CHAPTER III
CIVIL WARS AMONG THE CONQUERORS
The edict of Charles V. conceded to Pizarro the territory for two hundred and seventy leagues south of the river on the Ecuador coast where the conquest had begun, and to Almagro the next two hundred leagues. In his heart Almagro was dissatisfied with this award, and, even if he accepted the division, there was wide room for misunderstandings and disputes. No one knew the exact latitude of the river whence the measurement was to be made, nor had any one surveyed the distances along the winding roads. Almagro contended that Cuzco and Arequipa lay within his province, but this Pizarro vigorously and, as it turned out, correctly denied.
Almagro's personal followers were disgusted with the rude poverty they had found in Chile, and saw little chance of valuable spoil unless their leader should secure the fertile plateaux of Titicaca, Cuzco, and Arequipa. They urged him to seize by force what he believed to belong to him. After the flight of Manco his army reached Cuzco before the force which Pizarro was sending up had penetrated nearer than a hundred miles. Hernando Pizarro had two hundred men at Cuzco, but they were exhausted with long months of fighting against the Indian besiegers and could offer no effective resistance to the night attack by which Almagro surprised them. Hernando and his brother Gonzalo were captured and imprisoned, and Almagro advanced against the army from Lima and defeated it. "This," exclaimed Pizarro, when he heard the news, "is Almagro's return to me, after losing a beloved and gallant brother, and spending all I possess in pacifying the country. I mourn for the danger of my brothers, but still more that two friends in their old age should plunge into a civil war to the injury alike of the King's service and of Peru." From this moment all the powers of his great mind and the resources of his profound cunning were devoted to securing his brothers' safety first, and afterwards revenge upon Almagro. Willing to agree to anything rather than leave them in the hands of enemies whom he knew to be as coldly cruel as himself and far more bloodthirsty, he sent ambassadors to treat for the liberation of Hernando and Gonzalo. But Almagro thought he held the whip hand, and marched his victorious army across the Cordillera opposite Cuzco and up the coast nearly to Lima, declaring his intention of founding a capital for his government in the valley of Chincha, and announcing that he would be satisfied with nothing less than the cession of all Peru from Lima south. To obtain Hernando's release the governor was forced to consent that Almagro should remain in possession of the disputed territory pending the decision of the King, but Hernando was no sooner safe at Lima than Pizarro repudiated his promise. He declared war; his army, under the leadership of Hernando and Valdivia—afterwards famous as the conqueror of Chile—advanced down the coast. Futilely raging at Pizarro's treachery, the old man retreated, making his way toward Cuzco over one of the southern passes. His pursuers by a rapid march over a difficult and little used pass reached the neighbourhood of the Inca capital without resistance. Almagro was compelled to accept battle, or to shut himself up in Cuzco and let his enemies bring up artillery and batter him out at their leisure. His men outnumbered Pizarro's, and were assisted by a large contingent of natives, though inferior in discipline and arms. He chose the speedier alternative, but the flank attacks of his native auxiliaries made no impression on Hernando's carefully disposed infantry and his Spaniards fell into confusion when the main bodies met in the shock of battle. With a flank cavalry charge the rout became general; Hernando Pizarro dashed in, conspicuous with white plume and orange-coloured doublet; the most desperate partisans were slaughtered, bravely fighting, and the old man fled. He was soon captured and brought back to the very prison where he had so long confined Hernando. After languishing for a few months, orders were given that he be strangled. Francisco made no sign to save the life of his old comrade, and the sentence was inflicted.
For the second time Pizarro entered Cuzco in triumph, wearing now an ermine robe presented to him by Hernando Cortes, and once more he devoted himself to organising his vast dominions and extending the Spanish power over the distant provinces. Gonzalo Pizarro went to Quito to make that expedition into the Amazon country in search of the Eldorado which so miserably failed in its immediate object, but resulted in Orellana's discovery of the great river. Hernando Pizarro proceeded to Bolivia to develop the mining industry—a labour soon to be rewarded by the finding of Potosí. Valdivia undertook the conquest of Chile, and Alvarado that of the mountains of northern Peru. The governor travelled himself over most of his dominions, founding cities at strategic points in the more populous and fertile valleys. He visited Charcas—now Sucré—the old Indian capital of southern Bolivia; he founded one city at Arequipa, commanding the greatest valley of the southern coast, and another at Guamanga in a fertile plateau half-way between Jauja and Cuzco. The better parts of the country were divided into great feudal estates and distributed among his favourites and faithful followers, while the partisans of Almagro made their way as best they could out of Peru or hung around in helpless poverty, gnashing their teeth as they saw their luckier comrades rapidly enriching themselves by Indian tribute and mining.