The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0072/00725.txt

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$Title{History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Chapter V: Part II}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Prescott, William H.}
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$Subject{pizarro
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$Date{1864}
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Title:       History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Book:        Book III: Conquest Of Peru
Author:      Prescott, William H.
Date:        1864

Chapter V: Part II

     Meanwhile the fight, or rather massacre, continued hot around the Inca,
whose person was the great object of the assault.  His faithful nobles,
rallying about him, threw themselves in the way of the assailants, and
strove, by tearing them from their saddles, or, at least, by offering their
own bosoms as a mark for their vengeance, to shield their beloved master.
It is said by some authorities, that they carried weapons concealed under
their clothes.  If so, it availed them little, as it is not pretended that
they used them.  But the most timid animal will defend itself when at bay.
That they did not so in the present instance is proof that they had no
weapons to use. ^22 Yet they still continued to force back the cavaliers,
clinging to their horses with dying grasp, and, as one was cut down, another
taking the place of his fallen comrade with a loyalty truly affecting.

[Footnote 22: The author of the Relacion del Primero Descubrimiento speaks
of a few as having bows and arrows, and of others as armed with silver and
copper mallets or maces, which may, however, have been more for ornament than
for service in fight. - Pedro Pizarro and some later writers say that the
Indians brought thongs with them to bind the captive white men. - Both
Hernando Pizarro and the secretary Xerez agree that their only arms were
secreted under their clothes; but as they do not pretend that these were
used, and as it was announced by the Inca that he came without arms, the
assertion may well be doubted, - or rather discredited.  All authorities
without exception, agree that no attempt was made at resistance.]

     The Indian monarch, stunned and bewildered, saw his faithful subjects
falling round him without fully comprehending his situation.  The litter on
which he rode heaved to and fro, as the mighty press swayed backwards and
forwards; and he gazed on the overwhelming ruin, like some forlorn mariner,
who, tossed about in his bark by the furious elements, sees the lightning's
flash and hears the thunder bursting around him with the consciousness that
he can do nothing to avert his fate.  At length, weary with the work of
destruction, the Spaniards, as the shades of evening grew deeper, felt afraid
that the royal prize might, after all, elude them; and some of the cavaliers
made a desperate attempt to end the affray at once by taking Atahuallpa's
life.  But Pizarro, who was nearest his person, called out with Stentorian
voice, "Let no one, who values his life, strike at the Inca"; ^23 and,
stretching out his arm to shield him, received a wound on the hand from one
of his own men, - the only wound received by a Spaniards in the action. ^24
[Footnote 23: "El marquez dio bozes diciendo.  Nadie hiera al indio so pena
de la vida." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]

[Footnote 24: Whatever discrepancy exists among the Castilian accounts in
other respects, all concur in this remarkable fact, - that no Spaniard,
except their general, received a wound on that occasion. Pizarro saw in this
a satisfactory argument for regarding the Spaniards, this day, as under the
especial protection of Providence.  See Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia,
tom. III. p. 199.]

     The struggle now became fiercer than ever round the royal litter.  It
reeled more and more, and at length, several of the nobles who supported it
having been slain, it was overturned, and the Indian prince would have come
with violence to the ground, had not his fall been broken by the efforts of
Pizarro and some other of the cavaliers, who caught him in their arms.  The
imperial borla was instantly snatched from his temples by a soldier named
Estete, ^25 and the unhappy monarch, strongly secured, was removed to a
neighbouring building, where he was carefully guarded.

[Footnote 25: Miguel Estete, who long retained the silken diadem as a trophy
of the exploit, according to Garcilasso de la Vega, (Com. Real., Parte 2,
lib. 1, cap. 27,) an indifferent authority for any thing in this part of his
history.  This popular writer, whose work, from his superior knowledge of the
institutions of the country, has obtained greater credit, eve in what relates
to the Conquest, than the reports of the Conquerors themselves, has indulged
in the romantic vein to an unpardonable extent, in his account of the capture
of Atahuallpa.  According to him, the Peruvian monarch treated the invaders
from the first with supreme deference, as descendants of Viracocha, predicted
by his oracles as to come and rule over the land.  But if this flattering
homage had been paid by the Inca, it would never have escaped the notice of
the Conquerors.  Garcilasso had read the Commentaries of Cortes, as he
somewhere tells us; and it is probable that that general's account, well
founded, it appears, of a similar superstition among the Aztecs suggested to
the historian the idea of a corresponding sentiment in the Peruvians, which,
while it flattered the vanity of the Spaniards, in some degree vindicated his
own countrymen from the charge of cowardice, incurred by their too ready
submission; for, however they might be called on to resist men, it would have
been madness to resist the decrees of Heaven. Yet Garcilasso's romantic
version has something in it so pleasing to the imagination, that it has even
found favor with the majority of readers.  The English student might have met
with a sufficient corrective in the criticism of the sagacious and skeptical
Robertson.]

     All attempt at resistance now ceased.  The fate of the Inca soon spread
over town and country.  The charm which might have held the Peruvians
together was dissolved.  Every man thought only of his own safety.  Even the
soldiery encamped on the adjacent fields took the alarm, and, learning the
fatal tidings, were seen flying in every direction before their pursuers, who
in the heat of triumph showed no touch of mercy.  At length night, more
pitiful than man, threw her friendly mantle over the fugitives, and the
scattered troops of Pizarro rallied once more at the sound of the trumpet in
the bloody square of Caxamalca.

     The number of slain is reported, as usual, with great discrepancy.
Pizarro's secretary says two thousand natives fell. ^26 A descendant of the
Incas - a safer authority than Garcilasso - swells the number to ten
thousand. ^27 Truth is generally found somewhere between the extremes.  The
slaughter was incessant, for there was nothing to check it.  That there
should have been no resistance will not appear strange, when we consider the
fact, that the wretched victims were without arms, and that their senses must
have been completely overwhelmed by the strange and appalling spectacle which
burst on them so unexpectedly.  "What wonder was it," said an ancient Inca
to a Spaniard, who repeats it, "what wonder that our countrymen lost their
wits, seeing blood run like water, and the Inca, whose person we all of us
adore, seized and carried off by a handful of men?" ^28 Yet though the
massacre was incessant, it was short in duration.  The whole time consumed
by it, the brief twilight of the tropics, did not much exceed half an hour;
a short period, indeed, - yet long enough to decide the fate of Peru, and to
subvert the dynasty of the Incas.

[Footnote 26: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 199.]

[Footnote 27: "Los mataron a todos con los Cavallos con espadas con arcabuzes
como quien mata ovejas - sin hacerles nadie resistencia que no se escaparon
de mas de diez mil, doscientos," Instruc. del Inga Titucussi, Ms.

     This document, consisting of two hundred folio pages, is signed by a
Peruvian Inca, grandson of the great Huayna C