Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 1 of 2

by Robert Grant Watson

1533.

An agreeable surprise now awaited Pizarro in the arrival of Manco, the brother of Huascar, and who was the rightful heir to the Peruvian crown. No event could have happened better suited to the Spanish interests. The prince’s petition for protection was at once accorded, and he accompanied the invaders to Cuzco, which city was entered on the 15th of November. It had already been to a considerable extent denuded of its treasures, which had gone to form part of the ransom of Atahualpa, but it still formed a prize well worth the grasping, containing as it did, together with its suburbs, some five-and-twenty thousand houses. Cuzco was a populous, well-built and well-regulated city, with houses of stone, wholly or in part, and with long, regular streets, crossing one another at right angles, and meeting in the great square, which through them communicated with the high-roads of the empire. Through the capital ran a river of pure water, the banks of which for twenty leagues were faced with stone, and which was crossed at intervals by bridges.

Here, as usual, almost the first care of the Spaniards, after their arrival, was to collect the treasure, which was computed to amount to about six hundred pesos of gold and two hundred and fifteen marks of silver. Pizarro’s next object was to set up a civil government, and with this view the young Inca was crowned, with the formalities which would have been observed had he really been destined to power, whilst at the same time Spanish alcaldes and regidores were appointed, two of the latter being Pizarro’s brothers. But all was not tranquil in Peru, and Almagro had soon to take the field to reduce one of the two generals of the late Inca, who, when defeated by him on this occasion, retreated to Quito, where he defied the Spaniards until he was assassinated by his troops. Soon afterwards Pizarro had the good fortune to purchase from the governor of Guatemala, for the consideration of a hundred thousand gold pieces, a fleet of twelve vessels, great and small, with forces, stores and ammunition.

Peru was now, in all seeming, conquered, and the governor’s next concern was to select a suitable situation for the future capital of this vast colony. After much consideration, he decided on a spot about six miles from the mouth of the river Rimac, almost in the latitude of Cuzco, and on which, with wonderful rapidity, arose the beautiful city of Lima. Pizarro was now somewhat advanced in years, and the development of the new city in its delightful situation formed the immediate interest of the remainder of his life, he throwing into this object the same vigour by which he had been ever distinguished in exploration or in war.

It will be remembered that Pizarro’s elder brother, Hernando, had been despatched to Spain to announce the progress of his countrymen and the capture of the Inca. He was graciously received by the emperor, who manifested great interest as well in the fabrics and other products which he had brought with him as in the gold and silver, for which he had more immediate occasion. The adventurers who had returned with him had likewise such a tale to tell that he was at no loss for volunteers to return with him to Peru. He likewise brought back for his brother a patent for the rank of marquis, with the permission to extend his government seventy leagues to the south; and for Almagro the permission to discover and occupy the country for two hundred leagues still further, he himself having been named a knight of St. Iago. It so happened that no one could tell at this time the exact latitude of Cuzco, and consequently it was an open point whether it fell within the dominions allotted to Pizarro or within the grant of Almagro, a point which was not long in producing civil war amongst the conquerors. This was, however, for a time deferred, and Almagro consented to set out for the conquest of Chili.

1535.

Notwithstanding occasional hostile encounters at different points, the success of the Spaniards had been so uniform that almost the last occurrence which they looked for was a general rising of the inhabitants of Peru. They were, consequently, correspondingly astonished when, the Inca Manco having made his escape from Cuzco, his subjects rose at his orders as one man to resist the Spanish yoke and, if possible, to exterminate the invaders. In all directions the Spaniards were assailed, and many of them, who, in full belief of their security, had settled upon isolated properties throughout the country, were without difficulty cut off by the natives. But their grand effort was directed to the reduction of Cuzco, where the Spaniards under Hernando Pizarro were besieged for months. Although the numbers of the latter did not exceed two hundred besides a thousand native auxiliaries, they had, in the course of the siege, to undergo the trials of famine; besides which they were to be deemed fortunate in that they were not enveloped in the flames to which the city was consigned by the stratagem of the besiegers. They were reduced to terrible straits, and being cut off from all communication from outside the walls, were alike without the hope of succour and the knowledge of a place of refuge. Pizarro indeed had sent no fewer than four expeditions to their assistance, but these had been either repulsed or annihilated.

1535.

From this desperate position they were at length relieved by the necessities of the besiegers. It was now the month of August—six months from the commencement of the siege,—and the Inca Manco, whose multitudinous host was already straitened for provisions, saw that if his followers should not return to their fields at the sowing season, a famine would be the result. He accordingly gave orders that the greater part of his troops should return to their homes, to re-assemble when their agricultural labours were over. This measure, which was perhaps necessary for the Peruvians, was to the Spaniards a reprieve from death. With energy sharpened by apprehension and hunger, their foraging parties now scoured the neighbourhood for provisions, and, with the buoyancy naturally following such depression and long inaction, Hernando Pizarro was not slow in assuming the offensive. He even made a bold attempt, by a vigorous attack in the dead of night, to secure the Inca’s person. This was defeated, and he was pursued by the Peruvians to before the walls of Cuzco; but with the necessity which compelled him to order his warriors to exchange their swords for the ploughshare, the Inca lost the latest hope which remained to his countrymen of expelling the Spanish invaders.

Almagro’s march, undertaken with the object of taking possession of his future government of Chili, was of the most arduous that could be conceived. The cold which he and his men encountered in the passes of the Andes was intense, whilst the straits to which both Spaniards and their attendant Indians were reduced by hunger were so great that the former were glad of the carcases of the horses which fell victims to the climate, whilst the latter were forced to feed on the bodies of their comrades who fell. The accounts, too, received from the exploring expedition which had been sent on in advance, held out no immediate prospect of plunder; so that under these circumstances it was not difficult for his advisers to persuade Almagro to retrace his way to Cuzco. With the remembrance of his recent passage through the mountain defiles, he this time determined to follow the coast; but he had avoided one set of difficulties to encounter another, perhaps as great, for his route led across the great desert of Atacama. On reaching the town of Arequipa, Almagro learned for the first time the revolt of the Peruvians, and he was so fortunate, whilst on his way to Cuzco, as to inflict on the Inca a final defeat.