VACA DE CASTRO.
[From Herrera (1728), vol. iv. p. 1.—Ed.]
The followers of Almagro the lad, as he was called, determined to march from Lima in the direction of Cusco, so as to get between Alvarado and Holguin. At Xauxa the youthful adventurer had the misfortune to lose his most trusty adherent. Juan de Rada died of fever. The two most influential of his supporters who remained were Cristóval de Sotelo and Garcia de Alvarado,—and they had quarrelled with one another. Their delays enabled Holguin to pass to the north, and unite his forces with Alvarado’s. Almagro then established himself at Cusco, where Sotelo was murdered by his rival Alvarado; and the latter was put to death by the young Almagro, who assumed the direction of his own affairs. He was barely twenty-two years of age.
The Emperor Charles V., long before the death of Pizarro, had decided upon sending out a royal judge to act as the old conqueror’s coadjutor and adviser, especially with regard to the treatment of the Indians. For this delicate post the emperor’s choice fell upon Dr. Don Cristóval Vaca de Castro, a Judge of the Audience of Valladolid. After a long voyage the new judge had landed at Buenaventura, a town recently founded by Pascual de Andagoya, near that river San Juan where Pizarro had waited in such dire distress during his first voyage. He had a royal order to assume the post of governor of Peru in the event of Pizarro’s death; and on arriving at Popayan he received tidings of the assassination. He then proclaimed his commission as governor, and advanced southwards, by way of Quito, along the Peruvian coast. At Huara he was joined by Alvarado and Holguin with their forces. He entered Lima, and then proceeded, by way of Xauxa, in search of the assassins. Young Almagro had a force of five hundred Spaniards, with two hundred horses; and he had a park of artillery consisting of sixteen pieces under the direction of the veteran Pedro de Candia. With this force he left Cusco in July, 1542. Vaca de Castro marched in great haste to Guamanga, in order to secure that important post before Almagro could reach it from Cusco. The rebels, as they must be called, took a route along the skirts of the cordillera, until they reached an elevated plateau called Chupas, above and a little to the south of the newly built town of Guamanga. Their object appears to have been to cut off the communications of Vaca de Castro with the coast. In order to approach them, it was necessary for the royal army to evacuate Guamanga, and ascend a very steep slope to the terrace-like plateau where Almagro’s army was posted. It was the 16th of September, 1542, and the ascent from Guamanga must have occupied the greater part of the day. The army of Vaca de Castro was marshalled by the veteran Francisco de Carbajal, an old soldier who had seen forty years’ service in Italy before he crossed the Atlantic. Carbajal led the troops into action with such skill that they were protected by intervening ground until they were close to the enemy; and when Almagro’s artillery opened fire on them, the guns were so elevated as to do no execution. This led young Almagro to suspect Pedro de Candia of treachery, and he there and then ran the old gunner through the body, and pointed one of the guns himself with good effect. The royal army now began to suffer severely from the better-directed artillery fire. Then the opposing bodies of cavalry charged, while Carbajal led a desperate attack with the infantry, and captured Almagro’s guns. Holguin fell dead; Alvarado was driven back, and young Almagro behaved with heroic valor. Yet when night closed in, the army of Vaca de Castro was completely victorious, and five hundred were left dead on the field. It was a desperately contested action. Almagro fled to Cusco with a few followers, where he was arrested by the magistrates. Vaca de Castro followed closely, and on arriving in the city he condemned the lad to death. Almagro suffered in the great square, and was buried by the side of his father in the church of La Merced.
Vaca de Castro assumed the administration of affairs in Peru as royal governor. In the same year the Dominican Friar Geronimo de Loaysa, a native of Talavera, became bishop of Lima. He was promoted to the rank of archbishop in 1545. Another Dominican, Juan de Solano, succeeded Valverde as bishop of Cusco in 1543. Gonzalo Pizarro, when he returned from his terrible expedition in the forests east of Quito, was induced by the governor to retire peaceably to his estates in Charcas. The efforts of Vaca de Castro as an administrator were directed to regulating the employment of the natives, and to improving communications.
When the good Bartolomé Las Casas returned to Spain, in 1538, he published his famous work on the destruction of the native race of America. He protested against the Indians being given to the Spaniards in encomienda, or vassalage for personal service.[1480] At last the emperor appointed a committee consisting of churchmen and lawyers of the highest position, to sit at Valladolid in 1542, and to consider the whole subject. The result was the promulgation of what were called the “New Laws.”
I. After the death of the conquerors, the repartimientos of Indians, given to them in encomienda, were not to pass to their heirs, but be placed directly under the king. Officers of his majesty were to renounce the repartimientos at once.