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

     His next step was the recovery of the citadel.  It was an enterprise of
danger.  The fortress, which overlooked the northern section of the city,
stood high on a rocky eminence, so steep as to be inaccessible on this
quarter, where it was defended only by a single wall.  Towards the open
country, it was more easy of approach; but there it was protected by two
semicircular walls, each about twelve hundred feet in length, and of great
thickness.  They were built of massive stones, or rather rocks, put together
without cement, so as to form a kind of rustic-work.  The level of the ground
between these lines of defence was raised up so as to enable the garrison to
discharge its arrows at the assailants, while their own persons were protected
by the parapet.  Within the interior wall was the fortress, consisting of
three strong towers, one of great height, which, with a smaller one, was now
held by the enemy, under the command of an Inca noble, a warrior of well-tried
valor, prepared to defend it to the last extremity.

     The perilous enterprise was intrusted by Hernando Pizarro to his brother
Juan, a cavalier in whose bosom burned the adventurous spirit of a
knighterrant of romance.  As the fortress was to be approached through the
mountain passes, it became necessary to divert the enemy's attention to
another quarter.  A little while before sunset Juan Pizarro left the city with
a picked corps of horsemen, and took a direction opposite to that of the
fortress, that the besieging army might suppose the object was a foraging
expedition.  But secretly countermarching in the night, he fortunately found
the passes unprotected, and arrived before the outer wall of the fortress,
without giving the alarm to the garrison. ^19

[Footnote 19: Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.]

     The entrance was through a narrow opening in the centre of the rampart;
but this was now closed up with heavy stones, that seemed to form one solid
work with the rest of the masonry.  It was an affair of time to dislodge these
huge masses, in such a manner as not to rouse the garrison. The Indian
nations, who rarely attacked in the night, were not sufficiently acquainted
with the art of war even to provide against surprise by posting sentinels.
When the task was accomplished, Juan Pizarro and his gallant troop rode
through the gateway, and advanced towards the second parapet.

     But their movements had not been conducted so secretly as to escape
notice, and they now found the interior court swarming with warriors, who,
as the Spaniards drew near, let off clouds of missiles that compelled them
to come to a halt.  Juan Pizarro, aware that no time was to be lost,
ordered one half of his corps to dismount, and, putting himself at their
head, prepared to make a breach as before in the fortifications.  He had
been wounded some days previously in the jaw, so that, finding his helmet
caused him pain, he rashly dispensed with it, and trusted for protection
to his buckler. ^20 Leading on his men, he encouraged them in the work of
demolition, in the face of such a storm of stones, javelins, and arrows,
as might have made the stoutest heart shrink from encountering it.  The
good mail of the Spaniards did not always protect them; but others took
the place of such as fell, until a breach was made, and the cavalry,
pouring in, rode down all who opposed them.

[Footnote 20: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms]

     The parapet was now abandoned, and the enemy, hurrying with
disorderly flight across the inclosure took refuge on a kind of platform
or terrace, commanded by the principal tower.  Here rallying, they shot
off fresh volleys of missiles against the Spaniards, while the garrison in
the fortress hurled down fragments of rock and timber on their heads.
Juan Pizarro, still among the foremost, sprang forward on the terrace,
cheering on his men by his voice and example, but at this moment he was
struck by a large stone on the head, not then protected by his buckler,
and was stretched on the ground.  The dauntless chief still continued to
animate his followers by his voice, till the terrace was carried, and its
miserable defenders were put to the sword.  His sufferings were then too
much for him, and he was removed to the town below, where, notwithstanding
every exertion to save him, he survived the injury but a fortnight, and
died in great agony. ^21 - To say that he was a Pizarro is enough to attest
his claim to valor.  But it is his praise, that his valor was tempered by
courtesy.  His own nature appeared mild by contrast with the haughty
temper of his brothers, and his manners made him a favorite of the army.
He had served in the conquest of Peru from the first, and no name on the
roll of its conquerors is less tarnished by the reproach of cruelty, or
stands higher in all the attributes of a true and valiant knight. ^22

[Footnote 21: "Y estando batallando con ellos para echallos de alli Joan
Picarro se descuido descubrirse la cabeca con la adarga y con las muchas
pedradas que tiravan le acertaron vna en la caveca que le quebraron los
cascos y dende a quince dias murio desta herida y ansi herido estuvo
forcejando con los yndios y espanoles hasta que se gano este terrado y
ganado le abaxaron al Cuzco." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]

[Footnote 22: "Hera valiente," says Pedro Pizarro, "y muy animoso, gentil
hombre, magnanimo y afable." (Descub. y Conq., Ms.) Zarate dismisses him
with this brief panegyric: - "Fue gran perdida en la Tierra, porque era
Juan Picarro mui valiente, i experimentado en las Guerras de los Indios, i
bien quisto, i amado de todos." Conq del Peru, lib. 3, cap. 3.]

     Though deeply sensible to his brother's disaster, Hernando Pizarro
saw that no time was to be lost in profiting by the advantages already
gained.  Committing the charge of the town to Gonzalo, he put himself at
the head of the assailants, and laid vigorous siege to the fortresses.
One surrendered after a short resistance.  The other and more formidable
of the two still held out under the brave Inca noble who commanded it.  He
was a man of an athletic frame, and might be seen striding along the
battlements, armed with a Spanish buckler and cuirass, and in his hand
wielding a formidable mace, garnished with points or knobs of copper.
With this terrible weapon he struck down all who attempted to force a
passage into the fortress.  Some of his own followers who proposed a
surrender he is said to have slain with his own hand.  Hernando prepared
to carry the place by escalade.  Ladders were planted against the walls,
but no sooner did a Spaniard gain the topmost round, than he was hurled to
the ground by the strong arm of the Indian warrior.  His activity was
equal to his strength; and he seemed to be at every point the moment that
his presence was needed.

     The Spanish commander was filled with admiration at this display of
valor; for he could admire valor even in an enemy.  He gave orders that
the chief should not be injured, but be taken alive, if possible. ^23 This
was not easy.  At length, numerous ladders having been planted against the
tower, the Spaniards scaled it on several quarters at the same time, and,
leaping into the place, overpowered the few combatants who still made a
show of resistance.  But the Inca chieftain was not to be taken; and,
finding further resistance ineffectual, he sprang to the edge of the
battlements, and, casting away his war-club, wrapped his mantle around him
and threw himself headlong from the summit. ^24 He died like an ancient
Roman.  He had struck his last stroke for the freedom of his country, and
he scorned to survive her dishonor. - The Castilian commander left a small
force in garrison to secure his conquest, and returned in triumph to his
quarters.

[Footnote 23: 'Y mando hernando picarro a los Espanoles que subian que no
matasen a este yndio sino que se lo tomasen a vida, jurando de no matalle
si lo avia bivo." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq. Ms.]

[Footnote 24: "Visto este orejon que se lo vian ganado y le avian ganado y
le avian tomado por dos o tres partes el fuerte, arrojando las armas se
tapo la caveca y el rrostro con la manta y se arrojo del cubo abajo mas de
cien estados, y ansi se hizo pedazos.  A hernando Picarro le peso mucho
por no tomalle a vida." Ibid., Ms.]

     Week after week rolled away, and no relief came to the beleaguered
Spaniards.  They had long since begun to feel the approaches of famine.
Fortunately, they were provided with water from the streams which flowed
through the city.  But, though they had well husbanded their resources, their
provision were exhausted, and they had for some time depended on such scanty
supplies of grain as they could gather from the ruined magazines and
dwellings, mostly consumed by the fire, or from the produce of some successful
foray. ^25 This latter resource was attended with no little difficulty; for
every expedition led to a fierce encounter with the enemy, which usually cost
the lives of several Spaniards, and inflicted a much heavier injury on the
Indian allies.  Yet it was at least one good result of such loss, that it left
fewer to provide for.  But the whole number of the besieged was so small, that
any loss greatly increased the difficulties of defence by the remainder.

[Footnote 25: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 2, cap. 24]

     As months passed away without bringing any tidings of their countrymen,
their minds were haunted with still gloomier apprehensions as to their fate.
They well knew that the governor would make every effort to rescue them from
their desperate condition.  That he had not succeeded in this made it
probable, that his own situation was no better than theirs, or, perhaps, he
and his followers had already fallen victims to the fury of the insurgents.
It was a dismal thought, that they alone were left in the land, far from all
human succour, to perish miserably by the hands of the barbarians among the
mountains.

     Yet the actual state of things, though gloomy in the extreme, was not
quite so desperate as their imaginations had painted it.  The
insurrection, it is rue, had been general throughout the country, a east
that portion of it occupied by the Spaniards It had been so well
concerted, that it broke out almost simultaneously, and the Conquerors,
who were living in careless security on their estates, had been massacred
to the number of several hundreds An Indian force had sat down before
Xauxa, and a considerable army had occupied the valley of Rimac and laid
siege to Lima.  But the country around that capital was of an open, level
character, very favorable to the action of cavalry.  Pizarro no sooner saw
himself menaced by the hostile array, than he sent such a force against
the Peruvians as speedily put them to flight; and, following up his
advantage, he inflicted on them such a severe chastisement, that, although
they still continued to hover in the distance and cut off his
communications with the interior, they did not care to trust themselves on
the other side of the Rimac.

     The accounts that the Spanish commander now eceived of the state of
the country filled him with the most serious alarm.  He was particularly
solicitous for the fate of the garrison at Cuzco, and he made repeated
efforts to relieve that capital.  Four several detachments, amounting to
more than four hundred men in all, half of them cavalry, were sent by him
at different times, under some of his bravest officers.  But none of them
reached their place of destination.  The wily natives permitted them to
march into the interior of the country, until they were fairly entangled
in the passes of the Cordilleras.  They then enveloped them with greatly
superior numbers, and, occupying the heights, showered down their fatal
missiles on the heads of the Spaniards, or crushed them under the weight
of fragments of rock which they rolled on them from the mountains.  In
some instances, the whole detachment was cut off to a man.  In others, a
few stragglers only survived to return and tell the bloody tale to their
countrymen at Lima. ^26

[Footnote 26: Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 1, cap. 5. - Herrera, Hist.
General, dec. 5, lib. 8, cap 5. - Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 2,
cap. 28.

     According to the historian of the Incas, there fell in these
expeditions four hundred and seventy Spaniards.  Cieza de Leon computes
the whole number of Christians who perished in this insurrection at seven
hundred, many of them, he adds, under circumstances of great cruelty.
(Cronica, cap. 82.) The estimate, considering the spread and spirit of the
insurrection, does not seem extravagant]

     Pizzaro was now filled with consternation.  He had the most dismal
forebodings of the fate of the Spaniards dispersed throughout the country,
and even doubted the possibility of maintaining his own foothold in it
without assistance from abroad.  He despatched a vessel to the
neighbouring colony at Truxillo, urging them to abandon the place, with
all their effects, and to repair to him at Lima.  The measure was,
fortunately, not adopted.  Many of his men were for availing themselves of
the vessels which rode at anchor in the port to make their escape from the
country at once, and take refuge in Panama.  Pizarro would not hearken to
so dastardly a counsel, which involved the desertion of the brave men in
the interior who still looked to him for protection.  He cut off the hopes
of these timid spirits by despatching all the vessels then in port on a
very different mission.  He sent letters by them to the governors of
Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico, representing the gloomy state of
his affairs, and invoking their aid.  His epistle to Alvarado, then
established at Guatemala, is preserved.  He conjures him by every
sentiment of honor and patriotism to come to his assistance, and this
before it was too late.  Without assistance, the Spaniards could no longer
maintain their footing in Peru, and that great empire would be lost to the
Castilian Crown.  He finally engages to share with him such conquests as
they may make with their united arms. ^27 - Such concessions, to the very
man whose absence from the country, but a few months before, Pizarro would
have been willing to secure at almost any price, are sufficient evidence
of the extremity of his distress.  The succours thus earnestly solicited
arrived in time, not to quell the Indian insurrection, but to aid him in a
struggle quite as formidable with his own countrymen.

[Footnote 27: "E crea V. S ^a sino somos socorridos se perdera el Cusco,
ques la cosa mas senalada e de mas importancia que se puede descubrir, e
luego nos perderemos todos: porque somos pocos e tenemos pocas armas, e
los Indios estan atrevidos." Carta de Francisco Pizarro a D. Pedro de
Alvarado, desde la Ciudad le los Reyes.  29 de julio, 1536, Ms.]

     It was now August.  More than five months had elapsed since the
commencement of the siege of Cuzco, yet the Peruvian legions still lay
encamped around the city.  Peruvian legions still lay encamped around the
city.  The siege had been protracted much beyond what was usual in Indian
warfare, and showed the resolution of the natives to exterminate the white
men.  But the Peruvians themselves had for some time been straitened by the
want of provisions.  It was no easy matter to feed so numerous a host; and the
obvious resource of the magazines of grain, so providently prepared by the
Incas, did them but little service, since their contents had been most
prodigally used, and even dissipated, by the Spaniards, on their first
occupation of the country. ^28 The season for planting had now arrived, and
the Inca well knew, that, if his followers were to neglect it, they would be
visited by a scourge even more formidable than their invaders.  Disbanding the
greater part of his forces, therefore, he ordered them to withdraw to their
homes, and, after the labors of the field were over, to return and resume the
blockade of the capital.  The Inca reserved a considerable force to attend on
his own person, with which he retired to Tambo, a strongly fortified place
south of the valley of Yucay, the favorite residence of his ancestors.  He
also posted a large body as a corps of observation in the environs of Cuzco,
to watch the movements of the enemy, and to intercept supplies.

[Footnote 28: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim. y Seg., Ms.]

     The Spaniards beheld with joy the mighty host which had so long
encompassed the city, now melting away.  They were not slow in profiting by
the circumstance, and Hernando Pizarro took advantage of the temporary absence
to send out foraging parties to scour the country, and bring back supplies to
his famishing soldiers.  In this he was so successful that on one occasion no
less than two thousand head of cattle - the Peruvian sheep - were swept away
from the Indian plantations and brought safely to Cuzco. ^29 This placed the
army above all apprehensions on the score of want for the present.

[Footnote 29: "Recoximos hasta dos mil cavezas de ganado." Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., Ms.]

     Yet these forays were made at the point of the lance, and many a
desperate contest ensued, in which the best blood of the Spanish chivalry
was shed.  The contests, indeed, were not confined to large bodies of
troops, but skirmishes took place between smaller parties, which sometimes
took the form of personal combats.  Nor were the parties so unequally
matched as might have been supposed in these single rencontres; and the
Peruvian warrior, with his sling, his bow, and his lasso, proved no
contemptible antagonist for the mailed horseman, whom he sometimes even
ventured to encounter, hand to hand, with his formidable battle-axe.  The
ground around Cuzco became a battle-field, like the vega of Granada, in
which Christian and Pagan displayed the characteristics of their peculiar
warfare; and many a deed of heroism was performed, which wanted only the
song of the minstrel to shed around it a glory like that which rested on
the last days of the Moslem of Spain. ^30

[Footnote 30: Pedro Pizarro recounts several of these deeds of arms, in
some of which his own prowess is made quite apparent.  One piece of
cruelty recorded by him is little to the credit of his commander, Hernando
Pizarro, who , he says, after a desperate rencontre, caused the right
hands of his prisoners to be struck off, and sent them in this mutilated
condition back to their countrymen!  (Descub. Conq., Ms.) Such atrocities
are not often noticed by the chroniclers; and we may hope they were
exceptions to the general policy of the Conquerors in this invasion.]

     But Hernando Pizarro was not content to act wholly on the defensive; and
he meditated a bold stroke, by which at once to put an end to the war. This
was the capture of the Inca Manco, whom he hoped to surprise in his quarters
at Tambo.

     For this service he selected about eighty of his best-mounted cavalry,
with a small body of foot, and, making a large detour through the less
frequented mountain defiles, he arrived before Tambo without alarm to the
enemy.  He found the place more strongly fortified than he had imagined.  The
palace, or rather fortress, of the Incas stood on a lofty eminence, the steep
sides of which, on the quarter where the Spaniards approached, were cut into
terraces, defended by strong walls of stone and sunburnt brick. ^31 The place
was impregnable on this side.  On the opposite, it looked towards the Yucay,
and the ground descended by a gradual declivity towards the plain through
which rolled its deep but narrow current. ^32 This was the quarter on which to
make the assault.

[Footnote 31: "Tambo tan fortalescido que hera cosa de grima, porquel assiento
donde Tambo esta es muy fuerte, de andenes muy altos y de muy gran canterias
fortalescidos" Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]

[Footnote 32: "El rio de yucay ques grande por aquella parte va muy angosto y
hondo." Ibid., Ms.]

     Crossing the stream without much difficulty, the Spanish commander
advanced up the smooth glacis with as little noise as possible.  The morning
light had hardly broken on the mountains; and Pizarro, as he drew near the
outer defences, which, as in the fortress of Cuzco, consisted of a stone
parapet of great strength drawn round the inclosure, moved quickly forward,
confident that the garrison were still buried in sleep.  But thousands of eyes
were upon him; and as the Spaniards came within bow-shot, a multitude of dark
forms suddenly rose above the rampart, while the Inca, with his lance in hand,
was seen on horseback in the inclosure, directing the operations of his
troops. ^33 At the same moment the air was darkened with innumerable missiles,
stones, javelins, and arrows, which fell like a hurricane on the troops, and
the mountains rang to the wild war-whoop of the enemy.  The Spaniards, taken
by surprise, and many of them sorely wounded, were staggered; and, though they
quickly rallied, and made two attempts to renew the assault, they were at
length obliged to fall back, unable to endure the violence of the storm.  To
add to their confusion, the lower level in their rear was flooded by the
waters, which the natives, by opening the sluices, had diverted from the bed
of the river, so that their position was no longer tenable. ^34 A council of
war was then held, and it was decided to abandon the attack as desperate, and
to retreat in as good order as possible.

[Footnote 33: "Parecia el Inga a caballo entre su gente, con su lanca en
la mano." Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 5, lib. 8, cap. 7.]

[Footnote 34: "Pues hechos dos o tres acometimientos a tomar este pueblo
tantas vezes nos hizieron bolver dando de manos.  Ansi estuvimos todo este dia
hasta puesta de sol; os indios sin entendello nos hechavan el rrio en el llano
donde estavamos, y aguardar mas perescieramos aqui todos." Pedro Pizarro
Descub. y Conq. Ms.]

     The day had been consumed in these ineffectual operations; and
Hernando, under cover of the friendly darkness, sent forward his infantry
and baggage, taking command of the centre himself, and trusting the rear
to his brother Gonzalo.  The river was happily recrossed without accident,
although the enemy, now confident in their strength, rushed out of their
defences, and followed up the retreating Spaniards, whom they annoyed with
repeated discharges of arrows.  More than once they pressed so closely on
the fugitives, that Gonzalo and his chivalry were compelled to turn and
make one of those desperate charges that effectually punished their
audacity, and stayed the tide of pursuit.  Yet the victorious foe still
hung on the rear of the discomfited cavaliers, till they had emerged from
the mountain passes, and come within sight of the blackened walls of the
capital.  It was the last triumph of the Inca. ^35

[Footnote 35: Ibid., Ms. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 5, lib. 8, cap.
7.]

     Among the manuscripts for which I am indebted to the liberality of
that illustrious Spanish scholar, the lamented Navarrete, the most
remarkable, in connection with this history, is the work of Pedro Pizarro;
Relaciones del Descubrimiento y Conquista de los Reynos del Peru.  But a
single copy of this important document appears to have been preserved, the
existence of which was but little known till it came into the hands of
Senor de Navarrete; though it did not escape the indefatigable researches
of Herrera, as is evident from the mention of several incidents, some of
them having personal relation to Pedro Pizarro himself, which the
historian of the Indies could have derived through no other channel.  The
manuscript has lately been given to the public as part of the inestimable
collection of historical documents now in process of publication at
Madrid, under auspices which, we may trust, will insure its success.  As
the printed work did not reach me till my present labors were far
advanced, I have preferred to rely on the manuscript copy for the brief
remainder of my narrative, as I had been compelled to do for the previous
portion of it.

     Nothing, that I am aware of, is known respecting the author, but what
is to be gleaned from incidental notices of himself in his own history.
He was born at Toledo in Estremadura, the fruitful province of adventurers
to the New World, whence the family of Francis Pizarro, to which Pedro was
allied, also emigrated.  When that chief came over to undertake the
conquest of Peru, after receiving his commission from the emperor in 1529,
Pedro Pizarro, then only fifteen years of age, accompanied him in quality
of page.  For three years he remained attached to the household of his
commander, and afterwards continued to follow his banner as a soldier of
fortune.  He was present at most of the memorable events of the Conquest,
and seems to have possessed in a great degree the confidence of his
leader, who employed him on some difficult missions, in which he displayed
coolness and gallantry.  It is true, we must take the author's own word
for all this.  But he tells his exploits with an air of honesty, and
without any extraordinary effort to set them off in undue relief.  He
speaks of himself in the third person, and, as his manuscript was not
intended solely for posterity, he would hardly have ventured on great
misrepresentation, where fraud could so easily have been exposed.

     After the Conquest, our author still remained attached to the
fortunes of his commander, and stood by him through all the troubles which
ensued; and on the assassination of that chief, he withdrew to Arequipa,
to enjoy in quiet the repartimiento of lands and Indians, which had been
bestowed on him as the recompense of his services.  He was there on the
breaking out of the great rebellion under Gonzalo Pizarro.  But he was
true to his allegiance, and chose rather, as he tells us, to be false to
his name and his lineage than to his loyalty.  Gonzalo, in retaliation,
seized his estates, and would have proceeded to still further extremities
against him, when Pedro Pizarro had fallen into his hands at Lima, but for
the interposition of his lieutenant, the famous Francisco de Carbajal, to
whom the chronicler had once the good fortune to render an important
service.  This, Carbajal requited by sparing his life on two occasions, -
but on the second coolly remarked, "No man has a right to a brace of
lives; and if you fall into my hands a third time, God only can grant you
another." Happily, Pizarro did not find occasion to put this menace to the
test.  After the pacification of the country, he again retired to
Arequipa; but, from the querulous tone of his remarks, it would seem he
was not fully reinstated in the possessions he had sacrificed by his loyal
devotion to government.  The last we hear of him is in 1571, the date
which he assigns as that of the completion of his history.

     Pedro Pizarro's narrative covers the whole ground of the Conquest,
from the date of the first expedition that sallied out from Panama, to the
troubles that ensued on the departure of President Gasca.  The first part
of the work was gathered from the testimony of others, and, of course,
cannot claim the distinction of rising to the highest class of evidence.
But all that follows the return of Francis Pizarro from Castile, all, in
short, which constitutes the conquest of the country, may be said to be
reported on his own observation, as an eyewitness and an actor.  This
gives to his narrative a value to which it could have no pretensions on
the score of its literary execution.  Pizarro was a soldier, with as
little education, probably, as usually falls to those who have been
trained from youth in this rough school, - the most unpropitious in the
world to both mental and moral progress.  He had the good sense, more
over, not to aspire to an excellence which he could not reach.  There is
no ambition of fine writing in his chronicle; there are none of those
affectations of ornament which only make more glaring the beggarly
condition of him who assumes them.  His object was simply to tell the
story of the Conquest, as he had seen it.  He was to deal with facts, not
with words, which he wisely left to those who came into the field after
the laborers had quitted it, to garner up what they could at second hand.

     Pizarro's situation may be thought to have necessarily exposed him to
party influences, and thus given an undue bias to his narrative.  It is
not difficult, indeed, to determine under whose banner he had enlisted.
He writes like a partisan, and yet like an honest one, who is no further
warped from a correct judgment of passing affairs than must necessarily
come from preconceived opinions.  There is no management to work a
conviction in his reader on this side or the other, still less any obvious
perversion of fact.  He evidently believes what he says, and this is the
great point to be desired.  We can make allowance for the natural
influences of his position.  Were he more impartial than this, the critic
of the present day, by making allowance for a greater amount of prejudice
and partiality, might only be led into error.

     Pizarro is not only independent, but occasionally caustic in his
condemnation of those under whom he acted.  This is particularly the case
where their measures bear too unfavorably on his own interests, or those
of the army.  As to the unfortunate natives, he no more regards their
sufferings than the Jews of old did those of the Philistines, whom they
considered as delivered up to their swords, and whose lands they regarded
as their lawful heritage.  There is no mercy shown by the hard Conqueror
in his treatment of the infidel.

     Pizarro was the representative of the age in which he lived.  Yet it
is too much to cast such obloquy on the age.  He represented more truly
the spirit of the fierce warriors who overturned the dynasty of the Incas.
He was not merely a crusader, fighting to extend the empire of the Cross
over the darkened heathen.  Gold was his great object; the estimate by
which he judged of the value of the Conquest; the recompense that he asked
for a life of toil and danger.  It was with these golden visions, far more
than with visions of glory, above all, of celestial glory, that the
Peruvian adventurer fed his gross and worldly imagination.  Pizarro did
not rise above his caste.  Neither did he rise above it in a mental view,
any more than in a moral.  His history displays no great penetration, or
vigor and comprehension of though.  It is the work of a soldier, telling
simply his tale of blood.  Its value is, that it is told by him who acted
it.  And this, to the modern compiler, renders it of higher worth than far
abler productions at second hand.  It is the rude ore, which, submitted to
the regular process of purification and refinement, may receive the
current stamp that fits it for general circulation.

     Another authority, to whom I have occasionally referred, and whose
writings still slumber in manuscript, is the Licentiate Fernando
Montesinos.  He is, in every respect, the opposite of the military
chronicler who has just come under our notice.  He flourished about a
century after the Conquest.  Of course, the value of his writings as an
authority for historical facts must depend on his superior opportunities
for consulting original documents.  For this his advantages were great.
He was twice sent in an official capacity to Peru, which required him to
visit the different parts of the country.  These two missions occupied
fifteen years; so that, while his position gave him access to the colonial
archives and literary repositories, he was enabled to verify his
researches, to some extent, by actual observation of the country.

     The result was his two historical works, Memorias Antiguas
Historiales del Peru, and his Annales, sometimes cited in these pages.
The former is taken up with the early history of the country, - very
early, it must be admitted, since it goes back to the deluge.  The first
part of this treatise is chiefly occupied with an argument to show the
identity of Peru with the golden Ophir of Solomon's time!  This
hypothesis, by no means original with the author, may give no unfair
notion of the character of his mind.  In the progress of his work he
follows down the line of Inca princes, whose exploits, and names even, by
no means coincide with Garcilasso's catalogue; a circumstance, however,
far from establishing their inaccuracy.  But one will have little doubt of
the writer's title to this reproach, that reads the absurd legends told in
the grave tone of reliance by Montesinos, who shared largely in the
credulity and the love of the marvellous which belong to an earlier and
less enlightened age.

     These same traits are visible in his Annals, which are devoted
exclusively to the Conquest.  Here, indeed, the author, after his cloudy
flight, has descended on firm ground, where gross violations of truth, or,
at least, of probability, are not to be expected.  But any one who has
occasion to compare his narrative with that of contemporary writers will
find frequent cause to distrust it.  Yet Montesinos has one merit.  In his
extensive researches, he became acquainted with original instruments,
which he has occasionally transferred to his own pages, and which it would
be now difficult to meet elsewhere.

     His writings have been commended by some of his learned countrymen,
as showing diligent research and information.  My own experience would not
assign them a high rank as historical vouchers.  They seem to me entitled
to little praise, either for the accuracy of their statements, or the
sagacity of their reflections.  The spirit of cold indifference which they
manifest to the sufferings of the natives is an odious feature, for which
there is less apology in a writer of the seventeenth century than in one
of the primitive Conquerors, whose passions had been inflamed by
long-protracted hostility.  M. Ternaux-Compans has translated the Memorias
Antiguas with his usual elegance and precision, for his collection of
original documents relating to the New World.  He speaks in the Preface of
doing the same kind office to the Annales, at a future time.  I am not
aware that he has done this; and I cannot but think that the excellent
translator may find a better subject for his labors in some of the rich
collection of the Munoz manuscripts in his possession.