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$Title{History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Chapter II}
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$Author{Prescott, William H.}
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$Date{1864}
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Title:       History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Book:        Book IV: Civil Wars Of The Conquerors
Author:      Prescott, William H.
Date:        1864

Chapter II

First Civil War. - Almagro Retreats To Cuzco. - Battle Of Las Salinas. -
Cruelty Of The Conquerors. - Trial And Execution Of Almagro. - His Character.

     1537-1538.

     Scarcely had Almagro's officers left the governor's quarters, when the
latter, calling his little army together, briefly recapitulated the many
wrongs which had been done him by his rival, the seizure of his capital, the
imprisonment of his brothers, the assault and defeat of his troops; and he
concluded with the declaration, - heartily echoed back by his military
audience, - that the time had now come for revenge.  All the while that the
negotiations were pending, Pizarro had been busily occupied with military
preparations.  He had mustered a force considerably larger than that of his
rival, drawn from various quarters, but most of them familiar with service.
He now declared, that, as he was too old to take charge of the campaign
himself, he should devolve that duty on his brothers; and he released Hernando
from all his engagements to Almagro, as a measure justified by necessity.
That cavalier, with graceful pertinacity, intimated his design to abide by the
pledges he had given, but, at length yielded a reluctant assent to the
commands of his brother, as to a measure imperatively demanded by his duty to
the Crown. ^1

[Footnote 1: Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 3, cap. 10.]

     The governor's next step was to advise Almagro that the treaty was at an
end.  At the same time, he warned him to relinquish his pretensions to Cuzco,
and withdraw into his own territory, or the responsibility of the consequences
would lie on his own head.

     Reposing in his false security, Almagro was now fully awakened to the
consciousness of the error he had committed; and the warning voice of his
lieutenant may have risen to his recollection.  The first part of the
prediction was fulfilled.  And what should prevent the latter from being so?
To add to his distress, he was laboring at this time under a grievous malady,
the result of early excesses, which shattered his constitution, and made him
incapable alike of mental and bodily exertion. ^2

[Footnote 2: "Cayo enfermo i estuvo malo a punto de muerte de bubas i dolores"
(Carta de Espinall, Ms.) It was a hard penalty, occurring at this crisis, for
the sins, perhaps, of earlier days; but

     "The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
     Make instruments to scourge us."]

     In this forlorn condition, he confided the management of his affairs
to Orgonez, on whose loyalty and courage he knew he might implicitly rely.
The first step was to secure the passes of the Guaitara, a chain of hills
that hemmed in the valley of Zangalla, where Almagro was at present
established.  But, by some miscalculation, the passes were not secured in
season; and the active enemy, threading the dangerous defiles, effected a
passage across the sierra, where a much inferior force to his own might
have taken him at advantage.  The fortunes of Almagro were on the wane.

     His thoughts were now turned towards Cuzco, and he was anxious to get
possession of this capital before the arrival of the enemy.  Too feeble to
sit on horseback, he was obliged to be carried in a litter; and, when he
reached the ancient town of Bilcas, not far from Guamanga, his
indisposition was so severe that he was compelled to halt and remain there
three weeks before resuming his march.

     The governor and his brothers, in the mean time, after traversing the
pass of Guaitara, descended into the valley of Ica, where Pizarro remained
a considerable while, to get his troops into order and complete his
preparations for the campaign.  Then, taking leave of the army, he
returned to Lima, committing the prosecution of the war, as he had before
announced, to his younger and more active brothers.  Hernando, soon after
quitting Ica, kept along the coast as far as Nasca, proposing to penetrate
the country by a circuitous route in order to elude the enemy, who might
have greatly embarrassed him in some of the passes of the Cordilleras.
But unhappily for him, this plan of operations, which would have given him
such manifest advantage, was not adopted by Almagro; and his adversary,
without any other impediment than that arising from the natural
difficulties of the march, arrived, in the latter part of April, 1538, in
the neighbourhood of Cuzco.

     But Almagro was already in possession of that capital, which he had
reached ten days before.  A council of war was held by him respecting the
course to be pursued.  Some were for making good the defence of the city.
Almagro would have tried what could be done by negotiation.  But Orgonez
bluntly replied, - "It is too late; you have liberated Hernando Pizarro,
and nothing remains but to fight him." The opinion of Orgonez finally
prevailed, to march out and give the enemy battle on the plains.  The
marshal, still disabled by illness from taking the command, devolved it on
his trusty lieutenant, who, mustering his forces, left the city, and took
up a position at Las Salinas, less than a league distant from Cuzco. The
place received its name from certain pits or vats in the ground, used for
the preparation of salt, that was obtained from a natural spring in the
neighbourhood.  It was an injudicious choice of ground, since its broken
character was most unfavorable to the free action of cavalry, in which the
strength of Almagro's force consisted.  But, although repeatedly urged by
the officers to advance into the open country, Orgonez persisted in his
position, as the most favorable for defence, since the front was protected
by a marsh, and by a little stream that flowed over the plain.  His forces
amounted in all to about five hundred, more than half of them horse.  His
infantry was deficient in fire-arms, the place of which was supplied by
the long pike.  He had also six small cannon, or falconets, as they were
called, which, with his cavalry, formed into two equal divisions, he
disposed on the flanks of his infantry.  Thus prepared, he calmly awaited
the approach of the enemy.

     It was not long before the bright arms and banners of the Spaniards
under Hernando Pizarro were seen emerging from the mountain passes.  The
troops came forward in good order, and like men whose steady step showed
that they had been spared in the march, and were now fresh for action.
They advanced slowly across the plain, and halted on the opposite border
of the little stream which covered the front of Orgonez.  Here Hernando,
as the sun had set, took up his quarters for the night, proposing to defer
the engagement till daylight. ^3

[Footnote 3: Carta de Gutierrez, Ms.  - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.  -
Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 4, cap. 1 - 5. - Carta de Espinall, Ms.
- Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 3, cap. 10, 11. - Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte
2 lib. 2, cap. 36, 37.]

     The rumors of the approaching battle had spread far and wide over the
country; and the mountains and rocky heights around were thronged with
multitudes of natives, eager to feast their eyes on a spectacle, where,
whichever side were victorious, the defeat would fall on their enemies. ^4
The Castilian women and children, too, with still deeper anxiety, had
thronged out from Cuzco to witness the deadly strife in which brethren and
kindred were to contend for mastery. ^5 The whole number of the combatants
was insignificant; though not as compared with those usually engaged in
these American wars It is not, however, the number of the players, but the
magnitude of the stake, that gives importance and interest to the game;
and in this bloody game, they were to play for the possession of an
empire.

[Footnote 4: Herrera, Hist. General, dec 6, lib. 4, cap. 5, 6.]

[Footnote 5: Ibid., ubi supra.]

     The night passed away in silence, unbroken by the vast assembly which
covered the surrounding hill-tops.  Nor did the soldiers of the hostile
camps, although keeping watch within hearing of one another, and with the
same blood flowing in their veins, attempt any communication.  So deadly
was the hate in their bosoms! ^6

[Footnote 6: "I fue cosa de notar, que se estuvieron toda la Noche, sin
que nadie de la vna i otra parte pensase en mover tratos de Paz: tanta era
la ira i aborrecimiento de ambas partes." Ibid., cap. 6.]

     The sun rose bright, as usual in this beautiful climate, on Saturday, the
twenty-sixth day of April, 1538. ^7 But long before his beams were on the
plain, the trumpet of Hernando Pizarro had called his men to arms. His forces
amounted in all to about seven hundred.  They were drawn from various
quarters, the veterans of Pizarro, the followers of Alonso de Alvarado, - many
of whom, since their defeat, had found their way back to Lima, - and the late
reinforcement from the isles, most of them seasoned by many a toilsome march
in the Indian campaigns, and many a hard-fought field.  His mounted troops
were inferior to those of Almagro; but this was more than compensated by the
strength of his infantry, comprehending a well-trained corps of arquebusiers,
sent from St. Domingo, whose weapons were of the improved construction
recently introduced from Flanders.  They were of a large calibre, and threw
double-headed shot, consisting of bullets linked together by an iron chain.
It was doubtless a clumsy weapon compared with modern fire-arms, but, in hands
accustomed to wield it, proved a destructive instrument. ^8

[Footnote 7: A church dedicated to Saint Lazarus was afterwards erected on the
battle-ground, and the bodies of those slain in the action were interred
within its walls.  This circumstance leads Garcilasso to suppose that the
battle took place on Saturday, the sixth, - the day after the Feast of Saint
Lazarus, - and not on the twenty-sixth of April, as commonly reported.  Com.
Real., Parte 2, lib. 2, cap 38.  See also Montesinos, (Annales, Ms., ano
1538,) - an indifferent authority for any thing]

[Footnote 8: Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 3, cap. 8.  - Garcilasso, Com.
Real., Parte 2, lib. 2, cap. 36.]

     Hernando Pizarro drew up his men in the same order of battle as that
presented by the enemy, - throwing his infantry into the centre, and disposing
his horse on the flanks; one corps of which he placed under command of Alonso
de Alvarado, and took charge of the other himself.  The infantry was headed by
his brother Gonzalo, supported by Pedro de Valdivia, the future hero of
Arauco, whose disastrous story forms the burden of romance as well as of
chronicle. ^9

[Footnote 9: The Araucana of Ercilla may claim the merit, indeed, - if it be a
merit, - of combining both romance and history in one.  Surely never did the
Muse venture on such a specification of details, not merely poetical, but
political, geographical, and statistical, as in this celebrated Castilian
epic.  It is a military journal done into rhyme.]

     Mass was said, as if the Spaniards were about to fight what they
deemed the good fight of the faith, instead of imbruing their hands in the
blood of their countrymen.  Hernando Pizarro then made a brief address to
his soldiers.  He touched on the personal injuries he and his family had
received from Almagro; reminded his brother's veterans that Cuzco had been
wrested from their possession; called up the glow of shame on the brows of
Alvarado's men as he talked of the rout of Abancay, and, pointing out the
Inca metropolis that sparkled in the morning sunshine, he told them that
there was the prize of the victor.  They answered his appeal with
acclamations; and the signal being given, Gonzalo Pizarro, heading his
battalion of infantry, led it straight across the river.  The water was
neither broad nor deep, and the soldiers found no difficulty in gaining a
landing, as the enemy's horse was prevented by the marshy ground from
approaching the borders.  But, as they worked their way across the morass,
the heavy guns of Orgonez played with effect on the leading files, and
threw them into disorder.  Gonzalo and Valdivia threw themselves into the
midst of their followers, menacing some, encouraging others, and at length
led them gallantly forward to the firm ground.  Here the arquebusiers,
detaching themselves from the rest of the infantry, gained a small
eminence, whence, in their turn, they opened a galling fire on Orgonez,
scattering his array of spearmen, and sorely annoying the cavalry on the
flanks.

     Meanwhile, Hernando, forming his two squadrons of horse into one column,
crossed under cover of this well-sustained fire, and, reaching the firm
ground, rode at once against the enemy.  Orgonez, whose infantry was already
much crippled, advancing his horse, formed the two squadrons into one body,
like his antagonist, and spurred at full gallop against the assailants.  The
shock was terrible; and it was hailed by the swarms of Indian spectators on
the surrounding heights with a fiendisn yell of triumph, that rose far above
the din of battle, till it was lost in distant echoes among the mountains. ^10

[Footnote 10: Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 4, cap. 6.  - Pedro
Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.  - Carta de Espinall, Ms.  - Zarate, Conq. del
Peru, lib. 3, cap. 11.

     Every thing relating to this battle, - the disposition of the forces, the
character of the ground, the mode of attack, are told as variously and
confusedly, as if it had been a contest between two great armies, instead of a
handful of men on either side.  It would seem that truth is nowhere so
difficult to come at, as on the battle-field.]

     The struggle was desperate.  For it was not that of the white man
against the defenceless Indian, but of Spaniard against Spaniard; both
parties cheering on their comrades with their battle-cries of "El Rey y
Almagro," or "El Rey y Pizarro," - while they fought with a hate, to which
national antipathy was as nothing; a hate strong in proportion to the
strength of the ties that had been rent asunder.

     In this bloody field well did Orgonez do his duty, fighting like one
to whom battle was the natural element.  Singling out a cavalier, whom,
from the color of the sobre-vest on his armour, he erroneously supposed to
be Hernando Pizarro, he charged him in full career, and overthrew him with
his lance.  Another he ran through in like manner, and a third he struck
down with his sword, as he was prematurely shouting "Victory!" But while
thus doing the deeds of a paladin of romance, he was hit by a chain-shot
from an arquebuse, which, penetrating the bars of his visor, grazed his
forehead, and deprived him for a moment of reason.  Before he had fully
recovered, his horse was killed under him, and though the fallen cavalier
succeeded in extricating himself from the stirrups, he was surrounded, and
soon overpowered by numbers.  Still refusing to deliver up his sword, he
asked "if there was no knight to whom he could surrender." One Fuentes, a
menial of Pizarro, presenting himself as such, Orgonez gave his sword into
his hands, - and the dastard, drawing his dagger, stabbed his defenceless
prisoner to the heart!  His head, then struck off, was stuck on a pike,
and displayed, a bloody trophy, in the great square of Cuzco, as the head
of a traitor. ^11 Thus perished as loyal a cavalier, as decided in council,
and as bold in action, as ever crossed to the shores of America.

[Footnote 11: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.  - Herrera Hist.
General, ubi supra.  - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, ubi supra.]

     The fight had now lasted more than an hour, and the fortune of the
day was turning against the followers of Almagro.  Orgonez being down,
their confusion increased.  The infantry, unable to endure the fire of the
arquebusiers, scattered and took refuge behind the stone-walls, that here
and there straggled across the country.  Pedro de Lerma, vainly striving
to rally the cavalry, spurred his horse against Hernando Pizarro, with
whom he had a personal feud.  Pizarro did not shrink from the encounter.
The lances of both the knights took effect.  That of Hernando penetrated
the thigh of his opponent, while Lerma's weapon, glancing by his
adversary's saddle-bow, struck him with such force above the groin, that
it pierced the joints of his mail, slightly wounding the cavalier, and
forcing his horse back on his haunches.  But the press of the fight soon
parted the combatants, and, in the turmoil that ensued, Lerma was
unhorsed, and left on the field covered with wounds. ^12

[Footnote 12: Herrera, Hist. General, ubi supra.  - Garcilasso, Com.
Real., Parte 2, lib. 2, cap. 36.

     Hernando Pizarro wore a surcoat of orange-colored velvet over his armour,
according to Garcilasso, and before the battle sent notice of it to Orgonez,
that the latter might distinguish him in the melee.  But a knight in
Hernando's suite also wore the same colors, it appears, which led Orgonez into
error.]

     There was no longer order, and scarcely resistance, among the
followers of Almagro.  They fled, making the best of their way to Cuzco,
and happy was the man who obtained quarter when he asked it.  Almagro
himself, too feeble to sit so long on his horse, reclined on a litter, and
from a neighbouring eminence surveyed the battle, watching its
fluctuations with all the interest of one who felt that honor, fortune,
life itself, hung on the issue.  With agony not to be described, he had
seen his faithful followers, after their hard struggle, borne down by
their opponents, till, convinced that all was lost, he succeeded in
mounting a mule, and rode off for a temporary refuge to the fortress of
Cuzco.  Thither he was speedily followed, taken, and brought in triumph to
the capital, where, ill as he was, he was thrown into irons, and confined
in the same in the same apartment of the stone building in which he had
imprisoned the Pizarros.

     The action lasted not quite two hours.  The number of killed, variously
stated, was probably not less than a hundred and fifty, - one of the
combatants calls it two hundred, ^13 - a great number, considering the
shortness of the time, and the small amount of forces engaged.  No account is
given of the wounded.  Wounds were the portion of the cavalier.  Pedro de
Lerma is said to have received seventeen, and yet was taken alive from the
field!  The loss fell chiefly on the followers of Almagro But the slaughter
was not confined to the heat of the action.  Such was the deadly animosity of
the parties, that several were murdered in cold blood, like Orgonez, after
they had surrendered.  Pedro de Lerma himself, while lying on his sick couch
in the quarters of a friend in Cuzco, was visited by a soldier, named
Samaniego, whom he had once struck for an act of disobedience.  This person
entered the solitary chamber of the wounded man, took his place by his
bed-side, and then, upbraiding him for the insult, told him that he had come
to wash it away in his blood!  Lerma in vain assured him, that, when restored
to health, he would give him the satisfaction he desired.  The miscreant,
exclaiming "Now is the hour!" plunged his sword into his bosom.  He lived
several years to vaunt this atrocious exploit, which he proclaimed as a
reparation to his honor.  It is some satisfaction to know that the insolence
of this vaunt cost him his life. ^14 - Such anecdotes, revolting as they are,
illustrate not merely the spirit of the times, but that peculiarly ferocious
spirit which is engendered by civil wars, - the most unforgiving in their
character of any, but wars of religion.

[Footnote 13: "Murieron en esta Batalla de las Salinas casi dozientos hombres
de vna parte y de otra." (Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.) Most
authorities rate the loss at less.  The treasurer Espinall, a partisan of
Almagro, says they massacred a hundred and fifty after the fight, in cold
blood.  "Siguiecon el alcanze la mas cruelmente que en el mundo se ha visto,
porque matavan a los hombres rendidos e desarmados, e por les quitar las armas
los mataban si presto no se las quitaban, e trayendo a las ancas de un caballo
a un Ruy Diaz viniendo rendido e desarmado le mataron, i desta manera mataron
mas de ciento e cinquenta hombres" Carta, Ms.]

[Footnote 14: Carta de Espinall, Ms. - Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 2, lib.
2, cap. 38.

     He was hanged for this very crime by the governor of Puerto Viejo, about
five years after this time, having outraged the feelings of that officer and
the community by the insolent and open manner in which he boasted of his
atrocious exploit.]

     In the hurry of the flight of one party, and the pursuit by the other,
all pouring towards Cuzco, the field of battle had been deserted. But it soon
swarmed with plunderers, as the Indians, descending like vultures from the
mountains, took possession of the bloody ground, and, despoiling the dead,
even to the minutest article of dress, left their corpses naked on the plain.
^15 It has been thought strange that the natives should not have availed
themselves of their superior numbers to fall on the victors after they had
been exhausted by the battle.  But the scattered bodies of the Peruvians were
without a leader; they were broken in spirits, moreover, by recent reverses,
and the Castilians, although weakened for the moment by the struggle, were in
far greater strength in Cuzco than they had ever been before.

[Footnote 15: "Los Indios viendo la Batalla fenescida, ellos tambien se
dejaron de la suia, iendo los vnos i los otros a desnudar los Espanoles
muertos, i aun algunos vivos, que por sus heridas no se podian defender,
porque como paso el tropel de la Gente, siguiendo la Victoria, no huvo quien
se lo impidiese; de manera que dexaron en cueros a todos los caidos." Zarate,
Conq. del Peru, lib. 3, cap. 11]

     Indeed, the number of troops now assembled within its walls, amounting to
full thirteen hundred, composed, as they were, of the most discordant
materials, gave great uneasiness to Hernando Pizarro.  For there were enemies
glaring on each other and on him with deadly though smothered rancor, and
friends, if not so dangerous, not the less troublesome from their craving and
unreasonable demands.  He had given the capital up to pillage, and his
followers found good booty in the quarters of Almagro's officers.  But this
did not suffice the more ambitious cavaliers; and they clamorously urged their
services, and demanded to be placed in charge of some expedition, nothing
doubting that it must prove a golden one.  All were in quest of an El Dorado.
Hernando Pizarro acquiesced as far as possible in these desires, most willing
to relieve himself of such importunate creditors.  The expeditions, it is
true, usually ended in disaster; but the country was explored by them.  It was
the lottery of adventure; the prizes were few, but they were splendid; and in
the excitement of the game, few Spaniards paused to calculate the chances of
success.

     Among those who left the capital was Diego, the son of Almagro. Hernando
was mindful to send him, with a careful escort, to his brother the governor,
desirous to remove him at this crisis from the neighbourhood of his father.
Meanwhile the marshal himself was pining away in prison under the combined
influence of bodily illness and distress of mind. Before the battle of
Salinas, it had been told to Hernando Pizarro that Almagro was like to die.
"Heaven forbid," he exclaimed, "that this should come to pass before he falls
into my hands!" ^16 Yet the gods seemed now disposed to grant but half of this
pious prayer, since his captive seemed about to escape him just as he had come
into his power.  To console the unfortunate chief, Hernando paid him a visit
in his prison, and cheered him with the assurance that he only waited for the
governor's arrival to set him at liberty; adding, 'that, if Pizarro did not
come soon to the capital, he himself would assume the responsibility of
releasing him, and would furnish him with a conveyance to his brother's
quarters." At the same time, with considerate attention to his comfort, he
inquired of the marshal "what mode of conveyance would be best suited to his
state of health." After this he continued to send him delicacies from his own
table to revive his faded appetite.  Almagro, cheered by these kind
attentions, and by the speedy prospect of freedom, gradually mended in health
and spirits. ^17

[Footnote 16: "Respondia Hernando Pizarro, que no le haria Dios tan gran mal,
que le dexase morir, sin que le huviese a las manos." Herrera, Hist. General,
dec. 6 lib. 4, cap. 5.]

[Footnote 17: Ibid., dec. 6, lib. 4, cap. 9.]

     He little dreamed that all this while a process was industriously
preparing against him.  It had been instituted immediately on his capture, and
every one, however humble, who had any cause of complaint against the
unfortunate prisoner, was invited to present it.  The summons was readily
answered; and many an enemy now appeared in the hour of his fallen fortunes,
like the base reptiles crawling into light amidst the ruins of some noble
edifice; and more than one, who had received benefits from his hands, were
willing to court the favor of his enemy by turning on their benefactor.  From
these loath some sources a mass of accusations was collected which spread over
four thousand folio pages!  Yet Almagro was the idol of his soldiers! ^18

[Footnote 18: "De tal manera que los Escrivanos no se davan manos, i ia tenian
oscritas mas de dos mil hojas." Ibid., dec. 6, lib. 4, cap. 7.

     Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms. - Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms. - Carta de
Gutierrez, Ms. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Carta de Espinall, Ms.]

     Having completed the process, (July 8th, 1538,) it was not difficult to
obtain a verdict against the prisoner.  The principal charges on which he was
pronounced guilty were those of levying war against the Crown, and thereby
occasioning the death of many of his Majesty's subjects; of entering into
conspiracy with the Inca; and finally, of dispossessing the royal governor of
the city of Cuzco.  On these charges he was condemned to suffer death as a
traitor, by being publicly beheaded in the great square of the city.  Who were
the judges, or what was the tribunal that condemned him, we are not informed.
Indeed, the whole trial was a mockery; if that can be called a trial, where
the accused himself is not even aware of the accusation.

     The sentence was communicated by a friar deputed for the purpose to
Almagro.  The unhappy man, who all the while had been unconsciously slumbering
on the brink of a precipice, could not at first comprehend the nature of his
situation.  Recovering from the first shock, "It was impossible," he said,
"that such wrong could be done him, - he would not believe it." He then
besought Hernando Pizarro to grant him an interview. That cavalier, not
unwilling, it would seem, to witness the agony of his captive, consented; and
Almagro was so humbled by his misfortunes, that he condescended to beg for his
life with the most piteous supplications.  He reminded Hernando of his ancient
relations with his brother, and the good offices he had rendered him and his
family in the earlier part of their career.  He touched on his acknowledged
services to his country, and besought his enemy "to spare his gray hairs, and
not to deprive him of the shore remnant of an existence from which he had now
nothing more to fear." - To this the other coldly replied, that "he was
surprised to see Almagro demean himself in a manner so unbecoming a brave
cavalier; that his fate was no worse than had befallen many a soldier before
him; and that, since God had given him the grace to be a Christian, he should
employ his remaining moments in making up his account with Heaven!" ^19

[Footnote 19: "I que pues tuvo tanta gracia de Dios, que le hico Christiano,
ordenase su Alma, i temiese a Dios." Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 5,
cap. 1.]

     But Almagro was not to be silenced.  He urged the service he had rendered
Hernando himself.  "This was a hard requital," he said, "for having spared his
life so recently under similar circumstances, and that, too, when he had been
urged again and again by those around him to take it away." And he concluded
by menacing his enemy with the vengeance of the emperor, who would never
suffer this outrage on one who had rendered such signal services to the Crown
to go unrequited.  It was all in vain; and Hernando abruptly closed the
conference by repeating, that "his doom was inevitable, and he must prepare to
meet it." ^20 [Footnote 20: Ibid., ubi supra.

     The marshal appealed from the sentence of his judges to the Crown,
supplicating his conqueror, (says the treasurer Espinall, in his letter to the
emperor,) in terms that would have touched the heart of an infidel. "De la
qual el dicho Adelantado apelo para ante V. M. i le rogo que por amor de Dios
hincado de rodillas le otorgase el apelacion, diciendole que mirase sus canas
e vejez e quanto havia servido a V. M. i qe el havia sido el primer escalon
para que el 1 sus hermanos subiesen en el estado en que estavan, i diciendole
otras muchas palabras de dolor e compasion que despues de muerto supe que
dixo, que a qualquier hombre, aunque fuera infiel, moviera a piedad." Carta,
Ms.]

     Almagro, finding that no impression was to be made on his
iron-hearted conqueror, now seriously addressed himself to the settlement
of his affairs.  By the terms of the royal grant he was empowered to name
his successor.  He accordingly devolved his office on his son, appointing
Diego de Alvarado, on whose integrity he had great reliance, administrator
of the province during his minority.  All his property and possessions in
Peru, of whatever kind, he devised to his master the emperor, assuring him
that a large balance was still due to him in his unsettled accounts with
Pizarro.  By this politic bequest, he hoped to secure the monarch's
protection for his son, as well as a strict scrutiny into the affairs of
his enemy.

     The knowledge of Almagro's sentence produced a deep sensation in the
community of Cuzco.  All were amazed at the presumption with which one,
armed with a little brief authority, ventured to sit in judgment on a
person of Almagro's station.  There were few who did not call to mind some
generous or good-natured act of the unfortunate veteran.  Even those who
had furnished materials for the accusation, now startled by the tragic
result to which it was to lead, were heard to denounce Hernando's conduct
as that of a tyrant.  Some of the principal cavaliers, and among them
Diego de Alvarado, to whose intercession, as we have seen Hernando
Pizarro, when a captive, had owed his own life, waited on that commander,
and endeavoured to dissuade him from so high-handed and atrocious a
proceeding.  It was in vain.  But it had the effect of changing the mode
of execution, which, instead of the public square, was now to take place
in prison. ^21

[Footnote 21: Carta de Espinall, Ms. - Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1538.

     Bishop Valverde, as he assures the emperor, remonstrated with
Francisco Pizarro in Lima, against allowing violence towards the marshal;
urging it on him, as an imperative duty, to go himself at once to Cuzco,
and set him at liberty.  "It was too grave a matter," he rightly added,
"to trust to a third party." (Carta al Emperador, Ms.) The treasurer
Espinall, then in Cuzco, made a similar ineffectual attempt to turn
Hernando from his purpose.]

     On the day appointed, a strong corps of arquebusiers was drawn up in
the plaza.  The guards were doubled over the houses were dwelt the
principal partisans of Almagro.  The executioner, attended by a priest,
stealthily entered his prison; and the unhappy man, after confessing and
receiving the sacrament, submitted without resistance to the garrote.
Thus obscurely, in the gloomy silence of a dungeon, perished the hero of a
hundred battles!  His corpse was removed to the great square of the city,
where, in obedience to the sentence, the head was severed from the body.
A herald proclaimed aloud the nature of the crimes for which he had
suffered; and his remains, rolled in their bloody shroud, were borne to
the house of his friend Hernan Ponce de Leon, and the next day laid with
all due solemnity in the church of Our Lady of Mercy.  The Pizarros
appeared among the principal mourners.  It was remarked, that their
brother had paid similar honors to the memory of Atahuallpa. ^22

[Footnote 22: Carta de Espinall, Ms. - Herrera, Hist. General, loc. cit. -
Carta de Valverde al Emperador, Ms. - Carta de Gutierrez, Ms. - Pedro
Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1538.

     The date of Almagro's execution is not given; a strange omission; but
of little moment, as that event must have followed soon on the
condemnation.]

     Almagro, at the time of his death, was probably not far from seventy
years of age.  But this is somewhat uncertain; for Almagro was a
foundling, and his early history is lost in obscurity. ^23 He had many
excellent qualities by nature; and his defects, which were not few, may
reasonably be palliated by the circumstances of his situation.  For what
extenuation is not authorized by the position of a foundling, - without
parents, or early friends, or teacher to direct him, - his little bark set
adrift on the ocean of life, to take its chance among the rude billows and
breakers, without one friendly hand stretched forth to steer or to save
it!  The name of "foundling" comprehends an apology for much, very much,
that is wrong in after life. ^24

[Footnote 23: Ante, vol. I. p. 207.]

[Footnote 24: Montesinos, for want of a better pedigree, says, - "He was
the son of his own great deeds, and such has been the parentage of many a
famous hero!" (Annales, Ms., ano 1538.) It would go hard with a Castilian,
if he could not make out something like a genealogy, - however shadowy.]

     He was a man of strong passions, and not too well used to control
them. ^25 But he was neither vindictive nor habitually cruel.  I have
mentioned one atrocious outrage which he committed on the natives.  But
insensibility to the rights of the Indian he shared with many a
better-instructed Spaniard.  Yet the Indians, after his conviction, bore
testimony to his general humanity, by declaring that they had no such
friend among the white men. ^26 Indeed, far from being vindictive, he was
placable, and easily yielded to others.  The facility with which he
yielded, the result of good-natured credulity, made him too often the dupe
of the crafty; and it showed, certainly, a want of that self-reliance
which belongs to great strength of character.  Yet his facility of temper,
and the generosity of his nature, made him popular with his followers.  No
commander was ever more beloved by his soldiers.  His generosity was often
carried to prodigality.  When he entered on the campaign of Chili, he lent
a hundred thousand gold ducats to the poorer cavaliers to equip
themselves, and afterwards gave them up the debt. ^27 He was profuse to
ostentation.  But his extravagance did him no harm among the roving
spirits of the camp, with whom prodigality is apt to gain more favor than
a strict and well-regulated economy.

[Footnote 25: "Hera vn hombre muy profano, de muy mala lengua, que en
enojandose tratava muy mal a todos los que con el andavan aunque fuesen
cavalleros.  "(Descub. y Conq., Ms.) It is the portrait drawn by an
enemy.]

[Footnote 26: "Los Indios lloraban amargamente, diciendo, que de el nunca
recibieron mal tratamiento." Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 5, cap.
1.]

[Footnote 27: If we may credit Herrera, he distributed a hundred and eighty
roads of silver and twenty of gold among his followers!  "Mando sacar de su
Posada mas de ciento i ochenta cargas de Plata i veinte de Oro, i las
repartio." (Dec. 5, lib. 7, cap. 9.) A load was what a man could easily carry.
Such a statement taxes our credulity, but it is difficult to set the proper
limits to one's credulity, in what relates to this land of gold.]

     He was a good soldier, careful and judicious in his plans, patient and
intrepid in their execution.  His body was covered with the scars of his
battles, till the natural plainness of his person was converted almost into
deformity.  He must not be judged by his closing campaign, when, depressed by
disease, he yielded to the superior genius of his rival; but by his numerous
expeditions by land and by water for the conquest of Peru and the remote
Chili.  Yet it may be doubted whether he possessed those uncommon qualities,
either as a warrior or as a man, that, in ordinary circumstances, would have
raised him to distinction.  He was one of the three, or, to speak more
strictly, of the two associates, who had the good fortune and the glory to
make one of the most splendid discoveries in the Western World.  He shares
largely in the credit of this with Pizarro; for, when he did not accompany
that leader in his perilous expeditions, he contributed no less to their
success by his exertions in the colonies.

     Yet his connection with that chief can hardly be considered a fortunate
circumstance in his career.  A partnership between individuals for discovery
and conquest is not likely to be very scrupulously observed, especially by men
more accustomed to govern others than to govern themselves.  If causes for
discord do not arise before, they will be sure to spring up on division of the
spoil.  But this association was particularly ill-assorted.  For the free,
sanguine, and confiding temper of Almagro was no match for the cool and crafty
policy of Pizarro; and he was invariably circumvented by his companion,
whenever their respective interests came in collision.

     Still the final ruin of Almagro may be fairly imputed to himself.  He
made two capital blunders.  The first was his appeal to arms by the seizure of
Cuzco.  The determination of a boundary-line was not to be settled by arms.
It was a subject for arbitration; and, if arbitrators could not be trusted, it
should have been referred to the decision of the Crown.  But, having once
appealed to arms, he should not then have resorted to negotiation, - above
all, to negotiation with Pizarro.  This was his second and greatest error.  He
had seen enough of Pizarro to know that he was not to be trusted.  Almagro did
trust him, and he paid for it with his life.