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$Title{History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Chapter IX: Part I}
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$Author{Prescott, William H.}
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lib
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$Date{1864}
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Title:       History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Book:        Book IV: Civil Wars Of The Conquerors
Author:      Prescott, William H.
Date:        1864

Chapter IX: Part I

Measures Of Gonzalo Pizarro. - Escape Of Vaca De Castro. Reappearance Of The
Viceroy. - His Disastrous Retreat. - Defeat And Death Of The Viceroy. -
Gonzalo Pizarro Lord Of Peru.

     1544-1546.

     The first act of Gonzalo Pizarro was to cause those persons to be
apprehended who had taken the most active part against him in the late
troubles.  Several he condemned to death; but afterwards commuted the
sentence, and contented himself with driving them into banishment and
confiscating their estates. ^1 His next concern was to establish his
authority on a firm basis.  He filled the municipal government of Lima
with his own partisans.  He sent his lieutenants to take charge of the
principal cities.  He caused galleys to be built at Arequipa to secure the
command of the seas; and brought his forces into the best possible
condition, to prepare for future emergencies.

[Footnote 1: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.

     The honest soldier, who tells us this, was more true to his king than
to his kindred.  At least, he did not attach himself to Gonzalo's party,
and was among those who barely escaped hanging on this occasion.  He seems
to have had little respect for his namesake.]

     The Royal Audience existed only in name; for its powers were speedily
absorbed by the new ruler, who desired to place the government on the same
footing as under the marquess, his brother Indeed, the Audience
necessarily fell to pieces, from the position of its several members.
Alvarez had been sent with the viceroy to Castile.  Cepeda, the most
aspiring of the court, now that he had failed in his own schemes of
ambition, was content to become a tool in the hands of the military chief
who had displaced him.  Zarate, a third judge, who had, from the first,
protested against the violent measures of his colleagues, was confined to
his house by a mortal illness; ^2 and Tepeda, the remaining magistrate,
Gonzalo now proposed to send back to Castile with such an account of the
late transactions as should vindicate his own conduct in the eyes of the
emperor.  This step was opposed by Carbajal, who bluntly told his
commander that "he had gone too far to expect favor from the Crown; and
that he had better rely for his vindication on his pikes and muskets.'" ^3

[Footnote 2: Zarate, the judge, must not be confounded with Zarate, the
historian, who went out to Peru with the Court of Audience, as contador
real, royal comptroller, - having before filled the office of secretary of
the royal council in Spain.]

[Footnote 3: Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. 172. - Garcilasso, Com Real.,
Parte 2, lib. 4, cap. 21.]

     But the ship which was to transport Tepeda was found to have suddenly
disappeared from the port.  It was the same in which Vaca de Castro was
confined; and that officer, not caring to trust to the forbearance of one
whose advances, on a former occasion, he had so unceremoniously repulsed,
and convinced, moreover, that his own presence could profit nothing in a
land where he held no legitimate authority, had prevailed on the captain
to sail with him to Panama.  He then crossed the Isthmus, and embarked for
Spain.  The rumors of his coming had already preceded him, and charges
were not wanting against him from some of those whom he had offended by
his administration.  He was accused of having carried measures with a high
hand, regardless of the rights, both of the colonist and of the native;
and, above all, of having embezzled the public moneys, and of returning
with his coffers richly freighted to Castile.  This last was an
unpardonable crime.

     No sooner had the governor set foot in his own country than he was
arrested, and hurried to the fortress of Arevalo; and, though he was
afterwards removed to better quarters, where he was treated with the
indulgence due to his rank, he was still kept a prisoner of state for
twelve years, when the tardy tribunals of Castile pronounced a judgment in
his favor.  He was acquitted of every charge that had been brought against
him, and, so far from peculation, was proved to have returned home no
richer than he went.  He was released from confinement, reinstated in his
honors and dignities, took his seat anew in the royal council, and Vaca de
Castro enjoyed, during the remainder of his days, the consideration to
which he was entitled by his deserts. ^4 The best eulogium on the wisdom of
his administration was afforded by the troubles brought on the colonies by
that of his successor.  The nation became gradually sensible of the value
of his services; though the manner in which they were requited by the
government must be allowed to form a cold commentary on the gratitude of
princes.

[Footnote 4: Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 5, cap. 15. - Relacion Anonima,
Ms. - Relacion de los Sucesos del Peru, Ms. - Montesinos, Annales Ms., ano
1545. - Fernandez, Hist del Peru, Parte 1, lib. 1, cap. 28]

     Gonzalo Pizarro was doomed to experience a still greater
disappointment than that caused by the escape of Vaca de Castro, in the
return of Blasco Nunez.  The vessel which bore him from the country had
hardly left the shore, when Alvarez, the judge, whether from remorse at
the part which he had taken, or apprehensive of the consequences of
carrying back the viceroy to Spain, presented himself before that
dignitary, and announced that he was no longer a prisoner.  At the same
time he excused himself for the part he had taken, by his desire to save
the life of Blasco Nunez, and extricate him from his perilous situation.
He now placed the vessel at his disposal, and assured him it should take
him wherever he chose.

     The viceroy, whatever faith he may have placed in the judge's
explanation, eagerly availed himself of his offer.  His proud spirit
revolted at the idea of returning home in disgrace, foiled, as he had
been, in every object of his mission.  He determined to try his fortune
again in the land, and his only doubt was, on what point to attempt to
rally his partisans around him.  At Panama he might remain in safety,
while he invoked assistance from Nicaragua, and other colonies at the
north.  But this would be to abandon his government at once; and such a
confession of weakness would have a bad effect on his followers in Peru.
He determined, therefore, to direct his steps towards Quito, which, while
it was within his jurisdiction, was still removed far enough from the
theatre of the late troubles to give him time to rally, and make head
against his enemies.

     In pursuance of this purpose, the viceroy and his suite disembarked
at Tumbez, about the middle of October, 1544.  On landing, he issued a
manifesto setting forth the violent proceedings of Gonzalo Pizarro and his
followers, whom he denounced as traitors to their prince, and he called on
all true subjects in the colony to support him in maintaining the royal
authority.  The call was not unheeded; and volunteers came in, though
tardily, from San Miguel, Puerto Viejo, and other places on the coast,
cheering the heart of the viceroy with the conviction that the sentiment
of loyalty was not yet extinct in the bosoms of the Spaniards.

     But, while thus occupied, he received tidings of the arrival of one
of Pizarro's captains on the coast, with a force superior to his own.
Their number was exaggerated; but Blasco Nunez, without waiting to
ascertain the truth, abandoned his position at Tumbez, and, with as much
expedition as he could make across a wild and mountainous country
half-buried in snow, he marched to Quito.  But this capital, situated at
the northern extremity of his province, was not a favorable point for the
rendezvous of his followers; and, after prolonging his stay till he had
received assurance from Benalcazar, the loyal commander at Popayan, that
he would support him with all his strength in the coming conflict, he made
a rapid countermarch to the coast, and took up his position at the town of
San Miguel.  This was a spot well suited to his purposes, as lying on the
great high road along the shores of the Pacific, besides being the chief
mart for commercial intercourse with Panama and the north.

     Here the viceroy erected his standard, and in a few weeks found
himself at the head of a force amounting to nearly five hundred in all,
horse and foot, ill provided with arms and ammunition, but apparently
zealous in the cause.  Finding himself in sufficient strength to commence
active operations, he now sallied forth against several of Pizarro's
captains in the neighbourhood, over whom he obtained some decided
advantages, which renewed his confidence, and flattered him with the hopes
of reestablishing his ascendency in the country. ^5

[Footnote 5: Carta de Gonzalo Pizarro a Valdivia, Ms. - Zarate, Conq. del
Peru, lib. 5, cap. 14, 15. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 7, lib. 8, cap.
19, 20. - Relacion Anonima, Ms. - Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 1, lib.
1, cap. 23. - Relacion de los Sucesos del Peru, Ms.

     The author of the document last cited notices the strong feeling for
the Crown existing in several of the cities; and mentions also the rumor
of a meditated assault on Cuzco by the Indians. - The writer belonged to
the discomfited party of Blasco Nunez; and the facility with which exiles
credit reports in their own favor is proverbial.]

     During this time, Gonzalo Pizarro was not idle.  He had watched with
anxiety the viceroy's movements; and was now convinced that it was time to
act, and that, if he would not be unseated himself, he must dislodge his
formidable rival.  He accordingly placed a strong garrison under a
faithful officer in Lima, and, after sending forward a force of some six
hundred men by land to Truxillo, he embarked for the same port himself, on
the 4th of March, 1545, the very day on which the viceroy had marched from
Quito.

     At Truxillo, Pizarro put himself at the head of his little army, and
moved without loss of time against San Miguel.  His rival, eager to bring
their quarrel to an issue, would fain have marched out to give him battle;
but his soldiers, mostly young and inexperienced levies, hastily brought
together, were intimidated by the name of Pizarro.  They loudly insisted
on being led into the upper country, where they would be reinforced by
Benalcazar; and their unfortunate commander, like the rider of some
unmanageable steed, to whose humors he is obliged to submit, was hurried
away in a direction contrary to his wishes.  It was the fate of Blasco
Nunez to have his purposes baffled alike by his friends and his enemies.

     On arriving before San Miguel, Gonzalo Pizarro found, to his great
mortification, that his antagonist had left it.  Without entering the
town, he quickened his pace, and, after traversing a valley of some
extent, reached the skirts of a mountain chain, into which Blasco Nunez
had entered but a few hours before.  It was late in the evening; but
Pizarro, knowing the importance of despatch, sent forward Carbajal with a
party of light troops to overtake the fugitives.  That captain succeeded
in coming up with their lonely bivouac among the mountains at midnight,
when the weary troops were buried in slumber.  Startled from their repose
by the blast of the trumpet, which, strange to say, their enemy had
incautiously sounded, ^6 the viceroy and his men sprang to their feet,
mounted their horses, grasped their arquebuses, and poured such a volley
into the ranks of their assailants, that Carbajal, disconcerted by his
reception, found it prudent, with his inferior force, to retreat.  The
viceroy followed, till, fearing an ambuscade in the darkness of the night,
he withdrew, and allowed his adversary to rejoin the main body of the army
under Pizarro.

[Footnote 6: "Mas Francisco Caruajal q los vua siguiendo, llego quatro
horas de la noche a dode estauan: y con vna Trompeta que lleuaua les toco
arma: y sentido por el Virey se leuanto luego el primero." Fernandez,
Hist. del Peru, Parte 1 lib. 1, cap. 40.]

     This conduct of Carbajal, by which he allowed the game to slip
through his hands, from mere carelessness, is inexplicable.  It forms a
singular exception to the habitual caution and vigilance displayed in his
military career.  Had it been the act of any other captain, it would have
cost him his head.  But Pizarro, although greatly incensed, set too high a
value on the services and well-tried attachment of his lieutenant, to
quarrel with him.  Still it was considered of the last importance to
overtake the enemy, before he had advanced much farther to the north,
where the difficulties of the ground would greatly embarrass the pursuit.
Carbajal, anxious to retrieve his error, was accordingly again placed at
the head of a corps of light troops, with instructions to harass the
enemy's march, cut off his stores, and keep him in check, if possible,
till the arrival of Pizarro. ^7

[Footnote 7: Ibid., ubi supra. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 7, lib. 9,
cap. 22. - Garcilasso, Com. Real., lib. 9, cap. 26.]

     But the viceroy had profited by the recent delay to gain considerably
on his pursuers.  His road led across the valley of Caxas, a broad,
uncultivated district, affording little sustenance for man or beast.  Day
after day, his troops held on their march through this dreary region,
intersected with barrancas and rocky ravines that added incredibly to
their toil.  Their principal food was the parched corn, which usually
formed the nourishment of the travelling Indians, though held of much less
account by the Spaniards; and this meagre fare was reinforced by such
herbs as they found on the way-side, which, for want of better utensils,
the soldiers were fain to boil in their helmets. ^8 Carbajal, mean while,
pressed on them so close, that their baggage, ammunition, and sometimes
their mules, fell into his hands.  The indefatigable warrior was always on
their track, by day and by night, allowing them scarcely any repose.  They
spread no tent, and lay down in their arms, with their steeds standing
saddled beside them; and hardly had the weary soldier closed his eyes,
when he was startled by the cry that the enemy was upon him. ^9

[Footnote 8: "Caminando, pues, comiendo algunas Jervas, que cocian en las
Celadas, quando paraban a dar aliento a los Caballos." Herrera, Hist.
General, dec. 7, lib. 9, cap 24.]

[Footnote 9: "I sin que en todo el camino los vnos, ni los otros, quitasen
las Sillas a los Caballos, aunque en este caso estaba mas alerta la Gente
del Visorei, porque si algun pequeno rato de la Noche reposaban, era
vestidos, i teniendo siempre los Caballos del Cabestro, sin esperar a
poner Toldos, ni a aderecar las otras formas, que se suelen tener para
atar los Caballos de Noche." Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 5, cap. 29.]

     At length, the harassed followers of Blasco Nunez reached the
depoblado, or desert of Paltos, which stretches towards the north for many
a dreary league.  The ground, intersected by numerous streams, has the
character of a great quagmire, and men and horses floundered about in the
stagnant waters, or with difficulty worked their way over the marsh, or
opened a passage through the tangled underwood that shot up in rank
luxuriance from the surface.  The wayworn horses, without food, except
such as they could pick up in the wilderness, were often spent with
travel, and, becoming unserviceable, were left to die on the road, with
their hamstrings cut, that they might be of no use to the enemy; though
more frequently they were despatched to afford a miserable banquet to
their masters. ^10 Many of the men now fainted by the way from mere
exhaustion, or loitered in the woods, unable to keep up with the march.
And woe to the straggler who fell into the hands of Carbajal, at least if
he had once belonged to the party of Pizarro.  The mere suspicion of
treason sealed his doom with the unrelenting soldier. ^11

[Footnote 10: "I en cansandose el Caballo, le desjarretaba, i le dexaba,
porque sus contrarios no se aprovechasen de el." Ibid., loc. cit.]

[Footnote 11: "Had it not been for Gonzalo Pizarro's interference," says
Fernandez, "many more would have been hung up by his lieutenant, who
pleasantly quoted the old Spanish proverb, - 'The fewer of our enemies the
better.'" De los enemigos, los menos.  Hist. del Peru, Parte 1, lib. 1,
cap. 40.]

     The sufferings of Pizarro and his troop were scarcely less than those
of the viceroy; though they were somewhat mitigated by the natives of the
country, who, with ready instinct, discerned which party was the
strongest, and, of course, the most to be feared.  But, with every
alleviation, the chieftain's sufferings were terrible.  It was repeating
the dismal scenes of the expedition to the Amazon.  The soldiers of the
Conquest must be admitted to have purchased their triumphs dearly.

     Yet the viceroy had one source of disquietude, greater, perhaps, than
any arising from physical suffering.  This was the distrust of his own
followers.  There were several of the principal cavaliers in his suite
whom he suspected of being in correspondence with the enemy, and even of
designing to betray him into their hands.  He was so well convinced of
this, that he caused two of these officers to be put to death on the
march; and their dead bodies, as they lay by the roadside, meeting the eye
of the soldier, told him that there were others to be feared in these
frightful solitudes besides the enemy in his rear. ^12

[Footnote 12: "Los afligidos Soldados, que por el cansancio de los
Caballos iban a pie con terrible angustia, por la persecucion de los
Enemigos, que iban cerca, i por la fatiga de la hambre, quando vieron los
Cuerpos de los dos Capitanes muertos en aquel camino quedaron atonitos."
Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 7, lib. 9, cap. 25.]

     Another cavalier, who held the chief command under the viceroy, was
executed, after a more formal investigation of his case, at the first
place where the army halted.  At this distance of time, it is impossible
to determine how far the suspicions of Blasco Nunez were founded on truth.
The judgments of contemporaries are at variance. ^13 In times of political
ferment, the opinion of the writer is generally determined by the
complexion of his party.  To judge from the character of Blasco Nunez,
jealous and irritable, we might suppose him to have acted without
sufficient cause.  But this consideration is counterbalanced by that of
the facility with which his followers swerved from their allegiance to
their commander, who seems to have had so light a hold on their
affections, that they were shaken off by the least reverse of fortune.
Whether his suspicions were well or ill founded, the effect was the same
on the mind of the viceroy.  With an enemy in his rear whom he dared not
fight, and followers whom he dared not trust, the cup of his calamities
was nearly full.

[Footnote 13: Fernandez, who held a loyal pen, and one sufficiently
friendly to the viceroy, after stating that the officers, whom the latter
put to death, had served him to that time with their lives and fortunes,
dismisses the affair with the temperate reflection, that men formed
different judgments on it.  "Sobre estas muertes uuo en el Peru varios y
contrarios juyzios y opiniones, de culpa y de su descargo." (Hist. del
Peru, Parte 1, lib. 1, cap. 41.) Gomara says, more unequivocally, "All
condemned it." (Hist. de las Ind., cap. 167.) The weight of opinion seems
to have been against the viceroy.]

     At length, he issued forth on firm ground, and, passing through
Tomebamba, Blasco Nunez reentered his northern capital of Quito.  But his
reception was not so cordial as that which he had before experienced.  He
now came as a fugitive, with a formidable enemy in pursuit; and he was
soon made to feel that the surest way to receive support is not to need
it.

     Shaking from his feet the dust of the disloyal city, whose
superstitious people were alive to many an omen that boded his approaching
ruin, ^14 the unfortunate commander held on his way towards Pastos, in the
jurisdiction of Benalcazar.  Pizarro and his forces entered Quito not long
after, disappointed, that, with all his diligence, the enemy still eluded
his pursuit.  He halted only to breathe his men, and, declaring that "he
would follow up the viceroy to the North Sea but he would overtake
him," ^15 he resumed his march.  At Pastos, he nearly accomplished his
object.  His advance-guard came up with Blasco Nunez as the latter was
halting on the opposite bank of a rivulet.  Pizarro's men, fainting from
toil and heat, staggered feebly to the water-side, to slake their burning
thirst, and it would have been easy for the viceroy's troops, refreshed by
repose, and superior in number to their foes, to have routed them.  But
Blasco Nunez could not bring his soldiers to the charge.  They had fled so
long before their enemy, that the mere sight of him filled their hearts
with panic, and they would have no more thought of turning against him
than the hare would turn against the hound that pursues her.  Their
safety, they felt, was to fly, not to fight, and they profited by the
exhaustion of their pursuers only to quicken their retreat.

[Footnote 14: Some of these omens recorded by the historian - as the
howling of dogs - were certainly no miracles.  "En esta lamentable, i
angustiosa partida, muchos afirmaron, haver visto por el Aire muchos
Cometas, i que quadrillas de Perros andaban por las Calles, dando grandes
i temerosos ahullidos, i los Hombres andaban asombrados, i fuera de si."
Herrera Hist. General, dec. 7, lib. 10, cap. 4.]

[Footnote 15: Ibid., ubi supra.]

     Gonzalo Pizarro continued the chase some leagues beyond Pastos; when,
finding himself carried farther than he desired into the territories of
Benalcazar, and not caring to encounter this formidable captain at
disadvantage, he came to a halt, and, notwithstanding his magnificent
vaunt about the North Sea, ordered a retreat, and made a rapid
countermarch on Quito.  Here he found occupation in repairing the wasted
spirits of his troops, and in strengthening himself with fresh
reinforcements, which much increased his numbers; though these were again
diminished by a body that he detached under Carbajal to suppress an
insurrection, which he now learned had broken out in the south.  It was
headed by Diego Centeno, one of his own officers, whom he had established
in La Plata, the inhabitants of which place had joined in the revolt and
raised the standard for the Crown.  With the rest of his forces, Pizarro
resolved to remain at Quito, waiting the hour when the viceroy would
reenter his dominions; as the tiger crouches by some spring in the
wilderness, patiently waiting the return of his victims.

     Meanwhile Blasco Nunez had pushed forward his retreat to Popayan, the
capital of Benalcazar's province.  Here he was kindly received by the
people; and his soldiers, reduced by desertion and disease to one fifth of
their original number, rested from the unparalleled fatigues of a march
which had continued for more than two hundred leagues. ^16 It was not long
before he was joined by Cabrera, Benalcazar's lieutenant, with a stout
reinforcement, and, soon after, by that chieftain himself.  His whole
force now amounted to near four hundred men, most of them in good
condition, and well trained in the school of American warfare.  His own
men were sorely deficient both in arms and ammunition; and he set about
repairing the want by building furnaces for manufacturing arquebuses and
pikes. ^17 - One familiar with the history of these times is surprised to
see the readiness with which the Spanish adventurers turned their hands to
various trades and handicrafts usually requiring a long apprenticeship.
They displayed the dexterity so necessary to settlers in a new country,
where every man must become in some degree his own artisan.  But this
state of things, however favorable to the ingenuity of the artist, is not
very propitious to the advancement of the art; and there can be little
doubt that the weapons thus made by the soldiers of Blasco Nunez were of
the most rude and imperfect construction.

[Footnote 16: This retreat of Blasco Nunez may undoubtedly compare, if not
in duration, at least in sharpness of suffering, with any expedition in
the New World, - save, indeed, that of Gonzalo Pizarro himself to the
Amazon.  The particulars of it may be found, with more or less
amplification, in Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 5, cap. 19, 29. - Carta de
Gonzalo Pizarro a Valdivia, Ms. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 7, lib. 9,
cap. 20-26. - Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 1, lib. 1, cap. 40, et seq.
- Relacion de los Sucesos del Peru, Ms - Relacion Anonima, Ms. -
Montesions, Annales, Ms., ano 1545.]

[Footnote 17: "Proveio, que se tragese alli todo el hierro que se pudo
haver en la Provincia, i busco Maestros, hico aderecar Fraguas, i en breve
tiempo se forjaron en ellas docien tos Arcabuces, con todos sus aparejos."
Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 5, cap 34.]