The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0072/00721.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 23KB | 371 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00721}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Chapter III: Part I}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Prescott, William H.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{de
pizarro
los
ms
del
natives
himself
tumbez
conq
country
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{1864}
$Log{See Peruvian Settlement*0072101.scf
}
Title:       History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Book:        Book III: Conquest Of Peru
Author:      Prescott, William H.
Date:        1864

Chapter III: Part I

The Spaniards Land At Tumbez. - Pizarro Reconnoitres The Country. - Foundation
Of San Miguel. - March Into The Interior. - Embassy From The Inca. -
Adventures On The March - Reach The Foot Of The Andes.

     1532.

     We left the Spaniards at the island of Puna, preparing to make their
descent on the neighbouring continent at Tumbez.  This port was but a few
leagues distant, and Pizarro, with the greater part of his followers, passed
over in the ships, while a few others were to transport the commander's
baggage and the military stores on some of the Indian balsas.  One of the
latter vessels which first touched the shore was surrounded, and three
persons who were on the raft were carried off by the natives to the adjacent
woods and there massacred.  The Indians then got possession of another of the
balsas, containing Pizarro's wardrobe; but, as the men who defended it raised
loud cries for help, they reached the ears of Hernando Pizarro, who, with a
small body of horse, had effected a landing some way farther down the shore.
A broad tract of miry ground, overflowed at high water, lay between him and
the party thus rudely assailed by the natives.  The tide was out, and the
bottom was soft and dangerous.  With little regard to the danger, however,
the bold cavalier spurred his horse into the slimy depths, and followed by
his men, with the mud up to their saddle-girths, they plunged forward until
they came into the midst of the marauders, who, terrified by the strange
apparition of the horsemen, fled precipitately, without show of fight, to the
neighbouring forests.

     This conduct of the natives of Tumbez is not easy to be explained;
considering the friendly relations maintained with the Spaniards on their
preceding visit, and lately renewed in the island of Puna.  But Pizarro was
still more astonished, on entering their town, to find it not only deserted,
but, with the exception of a few buildings, entirely demolished.  Four or
five of the most substantial private dwellings, the great temple, and the
fortress - and these greatly damaged, and wholly despoiled of their interior
decorations - alone survived to mark the site of the city, and attest its
former splendor. ^1 The scene of desolation filled the conquerors with dismay;
for even the raw recruits, who had never visited the coast before, had heard
the marvelous stories of the golden treasures of Tumbez, and they had
confidently looked forward to them as an easy spoil after all their fatigues.
But the gold of Peru seemed only like a deceitful phantom, which, after
beckoning them on through toil and danger, vanished the moment they attempted
to grasp it.

[Footnote 1: Xerez, Conq del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 185.

     "Aunque lo del templo del Sol en quien ellos adoran era cosa de ver,
porque tenian grandes edificios, y todo el por de dentro y de fuera pintado
de grandes pinturas y ricos matizes de colores, porque los hay en aquella
tierra." Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.]

     Pizarro despatched a small body of troops in pursuit of the fugitives;
and, after some slight skirmishing, they got possession of several of the
natives, and among them, as it chanced, the curaca of the place.  When
brought before the Spanish commander, he exonerated himself from any share
in the violence offered to the white men, saying that it was done by a
lawless party of his people, without his knowledge at the time; and he
expressed his willingness to deliver them up to punishment, if they could be
detected.  He explained the dilapidated condition of the town by the long
wars carried on with the fierce tribes of Puna, who had at length succeeded
in getting possession of the place, and driving the inhabitants into the
neighbouring woods and mountains.  The Inca, to whose cause they were
attached, was too much occupied with his own feuds to protect them against
their enemies.

     Whether Pizarro gave any credit to the cacique's exculpation of himself
may be doubted.  He dissembled his suspicions, however, and, as the Indian
lord promised obedience in his own name, and that of his vassals, the Spanish
general consented to take no further notice of the affair.  He seems now to
have felt for the first time, in its full force, that it was his policy to
gain the good-will of the people among whom he had thrown himself in the face
of such tremendous odds.  It was, perhaps, the excesses of which his men had
been guilty in the earlier stages of the expedition that had shaken the
confidence of the people of Tumbez, and incited them to this treacherous
retaliation.

     Pizarro inquired of the natives who now, under promise of impunity, came
into the camp, what had become of his two followers that remained with them
in the former expedition.  The answers they gave were obscure and
contradictory.  Some said, they had died of an epidemic; others, that they
had died of an epidemic; others, that they had perished in the war with Puna;
and others intimated, that they had lost their lives in consequence of some
outrage attempted on the Indian women.  It was impossible to arrive at the
truth.  The last account was not the least probable.  But, whatever might be
the cause, there was no doubt they had both perished.

     This intelligence spread an additional gloom over the Spaniards; which
was not dispelled by the flaming pictures now given by the natives of the
riches of the land, and of the state and magnificence of the monarch in his
distant capital among the mountains.  Nor did they credit the authenticity
of a scroll of paper, which Pizarro had obtained from an Indian, to whom it
had been delivered by one of the white men left in the country.  "Know,
whoever you may be," said the writing, "that may chance to set foot in this
country, that it contains more gold and silver than there is iron in Biscay."
This paper, when shown to the soldiers, excited only their ridicule, as a
device of their captain to keep alive their chimerical hopes. ^2

[Footnote 2: For the account of the transactions in Tumbez, see Pedro
Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3,
lib. 8, cap. 1. - Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms. - Herrera, Hist. General,
dec. 4, lib. 9 cap. 1, 2. - Xerez, Conq. de Peru, ap Barcia tom. III. p.
185.]

     Pizarro now saw that it was not politic to protract his stay in his
present quarters, where a spirit of disaffection would soon creep into the
ranks of his followers, unless their spirits were stimulated by novelty or
a life of incessant action.  Yet he felt deeply anxious to obtain more
particulars than he had hitherto gathered of the actual condition of the
Peruvian empire, of its strength and resources, of the monarch who ruled over
it, and of his present situation.  He was also desirous, before taking any
decisive step for penetrating the country, to seek out some commodious place
for a settlement, which might afford him the means of a regular communication
with the colonies, and a place of strength, on which he himself might retreat
in case of disaster.

[See Peruvian Settlement: pizarro was desirous of seeking out some commodius
place for a settlement.]

     He decided, therefore, to leave part of his company at Tumbez, including
those who, from the state of their health, were least able to take the field,
and with the remainder to make an excursion into the interior, and
reconnoitre the land, before deciding on any plan of operations.  He set out
early in May, 1532; and, keeping along the more level regions himself, sent
a small detachment under the command