The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0072/00726.txt

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$Title{History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Chapter VI}
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$Author{Prescott, William H.}
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$Subject{de
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gold
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$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 VI

Gold Arrives For The Ransom. - Visit To Pachacamac. - Demolition Of The Idol.
- The Inca's Favorite General. - The Inca's Life In Confinement. - Envoy's
Conduct In Cuzco. - Arrival Of Almagro.

     1533.

     Several weeks had now passed since Atahuallpa's emissaries had been
despatched for the gold and silver that were to furnish his ransom to the
Spaniards.  But the distances were great, and the returns came in slowly. They
consisted, for the most part, of massive pieces of plate, some of which
weighed two or three arrobas, - a Spanish weight of twenty-five pounds.  On
some days, articles of the value of thirty or forty thousand pesos de oro were
brought in, and, occasionally, of the value of fifty or even sixty thousand
pesos.  The greedy eyes of the Conquerors gloated on the shining heaps of
treasure, which were transported on the shoulders of the Indian porters, and,
after being carefully registered, were placed in safe deposit under a strong
guard.  They now began to believe that the magnificent promises of the Inca
would be fulfilled.  But, as their avarice was sharpened by the ravishing
display of wealth, such as they had hardly dared to imagine, they became more
craving and impatient.  They made no allowance for the distance and the
difficulties of the way, and loudly inveighed against the tardiness with which
the royal commands were executed.  They even suspected Atahuallpa of devising
this scheme only to gain a pretext for communicating with his subjects in
distant places, and of proceeding as dilatorily as possible, in order to
secure time for the execution of his plans.  Rumors of a rising among the
Peruvians were circulated, and the Spaniards were in apprehension of some
general and sudden assault on their quarters.  Their new acquisitions gave
them additional cause for solicitude; like a miser, they trembled in the midst
of their treasures. ^1

[Footnote 1: Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, sap. 6. - Naharro, Relacion
Sumaria, Ms. - Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 204.]

     Pizarro reported to his captive the rumors that were in circulation
among the soldiers, naming, as one of the places pointed out for the
rendezvous of the Indians, the neighbouring city of Guamachucho.  Atahuallpa
listened with undisguised astonishment, and indignantly repelled the charge,
as false from beginning to end.  "No one of my subjects," said he, "would
dare to appear in arms, or to raise his finger, without my orders.  You have
me," he continued, "in your power.  Is not my life at your disposal?  And
what better security can you have for my fidelity?" He then represented to
the Spanish commander, that the distances of many of the places were very
great; that to Cuzco, the capital, although a message might be sent by post,
through a succession of couriers, in five days from Caxamalca, it would
require weeks for a porter to travel over the same ground, with a heavy load
on his back.  "But that you may be satisfied I am proceeding in good faith,"
he added, "I desire you will send some of your own people to Cuzco.  I will
give them a safe-conduct, and, when there, they can superintend the execution
of the commission, and see with their own eyes that no hostile movements are
intended." It was a fair offer, and Pizarro, anxious to get more precise and
authentic information of the state of the country, gladly availed himself of
it. ^2

[Footnote 2: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap.
Barcia, tom. III. pp. 203, 204. - Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms.]

     Before the departure of these emissaries, the general had despatched his
brother Hernando with about twenty horse and a small body of infantry to the
neighbouring town of Guamachucho, in order to reconnoitre the country, and
ascertain if there was any truth in the report of an armed force having
assembled there.  Hernando found every thing quiet, and met with a kind
reception from the natives.  But before leaving the place, he received
further orders from his brother to continue his march to Pachacamac, a town
situated on the coast, at least a hundred leagues distant from Caxamalca.
It was consecrated as the seat of the great temple of the deity of that name,
whom the Peruvians worshipped as the Creator of the world.  It is said that
they found there altars raised to this god, on their first occupation of the
country; and, such was the veneration in which he was held by the natives,
that the Incas, instead of attempting to abolish his worship, deemed it more
prudent to sanction it conjointly with that of their own deity, the Sun.
Side by side, the two temples rose on the heights that overlooked the city
of Pachacamac, and prospered in the offerings of their respective votaries.
"It was a cunning arrangement," says an ancient writer, "by which the great
enemy of man secured to himself a double harvest of souls." ^3

[Footnote 3: "El demonio Pachacama alegre con este concierto, afirman que
mostraua en sus respuestas gran contento: pues con lo vno y lo otro era el
seruido, y quedauan las animas de los simples malauenturados presas en su
poder." Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 72.]

     But the temple of Pachacamac continued to maintain its ascendency; and
the oracles delivered from its dark and mysterious shrine, were held in no
less repute among the natives of Tavantinsuyu, (or "the four quarters of the
world," as Peru under the Incas was called,) than the oracles of Delphi
obtained among the Greeks.  Pilgrimages were made to the hallowed spot from
the most distant regions, and the city of Pachacamac became among the
Peruvians what Mecca was among the Mahometans, or Cholula with the people of
Anahuac.  The shrine of the deity, enriched by the tributes of the pilgrims,
gradually became one of the most opulent in the land, and Atahuallpa, anxious
to collect his ransom as speedily as possible, urged Pizarro to send a
detachment in that direction, to secure the treasures before they could be
secreted by the priests of the temple.

     It was a journey of considerable difficulty.  Two thirds of the route
lay along the table-land of the Cordilleras, intersected occasionally by
crests of the mountain range, that imposed no slight impediment to their
progress.  Fortunately, much of the way, they had the benefit of the great
road to Cuzco, and "nothing in Christendom," exclaims Hernando Pizarro,
"equals the magnificence of this road across the sierra." ^4 In some places,
the rocky ridges were so precipitous, that steps were cut in them for the
travellers; and though the sides were protected by heavy stone balustrades
or parapets, it was with the greatest difficulty that the horses were enabled
to scale them.  The road was frequently crossed by streams, over which
bridges of wood and sometimes of stone were thrown; though occasionally,
along the declivities of the mountains, the waters swept down in such furious
torrents, that the only method of passing them was by the swinging bridges
of osier, of which, till now, the Spaniards had had little experience.  They
were secured on either bank to heavy buttresses of stone.  But as they were
originally designed for nothing heavier than the foot-passenger and the
llama, and, as they had something exceedingly fragile in their appearance,
the Spaniards hesitated to venture on them with their horses.  Experience,
however, soon showed they were capable of bearing a much greater weight; and
though the traveller, made giddy by the vibration of the long avenue, looked
with a reeling brain into the torrent that was tumbling at the depth of a
hundred feet or more below him, the whole of the cavalry effected their
passage witho