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$Title{History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Chapter V: Part II}
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$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 V: Part II

     The conspirators, having accomplished their bloody deed, rushed into
the street, and, brandishing their dripping weapons, shouted out, "The
tyrant is dead!  The laws are restored!  Long live our master the emperor,
and his governor, Almagro!" The men of Chili, roused by the cheering cry,
now flocked in from every side to join the banner of Rada, who soon found
himself at the head of nearly three hundred followers, all armed and
prepared to support his authority.  A guard was placed over the houses of
the principal partisans of the late governor, and their persons were taken
into custody.  Pizarro's house, and that of his secretary Picado, were
delivered up to pillage, and a large booty in gold and silver was found in
the former.  Picado himself took refuge in the dwelling of Riquelme, the
treasurer; but his hiding-place was detected, - betrayed, according to
some accounts, by the looks, though not the words, of the treasurer
himself, - and he was dragged forth and committed to a secure prison. ^17
The whole city was thrown into consternation, as armed bodies hurried to
and fro on their several errands, and all who were not in the faction of
Almagro trembled lest they should be involved in the proscription of their
enemies.  So great was the disorder, that the Brothers of Mercy, turning
out in a body, paraded the streets in solemn procession, with the host
elevated in the air, in hopes by the presence of the sacred symbol to calm
the passions of the multitude.

[Footnote 17: "No se olvidaron de buscar a Antonio Picado, i iendo en casa
del Tesorero Alonso Riquelme, el mismo iba diciendo: No se adonde esta el
Senor Picado, i con los ojos le mostraba, i le hallaron debaxo de la
cama." Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 10, cap. 7.

     We find Riquelme's name, soon after this, enrolled among the municipality
of Lima, showing that he found it convenient to give in his temporary
adhesion, at least, to Almagro.  Carta de la Justicia y Regimiento de la
Ciudad de los Reyes, Ms.]

     But no other violence was offered by Rada and his followers than to
apprehend a few suspected persons, and to seize upon horses and arms
wherever they were to be found.  The municipality was then summoned to
recognize the authority of Almagro; the refractory were ejected without
ceremony from their offices, and others of the Chili faction were
substituted.  The claims of the new aspirant were fully recognized; and
young Almagro, parading the streets on horseback, and escorted by a
well-armed body of cavaliers, was proclaimed by sound of trumpet governor
and captain-general of Peru.

     Meanwhile, the mangled bodies of Pizarro and his faithful adherents
were left weltering in their blood.  Some were for dragging forth the
governor's corpse to the market-place, and fixing his head upon a gibbet.
But Almagro was secretly prevailed on to grant the entreaties of Pizarro's
friends, and allow his interment.  This was stealthily and hastily
performed, in the fear of momentary interruption.  A faithful attendant
and his wife, with a few black domestics, wrapped the body in a cotton
cloth and removed it to the cathedral.  A grave was hastily dug in an
obscure corner, the services were hurried through, and, in secrecy, and in
darkness dispelled only by the feeble glimmering of a few tapers furnished
by these humble menials, the remains of Pizarro, rolled in their bloody
shroud, were consigned to their kindred dust.  Such was the miserable end
of the Conqueror of Peru, - of the man who but a few hours before had
lorded it over the land with as absolute a sway as was possessed by its
hereditary Incas.  Cut off in the broad light of day, in the heart of his
own capital, in the very midst of those who had been his companions in
arms and shared with him his triumphs and his spoils, he perished like a
wretched outcast.  "There was none even," in the expressive language of
the chronicler "to say, God forgive him!" ^18

[Footnote 18: "Murio pidiendo confesion, i haciendo la Cruz, sin que nadie
lijese, Dios te perdone." Gomara, Hist de las Ind., cap. 144.

     Ms. de Caravantes. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 8. - Carta
del Maestro, Martin de Arauco, Ms. - Carta de Fray Vicente Valverde, desde
Tumbez, Ms.]

     A few years later, when tranquillity was restored to the country,
Pizarro's remains were placed in a sumptuous coffin and deposited under a
monument in a conspicuous part of the cathedral.  And in 1607, when time
had thrown its friendly mantle over the past, and the memory of his errors
and his crimes was merged in the consideration of the great services he
had rendered to the Crown by the extension of her colonial empire, his
bones were removed to the new cathedral, and allowed to repose side by
side with those of Mendoza, the wise and good viceroy of Peru. ^19

[Footnote 19: "Sus huesos encerrados en una caxa guarnecida de terciopelo
morado con passamanos de oro que yo he visto." Ms. de Caravantes.]

     Pizarro was, probably, not far from sixty-five years of age at the
time of his death; though this, it must be added, is but loose conjecture,
since there exists no authentic record of the date of his birth. ^20 He was
never married; but by an Indian princess of the Inca blood, daughter of
Atahuallpa and granddaughter of the great Huayna Capac, he had two
children, a son and a daughter.  Both survived him; but the son did not
live to manhood.  Their mother, after Pizarro's death, wedded a Spanish
cavalier, named Ampuero, and removed with him to Spain.  Her daughter
Francisca accompanied her, and was there subsequently married to her uncle
Hernando Pizarro, then a prisoner in the Mota del Medina.  Neither the
title nor estates of the Marquess Francisco descended to his illegitimate
offspring.  But in the third generation, in the reign of Philip the
Fourth, the title was revived in favor of Don Juan Hernando Pizarro, who,
out of gratitude for the services of his ancestor, was created Marquess of
the Conquest, Marques de la Conquista, with a liberal pension from
government.  His descendants, bearing the same title of nobility, are
still to be found, it is said, at Truxillo, in the ancient province of
Estremadura, the original birthplace of the Pizarros. ^21

[Footnote 20: Ante, Book 2, chap. 2, note 1.]

[Footnote 21: Ms. de Caravantes. - Quintana, Espanoles Celebres, tom. II.,
p. 417.

     See also the Discurso, Legal y Politico, annexed by Pizarro y
Orellana to his bulky tome, in which that cavalier urges the claims of
Pizarro.  It is in the nature of a memorial to Philip IV in behalf of
Pizarro's descendants, in which the writer, after setting forth the
manifold services of the Conqueror, shows how little his posterity had
profited by the magnificent grants conferred on him by the Crown.  The
argument of the Royal Counsellor was not without its effect.]

     Pizarro's person has been already described.  He was tall in stature,
well-proportioned, and with a countenance not unpleasing.  Bred in camps,
with nothing of the polish of a court, he had a soldier-like bearing, and
the air of one accustomed to command.  But though not polished, there was
no embarrassment or rusticity in his address, which, where it served his
purpose, could be plausible and even insinuating.  The proof of it is the
favorable impression made by him, on presenting himself, after his second
expedition - stranger as he was to all its forms and usages - at the
punctilious court of Castile.

     Unlike many of his countrymen, he had no passion for ostentatious
dress, which he regarded as an incumbrance.  The costume which he most
affected on public occasions was a black cloak, with a white hat, and
shoes of the same color; the last, it is said, being in imitation of the
Great Captain, whose character he had early learned to admire in Italy,
but to which his own, certainly, bore very faint resemblance. ^22

[Footnote 22: Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. 144. - Zarate, Conq. del
Peru. lib. 4, cap. 9.

     The portrait of Pizarro, in the viceregal palace at Lima, represents him
in a citizen's dress, with a sable cloak, - the capa y espada of a Spanish
gentleman.  Each panel in the spacious sala de los Vireyes was reserved for
the portrait of a viceroy.  The long file is complete, from Pizarro to
Pezuela; and it is a curious fact, noticed by Stevenson, that the last panel
was exactly filled when the reign of the viceroys was abruptly terminated by
the Revolution.  (Residence in South America, vol. I. p. 228.) It is a
singular coincidence that the same thing should have occurred at Venice,
where, if my memory serves me, the last niche reserved for the effigies of its
doges was just filled, when the ancient aristocracy was overturned.]

     He was temperate in eating, drank sparingly, and usually rose an hour
before dawn.  He was punctual in attendance to business, and shrunk from no
toil.  He had, indeed, great powers of patient endurance.  Like most of his
nation, he was fond of play, and cared little for the quality of those with
whom he played; though, when his antagonist could not afford to lose, he would
allow himself, it is said, to be the loser; a mode of conferring an obligation
much commended by a Castilian writer, for its delicacy. ^23

[Footnote 23: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 9.]

     Though avaricious, it was in order to spend and not to hoard.  His ample
treasures, more ample than those, probably, that ever before fell to the lot
of an adventurer, ^24 were mostly dissipated in his enterprises, his
architectural works, and schemes of public improvement, which, in a country
where gold and silver might be said to have lost their value from their
abundance, absorbed an incredible amount of money.  While he regarded the
whole country, in a manner, as his own, and distributed it freely among his
captains, it is certain that the princely grant of a territory with twenty
thousand vassals, made to him by the Crown, was never carried into effect; nor
did his heirs ever reap the benefit of it. ^25

[Footnote 24: "Hallo, i tuvo mas Oro, i Plata, que otro ningun Espanol de
quantos han pasado a Indias, ni que ninguno de quantos Capitanes han sido por
el Mundo." Gomara Hist. de las Ind., cap. 144.]

[Footnote 25: Ms. de Caravantes. - Pizarro y Orellana, Discurso Leg. y Pol.,
ap. Varones Ilust.  Gonzalo Pizarro, when taken prisoner by President Gasca,
challenged him to point out any quarter of the country in which the royal
grant had been carried into effect by a specific assignment of land to his
brother.  See Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 5, cap. 36.]

     To a man possessed of the active energies of Pizarro, sloth was the
greatest evil.  The excitement of play was in a manner necessary to a
spirit accustomed to the habitual stimulants of war and adventure.  His
uneducated mind had no relish for more refined, intellectual recreation.
The deserted foundling had neither been taught to read nor write.  This
has been disputed by some, but it is attested by unexceptionable
authorities. ^26 Montesinos says, indeed, that Pizarro, on his first
voyage, tried to learn to read; but the impatience of his temper prevented
it, and he contented himself with learning to sign his name. ^27 But
Montesinos was not a contemporary historian.  Pedro Pizarro, his companion
in arms, expressly tells us he could neither read nor write; ^28 and
Zarate, another contemporary, well acquainted with the Conquerors,
confirms this statement, and adds, that Pizarro could not so much as sign
his name. ^29 This was done by his secretary - Picado, in his latter years
- while the governor merely made the customary rubrica or flourish at the
sides of his name.  This is the case with the instruments I have examined,
in which his signature, written probably by his secretary, or his title of
Marques, in later life substituted for his name, is garnished with a
flourish at the ends, executed in as bungling a manner as if done by the
hand of a ploughman.  Yet we must not estimate this deficiency as we
should in this period of general illumination, - general, at least, in our
own fortunate country.  Reading and writing, so universal now, in the
beginning of the sixteenth century might be regarded in the light of
accomplishments; and all who have occasion to consult the autograph
memorials of that time will find the execution of them, even by persons of
the highest rank, too often such as would do little credit to a schoolboy
of the present day.

[Footnote 26: Even so experienced a person as Munoz seems to have fallen
into this error.  On one of Pizarro's letters I find the following copy of
an autograph memorandum by this eminent scholar: - Carta de Francisco
Pizarro, su letra i buena letra.]

[Footnote 27: "En este viage trato Pizarro de aprender a leer; no le dio
su viveza lugar a ello; contentose solo con saber firmar, de lo que se
veia Almagro, y decia, que firmar sin saber leer era lo mismo que recibir
herida, sin poder darla.  En adelante firmo siempre Pizarro por si, y por
Almagro su Secretario." Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1525.]

[Footnote 28: "Porque el marquez don Francisco Picarro como no savia ler
ni escrivir." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms]

[Footnote 29: "Siendo personas," says the author, speaking both of Pizarro
and Almagro, "no solamente, no leidas, pero que de todo punto no sabian
leer, ni aun firmar, que en ellos fue cosa de gran defecto. . . . . . Fue
el Marques tan confiado de sus Criados, i Amigos, que todos los Despachos,
que hacia, asi de Governacion, como de Repartimientos de Indios, libraba
ha ciendo el dos senales, en medio de las quales Antonio Picado, su
Secretario, firmaba el nombre de Francisco Picarro." Zarate, Conq. del
Peru, lib. 4, cap. 9.]

     Though bold in action and not easily turned from his purpose, Pizarro
was slow in arriving at a decision.  This gave him an appearance of
irresolution foreign to his character. ^30 Perhaps the consciousness of
this led him to adopt the custom of saying 'No," at first, to applicants
for favor; and afterwards, at leisure, to revise his judgment, and grant
what seemed to him expedient.  He took the opposite course from his
comrade Almagro, who, it was observed, generally said "Yes," but too often
failed to keep his promise.  This was characteristic of the careless and
easy nature of the latter, governed by impulse rather than principle. ^31

[Footnote 30: This tardiness of resolve has even led Herrera to doubt his
resolution altogether; a judgment certainly contradicted by the whole
tenor of his history.  "Porque aunque era astuto, i recatado, por la maior
parte fue de animo suspenso, i no mui resoluto." Hist. General, dec. 5,
lib. 7, cap. 13.]

[Footnote 31: "Tenia por costumbre de quando algo le pedian dezir siempre
de no. esto dezia el que hazia por no faltar su palabra, y no obstante que
dezia no, correspondia con hazer lo que le pedian no aviendo
inconvenimente. . . . . . Don Diego de Almagro hera a la contra que a
todos dezia si, y con pocos lo cumplia." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq.,
Ms.]

     It is hardly necessary to speak of the courage of a man pledged to
such a career as that of Pizarro.  Courage, indeed, was a cheap quality
among the Spanish adventurers, for danger was their element.  But he
possessed something higher than mere animal courage, in that constancy of
purpose which was rooted too deeply in his nature to be shaken by the
wildest storms of fortune.  It was this inflexible constancy which formed
the key to his character, and constituted the secret of his success.  A
remarkable evidence of it was given in his first expedition, among the
mangroves and dreary marshes of Choco.  He saw his followers pining around
him under the blighting malaria, wasting before an invisible enemy, and
unable to strike a stroke in their own defence.  Yet his spirit did not
yield, nor did he falter in his enterprise.

     There is something oppressive to the imagination in this war against
nature.  In the struggle of man against man, the spirits are raised by a
contest conducted on equal terms; but in a war with the elements, we feel,
that, however bravely we may contend, we can have no power to control.
Nor are we cheered on by the prospect of glory in such a contest; for, in
the capricious estimate of human glory, the silent endurance of
privations, however painful, is little, in comparison with the
ostentatious trophies of victory.  The laurel of the hero - alas for
humanity that it should be so!  - grows best on the battle-field.

     This inflexible spirit of Pizarro was shown still more strongly,
when, in the little island of Gallo, he drew the line on the sand, which
was to separate him and his handful of followers from their country and
from civilized man.  He trusted that his own constancy would give strength
to the feeble, and rally brave hearts around him for the prosecution of
his enterprise.  He looked with confidence to the future, and he did not
miscalculate.  This was heroic, and wanted only a nobler motive for its
object to constitute the true moral sublime.

     Yet the same feature in his character was displayed in a manner
scarcely less remarkable, when, landing on the coast and ascertaining the
real strength and civilization of the Incas, he persisted in marching into
the interior at the head of a force of less than two hundred men.  In this
he undoubtedly proposed to himself the example of Cortes, so contagious to
the adventurous spirits of that day, and especially to Pizarro, engaged,
as he was, in a similar enterprise.  Yet the hazard assumed by Pizarro was
far greater than that of the Conqueror of Mexico, whose force was nearly
three times as large, while the terrors of the Inca name - however
justified by the result - were as widely spread as those of the Aztecs.

     It was doubtless in imitation of the same captivating model, that
Pizarro planned the seizure of Atahuallpa.  But the situations of the two
Spanish captains were as dissimilar as the manner in which their acts of
violence were conducted.  The wanton massacre of the Peruvians resembled
that perpetrated by Alvarado in Mexico, and might have been attended with
consequences as disastrous, if the Peruvian character had been as fierce
as that of the Aztecs. ^32 But the blow which roused the latter to madness
broke the tamer spirits of the Peruvians.  It was a bold stroke, which
left so much to chance, that it scarcely merits the name of policy.

[Footnote 32: See Conquest of Mexico, Book 4, chap 8.]

     When Pizarro landed in the country, he found it distracted by a
contest for the crown.  It would seem to have been for his interest to
play off one party against the other, throwing his own weight into the
scale that suited him.  Instead of this, he resorted to an act of
audacious violence which crushed them both at a blow.  His subsequent
career afforded no scope for the profound policy displayed by Cortes, when
he gathered conflicting nations under his banner, and directed them
against a common foe.  Still less did he have the opportunity of
displaying the tactics and admirable strategy of his rival.  Cortes
conducted his military operations on the scientific principles of a great
captain at the head of a powerful host.  Pizarro appears only as an
adventurer, a fortunate knight-errant.  By one bold stroke, he broke the
spell which had so long held the land under the dominion of the Incas.
The spell was broken, and the airy fabric of their empire, built on the
superstition of ages, vanished at a touch.  This was good fortune, rather
than the result of policy.

     Pizarro was eminently perfidious.  Yet nothing is more opposed to
sound policy.  One act of perfidy fully established becomes the ruin of
its author.  The man who relinquishes confidence in his good faith gives
up the best basis for future operations.  Who will knowingly build on a
quicksand?  By his perfidious treatment of Almagro, Pizarro alienated the
minds of the Spaniards.  By his perfidious treatment of Atahuallpa, and
subsequently of the Inca Manco, he disgusted the Peruvians.  The name of
Pizarro became a by-word for perfidy.  Almagro took his revenge in a civil
war; Manco in an insurrection which nearly cost Pizarro his dominion.  The
civil war terminated in a conspiracy which cost him his life.  Such were
the fruits of his policy.  Pizarro may be regarded as a cunning man; but
not, as he has been often eulogized by his countrymen, as a politic one.

     When Pizarro obtained possession of Cuzco, he found a country well
advanced in the arts of civilization; institutions under which the people
lived in tranquillity and personal safety; the mountains and the uplands
whitened with flocks; the valleys teeming with the fruits of a scientific
husbandry; the granaries and warehouses filled to overflowing; the whole
land rejoicing in its abundance; and the character of the nation, softened
under the influence of the mildest and most innocent form of superstition,
well prepared for the reception of a higher and a Christian civilization.
But, far from introducing this, Pizarro delivered up the conquered races
to his brutal soldiery; the sacred cloisters were abandoned to their lust;
the towns and villages were given up to pillage; the wretched natives were
parcelled out like slaves, to toil for their conquerors in the mines; the
flocks were scattered, and wantonly destroyed; the granaries were
dissipated; the beautiful contrivances for the more perfect culture of the
soil were suffered to fall into decay; the paradise was converted into a
desert.  Instead of profiting by the ancient forms of civilization,
Pizarro preferred to efface every vestige of them from the land, and on
their ruin to erect the institutions of his own country.  Yet these
institutions did little for the poor Indian, held in iron bondage.  It was
little to him that the shores of the Pacific were studded with rising
communities and cities, the marts of a flourishing commerce.  He had no
share in the goodly heritage.  He was an alien in the land of his fathers.

     The religion of the Peruvian, which directed him to the worship of
that glorious luminary which is the best representative of the might and
beneficence of the Creator, is perhaps the purest form of superstition
that has existed among men.  Yet it was much, that, under the new order of
things, and through the benevolent zeal of the missionaries, some
glimmerings of a nobler faith were permitted to dawn on his darkened soul.
Pizarro, himself, cannot be charged with manifesting any overweening
solicitude for the propagation of the Faith.  He was no bigot, like
Cortes.  Bigotry is the perversion of the religious principle; but the
principle itself was wanting in Pizarro.  The conversion of the heathen
was a predominant motive with Cortes in his expedition.  It was not a vain
boast.  He would have sacrificed his life for it at any time; and more
than once, by his indiscreet zeal, he actually did place his life and the
success of his enterprise in jeopardy.  It was his great purpose to purify
the land from the brutish abominations of the Aztecs, by substituting the
religion of Jesus.  This gave to his expedition the character of a
crusade.  It furnished the best apology for the Conquest, and does more
than all other considerations towards enlisting our sympathies on the side
of the conquerors.

     But Pizarro's ruling motives, so far as they can be scanned by human
judgment, were avarice and ambition.  The good missionaries, indeed,
followed in his train to scatter the seeds of spiritual truth, and the
Spanish government, as usual, directed its beneficent legislation to the
conversion of the natives.  But the moving power with Pizarro and his
followers was the lust of gold.  This was the real stimulus to their toil,
the price of perfidy, the true guerdon of their victories.  This gave a
base and mercenary character to their enterprise; and when we contrast the
ferocious cupidity of the conquerors with the mild and inoffensive manners
of the conquered, our sympathies, the sympathies even of the Spaniard, are
necessarily thrown into the scale of the Indian. ^33

[Footnote 33: The following vigorous lines of Southey condense, in a small
compass, the most remarkable traits of Pizarro.  The poet's epitaph may
certainly be acquitted of the imputation, generally well deserved, of
flattery towards the subject of it.

     "For A Column At Truxillo.

     "Pizarro here was born; a greater name
     The list of Glory boasts not.  Toil and Pain,
     Famine, and hostile Elements, and Hosts
     Embattled, failed to check him in his course,
     Not to be wearied, not to be deterred,
     Not to be overcome.  A mighty realm
     He overran, and with relentless arm
     Slew or enslaved its unoffending sons,
     And wealth and power and fame were his rewards.
     There is another world, beyond the grave,
     According to their deeds where men are judged.
     O Reader!  if thy daily bread be earned
     By daily labor, - yea, however low,
     However wretched, be thy lot assigned,
     Thank thou, with deepest gratitude, the God
     Who made thee, that thou art not such as he."]

     But as no picture is without its lights, we must not, in justice to
Pizarro, dwell exclusively on the darker features of his portrait.  There
was no one of her sons to whom Spain was under larger obligations for
extent of empire; for his hand won for her the richest of the Indian
jewels that once sparkled in her imperial diadem.  When we contemplate the
perils he braved, the sufferings he patiently endured, the incredible
obstacles he overcame, the magnificent results he effected with his single
arm, as it were, unaided by the government, - though neither a good, nor a
great man in the highest sense of that term, it is impossible not to
regard him as a very extraordinary one.

     Nor can we fairly omit to notice, in extenuation of his errors, the
circumstances of his early life; for, like Almagro, he was the son of sin
and sorrow, early cast upon the world to seek his fortunes as he might.
In his young and tender age he was to take the impression of those into
whose society he was thrown.  And when was it the lot of the needy outcast
to fall into that of the wise and the virtuous?  His lot was cast among
the licentious inmates of a camp, the school of rapine, whose only law was
the sword, and who looked on the wretched Indian and his heritage as their
rightful spoil.

     Who does not shudder at the thought of what his own fate might have
been, trained in such a school?  The amount of crime does not necessarily
show the criminality of the agent.  History, indeed, is concerned with the
former, that it may be recorded as a warning to mankind; but it is He
alone who knoweth the heart, the strength of the temptation, and the means
of resisting it, that can determine the measure of the guilt