader will readily recognize the veteran lieutenant of Gonzalo Pizarro.
On his return home, Zarate set about the compilation of his work. His
first purpose was to confine it to the events that followed the arrival of
Blasco Nunez; but he soon found, that, to make these intelligible, he
must trace the stream of history higher up towards its sources. He
accordingly enlarged his plan, and, beginning with the discovery of Peru,
gave an entire view of the conquest and subsequent occupation of the
country, bringing the narrative down to the close of Gasca's mission. For
the earlier portion of the story, he relied on the accounts of persons who
took a leading part in the events. He disposes more summarily of this
portion than of that in which he himself was both a spectator and an
actor; where his testimony, considering the advantages his position gave
him for information, is of the highest value.
Alcedo in his Biblioteca Americana, MS., speaks of Zarate's work as
"containing much that is good, but as not entitled to the praise of
exactness." He wrote under the influence of party heat, which
necessarily operates to warp the fairest mind somewhat from its natural
bent. For this we must make allowance, in perusing accounts of
conflicting parties. But there is no intention, apparently, to turn the truth
aside in support of his own cause; and his access to the best sources of
knowledge often supplies us with particulars not within the reach of
other chroniclers. His narrative is seasoned, moreover, with sensible
reflections and passing comments, that open gleams of light into the dark
passages of that eventful period. Yet the style of the author can make
but moderate pretensions to the praise of elegance or exactness; while
the sentences run into that tedious, interminable length which belongs to
the garrulous compositions of the regular thoroughbred chronicler of the
olden time.
The personalities, necessarily incident, more or less, to such a work, led
its author to shrink from publication, at least during his life. By the
jealous spirit of the Castilian cavalier, "censure," he says, "however
light, is regarded with indignation, and even praise is rarely dealt out in a
measure satisfactory to the subject of it." And he expresses his
conviction that those do wisely, who allow their accounts of their own
times to repose in the quiet security of manuscript, till the generation that
is to be affected by them has passed away. His own manuscript,
however, was submitted to the emperor; and it received such
commendation from this royal authority, that Zarate, plucking up a more
courageous spirit, consented to give it to the press. It accordingly
appeared at Antwerp, in 1555, in octavo; and a second edition was
printed, in folio, at Seville, in 1577. It has since been incorporated in
Barcia's valuable collection; and, whatever indignation or displeasure it
may have excited among contemporaries, who smarted under the author's
censure, or felt themselves defrauded of their legitimate guerdon,
Zarate's work has taken a permanent rank among the most respectable
authorities for a history of the time.
The name of Zarate naturally suggests that of Fernandez, for both were
laborers in the same field of history. Diego Fernandez de Palencia, or
Palentino, as he is usually called, from the place of his birth, came over
to Peru, and served as a private in the royal army raised to quell the
insurrections that broke out after Gasca's return to Castile. Amidst his
military occupations, he found leisure to collect materials for a history of
the period, to which he was further urged by the viceroy, Mendoza,
Marques de Canete, who bestowed on him, as he tells us, the post of
Chronicler of Peru. This mark of confidence in his literary capacity
intimates higher attainments in Fernandez than might be inferred from
the humble station that he occupied. With the fruits of his researches the
soldier-chronicler returned to Spain, and, after a time, completed his
narrative of the insurrection of Giron.
The manuscript was seen by the President of the Council of the Indies,
and he was so much pleased with its execution, that he urged the author
to write the account, in like manner, of Gonzalo Pizarro's rebellion, and
of the administration of Gasca. The historian was further stimulated, as
he mentions in his dedication to Philip the Second, by the promise of a
guerdon from that monarch, on the completion of his labors; a very
proper, as well as politic, promise, but which inevitably suggests the idea
of an influence not altogether favorable to severe historic impartiality.
Nor will such an inference be found altogether at variance with truth; for
while the narrative of Fernandez studiously exhibits the royal cause in
the most favorable aspect to the reader, it does scanty justice to the
claims of the opposite party. It would not be meet, indeed, that an
apology for rebellion should be found in the pages of a royal pensioner;
but there are always mitigating circumstances, which, however we may
condemn the guilt, may serve to lessen our indignation towards the
guilty. These circumstances are not to be found in the pages of
Fernandez. It is unfortunate for the historian of such events, that it is so
difficult to find one disposed to do even justice to the claims of the
unsuccessful rebel. Yet the Inca Garcilasso has not shrunk from this, in
the case of Gonzalo Pizarro; and even Gomara, though living under the
shadow, or rather in the sunshine, of the Court, has occasionally ventured
a generous protest in his behalf.
The countenance thus afforded to Fernandez from the highest quarter
opened to him the best fountains of intelligence,--at least, on the
government side of the quarrel. Besides personal communication with
the royalist leaders, he had access to their correspondence, diaries, and
official documents. He industriously profited by his opportunities; and
his narrative, taking up the story of the rebellion from its birth, continues
it to its final extinction, and the end of Gasca's administration. Thus the
First Part of his work, as it was now called, was brought down to the
commencement of the Second, and the whole presented a complete
picture of the distractions of the nation, till a new order of things was
introduced, and tranquillity was permanently established throughout the
country.
The diction is sufficiently plain, not aspiring to rhetorical beauties
beyond the reach of its author, and out of keeping with the simple
character of a chronicle, The sentences are arranged with more art than
in most of the unwieldy compositions of the time; and, while there is no
attempt at erudition or philosophic speculation, the current of events
flows on in an orderly manner, tolerably prolix, it is true, but leaving a
clear and intelligible impression on the mind of the reader. No history of
that period compares with it in the copiousness of its details; and it has
accordingly been resorted to by later compilers, as an inexhaustible
reservoir for the supply of their own pages; a circumstance that may be
thought of itself to bear no slight testimony to the general fidelity, as well
as fulness, of the narrative.--The Chronicle of Fernandez, thus arranged
in two parts, under the general title of Historia del Peru, was given to the
world in the author's lifetime, at Seville, in 1571 in one volume, folio,
being the edition used in the preparation of this work.