Chapter XVII: Section IV

_Continuation of the Troubles in Peru, to the Viceroyalty of the Marquis de Cannete._

On the 13th of November 1553, a splendid wedding was celebrated at Cuzco, between Alonzo de Loyasa, one of the richest inhabitants of the city, and Donna Maria de Castilla, at which all the citizens and their wives attended in their best apparel. After dinner an entertainment was made in the street, in which horsemen threw balls of clay at each other, which I saw from the top of a wall opposite the house of Alonzo de Loyasa; and I remember to have seen Francisco Hernandez Giron sitting on a chair in the hall, with his arms folded on his breast and his eyes cast down, the very picture of melancholy, being then probably contemplating the transactions in which he was to engage that night. In the evening, when the sports were over, the company sat down to supper in a lower hall, where at the least sixty gentlemen were at table, the ladies being by themselves in an inner room, and from a small court-yard between these apartments, the dishes were served to both tables. Don Balthazar de Castillo, uncle to the bride, acted as usher of the hall at this entertainment. I came to the house towards the end of supper, to attend my father and stepmother home at night. I went to the upper end of the hall, where the governor sat, who was pleased to make me sit down on the chair beside him, and reached me some comfits and sweet drink, with which boys are best pleased, I being then fourteen years of age.

At this instant some once knocked at the door, saying that Francisco Hernandez Giron was there; on which Don Balthazar de Castillo, who was near the door ordered the door to be opened. Giron immediately rushed in, having a drawn sword in his right hand, and a buckler on his left arm; accompanied by a companion on each side armed with partizans. The guests rose in great terror at this unexpected interruption, and Giron addressed them in these words: "Gentlemen be not afraid, nor stir from your places, as we are all engaged in the present enterprize." The governor, Gil Ramirez, immediately retired into the apartment of the ladies, by a door on the left hand. Another door led from the hall to the kitchen and other offices; and by these two doors a considerable number of the guests made their escape. Juan Alonzo Palomino, who was obnoxious to Giron for having opposed him in a late mutiny, was slain by Diego de Alvarado the lawyer. Juan de Morales, a rich merchant and very honest man, was slain while endeavouring to put out the candles. My father and a number of others, to the number in all of thirty-six, made their escape by means of a ladder from the court-yard of Loyasa into that of the adjoining house, in which I accompanied them, but the governor could not be persuaded to follow them, and was made prisoner by the rebels. My father and all the companions of his flight agreed to leave the town that night, and endeavour to escape to Lima.

Having assembled about an hundred and fifty soldiers, Giron assumed the office of commander-in-chief of the _army of liberty_, appointing Diego de Alvarado the lawyer his lieutenant-general; Thomas Vasquez, Francisco Nunnez, and Rodrigo de Pineda captains of horse; the two last of whom accepted more from fear than affection. Juan de Pedrahita, Nuno Mendiola, and Diego Gavilan were made captains of foot; Albertos de Ordunna standard-bearer, and Antonio Carillo serjeant-major; all of whom were ordered to raise soldiers to complete their companies with every possible expedition. It being reported through the country that the whole citizens of Cuzco had concurred in this rebellion, the cities of Guamanga and Arequipa sent deputies to Cuzco, desiring to be admitted into the league, that they might jointly represent to his majesty the burdensome and oppressive nature of the ordinances imposed by the judges in relation to the services of the Indians. But when the citizens of Guamanga and Arequipa became rightly informed that this rebellion, instead of being the act of the Cabildo and all the inhabitants, had been brought about by the contrivance of a single individual, they changed their resolutions, and prepared to serve his majesty. About this time, the arch rebel Giron caused the deposed governor, Gil Ramirez, to betaken from prison and escorted forty leagues on his way towards Arequipa, and then set free.

Fifteen days after the commencement of the rebellion, finding himself at the head of a considerable force, he summoned a meeting of all the citizens remaining in Cuzco, at which there appeared twenty-five citizens who were lords of Indians, only three of whom were intitled from office to sit in that assembly. By this meeting, Giron caused himself to be elected procurator, captain-general, and chief-justice of Peru, with full power to govern and protect the whole kingdom both in war and peace. When news of this rebellion was brought to Lima by Hernando Chacon, who was foster-brother to Giron, the judges would not credit the intelligence, believing it only a false report, to try how the people stood affected to the cause, and therefore ordered Chacon to be imprisoned; but learning the truth soon afterwards, he was set at liberty, and the judges began seriously to provide for suppressing the rebellion, appointing officers and commanders to raise forces for that purpose. They accordingly sent a commission to Alonzo de Alvarado, then at La Plata, constituting him captain-general of the royal army against Giron, with unlimited power to use the public treasure, and to borrow money for the service of the war in case the exchequer should fail to supply sufficient for the purpose. Alvarado accordingly appointed such officers as he thought proper to serve under him, and gave orders to raise men, and to provide arms and ammunition for the war.

Besides the army which they authorized Alvarado to raise and command in Las Charcas, the judges thought it necessary to raise another army at Lima, of which Santillan, one of themselves and the archbishop of Lima were appointed conjunct generals. Orders were likewise transmitted to all the cities, commanding all loyal subjects to take up arms in the service of his majesty, and a general pardon was proclaimed to all who had been engaged in the late rebellions, under Gonzalo Pizarro, Don Sebastian de Castilla, and others, provided they joined the royal army within a certain given time. They likewise suspended the execution of the decrees for freeing the Indians from personal services, during two years, and repealed several other regulations which had given great and general offence to the soldiers and inhabitants, and had been the cause of all the commotions and rebellions which distracted the kingdom for so long a time.

While these measures were carrying on against him, Hernandez, Giron was not negligent of his own concerns. He sent off officers with detachments of troops to Arequipa and Guamanga, to induce the inhabitants of these cities to join him, and requiring them by solemn acts of their cabildos to confirm and acknowledge him in the offices he had usurped. He caused the cabildo of Cuzco to write letters to the other cities of Peru to concur in his elevation and to give assistance in the cause, and wrote many letters himself to various individuals in Las Charcas and other places, soliciting them to join him. Having collected an army of above four hundred men, besides the detachments sent to Guamanga and Arequipa, he resolved to march for Lima, to give battle to the army of the judges, as he called it, pretending that his own was the royal army, and that he acted in the service of his majesty. At the first he was undetermined, whether it might not be better to march previously against Alvarado, whose party he considered to be the weakest, owing to the great and cruel severity which that officer had exerted against the adherents of the late rebellions: And many judicious persons are of opinion that he would have succeeded better if he had first attacked the marshal, as in all probability he would have got possession of these provinces, and his men would not have deserted from him to a person so universally disliked for his cruelty, as they afterwards did when they marched towards Lima. He accordingly marched from Cuzco and crossed the river Apurimac; immediately after which Juan Vera de Mendoza and five others deserted from him, re-crossed the bridge, which they burnt to prevent pursuit, and returned to Cuzco, where they persuaded about forty of the inhabitants to set out for Las Charcas to join the marshal Alvarado.

At this time Sancho Duarte who was governor of the city of La Paz, raised above two hundred men in the service of his majesty, which he divided into two companies, one of horse and the other of foot. Giving the command of his infantry to Martin d'Olmos, he took the command of the horse himself, and assumed the title of general. With this force he set out for Cuzco, intending to march against Giron, but not to join the marshal Alvarado that he might not submit to his superior command. On his arrival at the bridge over the Rio Desaguadero, he learnt that Giron had left Cuzco to attack Lima, and proposed to have continued his march for Cuzco remaining independent of the marshal. But, in consequence of peremptory commands from Alvarado as captain-general, who highly disapproved of so many small armies acting separately, he returned to his own province.

Pursuing his march for Lima, Hernandez Giron learnt at Andahuaylas that the citizens of Guamanga had declared for his majesty, at which circumstance he was much disappointed. He proceeded however to the river Villca[46], where his scouts and those of the royal army encountered. He proceeded however to the city of Guamanga, whence he sent orders to Thomas Vasquez to rejoin him from Arequipa. Although the inhabitants of that place, as formerly mentioned, had written to those of Cuzco offering to unite in the insurrection, supposing it the general sense of the principal people; they were now ashamed of their conduct, when they found the rebellion only proceeded from a few desperate men, and declared for the king; so that Vasquez was obliged to return without success. Being now at the head of above seven hundred men, though disappointed in his expectations of being joined by the citizens of Guamanga and Arequipa, Hernandez Giron pursued his march for the valley of Jauja; during which march Salvador de Lozana, one of his officers, who was detached with forty men to scour the country, was made prisoner along with all his party by a detachment from the army of the judges.

[Footnote 46: The river Cangallo is probably here meant, which runs through the province of Vilcas to the city of Guamanga.--E.]

Notwithstanding this unforseen misfortune, Giron continued his march to the valley of Pachacamac, only four leagues from Lima, where it was resolved in a council of war to endeavour to surprise the camp of the royalists near the capital. Intelligence of this was conveyed to the judges, who put themselves in a posture of defence. Their army at this time consisted of 300 cavalry, 600 musqueteers, and about 450 men armed with pikes, or 1350 in all. It may be proper to remark in this place, that, to secure the loyalty of the soldiers and inhabitants, the judges had proclaimed a suspension of the obnoxious edicts by which the Indians were exempted from personal services, and the Spaniards were forbidden to make use of them to carry their baggage on journeys; and had agreed to send two procurators or deputies to implore redress from his majesty from these burdensome regulations.

Two days after the arrival of Giron in the valley of Pachacamac, a party of his army went out to skirmish with the enemy, on which occasion Diego de Selva and four others of considerable reputation deserted to the judges. For several days afterwards his men continued to abandon him at every opportunity, twenty or thirty of them going over at a time to the royal army. Afraid that the greater part of his army might follow this example, Hernandez Giron found it necessary to retreat from the low country and to return to Cuzco, which he did in such haste that his soldiers left all their heavy baggage that they might not be encumbered in their march. On this alteration of affairs, the judges gave orders to Paulo de Meneses to pursue the rebels with six hundred select men; but the generals of the royal army would not allow of more than a hundred being detached on this service. During his retreat, Giron, finding himself not pursued by the royalists with any energy, marched with deliberation, but so many of his men left him that by the time he reached the valley of Chincha his force was reduced to about 500 men. Paulo de Meneses, having been reinforced, proposed to follow and harass the retreating rebels; but not having accurate intelligence, nor keeping sufficient guard, was surprised and defeated by Giron with some considerable loss, and obliged to retreat in great disorder. Yet Giron was under the necessity to discontinue the pursuit, as many of his men deserted to the royalists.

Sensible of the detriment suffered by the royal interests in consequence of the disagreement between the present generals, Judge Santillan and Archbishop Loyasa, to which the defeat of Meneses was obviously owing, these very unfit persons for military command were displaced, and Paulo de Meneses was invested in the office of commander-in-chief, with Pedro de Puertocarrero as his lieutenant-general. This new appointment occasioned great discontent in the army, that a person who had lost a battle, and rather merited ignominy and punishment for his misconduct, should be raised to the chief command. The appointment was however persisted in, and it was resolved to pursue the enemy with 800 men without baggage.

Hernandez Giron, who retreated by way of the plain towards Arequipa, had reached the valley of Nasca, about sixty leagues to the southwards of Lima, before the confusion and disputes in the royal camp admitted of proper measures being taken for pursuit. At this time, the judges gave permission to a sergeant in the royal army, who had formerly been in the conspiracy of Diego de Royas, to go into the enemys camp disguised as an Indian, under pretence of bringing them exact information of the state of affairs. But this man went immediately to Hernandez, whom he informed of the quarrels among the officers and the discontents in the royal army. He likewise informed him that the city of San Miguel de Piura had rebelled, and that one Pedro de Orosna was coming from the new kingdom of Grenada with a strong party to join the rebels in Peru. But to qualify this favourable news for the rebels, Giron received notice at the same time that the marshal Alvarado was coming against him from Las Charcas with a force of twelve hundred men. About this time, on purpose to reinforce his army, Giron raised a company of an hundred and fifty negroes, which he afterwards augmented to 450, regularly divided into companies, to which he appointed captains, and allowed them to elect their own ensigns, sergeants, and corporals, and to make their own colours.

In the mean time, the marshal Alonzo de Alvarado, employed himself diligently in Las Charcas to raise men for the royal service, and to provide arms, ammunition, provisions, horses, and mules, and every thing necessary for taking the field. He appointed Don Martin de Almendras, who had married his sister, lieutenant-general, Diego de Porras standard-bearer, and Diego de Villavicennio major-general. Pera Hernandez Paniagua, Juan Ortiz de Zarate, and Don Gabriel de Guzman, were captains of horse. The licentiate Polo, Diego de Almendras, Martin de Alarzon, Hernando Alvarez de Toledo, Juan Ramon, and Juan de Arreynaga, were captains of foot; Gomez Hernandez the lawyer, military alguazil or judge-advocate, and Juan Riba Martin commissary-general. His force amounted to 750 excellent soldiers, all well armed and richly clothed, with numerous attendants, such as had never been seen before in Peru. I saw them myself a few days after their arrival in Cuzco, when they made a most gallant appearance. While on his march to Cuzco from La Plata, Alvarado was joined by several parties of ten and twenty together, who came to join him in the service of his majesty. On his way to Arequipa he was joined by about forty more; and after passing that place, Sancho Duarte and Martin d'Olmos joined him from La Paz with more than two hundred good soldiers. Besides these, while in the province of Cuzco, he was joined by Juan de Saavedra with a squadron of eighty five men of the principal interest and fortune in the country. On entering Cuzco, Alvarado was above 1200 strong; having 300 horse, 350 musqueteers, and about 530 armed with pikes and halberts. Not knowing what was become of Giron, Alvarado issued orders to repair the bridges over the Apurimac and Abancay, intending to pass that way in quest of the rebels. But receiving intelligence from the judges, of the defeat of Meneses, and that the rebels were encamped in the valley of Nasca, he ordered the bridges to be destroyed, and marched by the nearest way for Nasca, by way of Parinacocha, in which route he had to cross a rocky desert of sixty leagues.

In this march four of the soldiers deserted and went over to Hernandez Giron at Nasca, to whom they gave an account of the great force with which Alvarado was marching against him, but reported in public that the royalists were inconsiderable in number. Giron, however, chose to let his soldiers know the truth, and addressed his army as follows. "Gentlemen, do not flatter or deceive yourselves: There are a thousand men coming against you from Lima, and twelve hundred from the mountains. But, with the help of God, if you stand firm, I have no doubt of defeating them all." Leaving Nasca, Giron marched by way of Lucanas, by the mountain road, intending to take post on the lake of Parinacocha before Alvarado might be able to reach that place. He accordingly left Nasca on the 8th of May[47] for this purpose.

[Footnote 47: Although Garcilasso omits the date of the year, it probably was in 1554, as the rebellion of Giron commenced in the November immediately preceding.--E.]

In the mean time pursuing his march, Alvarado and his army entered upon the desert of _Parihuanacocha_, where above sixty of his best horses died, in consequence of the bad and craggy roads, the unhealthiness of the climate, and continued tempestuous weather, though led by hand and well covered with clothes. When the two armies approached each other, Alvarado sent a detachment of an hundred and fifty select musqueteers to attack the camp of Giron, and marched forwards with the main body of his army to support that detachment. An engagement accordingly took place in rough and strong ground, encumbered with trees brushwood and rocks, in which the royalists could make no impression on the rebels, and were obliged to retire with the loss of forty of their best men killed or wounded. In the following night, Juan de Piedrahita endeavoured ineffectually to retaliate, by assailing the camp of Alvarado, and was obliged to retreat at daybreak. Receiving notice from a deserter that the rebel army consisted only of about four hundred men, in want of provisions, and most of them inclined to revolt from Giron and return to their duty, Alvarado determined upon giving battle, contrary to the opinion and earnest advice of all his principal officers and followers. But so strong was the position of the enemy, and the approaches so extremely difficult, that the royal army fell into confusion in the attack, and were easily defeated with considerable loss, and fled in all directions, many of them being slain by the Indians during their dispersed flight.

On receiving the afflicting news of this defeat, the judges ordered the army which they had drawn together at Lima to march by way of Guamanga against the rebels. In the mean time Giron remained for forty days in his camp at Chuquinca, where the battle was fought, taking care of his wounded men and of the wounded royalists, many of whom now joined his party. He sent off however his lieutenant-general towards Cuzco in pursuit of the royalists who had fled in that direction, and ordered his sergeant-major to go to La Plaz, Chucuito, Potosi, and La Plata, to collect men arms and horses for the farther prosecution of the war. At length Giron marched into the province of Andahuaylas, which he laid waste without mercy, whence he went towards Cuzco on receiving intelligence that the army of the judges had passed the rivers Abancay and Apurimac on their way to attack him. He immediately marched by the valley of Yucay to within a league of Cuzco, not being sufficiently strong to resist the royalists; but turned off from that city at the persuasion of certain astrologers and prognosticators, who declared that his entrance there would prove his ruin, as had already happened to many other captains, both Spaniards and Indians.

The army of the judges marched on from Guamanga to Cuzco unopposed by the rebels, their chief difficulty being in the passages of the great rivers, and the transport of eleven pieces of artillery, which were carried on the shoulders of Indians, of whom ten thousand were required for that service only. Each piece of ordinance was fastened on a beam of wood forty feet long, under which twenty cross bars were fixed, each about three feet long, and to every bar were two Indians, one on each side, who carried this load on their shoulders, on pads or cushions, and were relieved by a fresh set every two hundred paces. After halting five days in the neighbourhood of Cuzco, to refresh the army from the fatigues of the march, and to procure provisions and other necessaries, the royal army set out in pursuit of the rebels to Pucara[48], where the rebels had intrenched themselves in a very strong situation, environed on every side with such steep and rugged mountains as could not be passed without extreme difficulty, more like a wall than natural rocks. The only entrance was exceedingly narrow and intricate, so that it could easily be defended by a handful of men against an army; but the interior of this post was wide and convenient, and sufficient for accommodating the rebel army with all the cattle provisions and attendants with the utmost ease. The rebels had abundance of provisions and ammunition, having the whole country at their command since the victory of Chuquinca; besides which their negro soldiers brought in provisions daily from the surrounding country. The royal army encamped at no great distance in an open plain, fortifying the camp with an intrenchment breast-high all round, which was soon executed by means of the great numbers of Indians who attended to carry the baggage and artillery. Giron established a battery of cannon on the top of a rising ground so near the royal camp that the balls were able to reach considerably beyond the intrenchment: "Yet by the mysterious direction of Providence, the rebel cannon, having been cast from the consecrated metal of bells dedicated to the service of God, did no harm to man or beast."

[Footnote 48: Pucara is in the province of Lampa, near the north-western extremity of the great lake Titicaca.--E.]

After a considerable delay, during which daily skirmishes passed between the adverse parties, Giron resolved to make a night attack upon the camp of the royalists, confiding in the prediction of some wise old woman, that he was to gain the victory at that place. For this purpose he marched out from his natural fortress at the head of eight hundred foot, six hundred of whom were musqueteers, and the rest pikemen, with only about thirty horse. His negro soldiers, who were about two hundred and fifty in number, joined with about seventy Spaniards, were ordered to assail the front of the royal camp, while Giron with the main body was to attack the rear. Fortunately the judges had got notice of this intended assault from two rebel deserters, so that the whole royal army was drawn out in order of battle on the plain before the rebels got up to the attack. The negro detachment arrived at the royal camp sometime before Giron, and, finding no resistance, they broke in and killed a great number of the Indian followers, and many horses and mules, together with five or six Spanish soldiers who had deserted the ranks and hidden themselves in the camp. On arriving at the camp, Giron fired a whole volley into the fortifications without receiving any return; but was astonished when the royal army began to play upon the flank of his army from an unexpected quarter, with all their musquets and artillery. Giron, being thus disappointed in his expectations of taking the enemy by surprise, and finding their whole army drawn up to receive him, lost heart and retreated back to his strong camp in the best order he could. But on this occasion, two hundred of his men, who had formerly served under Alvarado, and had been constrained to enter into his service after the battle of Chuquinca, threw down their arms and revolted to the royalists.

Giron made good his retreat, as the general of the royalists would not permit any pursuit during the darkness of the night. In this affair, five or six were killed on the side of the judges, and about thirty wounded; while the rebels, besides the two hundred who revolted, had ten men killed and about the same number wounded. On the third day after the battle, Giron sent several detachments to skirmish with the enemy, in hopes of provoking them to assail his strong camp; but the only consequence of this was giving an opportunity to Thomas Vasquez and ten or twelve more to go over to the royalists. Heart-broken and confounded by these untoward events, and even dreading that his own officers had conspired against his life, Giron fled away alone from the camp on horseback during the night after the desertion of Vasquez. On the appearance of day he found himself still near his own camp, whence he desperately adventured to make his escape over a mountain covered with snow, where he was nearly swallowed up, but at last got through by the goodness of his horse. Next morning, the lieutenant-general of the rebels, with about an hundred of the most guilty, went off in search of their late general; but several others of the leading rebels went over to the judges and claimed their pardons, which were granted under the great seal.

Next day, Paulo de Meneses, with a select detachment, went in pursuit of Diego de Alvarado, the rebel lieutenant-general, who was accompanied by about an hundred Spaniards and twenty negroes; and came up with them in eight or nine days, when they all surrendered without resistance. The general immediately ordered Juan Henriquez de Orellana, one of the prisoners, who had been executioner in the service of the rebels, to hang and behead Diego de Alvarado and ten or twelve of the principal chiefs, after which he ordered Orellana to be strangled by two negroes.

"I cannot omit one story to shew the impudence of the rebel soldiers, which occurred at this time. The very next day after the flight of Francisco Hernandez Giron, as my father Garcilasso de la Vega was at dinner with eighteen or twenty soldiers, it being the custom in time of war for all men of estates to be hospitable in this manner according to their abilities; he observed among his guests a soldier who had been with Giron from the beginning of this rebellion. This man was by trade a blacksmith, yet crowded to the table with as much freedom and boldness as if he had been a loyal gentleman, and was as richly clothed as the most gallant soldier of either army. Seeing him sit down with much confidence, my father told him to eat his dinner and welcome, but to come no more to his table; as a person who would have cut off his head yesterday for a reward from the general of the rebels, was not fit company for himself or those gentlemen, his friends and wellwishers, and loyal subjects of his majesty. Abashed by this address, the poor blacksmith rose and departed without his dinner, leaving subject of discourse to the guests, who admired at his impudence."

After his flight, Hernandez Giron was rejoined by a considerable number of his dispersed soldiers, and took the road towards Lima, in hopes of gaining possession of that place in the absence of the judges. He was pursued by various detachments, one of which came up with him in a strong position on a mountain; where all his followers, though more numerous than their pursuers, surrendered at discretion, and the arch rebel was made prisoner and carried to Lima, where he was capitally punished, and his head affixed to the gallows beside those of Gonzalo Pizarro and Francisco de Carvajal. This rebellion subsisted from the 13th of November 1553, reckoning the day on which Giron was executed, thirteen months and some days; so that he received his well-merited punishment towards the end of December 1554.