Manco Capac, Huascar's brother and legitimate successor, went in person to the Spanish camp to propose a formal alliance and a joint war of extermination against the Atahuallpa faction, Pizarro received him with every mark of honour and respect and renewed his assurances that the sole object of his march from Cajamarca was to crush the enemies of the rightful emperor. Quizquiz tried hard to get his forces into shape for resistance, but his position near Cuzco was untenable, and after a slight skirmish he was obliged to leave the way open to the capital. Just a year from the day he had reached Cajamarca, Pizarro entered Cuzco by the side of the legitimate emperor amid the acclamations of the people. Manco's inauguration was splendidly celebrated with all the ancient rites, but among the procession of rejoicing Incas rode an ominous cavalcade—the Spanish soldiers, who now numbered nearly five hundred.
The new emperor gathered an army, and, assisted by some Spaniards, set off in pursuit of Quizquiz, whom he defeated a short distance north of Cuzco. The old northern general, still indefatigable, made a rapid march on Jauja to surprise the Spanish garrison, but was repulsed in this well-considered effort to cut Pizarro's communications with the coast, and had to make his way, the best he could, back towards Quito. The central portion of the empire would now have been content to settle back into quiet allegiance to Manco. But the latter soon found that his allies regarded the country as their own. Under the pressure of necessity for help against Quizquiz he had acknowledged, as a matter of form, the titular supremacy of the Spanish king, and he was now required to carry out his obligation to the letter. A municipal council, framed on the Spanish model, was installed as the governing body of the ancient capital; the great temples were turned into churches and monasteries; other public edifices were seized to be used as residences or barracks for the Spaniards; tombs, temples, and private residences were searched for gold; and the authorities were required to furnish troops and carriers for the expeditions which their oppressors planned against the remoter parts of the empire. With the resignation characteristic of the race, the Indians submitted to these exactions, and Manco hesitated long before deciding to put himself at the head of a revolt.
The transcendant military and diplomatic qualities Pizarro had displayed were equalled by the energy and foresight which he now showed as an administrator. Realising that his capital should be on the coast in order to secure direct communication with Panama, he made a careful examination of routes and possible sites and selected the valley of the Rimac, just below Jauja, where he founded Lima. From this point the military road by which the Incas had kept up communication from Cuzco with the coast and the northern provinces ascended to the plateau. Lima and Jauja were the strategical keys to central and southern Peru; San Miguel gave easy access to Quito, and Pizarro insured the region extending from Cerro de Pasco to the Ecuador border by establishing the city of Trujillo half-way up the coast.
Their original agreement provided that Pizarro should have the northern half of the countries they might conquer, and Almagro the southern. Accordingly, about two years after Cuzco was occupied, Almagro started for Bolivia and Chile, accompanied by five hundred Spaniards and two brothers of the Inca emperor, leading a large native army. In Bolivia, where the Inca power had been established for centuries, he encountered no opposition, and crossed the bleak plateaux of the Puna, descended the Andes, and finally reached the fertile valleys of northern Chile. But so little gold was found that Almagro determined to return and set up a claim to Cuzco.
STONE BRIDGE OVER THE RIMAC RIVER, LIMA, PERU.
In the meantime the Incas of central Peru had awakened from the dream of a continuance of the ancient dynasty under Spanish protection. Pizarro himself seems to have been guilty of few acts of wanton cruelty, but he neither wished nor tried to restrain his followers from reducing the Indians to vassalage. The natives were fast crowded to the wall, and the Spaniards divided the fairest parts of the country into estates, treating the Indians as tenants from whom tribute was due. The sovereignty of the emperor soon became a mere fiction. In 1536 Manco escaped from Cuzco and raised the standard of rebellion. The moment appeared favourable. The Spanish forces were scattered; Pizarro was at Lima, and Almagro in the wilds of Chile, but as a matter of fact the Incas laboured under almost hopeless disadvantages. Their cities, fortresses, and roads were all in the hands of the Spaniards, and the kingdom of Quito, the most warlike part of the empire, had meanwhile been reduced by a Spanish expedition from San Miguel.
The rebellion was confined at first to the tribes who lived in the neighbourhood of Cuzco. These rose en masse and besieged the two hundred Spaniards, who, under the command of Hernando Pizarro and his two younger brothers, Juan and Gonzalo, occupied the capital. The Indians captured the citadel overlooking the town, and poured an incessant rain of stones and burning darts on their enemies. The Spaniards soon ran out of provisions, and were forced to try to recapture the citadel or perish miserably by fire and starvation. Juan Pizarro led a desperate assault, ably assisted by Hernando and Gonzalo, and all three proved themselves worthy of the name they bore. Juan fell mortally wounded in the moment of victory, but the Incas fled in confusion, giving the surviving Spaniards an opportunity to procure supplies of maize from the neighbouring farms. This defeat disheartened the Indians. Numbers and bravery seemed useless against the horses and firearms of these strangers, whose reckless courage was only equalled by their cruelty. The Incas kept up the siege for several months, but without artillery their swords and spears could make little headway against men provided with firearms and protected behind solid stone walls. While the Spaniards in Cuzco were thus fighting for their lives, the Incas near Jauja rose and descended on Lima, but Francisco Pizarro with his dreaded cavalry waited for them in ambush, and the Indians were surprised and cut to pieces.
In spite of this success the governor's position remained most grave. He sent for help to Panama, Guatemala, and Mexico, but meanwhile had no means of relieving Cuzco. Its fall meant not only the death of his beloved brothers, but would almost certainly be followed by a general insurrection and the loss of all the advantages gained in three years of fighting and scheming. He hurried forward two hundred and fifty men,—all he could possibly spare,—but had little prospect of success until news came that Almagro and his five hundred followers had arrived at Arequipa on their way back from Chile. From Arequipa there is a pass to the north end of Lake Titicaca, and thence to Cuzco the way was easy. Manco would be caught between Pizarro's army coming up from Lima and Almagro's descending from the south. The Inca gave up hope and with a few devoted followers retired into the wild region of Vilcabamba, lying north of Cuzco near the Amazonian plain. In those rugged and forested defiles he was safe from Spanish pursuit, but his retirement ended all hope of organised and general resistance. The Inca empire had fallen never to rise again. With stoical resignation the Indians made the best of their sad situation, while the conquerors were left free to fight among themselves over the division of the magnificent spoils which had so miraculously fallen into their hands.