Part 60 (1/2)
Whether he had the genius for military combinations requisite for conducting war on an extended scale may be doubted; but in the s.h.i.+fts and turns of guerilla warfare he was unrivalled. Prompt, active, and persevering, he was insensible to danger or fatigue, and, after days spent in the saddle, seemed to attach little value to the luxury of a bed. *10
[Footnote 10: ”Fue maior sufridor de trabajos, que requeria su edad, porque a maravilla se quitaba las Armas de Dia, ni de Noche, i quando era necesario, tampoco se acostaba, ni dormia mas de quanto recostado en vna Silla, se le cansaba la mano en que arrimaba la Cabeca.” Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 5, cap. 14.]
He knew familiarly every mountain pa.s.s, and, such were the sagacity and the resources displayed in his roving expeditions, that he was vulgarly believed to be attended by a familiar. *11 With a character so extraordinary, with powers prolonged so far beyond the usual term of humanity, and pa.s.sions so fierce in one tottering on the verge of the grave, it was not surprising that many fabulous stories should be eagerly circulated respecting him, and that Carbajal should be clothed with mysterious terrors as a sort of supernatural being, - the demon of the Andes!
[Footnote 11: Pedro Pizarro, who seems to have entertained feelings not unfriendly to Carbajal, thus sums up his character in a few words. ”Era mui lenguaz: hablaba muy discreptamente y a gusto de los que le oian: era hombre sagaz, cruel, bien entendido en la guerra. . . . . . Este Carbajal era tan sabio que decian tenia familiar.” Descub. y Conq., Ms.]
Very different were the circ.u.mstances attending the closing scene of Gonzalo Pizarro. At his request, no one had been allowed to visit him in his confinement. He was heard pacing his tent during the greater part of the day, and when night came, having ascertained from Centeno that his execution was to take place on the following noon, he laid himself down to rest. He did not sleep long, however, but soon rose, and continued to traverse his apartment, as if buried in meditation, till dawn He then sent for a confessor, and remained with him till after the hour of noon, taking little or no refreshment. The officers of justice became impatient; but their eagerness was sternly rebuked by the soldiery, many of whom, having served under Gonzalo's banner, were touched with pity for his misfortunes.
When the chieftain came forth to execution, he showed in his dress the same love of magnificence and display as in happier days. Over his doublet he wore a superb cloak of yellow velvet, stiff with gold embroidery, while his head was protected by a cap of the same materials, richly decorated, in like manner, with ornaments of gold. *12 In this gaudy attire he mounted his mule, and the sentence was so far relaxed that his arms were suffered to remain unshackled. He was escorted by a goodly number of priests and friars, who held up the crucifix before his eyes, while he carried in his own hand an image of the Virgin. She had ever been the peculiar object of Pizarro's devotion; so much so, that those who knew him best in the hour of his prosperity were careful, when they had a pet.i.tion, to prefer it in the name of the blessed Mary.
[Footnote 12: ”Al tiempo que lo mataron, dio al Verdugo toda la Ropa, que traia que era mui rica, i de mucho valor, porque tenia vna Ropa de Armas de Terciopelo amarillo, casi toda cubierta de Chaperia de Oro i vn Chapeo de la misma forma.' Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib 7 cap. 8.]
Pizarro's lips were frequently pressed to the emblem of his divinity, while his eyes were bent on the crucifix in apparent devotion, heedless of the objects around him. On reaching the scaffold, he ascended it with a firm step, and asked leave to address a few words to the soldiery gathered round it. ”There are many among you,” said he, ”who have grown rich on my brother's bounty, and my own. Yet, of all my riches, nothing remains to me but the garments I have on; and even these are not mine, but the property of the executioner. I am without means, therefore, to purchase a ma.s.s for the welfare of my soul; and I implore you, by the remembrance of past benefits, to extend this charity to me when I am gone, that it may be well with you in the hour of death.” A profound silence reigned throughout the martial mult.i.tude, broken only by sighs and groans, as they listened to Pizarro's request; and it was faithfully responded to, since, after his death, ma.s.ses were said in many of the towns for the welfare of the departed chieftain.
Then, kneeling down before a crucifix placed on a table, Pizarro remained for some minutes absorbed in prayer; after which, addressing the soldier who was to act as the minister of justice, he calmly bade him ”do his duty with a steady hand.” He refused to have his eyes bandaged, and, bending forward his neck, submitted it to the sword of the executioner, who struck off the head with a single blow, so true that the body remained for some moments in the same erect posture as in life. *13 The head was taken to Lima, where it was set in a cage or frame, and then fixed on a gibbet by the side of Carbajal's. On it was placed a label, bearing, - ”This is the head of the traitor Gonzalo Pizarro, who rebelled in Peru against his sovereign, and battled in the cause of tyranny and treason against the royal standard in the valley of Xaquixaguana.” *14 His large estates, including the rich mines in Potosi, were confiscated; his mansion in Lima was razed to the ground, the place strewed with salt, and a store pillar set up, with an inscription interdicting any one from building on a spot which had been profaned by the residence of a traitor.
[Footnote 13: ”The executioner,” says Garcila.s.so, with a simile more expressive than elegant, ”did his work as cleanly as if he had been slicing off a head of lettuce!” ”De vn reues le corto la cabeca con tanta facilidad, como si fuera vna hoja de lechuga, y se quedo con ella en la mano, y tardo el cuerpo algun es.p.a.cio en caer en el suelo.” Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 5, cap.
43.]
[Footnote 14: ”Esta es la cabeza del traidor de Gonzalo Pizarro que se hizo justicia del en el valle de Aquixaguana, donde dio la batalla campal contra el estandarte real queriendo defender su traicion e tirania: ninguno sea osado de la quitar de aqui so pena de muerte natural.” Zarate, Ms.]
Gonzalo's remains were not exposed to the indignities inflicted on Carbajal's, whose quarters were hung in chains on the four great roads leading to Cuzco. Centeno saved Pizarro's body from being stripped, by redeeming his costly raiment from the executioner, and in this sumptuous shroud it was laid in the chapel of the convent of Our Lady of Mercy in Cuzco. It was the same spot where, side by side, lay the b.l.o.o.d.y remains of the Almagros, father and son, who in like manner had perished by the hand of justice, and were indebted to private charity for their burial. All these were now con signed ”to the same grave,” says the historian, with some bitterness, ”as if Peru could not afford land enough for a burial-place to its conquerors.” *15
[Footnote 15: ”Y las sepolturas vna sola auiendo de ser tres: que aun la tierra parece que les falto para auer los de cubrir.”
Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 5, cap. 43.
For the tragic particulars of the preceding pages, see Ibid, cap.
39-43. - Relacion del Lic. Gasca, Ms - Carta de Valdivia, Ms. - Ms. de Caravantes. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap 186. - Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 1, lib. 2, cap. 91. - Zarate Conq. del Peru, lib. 7, cap. 8. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 8, lib. 4, cap. 16.]
Gonzalo Pizarro had reached only his forty-second year at the time of his death, - being just half the s.p.a.ce allotted to his follower Carbajal. He was the youngest of the remarkable family to whom Spain was indebted for the acquisition of Peru. He came over to the country with his brother Francisco, on the return of the latter from his visit to Castile. Gonzalo was present in all the remarkable pa.s.sages of the Conquest. He witnessed the seizure of Atahuallpa, took an active part in suppressing the insurrection of the Incas, and especially in the reduction of Charcas. He afterwards led the disastrous expedition to the Amazon; and, finally, headed he memorable rebellion which ended so fatally to himself. There are but few men whose lives abound in such wild and romantic adventure, and, for the most part, crowned with success. The s.p.a.ce which he occupies in the page of history is altogether disproportioned to his talents. It may be in some measure ascribed to fortune, but still more to those showy qualities which form a sort of subst.i.tute for mental talent, and which secured his popularity with the vulgar.
He had a brilliant exterior; excelled in all martial exercises; rode well, fenced well, managed his lance to perfection, was a first-rate marksman with the arquebuse, and added the accomplishment of being an excellent draughtsman. He was bold and chivalrous, even to temerity; courted adventure, and was always in the front of danger. He was a knighterrant, in short, in the most extravagant sense of the term, and, ”mounted on his favorite charger,” says one who had often seen him, ”made no more account of a squadron of Indians than of a swarm of flies.” *16 [Footnote 16: ”Quando Goncalo Pizarro, que aya gloria, se veya en su zaynillo, no hazia mas caso de esquadrones de Yndios, que si fueran de moscas.” Garcila.s.so, Parte 2, lib. 5, cap. 43.]
While thus, by his brilliant exploits and showy manners, he captivated the imaginations of his countrymen, he won their hearts no less by his soldier-like frankness, his trust in their fidelity, - too often abused, - and his liberal largesses; for Pizarro, though avaricious of the property of others, was, like the Roman conspirator, prodigal of his own. This was his portrait in happier days, when his heart had not been corrupted by success; for tha some change was wrought on him by his prosperity is well attested. His head was made giddy by his elevation; and it is proof of a want of talent equal to his success, that he knew not how to profit by it. Obeying the dictates of his own rash judgment, he rejected the warnings of his wisest counsellors, and relied with blind confidence on his destiny.
Garcila.s.so imputes this to the malignant influence of the stars.
*17 But the superst.i.tious chronicler might have better explained it by a common principle of human nature; by the presumption nourished by success; the insanity, as the Roman, or rather Grecian, proverb calls it, with which the G.o.ds afflict men when they design to ruin them. *18
[Footnote 17: ”Dezian que no era falta de ontendimiento, pues lo tenia bastante, sino que deuia de ser sobra de influencia de signos y planetas, que le cegauan y forcauan a que pusiesse la garganta al cuchillo.” Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 2 lib. 5, cap. 33.]
[Footnote 18: Eurip. Fragmenta]
Gonzalo was without education, except such as he had picked up in the rough school of war. He had little even of that wisdom which springs from natural shrewdness and insight into character. In all this he was inferior to his elder brothers, although he fully equalled them in ambition. Had he possessed a t.i.the of their sagacity, he would not have madly persisted in rebellion, after the coming of the president. Before this period, he represented the people. Their interests and his were united. He had their support, for he was contending for the redress of their wrongs.
When these were redressed by the government, there was nothing to contend for. From that time, he was battling only for himself The people had no part nor interest in the contest. Without a common sympathy to bind them together, was it strange that they should fall off from him, like leaves in winter, and leave him exposed, a bare and sapless trunk, to the fury of the tempest?
Cepeda, more criminal than Pizarro, since he had both superior education and intelligence, which he employed only to mislead his commander, did not long survive him. He had come to the country in an office of high responsibility. His first step was to betray the viceroy whom he was sent to support; his next was to betray the Audience with whom he should have acted; and lastly, he betrayed the leader whom he most affected to serve. His whole career was treachery to his own government. His life was one long perfidy.
After his surrender, several of the cavaliers, disgusted at his cold-blooded apostasy, would have persuaded Gasca to send him to execution along with his commander; but the president refused, in consideration of the signal service he had rendered the Crown by his defection. He was put under arrest, however, and sent to Castile. There he was arraigned for high-treason. He made a plausible defence, and as he had friends at court, it is not improbable he would have been acquitted; but, before the trial was terminated, he died in prison. It was the retributive justice not always to be found in the affairs of this world. *19
[Footnote 19: The cunning lawyer prepared so plausible an argument in his own justification, that Yllescas, the celebrated historian of the Popes, declares that no one who read the paper attentively, but must rise from the perusal of it with an entire conviction of the writer's innocence, and of his unshaken loyalty to the Crown. See the pa.s.sage quoted by Garcila.s.so Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 6, cap. 10]
Indeed, it so happened, that several of those who had been most forward to abandon the cause of Pizarro survived their commander but a short time. The gallant Centeno, and the Licentiate Carbajal, who deserted him near Lima, and bore the royal standard on the field of Xaquixaguana, both died within a year after Pizarro. Hinojosa was a.s.sa.s.sinated but two years later in La Plata; and his old comrade Valdivia, after a series of brilliant exploits in Chili, which furnished her most glorious theme to the epic Muse of Castile, was cut off by the invincible warriors of Arauco. The Manes of Pizarro were amply avenged.
Acosta, and three or four other cavaliers who surrendered with Gonzalo, were sent to execution on the same day with their chief; and Gasca, on the morning following the dismal tragedy, broke up his quarters and marched with his whole army to Cuzco, where he was received by the politic people with the same enthusiasm which they had so recently shown to his rival. He found there a number of the rebel army who had taken refuge in the city after their late defeat, where they were immediately placed under arrest.