Gasca's next concern was to send an officer to Cuzco, to restrain his partisans from committing excesses in consequence of the late victory, - if victory that could be called, where not a blow had been struck. Every thing belonging to the vanquished, their tents, arms, ammunition, and military stores, became the property of the victors. Their camp was well victualled, furnishing a seasonable supply to the royalists, who had nearly expended their own stock of provisions. There was, moreover, considerable booty in the way of plate and money; for Pizarro's men, as was not uncommon in those turbulent times, went, many of them, to the war with the whole of their worldly wealth, not knowing of any safe place in which to bestow it. An anecdote is told of one of Gasca's soldiers, who, seeing a mule running over the field, with a large pack on his back, seized the animal, and mounted him, having first thrown away the burden, supposing it to contain armour, or something of little worth. Another soldier, more shrewd, picked up the parcel, as his share of the spoil, and found it contained several thousand gold ducats! It was the fortune of war. *38
[Footnote 38: Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 7, cap. 8.]
Thus terminated the battle, or rather rout, of Xaquixaguana. The number of killed and wounded - for some few perished in the pursuit - was not great; according to most accounts, not exceeding fifteen killed on the rebel side, and one only on that of the royalists! and that one, by the carelessness of a comrade. *39 Never was there a cheaper victory; so bloodless a termination of a fierce an bloody rebellion! It was gained not so much by the strength of the victors as by the weakness of the vanquished. They fell to pieces of their own accord, because they had no sure ground to stand on. The arm, not nerved by the sense of right, became powerless in the hour of battle. It was better that they should thus be overcome by moral force than by a brutal appeal to arms. Such a victory was more in harmony with the beneficent character of the conqueror and of his cause. It was the triumph of order; the best homage to law and justice.
[Footnote 39: "Temiose que en esta batalla muriria mucha gente de ambas partes por haver en ellas mill i quatrocientos arcabuceros i seiscientos de caballo i mucho numero de piqueros i diez i ocho piezas de artilleria, pero plugo a Dios que solo murio un hombre del campo de S. M. i quince de los contrarios como esta dicho." Relacion del Lic. Gasca, Ms. The Ms. above referred to is supposed by Munoz to have been written by Gasca, or rather dictated by him to his secretary. The original is preserved at Simancas, without date, and in the character of the sixteenth century. It is principally taken up with the battle, and the events immediately connected with it; and although very brief, every sentence is of value as coming from so high a source. Alcedo, in his Biblioteca Americana, Ms., gives the title of a work from Gasca's pen, which would seem to be an account of his own administration, Historia de Peru, y de su Pacificacion, 1576, fol. - I have never met with the work, or with any other allusion to it.]
Chapter IV
Execution Of Carbajal. - Gonzalo Pizarro Beheaded. - Spoils Of
Victory. - Wise Reforms By Gasca. - He Returns To Spain. - His
Death And Character.
1548-1550.
It was now necessary to decide on the fate of the prisoners; and Alonso de Alvarado, with the Licentiate Cianca, one of the new Royal Audience, was instructed to prepare the process. It did not require a long time. The guilt of the prisoners was too manifest, taken, as they had been, with arms in their hands. They were all sentenced to be executed, and their estates were confiscated to the use of the Crown. Gonzalo Pizarro was to be beheaded, and Carbajal to be drawn and quartered. No mercy was shown to him who had shown none to others. There was some talk of deferring the execution till the arrival of the troops in Cuzco; but the fear of disturbances from those friendly to Pizarro determined the president to carry the sentence into effect the following day, on the field of battle. *1
[Footnote 1: The sentence passed upon Pizarro is given at length in the manuscript copy of Zarate's History, to which I have had occasion more than once to refer. The historian omitted it in his printed work, but the curious reader may find it entire, cited in the original, in Appendix, No. 14.]
When his doom was communicated to Carbajal, he heard it with his usual indifference. "They can but kill me," he said, as if he had already settled the matter in his own mind. *2 During the day, many came to see him in his confinement; some to upbraid him with his cruelties; but most, from curiosity to see the fierce warrior who had made his name so terrible through the land. He showed no unwillingness to talk with them, thought it was in those sallies of caustic humor in which he usually indulged at the expense of his hearer. Among these visiters was a cavalier of no note, whose life, it appears, Carbajal had formerly spared, when in his power. This person expressed to the prisoner his strong desire to serve him; and as he reiterated his professions, Carbajal cut them short by exclaiming, - "And what service can you do me? Can you set me free? If you cannot do that, you can do nothing. If I spared your life, as you say, it was probably because I did not think it worth while to take it." [Footnote 2: 'Basta matar." Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 1, lib. 2, cap. 91.]