The old and the new Peru

by Marie Robinson Wright

CHAPTER IV
THE SPANISH DISCOVERY AND INVASION UNDER PIZARRO

ANCIENT STREET OF CUZCO.

While the empire of the Incas was approaching the zenith of its greatness in America, Spain was extending the power and prestige of the House of Austria throughout Europe under the sovereignty of the Emperor Charles V. And the proud dynasty of the Hapsburgs, whose double-headed eagle was destined to obscure the Sun of Tahuantinsuyo and to efface the sacred Rainbow in its shadow, did not represent a more exalted royalty in the Old World than did that of Manco-Ccapac in the New. There are even some points of resemblance between the two monarchies, so remotely separated in origin and traditions. In Peru, as in Spain, the army and the Church were the only occupations worthy of the nobility; in both countries, wars of conquest were fought in the name of religion, with the emblem of salvation in one hand and that of destruction in the other,—the Inca with the golden disk and the catapult, the Spaniard with the Cross and the sword; and both led their armies against the infidel with the determination to destroy his idols and to establish the true worship.

However much we may condemn the method of the Spanish conquerors, their mission was not altogether mercenary in its purpose. It is not strange that the yellow metal dimmed their consciences when it blazed before their eyes on the temples of Mexico and Peru; yet, even then, as Prescott says: “In the motives of action, meaner influences were strangely mingled with the loftier, the temporal with the spiritual.” The hardy and romantic adventurers who followed in the wake of Columbus were not merely sordid gold hunters; they were the descendants of soldiers who had for centuries fought in the holy wars of the Cross against the Crescent, and in their veins flowed the blood of the knight-errant and the crusader. Gold they sought with eagerness and without scruple; but they wanted glory almost as much as they wanted gold, and in the pursuit of both, they carried aloft the banner of the Church, and sought the blessing of its ministers. As soon as a newly discovered land was taken possession of in the name of the King of Spain, the Cross was elevated in token of the triumph of Christianity. Columbus erected the Cross in Hispaniola, and Cortés followed up his victory over the Aztecs with their forcible conversion to the true faith. In Peru, a less pious discoverer than Columbus and a more ruthless invader than Cortés employed the sacred office of the priest to aid him in accomplishing an act of treachery so odious that it dims the glory of his conquest and places him below the standard even of mediæval adventurers.

Francisco Pizarro, a native of Trujillo in Spain, began life under all the disadvantages which are the lot of the illegitimate child, but which, in many instances, school him in a discipline so rigorous that as he grows to manhood he becomes thoroughly inured to hardship and is able to dominate the greatest misfortune and to achieve success in the face of the most discouraging obstacles. Such a discipline is hardly likely to develop the softer virtues; and, as the young Pizarro received no care,—either from his father, who was a distinguished colonel under El Gran Capitan, or from his mother, a humble peasant,—as he was never taught to read or to write, and spent his boyhood tending swine, it is not difficult to imagine what extraordinary influences must have moulded his character, and transformed the swineherd of Trujillo into the fearless soldier of fortune, known to history as the cruel, rapacious, and perfidious, though consummately daring, Conqueror of Peru.

The first news of Pizarro as an adventurer in the New World is found in the record of a disastrous expedition fitted out at Hispaniola for the purpose of colonization; a few years later he is heard from in connection with the more successful undertaking led by Balboa, with whom Pizarro crossed the Isthmus of Panamá, when that celebrated adventurer discovered the Pacific Ocean. Up to that time, Pizarro, who was then fifty years of age, had won neither gold nor glory as a reward for his ambition. In 1522, an expedition, which had been sent southward by the governor of Panamá, returned with wonderful stories of the wealth and grandeur of a kingdom that was supposed to lie behind the great range of the Andes. Pizarro became interested and communicated his enthusiasm to Diego de Almagro, an adventurer like himself, a native of Castile, and a foundling. These two enterprising explorers were joined by a third, named Hernando de Luque, a priest, who furnished most of the funds for the expedition which it was agreed they would undertake, to search for the land of treasure. After great reverses and his desertion by many famished followers on the barren Island of Gallo, Pizarro reached Tumbes, on the southern shore of the Gulf of Guayaquil, where he found a populous settlement, rich in temples and palaces ornamented with gold and silver, and inhabited by a kind and hospitable people. The natives told the Spaniards that a great and powerful prince ruled over all this country, whose capital lay behind the mountains and was a city of far greater wealth and splendor than anything they had yet seen. Could any news be more welcome to the little band of adventurers in search of this very treasure? After cruising southward past the present city of Trujillo, at which they also disembarked for a short stay, and finding everywhere proofs that they had reached the shores of an opulent kingdom, the expedition turned northward again toward Panamá; for Pizarro realized that it would be impossible to attempt the conquest of such a country with a mere dozen of followers. On their way, they called again at Tumbes, where a native boy, named Felipillo, was taken on board to accompany Pizarro to Panamá, so that he might learn the Spanish language and serve as interpreter when the discoverers should return to his country to conquer it.

RUINS OF AN INCA’S PALACE.