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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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$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 IX: Part I

New Inca Crowned. - Municipal Regulations. - Terrible March Of Alvarado. -
Interview With Pizarro. - Foundation Of Lima. - Hernando Pizarro Reaches
Spain. - Sensation At Court. - Feuds Of Almagro And The Pizarros.

     1534-1535.

     The first care of the Spanish general, after the division of the
booty, was to place Manco on the throne, and to obtain for him the
recognition of his countrymen.  He, accordingly, presented the young
prince to them as their future sovereign, the legitimate son of Huayna
Capac, and the true heir of the Peruvian sceptre.  The annunciation was
received with enthusiasm by the people, attached to the memory of his
illustrious father, and pleased that they were still to have a monarch
rule over them of the ancient line of Cuzco.

     Every thing was done to maintain the illusion with the Indian
population.  The ceremonies of a coronation were studiously observed.  The
young prince kept the prescribed fasts and vigils; and on the appointed
day, the nobles and the people, with the whole Spanish soldiery, assembled
in the great square of Cuzco to witness the concluding ceremony.  Mass was
publicly performed by Father Valverde, and the Inca Manco received the
fringed diadem of Peru, not from the hand of the high-priest of his
nation, but from his Conqueror, Pizarro.  The Indian lords then tendered
their obeisance in the customary form; after which the royal notary read
aloud the instrument asserting the supremacy of the Castilian Crown, and
requiring the homage of all present to its authority.  This address was
explained by an interpreter, and the ceremony of homage was performed by
each one of the parties waving the royal banner of Castile twice or thrice
with his hands.  Manco then pledged the Spanish commander in a golden
goblet of the sparkling chicha; and, the latter having cordially embraced
the new monarch, the trumpets announced the conclusion of the ceremony. ^1
But it was not the note of triumph, but of humiliation; for it proclaimed
that the armed foot of the stranger was in the halls of the Peruvian
Incas; that the ceremony of coronation was a miserable pageant; that their
prince himself was but a puppet in the hands of his Conqueror; and that
the glory of the Children of the Sun had departed for ever!

[Footnote 1: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap
Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 407.]

     Yet the people readily gave in to the illusion, and seemed willing to
accept this image of their ancient independence.  The accession of the
young monarch was greeted by all the usual fetes and rejoicings.  The
mummies of his royal ancestors, with such ornaments as were still left to
them, were paraded in the great square.  They were attended each by his
own numerous retinue, who performed all the menial offices, as if the
object of them were alive and could feel their import.  Each ghostly form
took its seat at the banquet-table - now, alas! stripped of the
magnificent service with which it was wont to blaze at these high
festivals - and the guests drank deep to the illustrious dead.  Dancing
succeeded the carousal, and the festivities, prolonged to a late hour,
were continued night after night by the giddy population, as if their
conquerors had not been intrenched in the capital! ^2 - What a contrast to
the Aztecs in the conquest of Mexico!

[Footnote 2: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms

     "Luego por la manana iba al enterramiento donde estaban cada uno por
orden embalsamados como es dicho, y asentados en sus sillas, y con mucha
veneracion y respeto, todos por orden los sacaban de alli y los trahian a
la ciudad, teniendo cada uno su litera, y hombres con su librea, que le
trujesen, y ansi desta manera todo el servicio y aderezos como si
estubiera vivo." Relacion del Primer. Descub, Ms.]

     Pizarro's next concern was to organize a municipal government for
Cuzco, like those in the cities of the parent country.  Two alcaldes were
appointed, and eight regidores, among which last functionaries were his
brothers Gonzalo and Juan.  The oaths of office were administered with
great solemnity, on the twenty-fourth of March, 1534, in presence both of
Spaniards and Peruvians, in the public square; as if the general were
willing by this ceremony to intimate to the latter, that, while they
retained the semblance of their ancient institutions, the real power was
henceforth vested in their conquerors. ^3 He invited Spaniards to settle in
the place by liberal grants of land and houses, for which means were
afforded by the numerous palaces and public buildings of the Incas; and
many a cavalier, who had been too poor in his own country to find a place
to rest in, now saw himself the proprietor of a spacious mansion that
might have entertained the retinue of a prince. ^4 From this time, says an
old chronicler, Pizarro, who had hitherto been distinguished by his
military title of "Captain-General," was addressed by that of
"Governor." ^5 Both had been bestowed on him by the royal grant.

[Footnote 3: Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 409. -
Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1534. - Actto de la fundacion del Cuzco, Ms.

     This instrument, which belongs to the collection of Munoz, records not
only the names of the magistrates, but of the vecinos who formed the first
population of the Christian capital.]

[Footnote 4: Actto de la fundacion del Cuzco, Ms. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y
Conq., Ms. - Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 7, cap. 9, et seq.

     When a building was of immense size, as happened with some of the temples
and palaces, it was assigned to two or even three of the Conquerors, who each
took his share of it.  Garcilasso, who describes the city as it was soon after
the Conquest, commemorates with sufficient prolixity the names of the
cavaliers among whom the buildings were distributed.]

[Footnote 5: Montesinos, Annales, ano 1534.]

     Nor did the chief neglect the interests of religion.  Father Valverde,
whose nomination as Bishop of Cuzco not long afterwards received the Papal
sanction, prepared to enter on the duties of his office.  A place was selected
for the cathedral of his diocese, facing the plaza.  A spacious monastery
subsequently rose on the ruins of the gorgeous House of the Sun; its walls
were constructed of the ancient stones; the altar was raised on the spot where
shone the bright image of the Peruvian deity, and the cloisters of the Indian
temple were trodden by the friars of St. Dominic. ^6 To make the metamorphosis
more complete, the House of the Virgins of the Sun was replaced by a Roman
Catholic nunnery. ^7 Christian churches and monasteries gradually supplanted
the ancient edifices, and such of the latter as were suffered to remain,
despoiled of their heathen insignia, were placed under the protection of the
Cross.

[Footnote 6: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 3, cap. 20; lib. 6, cap.
21. - Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms.]

[Footnote 7: Ulloa, Voyage to S. America, book 7, ch. 12.

     "The Indian nuns," says the author of the Relacion del Primer. Descub.,
"lived chastely and in a holy manner." - "Their chastity was all a feint,"
says Pedro Pizarro, "for they had constant amours with the attendants on the
temple." (Descub. y Conq., Ms.) - What is truth? - In statements so
contradictory, we may accept the most favorable to the Peruvian.  The
prejudices of the Conqueror certainly did not lie on that side.]

     The Fathers of St. Dominic, the Brethren of the Order of Mercy, and other
missionaries, now busied themselves in the good work of conversion. We have
seen that Pizarro was required by the Crown to bring out a certain number of
these holy men in his own vessels; and every succeeding vessel brought an
additional reinforcement of ecclesiastics.  They were not all like the Bishop
of Cuzco, with hearts so seared by fanaticism as to be closed against sympathy
with the unfortunate natives. ^8 They were, many of them, men of singular
humility, who followed in the track of the conqueror to scatter the seeds of
spiritual truth, and, with disinterested zeal, devoted themselves to the
propagation of the Gospel.  Thus did their pious labors prove them the true
soldiers of the Cross, and showed that the object so ostentatiously avowed of
carrying its banner among the heathen nations was not an empty vaunt.

[Footnote 8: Such, however, it is but fair to Valverde to state, is not the
language applied to him by the rude soldiers of the Conquest.  The
municipality of Xauxa, in a communication to the Court, extol the Dominican as
an exemplary and learned divine, who had afforded much serviceable consolation
to his countrymen.  "Es persona de mucho exemplo i Doctrina i con quien todos
los Espanoles an tenido mucho consuelo." (Carta de la Just. y Reg. de Xauxa,
Ms.) And yet this is not incompatible with a high degree of insensibility to
the natural rights of the natives.]

     The effort to Christianize the heathen is an honorable characteristic of
the Spanish conquests.  The Puritan, with equal religious zeal, did
comparatively little for the conversion of the Indian, content, as it would
seem, with having secured to himself the inestimable privilege of worshipping
God in his own way.  Other adventurers who have occupied the New World have
often had too little regard for religion themselves, to be very solicitous
about spreading it among the savages.  But the Spanish missionary, from first
to last, has shown a keen interest in the spiritual welfare of the natives.
Under his auspices, churches on a magnificent scale have been erected, schools
for elementary instruction founded, and every rational means taken to spread
the knowledge of religious truth, while he has carried his solitary mission
into remote and almost inaccessible regions, or gathered his Indian disciples
into communities, like the good Las Casas in Cumana, or the Jesuits in
California and Paraguay.  At all times, the courageous ecclesiastic has been
ready to lift his voice against the cruelty of the conqueror, and the no less
wasting cupidity of the colonist; and when his remonstrances, as was too often
the case, have proved unavailing, he has still followed to bind up the
broken-hearted, to teach the poor Indian resignation under his lot, and light
up his dark intellect with the revelation of a holier and happier existence. -
In reviewing the blood-stained records of Spanish colonial history, it is but
fair, and at the same time cheering, to reflect, that the same nation which
sent forth the hard-hearted conqueror from its bosom sent forth the missionary
to do the work of beneficence, and spread the light of Christian civilization
over the farthest regions of the New World.

     While the governor, as we are henceforth to style him, lay at Cuzco, he
received repeated accounts of a considerable force in the neighbourhood, under
the command of Atahuallpa's officer, Quizquiz.  He accordingly detached
Almagro, with a small body of horse and a large Indian force under the Inca
Manco to disperse the enemy, and, if possible, to capture their leader.  Manco
was the more ready to take part in the expedition, as the enemy were soldiers
of Quito, who, with their commander, bore no good-will to himself.

     Almagro, moving with his characteristic rapidity, was not long in coming
up with the Indian chieftain.  Several sharp encounters followed, as the army
of Quito fell back on Xauxa, near which a general engagement decided the fate
of the war by the total discomfiture of the natives. Quizquiz fled to the
elevated plains of Quito, where he still held out with undaunted spirit
against a Spanish force in that quarter, till at length his own soldiers,
wearied by these long and ineffectual hostilities, massacred their commander
in cold blood. ^9 Thus fell the last of the two great officers of Atahuallpa,
who, if their nation had been animated by a spirit equal to their own, might
long have successfully maintained their soil against the invader.

[Footnote 9: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Naharro, Relacion Sumaria,
Ms. - Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 20. - Ped.
Sancho, Rel., ap Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 408. - Relacion del Primer. Descub.,
Ms.]

     Some time before this occurrence, the Spanish governor, while in Cuzco,
received tidings of an event much more alarming to him than any Indian
hostilities.  This was the arrival on the coast of a strong Spanish force,
under command of Don Pedro de Alvarado, the gallant officer who had served
under Cortes with such renown in the war of Mexico.  That cavalier, after
forming a brilliant alliance in Spain, to which he was entitled by his birth
and military rank, had returned to his government of Guatemala, where his
avarice had been roused by the magnificent reports he daily received of
Pizarro's conquests.  These conquests, he learned, had been confined to Peru;
while the northern kingdom of Quito, the ancient residence of Atahuallpa, and,
no doubt, the principal depository of his treasures, yet remained untouched.
Affecting to consider this country as falling without the governor's
jurisdiction, he immediately turned a large fleet, which he had intended for
the Spice Islands, in the direction of South America; and in March, 1534, he
landed in the bay of Caraques, with five hundred followers, of whom half were
mounted, and all admirably provided with arms and ammunition.  It was the best
equipped and most formidable array that had yet appeared in the southern seas.
^10

[Footnote 10: The number is variously reported by historians.  But from a egal
investigation made in Guatemala, it appears that the whole force amounted to
500, of which 230 were cavalry. - Informacion echa en Santiago, Set. 15, 1536
Ms.]

     Although manifestly an invasion of the territory conceded to Pizarro by
the Crown, the reckless cavalier determined to march at once on Quito. With
the assistance of an Indian guide, he proposed to take the direct route across
the mountains, a passage of exceeding difficulty, even at the most favorable
season.

     After crossing the Rio Dable, Alvarado's guide deserted him, so that
he was soon entangled in the intricate mazes of the sierra; and, as he
rose higher and higher into the regions of winter, he became surrounded
with ice and snow, for which his men taken from the warm countries of
Guatemala, were but ill prepared.  As the cold grew more intense, many of
them were so benumbed, that it was with difficulty they could proceed.
The infantry, compelled to make exertions, fared best.  Many of the
troopers were frozen stiff in their saddles.  The Indians, still more
sensible to the cold, perished by hundreds.  As the Spaniards huddled
round their wretched bivouacs, with such scanty fuel as they could glean,
and almost without food, they waited in gloomy silence the approach of
morning.  Yet the morning light, which gleamed coldly on the cheerless
waste, brought no joy to them.  It only revealed more clearly the extent
of their wretchedness.  Still struggling on through the winding Puertos
Nevados, or Snowy Passes, their track was dismally marked by fragments of
dress, broken harness, golden ornaments, and other valuables plundered on
their march, - by the dead bodies of men, or by those less fortunate, who
were left to die alone in the wilderness.  As for the horses, their
carcasses were not suffered long to cumber the ground, as they were
quickly seized and devoured half raw by the starving soldiers, who, like
the famished condors, now hovering in troops above their heads, greedily
banqueted on the most offensive offal to satisfy the gnawings of hunger.

     Alvarado, anxious to secure the booty which had fallen into his hands at
an earlier part of his march, encouraged every man to take what gold he wanted
from the common heap, reserving only the royal fifth.  But they only answered,
with a ghastly smile of derision, "that food was the only gold for them." Yet
in this extremity, which might seem to have dissolved the very ties of nature,
there are some affecting instances recorded of self-devotion; of comrades who
lost their lives in assisting others, and of parents and husbands (for some of
the cavaliers were accompanied by their wives) who, instead of seeking their
own safety, chose to remain and perish in the snows with the objects of their
love.

     To add to their distress, the air was filled for several days with
thick clouds of earthy particles and cinders, which blinded the men, and
made respiration exceedingly difficult. ^11 This phenomenon, it seems
probable, was caused by an eruption of the distant Cotopaxi, which, about
twelve leagues southeast of Quito, rears up its colossal and perfectly
symmetrical cone far above the limits of eternal snow, - the most
beautiful and the most terrible of the American volcanoes. ^12 At the time
of Alvarado's expedition, it was in a state of eruption, the earliest
instance of the kind on record, though doubtless not the earliest. ^13
Since that period, it has been in frequent commotion, sending up its
sheets of flame to the height of half a mile, spouting forth cataracts of
lava that have overwhelmed towns and villages in their career, and shaking
the earth with subterraneous thunders, that, at the distance of more than
a hundred leagues, sounded like the reports of artillery! ^14 Alvarado's
followers, unacquainted with the cause of the phenomenon, as they wandered
over tracts buried in snow, - the sight of which was strange to them, - in
an atmosphere laden with ashes, became bewildered by this confusion of the
elements, which Nature seemed to have contrived purposely for their
destruction.  Some of these men were the soldiers of Cortes, steeled by
many a painful march, and many a sharp encounter with the Aztecs.  But
this war of the elements, they now confessed, was mightier than all.

[Footnote 11: "It began to rain earthy particles from the heavens," says
Oviedo, "that blinded the men and horses, so that the trees and bushes
were full of dirt." Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 20.]

[Footnote 12: Garcilasso says the shower of ashes came from the "volcano
of Quito." (Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 2, cap. 2.) Cieza de Leon only says
from one of the volcanoes in that region.  (Cronica, cap. 41.) Neither of
them specify the name.  Humboldt accepts the common opinion, that Cotopaxi
was intended.  Researches, I. 123.]

[Footnote 13: A popular tradition among the natives states, that a large
fragment of porphyry near the base of the cone was thrown out in an
eruption, which occurred at the moment of Atahuallpa's death. - But such
tradition will hardly pass for history.]

[Footnote 14: A minute account of this formidable mountain is given by M.
de Humboldt, (Researches, I. 118, et seq.,) and more circumstantially by
Condamine.  (Voyage a l'Equateur, pp. 48 - 56 156 - 160.) The latter
philosopher would have attempted to scale the almost perpendicular walls
of the volcano, but no one was hardy enough to second him.]

     At length, Alvarado, after sufferings, which even the most hardy,
probably, could have endured but a few days longer, emerged from the Snowy
Pass, and came on the elevated table-land, which spreads out, at the
height of more than nine thousand feet above the ocean, in the
neighbourhood of Riobamba.  But one fourth of his gallant army had been
left to feed the condor in the wilderness, besides the greater part, at
least two thousand, of his Indian auxiliaries.  A great number of his
horses, too, had perished; and the men and horses that escaped were all of
them more or less injured by the cold and the extremity of suffering. -
Such was the terrible passage of the Puertos Nevados, which I have only
briefly noticed as an episode to the Peruvian conquest, but the account of
which, in all its details, though it occupied but a few weeks in duration,
would give one a better idea of the difficulties encountered by the
Spanish cavaliers, than volumes of ordinary narrative. ^15

[Footnote 15: By far the most spirited and thorough record of Alvarado's
march is given by Herrera, who has borrowed the pen of Livy describing the
Alpine march of Hannibal.  (Hist. General, dec. 5, lib. 6, cap. 1, 2, 7,
8, 9.) See also Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms., - Oviedo, Hist. de
las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 20, - and Carta de Pedro de
Alvarado al Emperador, San Miguel, 15 de Enero, 1535, Ms.

     Alvarado, in the letter above cited, which is preserved in the Munoz
collection, explains to the Emperor the grounds of his expedition, with no
little effrontery.  In this document he touches very briefly on the march,
being chiefly occupied by the negotiations with Almagro, and accompanying
his remarks with many dark suggestions as to the policy pursued by the
Conquerors]

     As Alvarado, after halting some time to restore his exhausted troops,
began his march across the broad plateau, he was astonished by seeing the
prints of horses' hoofs on the soil.  Spaniards, then, had been there
before him, and, after all his toil and suffering, others had forestalled
him in the enterprise against Quito!  It is necessary to say a few words
in explanation of this.

     When Pizarro quitted Caxamalca, being sensible of the growing
importance of San Miguel, the only port of entry then in the country, he
despatched a person in whom he had great confidence to take charge of it.
This person was Sebastian Benalcazar, a cavalier who afterwards placed his
name in the first rank of the South American conquerors, for courage,
capacity, - and cruelty.  But this cavalier had hardly reached his
government, when, like Alvarado, he received such accounts of the riches
of Quito, that he determined, with the force at his command, though
without orders, to undertake its reduction.

     At the head of about a hundred and forty soldiers, horse and foot,
and a stout body of Indian auxiliaries, he marched up the broad range of
the Andes, to where it spreads out into the table-land of Quito, by a road
safer and more expeditious than that taken by Alvarado.  On the plains of
Riobamba, he encountered the Indian general Ruminavi.  Several engagements
followed, with doubtful success, when, in the end, science prevailed where
courage was well matched, and the victorious Benalcazar planted the
standard of Castile on the ancient towers of Atahuallpa.  The city, in
honor of his general, Francis Pizarro, he named San Francisco del Quito.
But great was his mortification on finding that either the stories of its
riches had been fabricated, or that these riches were secreted by the
natives.  The city was all that he gained by his victories, - the shell
without the pearl of price which gave it its value.  While devouring his
chagrin, as he best could, the Spanish captain received tidings of the
approach of his superior, Almagro. ^16

[Footnote 16: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Herrera, Hist.
General, dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 11, 18; lib. 6, cap. 5, 6. - Oviedo, Hist.
de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 19. - Carta de Benalcazar, Ms.]

     No sooner had the news of Alvarado's expedition reached Cuzco, than
Almagro left the place with a small force for San Miguel, proposing to
strengthen himself by a reinforcement from that quarter, and to march at
once against the invaders.  Greatly was he astonished, on his arrival in
that city, to learn the departure of its commander.  Doubting the loyalty
of his motives, Almagro, with the buoyancy of spirit which belongs to
youth, though in truth somewhat enfeebled by the infirmities of age, did
not hesitate to follow Benalcazar at once across the mountains.

     With his wonted energy, the intrepid veteran, overcoming all the
difficulties of his march, in a few weeks placed himself and his little
company on the lofty plains which spread around the Indian city of
Riobamba; though in his progress he had more than one hot encounter with
the natives, whose courage and perseverance formed a contrast sufficiently
striking to the apathy of the Peruvians.  But the fire only slumbered in
the bosom of the Peruvian.  His hour had not yet come.

     At Riobamba, Almagro was soon joined by the commander of San Miguel,
who disclaimed, perhaps sincerely, any disloyal intent in his unauthorized
expedition.  Thus reinforced, the Spanish captain coolly awaited the
coming of Alvarado.  The forces of the latter, though in a less
serviceable condition, were much superior in number and appointments to
those of his rival.  As they confronted each other on the broad plains of
Riobamba, it seemed probable that a fierce struggle must immediately
follow, and the natives of the country have the satisfaction to see their
wrongs avenged by the very hands that inflicted them.  But it was
Almagro's policy to avoid such an issue.

     Negotiations were set on foot, in which each party stated his claims
to the country.  Meanwhile Alvarado's men mingled freely with their
countrymen in the opposite army, and heard there such magnificent reports
of the wealth and wonders of Cuzco, that many of them were inclined to
change their present service for that of Pizarro.  Their own leader, too,
satisfied that Quito held out no recompense worth the sacrifices he had
made, and was like to make, by insisting on his claim, became now more
sensible of the rashness of a course which must doubtless incur the
censure of his sovereign.  In this temper, it was not difficult for them
to effect an adjustment of difficulties; and it was agreed, as the basis
of it, that the governor should pay one hundred thousand pesos de oro to
Alvarado, in consideration of which the latter was to resign to him his
fleet, his forces, and all his stores and munitions.  His vessels, great
and small, amounted to twelve in number, and the sum he received, though
large, did not cover his expenses.  This treaty being settled, Alvarado
proposed, before leaving the country, to have an interview with
Pizarro. ^17

[Footnote 17: Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms. - Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms.
- Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 5,
lib. 6, cap. 8 - 10. - Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8,
cap 20. - Carta de Benalcazar, Ms.

     The amount of the bonus paid to Alvarado is stated very differently
by writers.  But both that cavalier and Almagro, in their letters to the
Emperor, which have hitherto been unknown to historians, agree in the sum
given in the text.  Alvarado complains that he had no choice but to take
it, although it was greatly to his own loss, and, by defeating his
expedition, as he modestly intimates, to the loss of the Crown.  (Carta de
Alvarado al Emperador, Ms.) - Almagro, however, states that the sum paid
was three times as much as the armament was worth; "a sacrifice," he adds,
"which he made to preserve peace, never dear at any price." - Strange
sentiment for a Castilian conqueror!  Carta de Diego de Almagro al
Emperador, Ms., Oct. 15, 1534.]

     The governor, meanwhile, had quitted the Peruvian capital for the
sea-coast, from his desire to repel any invasion that might be attempted
in that direction by Alvarado, with whose real movements he was still
unacquainted.  He left Cuzco in charge of his brother Juan, a cavalier
whose manners were such as, he thought, would be likely to gain the
good-will of the native population.  Pizarro also left ninety of his
troops, as the garrison of the capital, and the nucleus of his future
colony.  Then, taking the Inca Manco with him, he proceeded as far as
Xauxa.  At this place he was entertained by the Indian prince with the
exhibition of a great national hunt, - such as has been already described
in these pages, - in which immense numbers of wild animals were
slaughtered, and the vicunas, and other races of Peruvian sheep, which
roam over the mountains, driven into inclosures and relieved of their
delicate fleeces. ^18

[Footnote 18: Carta de la Just. y Reg. de Xauja, Ms. - Relacion del Primer.
Descub., Ms. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 5, lib. 6, cap. 16. - Montesinos,
Annales, Ms., ano 1534.

     At this place, the author of the Relacion del Primer Descubrimiento del
Peru, the Ms. so often quoted in these pages, abruptly terminates his labors.
He is a writer of sense and observation; and, though he has his share of the
national tendency to exaggerate and overcolor, he writes like one who means to
be honest, and who has seen what he describes.

     At Xauxa, also, the notary Pedro Sancho ends his Relacion, which embraces
a much shorter period than the preceding narrative, but which is equally
authentic.  Coming from the secretary of Pizarro, and countersigned by that
general himself, this Relation, indeed, may be regarded as of the very highest
authority.  And yet large deductions must obviously be made for the source
whence it springs; for it may be taken as Pizarro's own account of his doings,
some of which stood much in need of apology.  It must be added, in justice
both to the general and to his secretary, that the Relation does not differ
substantially from other contemporary accounts, and that the attempt to
varnish over the exceptionable passages in the conduct of the Conquerors is
not obtrusive.

     For the publication of this journal, we are indebted to Ramusio, whose
enlightened labors have preserved to us more than one contemporary production
of value, though in the form of translation]