Part 26 (2/2)
[Footnote 20: ”Visto esto por el Frayle y lo poco que aprovechaban sus palabras, tomo su libro, y abajo su cabeza, y fuese para donde estaba el dicho Pizarro, casi corriendo, y dijole: No veis lo que pasa: para que estais en comedimientos y requerimientos con este perro lleno de soberbia que vienen los campos llenos de Indios? Salid a el, - que yo os absuelvo.”
(Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.) The historian should be slow in ascribing conduct so diabolical to Father Valverde, without evidence. Two of the Conquerors present, Pedro Pizarro and Xerez, simply state that the monk reported to his commander the indignity offered to the sacred volume. but Hernando Pizarro and the author of the Relacion del Primer. Descub., both eyewitnesses, and Naharro, Zarate, Gomara, Balboa, Herrera, the Inca t.i.tucussi Yupanqui, all of whom obtained their information from persons who were eyewitnesses, state the circ.u.mstances, with little variation, as in the text. Yet Oviedo indorses the account of Xerez, and Garcila.s.so de la Vega insists on Valverde's innocence of any attempt to rouse the pa.s.sion of his comrades.]
[Footnote 21: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Xerez, Conq.
del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 198. - Carta de Hern. Pizarro, Ms. - Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3. lib. 8, cap. 7.
- Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 5. - Instruccion del Inga t.i.tucussi Yupanqui, Ms.]
Meanwhile the fight, or rather ma.s.sacre, continued hot around the Inca, whose person was the great object of the a.s.sault. His faithful n.o.bles, rallying about him, threw themselves in the way of the a.s.sailants, and strove, by tearing them from their saddles, or, at least, by offering their own bosoms as a mark for their vengeance, to s.h.i.+eld their beloved master. It is said by some authorities, that they carried weapons concealed under their clothes. If so, it availed them little, as it is not pretended that they used them. But the most timid animal will defend itself when at bay. That they did not so in the present instance is proof that they had no weapons to use. *22 Yet they still continued to force back the cavaliers, clinging to their horses with dying grasp, and, as one was cut down, another taking the place of his fallen comrade with a loyalty truly affecting.
[Footnote 22: The author of the Relacion del Primero Descubrimiento speaks of a few as having bows and arrows, and of others as armed with silver and copper mallets or maces, which may, however, have been more for ornament than for service in fight. - Pedro Pizarro and some later writers say that the Indians brought thongs with them to bind the captive white men. - Both Hernando Pizarro and the secretary Xerez agree that their only arms were secreted under their clothes; but as they do not pretend that these were used, and as it was announced by the Inca that he came without arms, the a.s.sertion may well be doubted, - or rather discredited. All authorities without exception, agree that no attempt was made at resistance.]
The Indian monarch, stunned and bewildered, saw his faithful subjects falling round him without fully comprehending his situation. The litter on which he rode heaved to and fro, as the mighty press swayed backwards and forwards; and he gazed on the overwhelming ruin, like some forlorn mariner, who, tossed about in his bark by the furious elements, sees the lightning's flash and hears the thunder bursting around him with the consciousness that he can do nothing to avert his fate. At length, weary with the work of destruction, the Spaniards, as the shades of evening grew deeper, felt afraid that the royal prize might, after all, elude them; and some of the cavaliers made a desperate attempt to end the affray at once by taking Atahuallpa's life. But Pizarro, who was nearest his person, called out with Stentorian voice, ”Let no one, who values his life, strike at the Inca”; *23 and, stretching out his arm to s.h.i.+eld him, received a wound on the hand from one of his own men, - the only wound received by a Spaniards in the action. *24
[Footnote 23: ”El marquez dio bozes diciendo. Nadie hiera al indio so pena de la vida.” Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]
[Footnote 24: Whatever discrepancy exists among the Castilian accounts in other respects, all concur in this remarkable fact, - that no Spaniard, except their general, received a wound on that occasion. Pizarro saw in this a satisfactory argument for regarding the Spaniards, this day, as under the especial protection of Providence. See Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 199.]
The struggle now became fiercer than ever round the royal litter.
It reeled more and more, and at length, several of the n.o.bles who supported it having been slain, it was overturned, and the Indian prince would have come with violence to the ground, had not his fall been broken by the efforts of Pizarro and some other of the cavaliers, who caught him in their arms. The imperial borla was instantly s.n.a.t.c.hed from his temples by a soldier named Estete, *25 and the unhappy monarch, strongly secured, was removed to a neighbouring building, where he was carefully guarded.
[Footnote 25: Miguel Estete, who long retained the silken diadem as a trophy of the exploit, according to Garcila.s.so de la Vega, (Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 1, cap. 27,) an indifferent authority for any thing in this part of his history. This popular writer, whose work, from his superior knowledge of the inst.i.tutions of the country, has obtained greater credit, eve in what relates to the Conquest, than the reports of the Conquerors themselves, has indulged in the romantic vein to an unpardonable extent, in his account of the capture of Atahuallpa. According to him, the Peruvian monarch treated the invaders from the first with supreme deference, as descendants of Viracocha, predicted by his oracles as to come and rule over the land. But if this flattering homage had been paid by the Inca, it would never have escaped the notice of the Conquerors. Garcila.s.so had read the Commentaries of Cortes, as he somewhere tells us; and it is probable that that general's account, well founded, it appears, of a similar superst.i.tion among the Aztecs suggested to the historian the idea of a corresponding sentiment in the Peruvians, which, while it flattered the vanity of the Spaniards, in some degree vindicated his own countrymen from the charge of cowardice, incurred by their too ready submission; for, however they might be called on to resist men, it would have been madness to resist the decrees of Heaven. Yet Garcila.s.so's romantic version has something in it so pleasing to the imagination, that it has even found favor with the majority of readers. The English student might have met with a sufficient corrective in the criticism of the sagacious and skeptical Robertson.]
All attempt at resistance now ceased. The fate of the Inca soon spread over town and country. The charm which might have held the Peruvians together was dissolved. Every man thought only of his own safety. Even the soldiery encamped on the adjacent fields took the alarm, and, learning the fatal tidings, were seen flying in every direction before their pursuers, who in the heat of triumph showed no touch of mercy. At length night, more pitiful than man, threw her friendly mantle over the fugitives, and the scattered troops of Pizarro rallied once more at the sound of the trumpet in the b.l.o.o.d.y square of Caxamalca.
The number of slain is reported, as usual, with great discrepancy. Pizarro's secretary says two thousand natives fell.
*26 A descendant of the Incas - a safer authority than Garcila.s.so - swells the number to ten thousand. *27 Truth is generally found somewhere between the extremes. The slaughter was incessant, for there was nothing to check it. That there should have been no resistance will not appear strange, when we consider the fact, that the wretched victims were without arms, and that their senses must have been completely overwhelmed by the strange and appalling spectacle which burst on them so unexpectedly. ”What wonder was it,” said an ancient Inca to a Spaniard, who repeats it, ”what wonder that our countrymen lost their wits, seeing blood run like water, and the Inca, whose person we all of us adore, seized and carried off by a handful of men?” *28 Yet though the ma.s.sacre was incessant, it was short in duration. The whole time consumed by it, the brief twilight of the tropics, did not much exceed half an hour; a short period, indeed, - yet long enough to decide the fate of Peru, and to subvert the dynasty of the Incas.
[Footnote 26: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p.
199.]
[Footnote 27: ”Los mataron a todos con los Cavallos con espadas con arcabuzes como quien mata ovejas - sin hacerles nadie resistencia que no se escaparon de mas de diez mil, doscientos,”
Instruc. del Inga t.i.tucussi, Ms.
This doc.u.ment, consisting of two hundred folio pages, is signed by a Peruvian Inca, grandson of the great Huayna Capac, and nephew, consequently, of Atahuallpa. It was written in 1570, and designed to set forth to his Majesty Philip II. the claims of t.i.tucussi and the members of his family to the royal bounty. In the course of the Memorial, the writer takes occasion to recapitulate some of the princ.i.p.al events in the latter years of the empire; and though sufficiently prolix to tax even the patience of Philip II., it is of much value as an historical doc.u.ment, coming from one of the royal race of Peru.]
[Footnote 28: Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1532.
According to Naharro, the Indians were less astounded by the wild uproar caused by the sudden a.s.sault of the Spaniards, though ”this was such that it seemed as if the very heavens were falling,” than by a terrible apparition which appeared in the air during the onslaught. It consisted of a woman and a child, and, at their side, a horseman all clothed in white on a milk-white charger, - doubtless the valiant St. James, - who, with his sword glancing lightning, smote down the infidel host, and rendered them incapable of resistance. This miracle the good father reports on the testimony of three of his Order, who were present in the action, and who received it from numberless of the natives. Relacion Sumaria, Ms.]
That night Pizarro kept his engagement with the Inca, since he had Atahuallpa to sup with him. The banquet was served in one of the halls facing the great square, which a few hours before had been the scene of slaughter, and the pavement of which was still enc.u.mbered with the dead bodies of the Inca's subjects. The captive monarch was placed next his conqueror. He seemed like one who did not yet fully comprehend the extent of his calamity.
If he did, he showed an amazing fort.i.tude. ”It is the fortune of war,” he said; *29 and, if we may credit the Spaniards, he expressed his admiration of the adroitness with which they had contrived to entrap him in the midst of his own troops. *30 He added, that he had been made acquainted with the progress of the white men from the hour of their landing; but that he had been led to undervalue their strength from the insignificance of their numbers. He had no doubt he should be easily able to overpower them, on their arrival at Caxamalca, by his superior strength; and, as he wished to see for himself what manner of men they were, he had suffered them to cross the mountains, meaning to select such as he chose for his own service, and, getting possession of their wonderful arms and horses, put the rest to death. *31
[Footnote 29: ”Diciendo que era uso de Guerra vencer, i ser vencido.” Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 5, lib. 2, cap. 12.]
[Footnote 30: ”Haciendo admiracion de la traza que tenia hecha.”
Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.]
[Footnote 31: ”And in my opinion,” adds the Conqueror who reports the speech, ”he had good grounds for believing he could do this, since nothing but the miraculous interposition of Heaven could have saved us.” Ibid., Ms.]
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