Part 33 (1/2)
His first act was to bring Challcuchima to trial; if trial that could be called, where sentence may be said to have gone hand in hand with accusation. We are not informed of the nature of the evidence. It was sufficient to satisfy the Spanish captains of the chieftain's guilt. Nor is it at all incredible that Challcuchima should have secretly encouraged a movement among the people, designed to secure his country's freedom and his own. He was condemned to be burnt alive on the spot. ”Some thought it a hard measure,” says Herrera; ”but those who are governed by reasons of state policy are apt to shut their eyes against every thing else.” *22 Why this cruel mode of execution was so often adopted by the Spanish Conquerors is not obvious; unless it was that the Indian was an infidel, and fire, from ancient date, seems to have been considered the fitting doom of the infidel, as the type of that inextinguishable flame which awaited him in the regions of the d.a.m.ned.
[Footnote 22: Hist. General, dec. 5, lib. 6 cap. 3.]
Father Valverde accompanied the Peruvian chieftain to the stake.
He seems always to have been present at this dreary moment, anxious to profit by it, if possible, to work the conversion of the victim. He painted in gloomy colors the dreadful doom of the unbeliever, to whom the waters of baptism could alone secure the ineffable glories of paradise. *23 It does not appear that he promised any commutation of punishment in this world. But his arguments fell on a stony heart, and the chief coldly replied, he ”did not understand the religion of the white men.” *24 He might be pardoned for not comprehending the beauty of a faith which, as it would seem, had borne so bitter fruits to him. In the midst of his tortures, he showed the characteristic courage of the American Indian, whose power of endurance triumphs over the power of persecution in his enemies, and he died with his last breath invoking the name of Pachacamac. His own followers brought the f.a.gots to feed the flames that consumed him. *25
[Footnote 23: Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol.
406.]
[Footnote 24: Ibid., loc. cit.]
[Footnote 25: Ibid. loc. cit. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.
The Ms. of the old Conqueror is so much damaged in this part of it that much of his account is entirely effaced.]
Soon after this tragic event, Pizarro was surprised by a visit from a Peruvian n.o.ble, who came in great state, attended by a numerous and showy retinue. It was the young prince Manco, brother of the unfortunate Huascar, and the rightful successor to the crown. Being brought before the Spanish commander, he announced his pretensions to the throne, and claimed the protection of the strangers. It is said he had meditated resisting them by arms, and had encouraged the a.s.saults made on them on their march; but, finding resistance ineffectual, he had taken this politic course, greatly to the displeasure of his more resolute n.o.bles. However this may be, Pizarro listened to his application with singular contentment, for he saw in this new scion of the true royal stock, a more effectual instrument for his purposes than he could have found in the family of Quito, with whom the Peruvians had but little sympathy. He received the young man, therefore, with great cordiality, and did not hesitate to a.s.sure him that he had been sent into the country by his master, the Castilian sovereign, in order to vindicate the claims of Huascar to the crown, and to punish the usurpation of his rival. *26
[Footnote 26: Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 406.
- Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]
Taking with him the Indian prince, Pizarro now resumed his march.
It was interrupted for a few hours by a party of the natives, who lay in wait for him in the neighbouring sierra. A sharp skirmish ensued, in which the Indians behaved with great spirit, and inflicted some little injury on the Spaniards; but the latter, at length, shaking them off, made good their pa.s.sage through the defile, and the enemy did not care to follow them into the open country.
It was late in the afternoon when the Conquerors came in sight of Cuzco. *27 The descending sun was streaming his broad rays full on the imperial city, where many an altar was dedicated to his wors.h.i.+p. The low ranges of buildings, showing in his beams like so many lines of silvery light, filled up the bosom of the valley and the lower slopes of the mountains, whose shadowy forms hung darkly over the fair city, as if to s.h.i.+eld it from the menaced profanation. It was so late, that Pizarro resolved to defer his entrance till the following morning.
[Footnote 27: ”Y dos horas antes que el Sol se pusiese, llegaron a vista de la ciudad del Cuzco. ”Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms]
That night vigilant guard was kept in the camp, and the soldiers slept on their arms. But it pa.s.sed away without annoyance from the enemy, and early on the following day, November 15, 1533, Pizarro prepared for his entrance into the Peruvian capital. *28
[Footnote 28: The chronicles differ as to the precise date.
There can be no better authorities than Pedro Sancho's narrative and the Letter of the Magistrates of Xauxa, which have followed in the text]
The little army was formed into three divisions, of which the centre, or ”battle,” as it was called, was led by the general.
The suburbs were thronged with a countless mult.i.tude of the natives, who had flocked from the city and the surrounding country to witness the showy, and, to them, startling pageant.
All looked with eager curiosity on the strangers, the fame of whose terrible exploits had spread to the remotest parts of the empire. They gazed with astonishment on their dazzling arms and fair complexions, which seemed to proclaim them the true Children of the Sun; and they listened with feelings of mysterious dread, as the trumpet sent forth its prolonged notes through the streets of the capital, and the solid ground shook under the heavy tramp of the cavalry.
The Spanish commander rode directly up the great square. It was surrounded by low piles of buildings, among which were several palaces of the Incas. One of these, erected by Huayna Capac, was surmounted by a tower, while the ground-floor was occupied by one or more immense halls, like those described in Caxamalca, where the Peruvian n.o.bles held their fetes in stormy weather. These buildings afforded convenient barracks for the troops, though, during the first few weeks, they remained under their tents in the open plaza, with their horses picketed by their side, ready to repulse any insurrection of the inhabitants. *29
[Footnote 29: Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 407.
- Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 7, cap. 10. - Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.]
The capital of the Incas, though falling short of the El Dorado which had engaged their credulous fancies, astonished the Spaniards by the beauty of its edifices, the length and regularity of its streets, and the good order and appearance of comfort, even luxury, visible in its numerous population. It far surpa.s.sed all they had yet seen in the New World. The population of the city is computed by one of the Conquerors at two hundred thousand inhabitants, and that of the suburbs at as many more.
*30 This account is not confirmed, as far as I have seen, by any other writer. But however it may be exaggerated, it is certain that Cuzco was the metropolis of a great empire, the residence of the Court and the chief n.o.bility; frequented by the most skilful mechanics and artisans of every description, who found a demand for their ingenuity in the royal precincts; while the place was garrisoned by a numerous soldiery, and was the resort, finally, of emigrants from the most distant provinces. The quarters whence this motley population came were indicated by their peculiar dress, and especially their head-gear, so rarely found at all on the American Indian, which, with its variegated colors, gave a picturesque effect to the groups and ma.s.ses in the streets. The habitual order and decorum maintained in this multifarious a.s.sembly showed the excellent police of the capital, where the only sounds that disturbed the repose of the Spaniards were the noises of feasting and dancing, which the natives, with happy insensibility, constantly prolonged to a late hour of the night. *31
[Footnote 30: ”Esta ciudad era muy grande i mui populosa de grandes edificios i comarcas, quando los Eespanoles entraron la primera vex en ella havia gran cantidad de gente, seria pueblo de mas de 40 mill. vecinos solamente lo que tomaba la ciudad, que arravalles i comarca en deredor del Cuzco a 10 o 12 leguas creo yo que havia docientos mill. Indios porque esto era lo mas poblado de todos estos reinos.” (Conq. i Pob. del Peru, Ms.) The vecino or ”householder” is computed, usually, as representing five individuals. - Yet Father Valverde, in a letter written a few years after tis, speaks of the city as having only three or four thousand houses at the time of its occupation, and the suburbs as having nineteen or twenty thousand. (Cart al Emperador, Ms., 20 de Marzo, 1539.) It is possible that he took into the account only the better kind of houses, not considering the mud huts, or rather hovels, which made so large a part of a Peruvian town, as deserving notice.]
[Footnote 31: ”Heran tantos los atambores que de noche se oian por todas cartes bailando y cantando y belendo que toda la mayor parte de la noche se les pasava en esto cotidianamente.” Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]
The edifices of the better sort - and they were very numerous - were of stone, or faced with stone. *32 Among the princ.i.p.al were the royal residences; as each sovereign built a new palace for himself, covering, though low, a large extent of ground. The walls were sometimes stained of painted with gaudy tints, and the gates, we are a.s.sured, were sometimes of colored marble. *33 In the delicacy of the stone-work,” says another of the Conquerors, ”the natives far excelled the Spaniards, though the roofs of their dwellings, instead of tiles, were only of thatch, but put together with the nicest art.” *34 The sunny climate of Cuzco did not require a very substantial material for defence against the weather.
[Footnote 32: ”La maggior parte di queste case sono di pietra, et l'altre hano la meta della facciata di pietra.” Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 413.]