Manco Capac was not a listless observer of these proceedings. Perceiving that but a few troops remained in Cuzco, where he resided, jealously watched by the Spaniards, he secretly issued his commands for his subjects to assemble at a short distance from the capital, where he obtained leave to go to attend a solemn festival. As soon as he appeared, the banner was unfurled, and the war began. All the warriors were gathered, and the whole country from Quito to Chili was soon in arms. Many of the Spaniards, scattered over the country, and not expecting such an attack, were cut off. An army, according to the Spanish writers, of 200,000 men assaulted Cuzco, which was defended by only 170 Spaniards. At the same time, Pizarro’s new city of Lima was besieged, while he was obliged to remain within. All communication between the two cities was cut off; and the besieged in either place were in utter ignorance of the fate of each other.
The Inca commanded in person at Cuzco, and here it was that the Peruvians made their greatest efforts. For nine whole months, they carried on the siege, displaying great skill, and profiting by their observations on the discipline of their enemies. To render their efforts yet more successful, they armed some of their most valiant men with the swords, spears, and bucklers which they had taken from the Spaniards whom they had put to death throughout the country. Some even made trial of the Spanish muskets, and charged their foe, mounted on horses, and led by the Inca in person. In spite of the most active defence, Manco Capac gained possession of one half of his capital, and probably nothing but the sudden appearance of Almagro’s troops saved the dispirited Spaniards from quitting Cuzco, or perishing in battle.
The force of Almagro was regarded by both parties as the umpire of the contest, and both sought his aid. He and the Pizarros had been at variance, as the Peruvians knew, and Manco Capac at first sought his friendship; but at length, despairing of success in this way, he attacked him by surprise. This decided the question. The Peruvians unable to effect their purpose, were defeated with great slaughter, and their army was mostly dispersed.
Soon after this, Pizarro, having dispersed the Peruvians, who had held him shut up in Lima, and having received also reinforcements from Spain, advanced towards Cuzco. After fruitless negotiations, a terrible battle was fought between himself and his brothers, and Almagro, in which the latter was defeated and put to death. The Peruvians who seem at first to have resolved to profit by the divisions of the Spaniards, instead of falling on the exhausted troops of the victors, as they should have done, retired quietly after the battle, perhaps more than ever impressed with a sense of the superiority of their discipline. This bloody engagement took place on the 26th of April, 1538.
In the following ten or twelve years, there were a succession of contests for power between different parties of the Spaniards, during which time we lose sight of Manco Capac and the Peruvians, except that we know that these people, pressed by hard service, were rapidly wasting away. The representations of the benevolent Las Casas at length reached the Spanish monarch, and influenced him to avert some of the evils with which the natives were threatened, by the establishment of a more firm and equitable government. This was finally accomplished by the wisdom of the viceroy, Pedro de la Gasca, after the entire defeat and death of the last of the Pizarros, who had rebelled against the king’s appointment, in 1549. This officer made regulations concerning the treatment of the Indians, by which they might be protected from oppression, and be instructed in the principles of religion. Still they were obliged to labor for the Spaniards, being attached to the land itself, and apportioned out to the various persons who owned the estates.
Like almost all conquered and enslaved people, their numbers have lessened, while they have been subjected to the fluctuations of ages. They are now said to be feeble and depressed beyond any people of America, seeming scarcely capable of bold and manly exertion. Some whole districts, especially in the ancient kingdom of Quito, have continued to be occupied almost entirely by the Indians. In some places they exercise the mechanic arts, and belong to the lower class of the population. Some of them have become converts to the Roman Catholic priests; while some still remember and reverence the institutions of their fathers, and sometimes secretly assemble and engage in ancient idolatrous rites.
Robertson computed the number of native Indians in Peru at the time he wrote to be 2,449,120. They are said to have “small features, little feet, sleek, coarse, black hair, and scarcely any beard.” They have been represented as sunk in apathy and insensibility, but the shy, reserved, and gloomy, though tame aspect which they present, is the fruit of long oppression, and accumulated wrongs. They still retain the deepest and most mournful recollections of the Inca, and celebrate his death by a sort of rude drama, accompanied by the most melting strains of music.
