The War of Chupas

by Pedro de Cieza de León

Hernando Pizarro was a stern, resolute man, inexorable when once his mind was made up, but not cruel. He always disapproved of the ill treatment of the natives, and took measures to prevent it. At first he had no other intention with regard to old Almagro than to leave his case to be decided by his brother on his arrival at Cuzco. But there was a conspiracy among the officers who had served in the expedition of Pedro de Candía, and the troops under their command, to kill Hernando Pizarro and liberate Almagro. They were outside Cuzco and needed help from within. If they had written to one of the more turbulent Almagrist captains, the plot would probably have succeeded. But they chose Diego de Alvarado, a strictly conscientious person who told everything to Hernando Pizarro. That vigilant deputy at once went to the camp of Pedro de Candía and nipped the plot in the bud.

But he came to the conclusion that there could be no permanent peace while Almagro lived. When he had made up his mind nothing would move him. He looked upon it as a political necessity. He resolved to take the whole responsibility upon himself. The charges were drawn up in detail, and when the old man begged for his life Hernando urged him, as it was inevitable, to end his life as became one who had served as he had done. Hernando Pizarro certainly did not communicate with his brother on the subject, because, though convinced of the political necessity himself, he knew that the Marquis would not consent. He took the whole responsibility, which was quite in character with all we know of this remarkable man. He returned to Spain soon afterwards with the royal fifths, but several members of Almagro's party had arrived before him. Articles were drawn up against him, and he never received a fair hearing. Charles V could not possibly attend personally to the affairs of all his vast dominions. Much was necessarily left to others. In Spain a clever intriguer had gained his confidence. This was the Secretary, Francisco de los Cobos, who had much power during the Emperor's absence, and he often used it corruptly and to please his friends, especially the females of his own family. There was a flagrant instance in the supersession of the illustrious discoverer of New Granada, for the sake of such an infamous thief as Alonso de Lugo, because he had married a sister of the wife of Cobos. The persecution of Hernando Pizarro was a parallel case. Don Alonso Enríquez de Guzmán, a violent partisan of Almagro, had hurried back to Spain, so as to spread his version, and do all the mischief he could before the arrival of Hernando Pizarro. He was an old friend of the Secretary Cobos, and when Hernando Pizarro arrived it was a foregone conclusion against him. Charges had been drawn up, the chief one being that he had given the young Inca Manco leave of absence, ignorant of the native plot for an insurrection. At the worst this was an error in judgment which might well have been condoned after Hernando's brilliant defence of Cuzco. The main points were slurred over, for the answers to them would have been conclusive. Hernando Pizarro was unjustly condemned to imprisonment, first at Madrid, then in the castle of Medina del Campo.[8]

As soon as the Marquis received tidings of the victory of Las Salinas, he resolved to leave Lima and make the journey to Cuzco, accompanied by the Bishop of Quito and other friends. At Jauja he met young Diego de Almagro, who had been sent to Lima in charge of Gómez de Alvarado, one of his father's captains. Pizarro received him very kindly, promised him that his father's life should be spared, and ordered that the lad himself should be hospitably lodged in the Marquis's own house at Lima. Continuing the journey, it was not until they reached Abancay, three marches from Cuzco, that Pizarro received news of the death of Almagro. He sat apart for a long time, looking on the ground, and thinking of bygone days with his old friend.

Mr. Prescott and others maintain that the Marquis knew and approved of the execution of Almagro, and must share the responsibility with his brother. For this view the only shadow of evidence is that there would have been time to obtain his approval. But there is clear and distinct evidence that Pizarro did not know. It consists in the statement of his travelling companion, the Bishop of Quito.

Throughout this Almagro business, the conduct of the Marquis Pizarro was correct. Almagro, or rather his captains, were the aggressors, acting illegally, and treasonably, with a view to their own enrichment.

We next come to the detailed account which Cieza de León gives of the assassination of the Marquis. Naturally the captains and soldiers of Almagro's army could hardly expect to receive rewards. Yet Pizarro very kindly offered repartimientos to at least three of Almagro's old captains[9] and a good appointment to another.[10] They were ready for any plot that would secure a change, and they looked to young Diego de Almagro as the possible leader of a rising in their favour. They, therefore, came crowding to Lima, where Diego was. The plea of vengeance for Almagro's death did not influence more than a very few. Perhaps old servants like Herrada and Balsa, may have mingled some vindictive feeling with less worthy motives. Those who might really have had such thoughts, however, were Almagro's intimate friends—his old captains; yet not one of them[11] would have anything to do with the plot of the assassins. Vaca de Castro was on his way to examine and report on the whole subject, and they would await his decision. It was a plot evolved by the scum of Almagro's faction, headed by Juan de Herrada, an old servant who saw his way to a higher position as the chief adviser and protector of young Diego who was himself too young to take an active part. The poverty of Almagro and his followers has been grossly exaggerated. The extensive purchases by them of arms and armour and horses, proves that there was no want of money.

In this volume Cieza de León gives the best and most authentic account of the murder of the Marquis. Pizarro's heedlessness, in spite of numerous warnings, is indeed surprising. He went for walks outside Lima quite alone, especially when he wished to inspect the progress of a mill he was building. On these occasions he might easily have been assassinated, and perhaps his immunity led him to disbelieve in the danger.

It was in June 1847, when I was at a ball in the President's Palace at Lima, that I first began to enquire into the exact locality of Pizarro's house. I was dancing with a lady named Elespuru who said it was not there, but on the opposite side of the plaza. Two aides de camp told the same story, that it was on the site of the present Callejón de Petateros. I still adhered to my own conviction—that the palace of the Viceroys, now that of the Presidents, is on the site of the residence of the Marquis. The question is at last set at rest by the publication of the Libro primero de cabildos de Lima, and of the geographical official reports. My conviction proved to be right, and I was dancing with the Señorita on or near the very spot where Pizarro fell. I have made a plan of part of Lima in those days, showing the residence of the Marquis, and those of citizens who had received solares or building lots near his house; and another of the house itself, according to the descriptions recorded by Cieza de León and others.

It is clear that Juan de Herrada and his gang of assassins were the scum of the old Almagro's army. All but one of his former captains held aloof, disapproving of the murder, and declining to serve under such a ruffian as Juan de Herrada. The younger Diego de Almagro was thus under every possible disadvantage. The captain Sotelo alone stood by him, and Sotelo was murdered by one of the same gang of assassins before he could be of any great use to the ill-fated youth. Several of his father's old captains, to whom Pizarro's murder was hateful, were serving against the son at the battle of Chupas. This lad was the first mestizo who rose to a very prominent position, and I have, therefore, written a note on his career, at the end of the chapter (LXXXIV) containing an account of his execution. I believe that he was innocent of the murder. He thought that the object was to seize the Marquis, not to kill him. He said so in his letter to the Audiencia of Panamá.