Sketches of the Manners, Customs, and History of the Indians of America.
CHAPTER IX.
Almagro attempts to conquer Chili.—His misfortunes.—Cruelty to the natives.—Battle with the Promancians.—Almagro retires to Peru.—His death.
The conquest of Peru by Francis Pizarro, has been already recorded. Among the officers who assisted in the conquest, was Diego Almagro—a chosen friend and fit companion for the ruthless Pizarro. But the friendships of the wicked are easily set aside whenever self-interest operates. Pizarro wanted all the gold of Peru; and he persuaded Almagro to attempt the conquest of Chili.
The Spaniards had heard that Chili was a country rich in gold and silver; and Almagro, flattered with having such a field of wealth entirely to himself, was induced to undertake the conquest.
Filled with these sanguine expectations of great booty, he began his march for Chili near the end of the year 1535. He had an army composed of five hundred and seventy Spaniards and fifteen thousand Peruvians.
Two roads lead from Peru to Chili; one is by the sea-coast, and destitute of water or provisions; the other, for the distance of one hundred and twenty miles, passes over the Andes. This last Almagro took, for no other reason but because it was shortest, and he was impatient to reach his golden harvest.
But he paid dearly for his folly; his army, having been exposed to infinite fatigue and many conflicts with the adjoining savages, reached the Cordilleras just at the commencement of winter, destitute of food, and almost of clothing. In this season the snow falls almost continually, and completely covers the few paths that are passable in summer.
The soldiers, encouraged by their general, who had no idea of the dangers of the passage, arrived at the tops of the mountains, but could go no farther. One hundred and fifty Spaniards, and ten thousand Peruvians, there died by cold and hunger.
The whole army would have perished, had not Almagro resolutely pushed forward with a few horsemen and reached the plains of Copiapo, and then sent back provisions to the exhausted and dying soldiers. Those of the more robust constitutions were, by this means, saved.
The inhabitants of Copiapo, which is the first province in Chili, received these worn and hungry strangers with all the rites of friendly hospitality. The Peruvians had been long held in respect by the Chilians of that province; and the Spaniards, as incorporated with the soldiers of Peru, were welcomed by the Ulmen or governor of Copiapo.
He was probably a vain man, and wished to impress the Spaniards with a high idea of his wealth and power: we cannot otherwise account for the infatuation of his conduct. Had he been a wise man, he would have known that avarice is never satisfied—that to feed is only to increase it.
Be that as it may, he had, it seems, learned the prevailing passion of the Spaniards for gold, and he collected from his people a sum equal to 500,000 ducats, and presented them to Almagro. One would think such a rich present deserved to be gratefully remembered.
But those who worship mammon allow no feelings of friendship or gratitude to interfere with their selfish propensities. Under the pretext that the Ulmen had usurped the government which belonged to his nephew, Almagro arrested the chief of Copiapo, and kept him a prisoner.
About the same time two Spanish soldiers, having separated from the rest of the army, proceeded to Guasco, where they were at first well received, but were afterwards put to death by the inhabitants, in consequence, no doubt, of some acts of violence, which soldiers, freed from the control of their officers, are very apt to commit.
This was the first European blood spilt in Chili,—a country afterwards so copiously sprinkled with it.
Had Almagro wished to preserve peace, and impartially examined the whole transaction, he would, undoubtedly, have found the Chilians justified by the laws of nations and of nature, in the act they had committed. True, it was rash, and it afforded him a pretext, which was all he wanted, to begin his cruel oppressions.
Almagro seized the Ulmen of the district in which his soldiers were put to death, his brother and twenty of the principal inhabitants, and without even accusing them of being concerned in the murder, indeed without assigning any reason at all for his conduct, he ordered them to be burnt. At the same time he also consigned the Ulmen of Copiapo to the flames.
Who will say that the savage crime, even allowing the two soldiers were murdered without provocation, was to be compared in iniquity to that retaliation in which the civilized Christian indulged? But the savage never made gold his god.
The cruelty of the Spanish general, and the intentions he now manifested of enslaving the Chilians, instead of terrifying, at once roused that brave people to resistance.
It is a melancholy task to record the murders and cruelties of war, but we cannot blame a people for resisting the progress of an invading army, especially when they come, as the Spaniards did, to plunder the country, and make the inhabitants slaves.
Almagro, however, was so elated with his success, and felt so secure of conquering all Chili as easily as he had obtained the command of Copiapo, that he would not hearken at all to his Peruvian allies, who represented to him that the Chilians in the other provinces were numerous and warlike. He advanced into the province of the Promancians.
At the first sight of the Spaniards, their horses, and the thundering arms of Europe, these valiant people were almost petrified with astonishment. But they soon recovered from their surprise, and prepared to defend themselves. They met the Spaniards on the shore of the Rio Claro. Almagro despised their force; he knew that the red men had never been a match for Spanish valor, and so he placed his Peruvian auxiliaries in front, intending, with his Spaniards, to appear merely as spectators of the fight.
The Chilians soon routed these allies, or rather slaves of the Spaniards, and then, nothing daunted by the horses, guns and swords of the white men, they rushed on with a courage which the superior discipline of the Spaniards could not resist. The battle was furious, and continued till night separated the combatants.
The Promancians had lost many warriors, but they had also destroyed many of their foes; and they encamped in sight of the enemy, determined to renew the fight on the following morning. The Spaniards, however, though they had kept the field, had no inclination to dispute another such day. They had been accustomed to subdue immense provinces with little or no resistance; but now they had met with a bold and independent nation, who did not believe them to be invincible or immortal.
Almagro, finding that his soldiers refused to fight again, abandoned the enterprize, and immediately began his march for Peru. He returned by the sea-coast; his dread of the perils of the mountain road being fresh in his mind. On his return to Peru he attempted to secure that government for himself, and for this purpose fought a battle with Pizarro, by whom he was taken, tried and beheaded as a disturber of the public peace.
Thus perished the first invader of Chili. The thirst of riches was the moving spring of his expedition. He was disappointed; he then sought to dispossess his friend Pizarro of the share he had obtained in the New World, and by him was put to death; thus showing that there can be no sincere friendships among the wicked.
THE RHINOCEROS.