Part 41 (2/2)
The same a.s.surances respecting the marshal's safety were given by the governor to Bishop Valverde, and some of the princ.i.p.al cavaliers who interested themselves in behalf of the prisoner. *2 Still Pizarro delayed his march to the capital; and when he resumed it, he had advanced no farther than the Rio de Abancay when he received tidings of the death of his rival. He appeared greatly shocked by the intelligence, his whole frame was agitated, and he remained for some time with his eyes bent on the ground, showing signs of strong emotion. *3
[Footnote 2: ”Que lo haria asi como lo decia, i que su de seo no era otro, sino ver el Reino en paz; i que en lo que tocaba al Adelantado, perdiese cuidado, que bolveria a tener el antigua amistad con el.” Ibid., dec. 6, lib. 4, cap. 9.]
[Footnote 3: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.
He even shed many tears, derramo muchas lagrimas, according to Herrera, who evidently gives him small credit for them. Ibid., dec. 6, lib. 6, cap. 7. - Conf. lib 5 cap. 1.]
Such is the account given by his friends. A more probable version of the matter represents him to have been perfectly aware of the state of things at Cuzco. When the trial was concluded, it is said he received a message from Hernando, inquiring what was to be done with the prisoner. He answered in a few words: - ”Deal with him so that he shall give us no more trouble.” *4 It is also stated that Hernando, afterwards, when laboring under the obloquy caused by Almagro's death, s.h.i.+elded himself under instructions affirmed to have been received from the governor. *5 It is quite certain, that, during his long residence at Xauxa, the latter was in constant communication with Cuzco; and that had he, as Valverde repeatedly urged him, *6 quickened his march to that capital, he might easily have prevented the consummation of the tragedy. As commander-in-chief, Almagro's fate was in his hands; and, whatever his own partisans may affirm of his innocence, the impartial judgment of history must hold him equally accountable with Hernando for the death of his a.s.sociate.
[Footnote 4: ”Respondio, que hiciese de manera, que el Adelantado no los pusiese en mas alborotos.” (Ibid., dec. 6, lib. 6, cap.
7.) ”De todo esto,” says Espinall, ”fue sabidor el dicho Governador Pizarro a lo que mi juicio i el de otros que en ello quisieron mirar alcanzo.” Carta de Espinall, Ms.]
[Footnote 5: Ibid., dec. 6, lib. 5, cap. 1.
Herrera's testimony is little short of that of a contemporary, since it was derived, he tells us, from the correspondence of the Conquerors, and the accounts given him by their own sons. Lib.
6, cap. 7.]
[Footnote 6: Carta de Valverde al Emperador, Ms.]
Neither did his subsequent conduct show any remorse for these proceedings. He entered Cuzco, says one who was present there to witness it, amidst the flourish of clarions and trumpets, at the head of his martial cavalcade, and dressed in the rich suit presented him by Cortes, with the proud bearing and joyous mien of a conqueror. *7 When Diego de Alvarado applied to him for the government of the southern provinces, in the name of the young Almagro, whom his father, as we have seen, had consigned to his protection, Pizarro answered, that ”the marshal, by his rebellion, had forfeited all claims to the government.” And, when he was still further urged by the cavalier, he bluntly broke off the conversation by declaring that ”his own territory covered all on this side of Flanders”! *8 - intimating, no doubt, by this magnificent vaunt, that he would endure no rival on this side of the water.
[Footnote 7: ”En este medio tiempo vino a la dicha cibdad del Cuzco el Gobernador D. Franco Pizarro, el qual entro con tronpetas i chirimias vestido con ropa de martas que fue e luto con que entro.” Carta de Espinall, Ms.]
[Footnote 8: Carta de Espinall, Ms.
”Mui asperamente le respondio el Governador, diciendo, que su Governacion no tenia Termino, i que llegaba hasta Flandes.”
Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 6, cap. 7.]
In the same spirit, he had recently sent to supersede Benalcazar, the conqueror of Quito, who, he was informed, aspired to an independent government. Pizarro's emissary had orders to send the offending captain to Lima; but Benalcazar, after pus.h.i.+ng his victorious career far into the north, had returned to Castile to solicit his guerdon from the emperor.
To the complaints of the injured natives, who invoked his protection, he showed himself strangely insensible, while the followers of Almagro he treated with undisguised contempt. The estates of the leaders were confiscated, and transferred without ceremony to his own partisans. Hernando had made attempts to conciliate some of the opposite faction by acts of liberality, but they had refused to accept any thing from the man whose hands were stained with the blood of their commander. *9 The governor held to them no such encouragement; and many were reduced to such abject poverty, that, too proud to expose their wretchedness to the eyes of their conquerors, they withdrew from the city, and sought a retreat among the neighbouring mountains. *10
[Footnote 9: ”Avia querido hazer amigos de los princ.i.p.ales de Chile, y ofrecidoles daria rrepartimientos y no lo avian aceptado ni querido.” Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]
[Footnote 10: ”Viendolas oy en dia, muertos de ambre, fechos pedazos e adeudados, andando por los montes desesperados por no parecer ante gentes, porque no tienen otra cosa que se vestir sino ropa de los Indios, ni dineros con que lo comprar” Carta de Espinall, Ms.]
For his own brothers he provided by such ample repartimientos, as excited the murmurs of his adherents. He appointed Gonzalo to the command of a strong force destined to act against the natives of Charcas, a hardy people occupying the territory a.s.signed by the Crown to Almagro. Gonzalo met with a st.u.r.dy resistance, but, after some severe fighting, succeeded in reducing the province to obedience. He was recompensed, together with Hernando, who aided him in the conquest, by a large grant in the neighbourhood of Porco, the productive mines of which had been partially wrought under the Incas. The territory, thus situated, embraced part of those silver hills of Potosi which have since supplied Europe with such stores of the precious metals. Hernando comprehended the capabilities of the ground, and he began working the mines on a more extensive scale than that hitherto adopted, though it does not appear that any attempt was then made to penetrate the rich crust of Potosi. *11 A few years more were to elapse before the Spaniards were to bring to light the silver quarries that lay hidden in the bosom of its mountains. *12
[Footnote 11: ”Con la quietud,” writes Hernando Pizarro to the emperor, ”questa tierra agora tiene han descubierto i descubren cada dia los vecinos muchas minas ricas de oro i plata, de que los quintos i rentas reales de V. M. cada dia se le ofrecen i hacer casa a todo el Mundo.” Carta al Emperador, Ms., de Puerto Viejo, 6 de Julii, 1539.]
[Footnote 12: Carta de Carbajal al Emperador, Ms., del Cuzco, 3 de Nov. 1539. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1539.
The story is well known of the manner in which the mines of Potosi were discovered by an Indian, who pulled a bush out of the ground to the fibres of which a quant.i.ty of silver globules was attached. The mine was not registered till 1545. The account is given by Acosta, lib. 4, cap. 6.]
It was now the great business of Hernando to collect a sufficient quant.i.ty of treasure to take with him to Castile. Nearly a year had elapsed since Almagro's death; and it was full time that he should return and present himself at court, where Diego de Alvarado and other friends of the marshal, who had long since left Peru, were industriously maintaining the claims of the younger Almagro, as well as demanding redress for the wrongs done to his father. But Hernando looked confidently to his gold to dispel the accusations against him.
Before his departure, he counselled his brother to beware of the ”men of Chili,” as Almagro's followers were called; desperate men, who would stick at nothing, he said, for revenge. He besought the governor not to allow them to consort together in any number within fifty miles of his person; if he did, it would be fatal to him. And he concluded by recommending a strong body-guard; ”for I,” he added, ”shall not be here to watch over you.” But the governor laughed at the idle fears, as he termed them, of his brother, bidding the latter take no thought of him, ”as every hair in the heads of Almagro's followers was a guaranty for his safety.” *13 He did not know the character of his enemies so well as Hernando.
[Footnote 13: Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 6, cap. 10. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 3, cap. 12. - Gomara, Hist de las Ind., cap. 142.
”No consienta vuestra senoria que se junten diez juntos en cinquenta leguas alrrededor de adonde vuestra senoria estuviere, porque si los dexa juntar le an de matar. Si a Vuestra Senoria matan, yo negociare mal y de vuestra senoria no quedara memoria.
Estas palabras dixo Hernando Picarro altas que todos le oymos. Y abracando al marquez se partio y se fue.” Pedro Pizarro, Descub.
y Conq., Ms.]
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