Then desertions took place by companies and squadrons. Pizarro sorrowfully took his way to the royal camp and gave himself up. Carbajal was seized by the soldiers. He was hanged and quartered the following day, and soon afterwards Gonzalo Pizarro was executed in presence of the army.
The president entered Cusco on the 12th of April, and began a bloody assize. Scarcely a day passed without followers of Gonzalo Pizarro being hanged, flogged, or sent in large batches to the galleys. Two priests were executed. A canon of Quito, who was tutor to Gonzalo Pizarro’s little son, was hanged for writing a book called De bello justo. At length, sated with blood, the president left Cusco on the 11th of July with Archbishop Loaysa, and went to a small village called Huayna-rimac in the neighborhood. He retired into this seclusion to escape the importunities of his partisans. Here he proceeded to arrange the distribution of encomiendas, or grants of lands and Indians, among his followers. He allowed a tenth of the Indians to be employed on forced labor in the mines, thus reversing the humane legislation advocated by Las Casas. Having completed his work, the president sent the archbishop to announce his awards at Cusco, and they caused a howl of rage and disappointed greed. Gasca himself went down to Lima by the unfrequented route of Nasca, and when a positive order from the emperor arrived, that all personal service among the Indians should be abolished, he suspended its publication until he was safe out of Peru. In January, 1550, the president Gasca sailed for Panamá, leaving the country in the greatest confusion, and all the most difficult administrative points to be solved by his successors. The municipality of Lima wrote a complaint to the emperor, representing the untimely departure of the president. His abilities and his services have been much overstated. He himself is the witness to his own revolting cruelties at Cusco.
Gasca left the government of Peru, with none of the difficulties settled, in the hands of the auditors or judges of the royal Audiencia, of which Don Andres de Cianca was president. His colleagues were Melchor Bravo de Sarabia, Hernando de Santillan, and Pedro Maldonado. The judges were in charge of the executive from January, 1550, to the 23d of September, 1551, when Don Antonio de Mendoza arrived from Mexico as viceroy. They had taken steps to organize a systematic plan for the instruction of the natives, under the auspices of Archbishop Loaysa, Friar Thomas de San Martin, and the indefatigable friar Domingo de Santo Tomas, the first Quichua scholar. They worked harmoniously under the viceroy Mendoza, who was a statesman of high rank and great experience. He promulgated the royal order against the enforced personal service of Indians, anticipating serious discontents and troubles, which he was resolved to meet and overcome. But his premature death at Lima, on the 21st of July, 1552, left the country once more in the hands of the judges, who had to meet a storm which would sorely test their administrative abilities.
The ringleader of the malcontents was a cavalier of good family named Francisco Hernandez Giron. Born at Caceres, in Estremadura, he crossed the Atlantic in 1535, and joined the unfortunate viceroy Blasco Nuñez de Vela at Quito, fighting under his banner in the fatal battle of Anaquito. He also did good service in the army of President Gasca, and was in the left wing at the rout of Sacsahuana. Gasca had assigned the plain of Sacsahuana to him, as his repartimiento; but he grumbled loudly, and all the malcontents looked upon him as their leader. The promulgation of the abolition of personal service was received with a howl of execration among the conquerors, who looked forward to the accumulation of wealth by the use of forced labor in the silver mines. Troubles broke out in Charcas, and Giron resolved to raise the standard of revolt at Cusco.
The 12th of November, 1553, was the wedding day of Don Alonzo de Loaysa, a nephew of the archbishop, who married a young lady named Maria de Castilla. The corregidor of Cusco and most of the leading citizens were at the supper. Suddenly Giron presented himself in cuirass and helmet, with his sword drawn, and a crowd of conspirators behind him. The street was occupied by a body of cavalry under his lieutenant, Tomas Vasquez. The guests sprang from their seats, but Giron told them not to fear, as he only wished to arrest the corregidor. He and the others then put out the lights and drew their swords. The corregidor took refuge with the ladies in the drawing-room, and shut the doors. Two guests were stabbed. Many escaped by the windows and climbed a wall at the back of the house. The corregidor and other officials were seized and imprisoned. Giron issued a proclamation declaring that the conquerors would not be robbed of the fruits of their labors. He soon had a respectable force under his command; but most of the leading citizens fled to Lima. The rebel declared that his object was the public good, and to induce the king to listen to the prayers of his subjects. The Audiencia was called upon to restore matters to the state they were in at the time of Gasca’s departure. Tomas Vasquez was sent to Arequipa, and Guamanga also declared in favor of Giron.
The governing judges were in great perplexity at Lima. After some hesitation they put the archbishop Loaysa in command of their army, with the judge Bravo de Saravia as his colleague. The marshal Alonzo de Alvarado was in upper Peru, and he also got some loyal cavaliers round him, and assembled a small force. Giron entered Guamanga Jan. 27, 1554, where he was joined by Tomas Vasquez, from Arequipa; and he then marched down to the coast. The judges encamped at Até, outside Lima, with five hundred arquebusiers, four hundred and fifty pikemen, three hundred cavalry, and fourteen field-pieces. Giron arrived at Pachacamac on the shores of the Pacific, and the judges advanced to Surco. But instead of boldly attacking, the rebels turned their backs and marched southwards along the coast to Yca, followed by a detachment under an officer named Meneses. Giron turned, and defeated his pursuers at Villacuri, in the desert between Pisco and Yca, but continued his retreat to Nasca. He had lost a great opportunity.
ALONZO DE ALVARADO.