While on his progress from Quito towards Lima, Gonzalo assumed in everything the deportment and authority of governor of Peru, and was treated in every respect as such by all the inhabitants of the country. He seemed to believe that his authority was so well and firmly established that he had nothing to fear from the attempts of his enemies, and that even the king would be obliged to grant him any terms he might require. All his officers soldiers and dependents obeyed and respected him entirely, as if satisfied that they were always to be subject to his authority, and to depend upon him alone for advancement and reward. In the exercise of his usurped authority, he made many grants or repartitions of lands and Indians, all of them for long periods, which every one considered as secure of being continued. He and his principal officers pretended that they frequently received letters from some of the highest of the nobles in Spain, praising his conduct and approving of every thing he had done, which these pretended letters justified on account of the infringements which had been made on the rights and privileges of the colonists. In these letters likewise, the pretended Spanish grandees were made to engage their favour and credit at court to support his interest and authority with the sovereign. The well informed among the followers of Gonzalo Pizarro saw clearly that these letters were mere fabrications to impose upon the vulgar, and had no foundation whatever in truth.
On his arrival at the city of San Miguel, Gonzalo learned that there were a considerable number of Indians in that neighbourhood who had not been reduced under subjection; for which reason he gave orders to establish a military post in the province of Garrochamba[28], the command of which he conferred on Captain Mercadillo, with a force of an hundred and thirty men, and gave him instructions for completing the conquest of that district, and for dividing the lands and Indians into repartitions like the rest of the country. At this time likewise, he detached Captain Porcel with sixty soldiers to complete the conquest of the Bracamoros. In these proceedings, he wished it to be believed that his sole object was for the advantage of the colony; but his real purpose was to keep his troops on foot and in employ, in case of needing them at a future period for his own defence in support of his usurpation. Before leaving Quito, Gonzalo sent off the licentiate Carvajal by sea with a party of soldiers, in the ships which Juan Alonzo Palomino had brought from Nicaragua after his pursuit of Verdugo. Carvajal was ordered to proceed along the coast towards Lima, and to settle all the maritime towns in his way in good order.
[Footnote 28: No such province or district is now found in the maps of Peru; but it appears to have been on the confines between the northern part of Peru Proper and the southern extremity of Quito, where Valladolid now stands.--E.]
The licentiate Carvajal after executing the before-mentioned orders, came to Truxillo to meet Gonzalo Pizarro, whence they went together to Lima, accompanied by a force of two hundred men. On approaching Lima, there was a diversity of opinions among the followers of Pizarro, respecting the ceremonies with which he should be received into the capital of Peru. Some of his officers were desirous that the magistracy should come out to meet him with a canopy, under which he should make his entry after the manner usually practised with kings. Some even proposed that a breach should be made in the walls, and some of the houses of the city thrown down, so as to make a new entrance on purpose in memory of his victory over the viceroy, as used to be done anciently in Rome for the reception of triumphant generals. In this, as in all other important affairs, Gonzalo was guided by the advice of the licentiate Carvajal, and entered the city on horseback, preceded by all his captains on foot leading their horses by the bridles. On this occasion he was accompanied by the archbishop of Lima, the bishops of Cuzco and Quito, and the bishop of Bogota, who had come into Peru by way of Carthagena on purpose to receive consecration. He was likewise accompanied by Lorenzo de Aldana, his lieutenant-governor of Lima, and by all the magistrates and inhabitants of the city; no one daring to remain at home lest they might be suspected of disaffection. The streets were all ornamented with green herbs and flowers; all the bells of the churches and monasteries were kept ringing; and the cavalcade was preceded by a numerous band of trumpets kettle-drums and other warlike instruments of music. In this pompous manner, Pizarro was conducted in the first place to the great church, and thence to his own residence.
From this time, Gonzalo Pizarro conducted himself with much more pride and haughtiness than formerly, conceiving high ideas of his own importance from these public ceremonials of respect, as usually happens to men of feeble minds on any sudden elevation. He had a guard for his person of eighty halberdiers, besides several horsemen, who acompanied him wherever he went. No person whatever was permitted to be seated in his presence; and there were very few persons whom he designed to honour so far as to return their salute. By these haughty manners, and still more by his frequent disobliging and even abusive manner of speaking, he displeased every one and became universally disliked. It must likewise be mentioned, that the soldiery, to whom he owed everything, became exceedingly discontented with him, as he gave them no pay. All this had a powerful influence on his downfall in the sequel; though for the present every one concealed their real sentiments, waiting for a more favourable opportunity.
"Following Garcilasso de la Vega and other authors, the Historian of America[29] alleges that Gonzalo Pizarro was urged by several of his adherents, and in particular by Carvajal, to assume the sovereignty of Peru; to attach the Spaniards to his interest by liberal grants of lands and Indians, and by the creation of titles of nobility similar to those in Europe; to establish military orders of knighthood, with privileges distinctions and pensions, resembling those in Spain, as gratifications to the officers in his service; and to gain the whole body of natives to his service, by marrying the Coya, or Peruvian princess next in relation to the reigning Inca. Thus at the head of the ancient inhabitants of the country and of the colonists, he might set the power of Spain at defiance, and could easily repel any force that might be sent from Spain to such a distance. These counsellors who urged Pizarro to adopt this plan, insisted that he had already gone too far to expect pardon from the emperor; and endeavoured to convince him that all the founders of great monarchies had risen by their personal merit and their own valour, without any pretensions to ancient lineage or valid rights of sovereignty; and that, besides, his family had a strong title to the dominion of Peru, founded on the rights of discovery and conquest. But the inferior talents of Gonzalo circumscribed his ambition within more narrow bounds, and confined his views to the obtaining a confirmation of the authority which he now possessed from the emperor; for which purpose he sent an officer of distinction to Spain, to give such a representation of his conduct and the state of the country, as might induce the court, from inclination or necessity, to continue him as governor of Peru for life. Although Garcilasso de la Vega gives full warrant for this account of the proposals of the insurgents, Zarate, who was then resident in a public character in Peru, makes no mention of any such plan having been agitated, which could hardly have happened without his knowledge: It is probable therefore that these additional circumstances were invented by the enemies of Gonzalo after his fall, on purpose to blacken his memory by the imputation of even deeper crimes than those he was actually guilty of."--E.
[Footnote 29: History of America, II. 378.]
SECTION VI.
History of the Expedition of Pedro de la Gasca, the Death of Gonzalo Pizarro, and the Restoration of Peru to Tranquillity.