Chapter VIII (2)

The most conspicuous of the malcontents was Juan de Rada; and he matured a plot for the assassination of the governor. On the 26th of June, 1541, the conspirators, headed by Rada, ran across the great square during the dinner hour, and entered the court of Pizarro’s house.[1479] The marquis had just dined, and his brother Martin de Alcantara, the judge Velasquez, Francisco de Chaves, and others were with him. Being unarmed, several of those present, on hearing the outcry, let themselves down into a garden from the corridor, and escaped. Chaves went out on the stairs, where he was murdered by the conspirators, who were running up. The marquis had thrown off his robe, put on a cuirass, and seized a spear. He was past seventy. His brother, a cavalier named Gomez de Luna, and two pages were with him. The assassins numbered nineteen strong men. Pizarro fought valiantly, until Rada thrust one of his companions on the spear and rushed in. Alcantara, Luna, and the two pages were despatched. Pizarro continued to defend himself until a wound in the throat brought him to the ground. He made the sign of the cross on the floor, and kissed it. He then breathed his last. The conspirators rushed into the street shouting, “The tyrant is dead!” The houses of the governor and his secretary were pillaged. Juan de Rada coerced the municipality and proclaimed Diego Almagro, the young half-caste lad, governor of Peru. The body of Pizarro was buried in the cathedral, by stealth, and at night.

But the colonists did not immediately submit to the new rule. Alvarez de Holguin, one of Pizarro’s captains, held Cusco with a small force, and Alonzo de Alvarado opposed the conspiracy in the north of Peru. The bishop Valverde, of Cusco, and the judge Velasquez were allowed to embark at Callao in November, 1541; but they fell into the hands of the Indians on the island of Puna, in the Gulf of Guayaquil, and were both killed.

[From Herrera (1728), vol. iv. p. 1.—ED.]]

The followers of Almagro the lad, as he was called, determined to march from Lima in the direction of Cusco, so as to get between Alvarado and Holguin. At Xauxa the youthful adventurer had the misfortune to lose his most trusty adherent. Juan de Rada died of fever. The two most influential of his supporters who remained were Cristóval de Sotelo and Garcia de Alvarado,—and they had quarrelled with one another. Their delays enabled Holguin to pass to the north, and unite his forces with Alvarado’s. Almagro then established himself at Cusco, where Sotelo was murdered by his rival Alvarado; and the latter was put to death by the young Almagro, who assumed the direction of his own affairs. He was barely twenty-two years of age.

The Emperor Charles V., long before the death of Pizarro, had decided upon sending out a royal judge to act as the old conqueror’s coadjutor and adviser, especially with regard to the treatment of the Indians. For this delicate post the emperor’s choice fell upon Dr. Don Cristóval Vaca de Castro, a Judge of the Audience of Valladolid. After a long voyage the new judge had landed at Buenaventura, a town recently founded by Pascual de Andagoya, near that river San Juan where Pizarro had waited in such dire distress during his first voyage. He had a royal order to assume the post of governor of Peru in the event of Pizarro’s death; and on arriving at Popayan he received tidings of the assassination. He then proclaimed his commission as governor, and advanced southwards, by way of Quito, along the Peruvian coast. At Huara he was joined by Alvarado and Holguin with their forces. He entered Lima, and then proceeded, by way of Xauxa, in search of the assassins. Young Almagro had a force of five hundred Spaniards, with two hundred horses; and he had a park of artillery consisting of sixteen pieces under the direction of the veteran Pedro de Candia. With this force he left Cusco in July, 1542. Vaca de Castro marched in great haste to Guamanga, in order to secure that important post before Almagro could reach it from Cusco. The rebels, as they must be called, took a route along the skirts of the _cordillera_, until they reached an elevated plateau called Chupas, above and a little to the south of the newly built town of Guamanga. Their object appears to have been to cut off the communications of Vaca de Castro with the coast. In order to approach them, it was necessary for the royal army to evacuate Guamanga, and ascend a very steep slope to the terrace-like plateau where Almagro’s army was posted. It was the 16th of September, 1542, and the ascent from Guamanga must have occupied the greater part of the day. The army of Vaca de Castro was marshalled by the veteran Francisco de Carbajal, an old soldier who had seen forty years’ service in Italy before he crossed the Atlantic. Carbajal led the troops into action with such skill that they were protected by intervening ground until they were close to the enemy; and when Almagro’s artillery opened fire on them, the guns were so elevated as to do no execution. This led young Almagro to suspect Pedro de Candia of treachery, and he there and then ran the old gunner through the body, and pointed one of the guns himself with good effect. The royal army now began to suffer severely from the better-directed artillery fire. Then the opposing bodies of cavalry charged, while Carbajal led a desperate attack with the infantry, and captured Almagro’s guns. Holguin fell dead; Alvarado was driven back, and young Almagro behaved with heroic valor. Yet when night closed in, the army of Vaca de Castro was completely victorious, and five hundred were left dead on the field. It was a desperately contested action. Almagro fled to Cusco with a few followers, where he was arrested by the magistrates. Vaca de Castro followed closely, and on arriving in the city he condemned the lad to death. Almagro suffered in the great square, and was buried by the side of his father in the church of La Merced.

Vaca de Castro assumed the administration of affairs in Peru as royal governor. In the same year the Dominican Friar Geronimo de Loaysa, a native of Talavera, became bishop of Lima. He was promoted to the rank of archbishop in 1545. Another Dominican, Juan de Solano, succeeded Valverde as bishop of Cusco in 1543. Gonzalo Pizarro, when he returned from his terrible expedition in the forests east of Quito, was induced by the governor to retire peaceably to his estates in Charcas. The efforts of Vaca de Castro as an administrator were directed to regulating the employment of the natives, and to improving communications.

* * * * *

When the good Bartolomé Las Casas returned to Spain, in 1538, he published his famous work on the destruction of the native race of America. He protested against the Indians being given to the Spaniards in _encomienda_, or vassalage for personal service.[1480] At last the emperor appointed a committee consisting of churchmen and lawyers of the highest position, to sit at Valladolid in 1542, and to consider the whole subject. The result was the promulgation of what were called the “New Laws.”

I. After the death of the conquerors, the _repartimientos_ of Indians, given to them in _encomienda_, were not to pass to their heirs, but be placed directly under the king. Officers of his majesty were to renounce the _repartimientos_ at once.

II. All _encomenderos_ in Peru who had been engaged in the factious wars between the Pizarros and Almagros were to be deprived.

III. Personal service of the Indians was to be entirely abolished.

Blasco Nuñez Vela was appointed viceroy of Peru to enforce the “New Laws,” assisted by a court of justice, of which he was president, called the _Audiencia_ of Lima. There were four other judges, called _oidores_, or auditors, named Cepeda, Zarate, Alvarez, and Tejada. The viceroy and his colleagues embarked at San Lucar on the 3d of November, 1543. Leaving the judges sick at Panamá, the viceroy landed at Tumbez on the 4th of March, 1544, with great magnificence, and proceeded by land to Lima, proclaiming the “New Laws” as he advanced. The Spanish conquerors were thrown into a state of dismay and exasperation. They entreated Gonzalo Pizarro to leave his retirement and protect their interests, and when he entered Cusco he was hailed as procurator-general of Peru. He seized the artillery at Guamanga, and assembled a force of four hundred men, while old Francisco de Carbajal, the hero of the battle of Chupas, became his lieutenant.

The viceroy was a headstrong, violent man, without judgment or capacity for affairs. His first act after entering Lima was to imprison the late governor, Vaca de Castro. The principal citizens entreated him not to enforce the “New Laws” with imprudent haste. But he would listen to no arguments; and when the auditors arrived from Panamá, he quarrelled with them, and acted in defiance of their protests. At last the auditors ventured upon the bold step of arresting the viceroy in his palace, and placing him in confinement. He was sent to the island of San Lorenzo, and a government was formed with the auditor Cepeda as president, who suspended the “New Laws” until further instructions could be received from Spain. The auditor Alvarez was commissioned to embark on board a vessel with the viceroy, and take him to Panamá.

Meanwhile Gonzalo Pizarro was approaching Lima by rapid marches, and he entered the capital on the 28th of October, 1544, at the head of twelve hundred Spaniards and several thousand Indians dragging the artillery, which had formed the special strength of young Almagro. The _Audiencia_ submitted; the judges administered the oaths, and Gonzalo was declared governor and captain-general of Peru. At the same time Vaca de Castro persuaded the captain of a vessel on board of which he was confined in Callao Bay to get under way and convey him to Panamá. Accusations were brought against him in Spain, and he was kept in prison for twelve years, but was eventually acquitted and reinstated.

As soon as the ship conveying the viceroy to Panamá was at sea, the judge Alvarez liberated him. He landed at Tumbez in October, 1544, denounced Gonzalo Pizarro and the judge Cepeda as traitors, and called upon all loyal subjects to support him. Volunteers arrived, and Blasco Nuñez raised his standard at San Miguel de Piura. Gonzalo Pizarro assembled a rival force at Truxillo; but the viceroy retreated before him towards Quito, Carbajal pressing closely on his rear. The retreat was almost a rout. Passing through Quito, the viceroy took refuge at Pasto, within the jurisdiction of Sebastian Benalcazar, the governor of Popayan. Early in January, 1546, having received reinforcements, Blasco Nuñez ventured to advance once more towards Quito. Gonzalo Pizarro took up a strong position outside; but the viceroy, now accompanied by Benalcazar, made a detour and entered Quito. On the 18th of January, 1546, the viceroy led his followers to the plains of Anaquito, near the town, where his enemy was posted, seven hundred strong. The battle was not long doubtful. Alvarez the judge was mortally wounded. Benalcazar was left for dead on the field. The viceroy was unhorsed and wounded, and while lying on the ground his head was struck off by order of Pedro de Puelles, Pizarro’s governor of Quito. The slaughter was terrific. Cruel old Carbajal never showed any mercy, and no quarter was given. Benalcazar, when he recovered, was allowed to return to Popayan; and Gonzalo Pizarro attended as chief mourner at the funeral of the viceroy in the cathedral of Quito.

Leaving a garrison at Quito, under Puelles, Gonzalo began his journey southwards in July, 1546, and entered Lima in triumph. The only resistance throughout Peru was from an officer in Charcas named Diego Centeno, a native of Ciudad Rodrigo, who had come to Peru in 1534 with Pedro Alvarado. He declared in favor of the viceroy at Chucuito; but Alonzo Toro, who had been left in command at Cusco by Gonzalo Pizarro, marched against him, and he fled into the fastnesses of Chichas, in the far south. Pizarro was undisputed master of Peru, and his lieutenant Carbajal retired to Charcas to work the silver mines.

[This follows the engraving given by Prescott (_History of the Conquest of Peru_) of the portrait hanging in the sacristy of Saint Mary Magdalene at Valladolid,—an inscription on which says that Gasca died in 1567 at the age of seventy-one.—ED.]]

News of the revolt had reached Spain, and the licentiate Pedro de la Gasca, an astute and very able ecclesiastic, was appointed to proceed to Peru, and mediate between the viceroy and the malcontents. He received very full powers, with large discretion, and was entitled president of the _Audiencia_. He was very ugly, with a dwarfish body and exceedingly long, ungainly legs. The president sailed from Spain on the 26th of May, 1546, and received the news of the viceroy’s death on his arrival at the isthmus. He brought out with him the announcement of the revocation of the “New Laws,” owing to the dangerous spirit of discontent they had caused throughout the Indies. They were withdrawn by a decree dated at Malines on the 20th of October, 1545.

[From Herrera (1728), vol. iv. p. 215.—ED.]]

The president arrived at Panamá on the 11th of August, 1546, where he found the fleet of Gonzalo Pizarro, under the command of Pedro de Hinojosa. Soon afterward Lorenzo de Aldana arrived as an envoy from Pizarro, but was induced to submit to the president’s authority. Hinojosa followed the example, and thus Gasca gained possession of the fleet. When the offer of pardon reached Lima, Gonzalo was advised by his lieutenant Carbajal to accept the terms; but the auditor Cepeda, who had turned against the viceroy and administered the oaths of office to a rebel, felt that there could be no pardon for him. The mad ambition of Pizarro induced him to listen to Cepeda rather than to Carbajal, and he finally rejected the offer of pardon; but many of his old followers deserted him.

Lorenzo de Aldana was despatched from Panamá, with several vessels, in February, 1547, and arrived in Callao Bay; while Diego Centeno once more rose in the south, and began to collect troops. Gonzalo Pizarro resolved to abandon Lima and march to Arequipa with only five hundred men, so numerous had been the desertions from his ranks. Aldana then entered the capital, while Gasca himself sailed from Panamá on the 10th of April, 1547, landing at Tumbez on the 13th of June. He advanced to Xauxa, and great numbers flocked to his standard. Pedro de Valdivia, the governor of Chili, had landed at Callao, and overtook the president, on his march towards Cusco, at Andahuaylas.

Gonzalo Pizarro, despairing of being able to make head against the president Gasca with all the prestige of royal approval on his side, had determined to retreat into Chili. But he feared to leave Centeno hanging on his rear, and thought it necessary first to disperse his forces. Centeno occupied a position near Huarina, at the southeastern angle of Lake Titicaca, upwards of twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea. Pizarro’s troops advanced to the attack over an open plain. He had about four hundred and eighty men, the strength of his army being in his infantry armed with arquebuses, and disciplined under the direct supervision of Carbajal. Centeno had a larger force, and was accompanied by Solano, the bishop of Cusco. Carbajal waited for the attack of the enemy, and then poured a deadly volley into their ranks. Centeno’s footmen broke and fled; but his cavalry defeated Pizarro, and would have won the day, if they too had not been repelled and broken by the admirable steadiness of Carbajal’s arquebusiers. As it was, Pizarro’s victory was complete, and three hundred and fifty of Centeno’s followers were killed. All fugitives taken by Carbajal were put to death without mercy.

The doomed Pizarro now abandoned all idea of retreating into Chili. He marched in triumph to Cusco, while the president Gasca approached by leisurely marches, gathering reinforcements by the way. With him were the bishops of Lima and Cusco, the marshal Alonzo de Alvarado, the veteran Hinojosa, Pascual de Andagoya the first adventurer in search of Peru, Valdivia the governor of Chili, Centeno, escaped from Huarina, Cieza de Leon the future historian, and many others well known to fame. The president’s army crossed the river Apurimac, and advanced to the plain of Sacsahuana, near Cusco, whither Gonzalo Pizarro came out to meet him. On the morning of the 9th of April, 1548, the commanders of both armies made ready for battle. But soon there were symptoms of desertion on Pizarro’s side. An important cavalier, Garcilasso de la Vega, galloped across to the army of Gasca. He was followed by the treacherous auditor Cepeda. Soldiers began to follow in small parties. Old Carbajal was humming two lines of an old song,—

“Estos mis cabellicos madre,
Dos á dos me los lleva el ayre.”

Then desertions took place by companies and squadrons. Pizarro sorrowfully took his way to the royal camp and gave himself up. Carbajal was seized by the soldiers. He was hanged and quartered the following day, and soon afterwards Gonzalo Pizarro was executed in presence of the army.

The president entered Cusco on the 12th of April, and began a bloody assize. Scarcely a day passed without followers of Gonzalo Pizarro being hanged, flogged, or sent in large batches to the galleys. Two priests were executed. A canon of Quito, who was tutor to Gonzalo Pizarro’s little son, was hanged for writing a book called _De bello justo_. At length, sated with blood, the president left Cusco on the 11th of July with Archbishop Loaysa, and went to a small village called Huayna-rimac in the neighborhood. He retired into this seclusion to escape the importunities of his partisans. Here he proceeded to arrange the distribution of _encomiendas_, or grants of lands and Indians, among his followers. He allowed a tenth of the Indians to be employed on forced labor in the mines, thus reversing the humane legislation advocated by Las Casas. Having completed his work, the president sent the archbishop to announce his awards at Cusco, and they caused a howl of rage and disappointed greed. Gasca himself went down to Lima by the unfrequented route of Nasca, and when a positive order from the emperor arrived, that all personal service among the Indians should be abolished, he suspended its publication until he was safe out of Peru. In January, 1550, the president Gasca sailed for Panamá, leaving the country in the greatest confusion, and all the most difficult administrative points to be solved by his successors. The municipality of Lima wrote a complaint to the emperor, representing the untimely departure of the president. His abilities and his services have been much overstated. He himself is the witness to his own revolting cruelties at Cusco.

Gasca left the government of Peru, with none of the difficulties settled, in the hands of the auditors or judges of the royal _Audiencia_, of which Don Andres de Cianca was president. His colleagues were Melchor Bravo de Sarabia, Hernando de Santillan, and Pedro Maldonado. The judges were in charge of the executive from January, 1550, to the 23d of September, 1551, when Don Antonio de Mendoza arrived from Mexico as viceroy. They had taken steps to organize a systematic plan for the instruction of the natives, under the auspices of Archbishop Loaysa, Friar Thomas de San Martin, and the indefatigable friar Domingo de Santo Tomas, the first Quichua scholar. They worked harmoniously under the viceroy Mendoza, who was a statesman of high rank and great experience. He promulgated the royal order against the enforced personal service of Indians, anticipating serious discontents and troubles, which he was resolved to meet and overcome. But his premature death at Lima, on the 21st of July, 1552, left the country once more in the hands of the judges, who had to meet a storm which would sorely test their administrative abilities.

The ringleader of the malcontents was a cavalier of good family named Francisco Hernandez Giron. Born at Caceres, in Estremadura, he crossed the Atlantic in 1535, and joined the unfortunate viceroy Blasco Nuñez de Vela at Quito, fighting under his banner in the fatal battle of Anaquito. He also did good service in the army of President Gasca, and was in the left wing at the rout of Sacsahuana. Gasca had assigned the plain of Sacsahuana to him, as his _repartimiento_; but he grumbled loudly, and all the malcontents looked upon him as their leader. The promulgation of the abolition of personal service was received with a howl of execration among the conquerors, who looked forward to the accumulation of wealth by the use of forced labor in the silver mines. Troubles broke out in Charcas, and Giron resolved to raise the standard of revolt at Cusco.

The 12th of November, 1553, was the wedding day of Don Alonzo de Loaysa, a nephew of the archbishop, who married a young lady named Maria de Castilla. The _corregidor_ of Cusco and most of the leading citizens were at the supper. Suddenly Giron presented himself in cuirass and helmet, with his sword drawn, and a crowd of conspirators behind him. The street was occupied by a body of cavalry under his lieutenant, Tomas Vasquez. The guests sprang from their seats, but Giron told them not to fear, as he only wished to arrest the _corregidor_. He and the others then put out the lights and drew their swords. The _corregidor_ took refuge with the ladies in the drawing-room, and shut the doors. Two guests were stabbed. Many escaped by the windows and climbed a wall at the back of the house. The _corregidor_ and other officials were seized and imprisoned. Giron issued a proclamation declaring that the conquerors would not be robbed of the fruits of their labors. He soon had a respectable force under his command; but most of the leading citizens fled to Lima. The rebel declared that his object was the public good, and to induce the king to listen to the prayers of his subjects. The _Audiencia_ was called upon to restore matters to the state they were in at the time of Gasca’s departure. Tomas Vasquez was sent to Arequipa, and Guamanga also declared in favor of Giron.

The governing judges were in great perplexity at Lima. After some hesitation they put the archbishop Loaysa in command of their army, with the judge Bravo de Saravia as his colleague. The marshal Alonzo de Alvarado was in upper Peru, and he also got some loyal cavaliers round him, and assembled a small force. Giron entered Guamanga Jan. 27, 1554, where he was joined by Tomas Vasquez, from Arequipa; and he then marched down to the coast. The judges encamped at Até, outside Lima, with five hundred arquebusiers, four hundred and fifty pikemen, three hundred cavalry, and fourteen field-pieces. Giron arrived at Pachacamac on the shores of the Pacific, and the judges advanced to Surco. But instead of boldly attacking, the rebels turned their backs and marched southwards along the coast to Yca, followed by a detachment under an officer named Meneses. Giron turned, and defeated his pursuers at Villacuri, in the desert between Pisco and Yca, but continued his retreat to Nasca. He had lost a great opportunity.

[Fac-simile of engraving in Herrera, iii. 235.—ED.]]

The royal army advanced to Chincha; but the archbishop quarrelled with Bravo de Saravia, and where so many commanded, and none were military men, efficient operations were impossible. Meanwhile Alvarado had assembled an army for the judges, of seven hundred men, the rendezvous being La Paz in upper Peru. With this force he entered Cusco on the 30th of March, 1554, and continued his march in search of Giron, who remained at Nasca, on the coast, until the 8th of May. On that day the rebels once more ascended the wild passes of the _cordillera_ to Lucanas, and were soon in the neighborhood of Alvarado’s army, which now numbered eleven hundred men. The rebels encamped at Chuquinga, in the wildest part of the Andes, on a mountain terrace by the side of a deep ravine, with the river Abancay in front. The marshal Alvarado was on the other side of the ravine, and was advised not to attack, but to harass the retreat of Giron. But on the 21st of May, under every possible disadvantage, he ordered the river to be forded, and an attack to be made. The river was crossed, but the men could not form on the other side in the face of an active enemy. They fell back, and the retreat was soon converted into a rout. Alvarado was wounded, but contrived to escape with Lorenzo de Aldana and the learned Polo de Ondegardo who accompanied him, leaving seventy dead on the field, and two hundred and eighty wounded.

Giron entered Cusco in triumph. The judges, on receiving news of the disastrous battle of Chuquinga, decided that their army should advance to Xauxa, and eventually towards Cusco. The _Audiencia_ now consisted of Dr. Melchor Bravo de Saravia, Hernando de Santillan, Diego Gonzalez Altamirano, and Martin Mercado. Altamirano was to remain in charge of the government at Lima, while the other judges marched with the army, preceded by their officer Pablo de Meneses with the royal standard. In July, 1554, the three judges, Saravia, Santillan, and Mercado reached Guamanga, and in August they entered Cusco, having met with no opposition. Giron had retreated to Pucara, near Lake Titicaca, a very strong position consisting of a lofty rock rising out of the plain. The royal army encamped in front of the rock, and the judges sent promises of pardon to all who would return to their allegiance. Giron hoped that the royal army would attack him, repeating the error at Chuquinga; but the judges had resolved to play a waiting game. A night attack led by Giron was repulsed. Then desertions began, Tomas Vasquez setting the example. The unfortunate rebel could trust no one. He feared treachery. He bade a heart-rending farewell to his noble-minded wife, Doña Mencia, leaving her to the care of the judge Saravia. He rode away in the dead of night, almost alone, and Pucara was surrendered. Meneses was sent in chase of Giron, who was captured near Xauxa. He was brought to Lima, Dec. 6, 1554, and beheaded. His head was put in an iron cage, and nailed up by the side of those of Gonzalo Pizarro and Carbajal. Ten years afterward a friend of his wife secretly took all three down, and they were buried in a convent. Doña Mencia, the widow of Giron, founded the first nunnery in Lima,—that of “La Encarnacion,”—and died there as abbess.

Thus the judges succeeded in putting down this formidable insurrection, and were able to hand over the country, in a state of outward tranquillity, to the great viceroy who now came out to establish order in Peru.

* * * * *

Don Andrea Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Cañete, was nominated by Charles V., at Brussels, to be viceroy of Peru for six years. He came out with the intention of checking with a firm hand the turbulence of the military adventurers who were swarming over the country. Writing to the emperor before he sailed, May 9, 1555, he said that there were eight thousand Spaniards in Peru, of whom four hundred and eighty-nine held _repartimientos_, and about one thousand were employed officially or otherwise. A large portion desired to live in idleness. He proposed to employ them on expeditions into unknown regions, and he submitted that no more Spaniards ought to be allowed to come to Peru without good cause assigned. In a letter to his daughter, the governess Juana, the emperor approved the policy sketched out by the new viceroy.

The Marquis of Cañete landed at Payta, and travelling by land, entered Lima on the 29th of June, 1556. He assumed office with unprecedented state and solemnity. He was fully resolved to put down sedition once and for all. He ordered that no Spaniard should leave his town without permission of the authorities, and for good cause. As regards the _Audiencia_, he reported to the emperor that the judges were hostile to each other, and that they lived in such discord that all peace was hopeless. He spoke favorably of two, and requested that the others might be recalled. He also reported that the _corregidors_ maintained quantities of idle soldiers waiting for opportunities of mischief. He estimated the number of the idlers at three thousand, and said that the peace of the country was endangered by the immorality, license, and excesses of these men. The viceroy kept all the artillery in the country under his own eye, ordering guns to be seized and brought to him wherever they could be found; and he formed a permanent guard of four hundred arquebusiers. He then sent for a number of settlers, of turbulent antecedents, who came to Lima joyfully, expecting that they were about to receive _repartimientos_. But he disarmed them, shipped them at Callao, and sent them out of the country. Among these banished men were included the most notorious disturbers of the peace in the late civil wars. Altogether thirty-seven were sent to Spain. Tomas Vasquez and Juan Piedrahita, the chief supporters of Giron, were beheaded, and the _corregidors_ were authorized to seize and execute any turbulent or dangerous persons within their jurisdictions. These were very strong measures, but they were necessary. The intolerable anarchy under which Peru had groaned for so many years was thus stamped out. Moderate _encomiendas_ were then granted to deserving officers.

While the turbulence and cruelty of the Spanish conquerors were checked with relentless severity, the policy of the Marquis of Cañete towards the people and their ancient rulers was liberal and conciliatory. In both courses of action there was wisdom. After the siege of Cusco, the Ynca Manco, with his family and chief nobles, had taken refuge in the mountain fastness of Vilcabamba, and there he met his death in 1553, after a disastrous reign of twenty years. He was succeeded by his son Sayri Tupac, who continued in his secluded hiding-place. The viceroy thought it important, for the tranquillity of the country and the peace of mind of the Indians, that the descendant of their ancient kings should be induced to reside among the Spaniards. The negotiation was intrusted to the Ynca’s aunt, a princess who had married a Spanish cavalier, and to Juan de Betanzos, an excellent Quichua scholar. It was settled that the Ynca should receive the _encomienda_ forfeited by Giron (the valley of Yucay near Cusco, where he was to reside), together with a large pension. All was finally arranged, and on the 6th of January, 1558, the Ynca entered Lima, and was most cordially received by the viceroy. From that time he resided in the valley of Yucay, surrounded by his family and courtiers, until his death in 1560.

Several of the Spanish conquerors had married Ynca ladies of the blood royal, and a number of half-caste youths were growing up in the principal cities of Peru, who formed links between the Yncas and their conquerors. There was a school at Cusco where they were educated, and the Ynca Garcilasso de la Vega records many anecdotes of his early days, and enumerates the names of most of his school-fellows. The Marquis of Cañete also founded schools at Lima and Truxillo, and took great pains to supply the Indians with parochial clergy of good conduct, who were strictly prohibited from trading. In 1558 the _curacas_, or native chiefs, who had proved their rights by descent before the _Audiencia_, were allowed to exercise jurisdiction as magistrates.

The Marquis of Cañete founded the towns of Cuenca in the province of Quito, of Santa on the coast to the north of Lima, and of Cañete in a rich and fertile valley to the south. He also established the hospital of San Andres at Lima, and built the first bridge over the Rimac. Very great activity was shown in the introduction of useful plants and domestic animals. Vines were sent out from Spain and the Canaries, and a harvest of grapes was reaped near Cusco in 1555. Wheat was first reaped in the valley of Cañete by a lady named Maria de Escobar, and olives were planted in 1560. Other fruit trees and garden vegetables soon followed.

The king, Philip II., determined to supersede this able viceroy in 1560, appointing a young nobleman named Diego Lopez de Zuñiga y Velasco, Conde de Nieva, in his place. But the Marquis of Cañete died at Lima before his successor arrived, on the 30th of March, 1561, having governed nearly five years. He was buried in the church of San Francisco, but his bones were afterwards taken to Spain and deposited with those of his ancestors at Cuenca. The Conde de Nieva entered Lima on the 27th of April,—a month after the death of the marquis. He was a handsome young cavalier, of loose morals, and fond of every sort of pleasure. There is very little doubt that he lost his life owing to a powerful husband’s jealousy. He was set upon in the street, after leaving the lady’s house, in the dead of night. He was found dead on the 20th of February, 1564, and the matter was hushed up to prevent scandal. The judges of the _Audiencia_ took charge of the government until the arrival of a successor.

* * * * *

During this period the Chilian colony was holding its own, with difficulty, against the indomitable Araucanian Indians. After the rout of Sacsahuana, the governor Valdivia took his leave of the president Gasca, and embarked at Arica on the 21st of January, 1549, with two hundred men. His lieutenant, Francisco de Villagra, had ruled at Santiago in his absence, vigilantly thwarting a plot of Alonzo de Hoz, whom he executed, and suppressing a revolt of the Indians of Coquimbo and Copiapo. He met Valdivia on his landing at Valparaiso and accompanied him to the capital. The first expedition of the governor, after his return, was undertaken with a view to establishing Spanish influence in the south of Chili. In January, 1550, with two hundred men, he crossed the Biobio, and intrenched himself in the valley of the Penco, where he founded the town of Concepcion, repulsing an attack from a large army of Indians with great slaughter. In the following year he founded the towns of Imperial and Valdivia still farther south.

[Fac-simile of a cut in Ovalle’s _Historica Relacion de Chile_, Rome, 1648.—ED.]]

The Araucanians now flew to arms in defence of their fatherland, at the call of their aged chief, Colo-colo. A younger but equally brave leader, named Caupolican, was elected _toqui_, or general, of the army; and they began operations by attempting to destroy a Spanish fort at Tucapel. Valdivia hurried from Concepcion, at the head of fifty cavalry, and attacked the Araucanian host. The governor had with him a young Indian lad of eighteen, named Lautaro, as groom. There was great slaughter among the Araucanians, and they were beginning to give way, when all the best feelings of Lautaro were aroused at the sight of his countrymen in peril. On the instant he felt the glow of ardent patriotism. He went over to the enemy, exhorted them to rally, and led them once more to the attack. The Spanish force was annihilated, and the governor was taken prisoner. Led before the _toqui_, young Lautaro interceded for his master, and the generous Caupolican listened favorably; but the savage chief Leucaton protested, and felled Valdivia by a deadly blow with a club on the back of the head. This disaster took place on the last day of December, 1553. Don Pedro de Valdivia was in his fifty-sixth year, and by his conquest and settlement of Chili he won a place in history side by side with Cortés and Pizarro. He was childless.

Francisco de Villagra succeeded his old chief as governor of Chili, and made preparations to repair the disaster. Lautaro became the second leader of his countrymen, under Caupolican. Their tactics were to allow the Spaniards to penetrate into their country as far as they pleased, but to cut off supplies, and harass their retreat. Thus Villagra easily marched from Arauco to Tucapel; but he was attacked by an immense army under Lautaro, which stopped his retreat, and he suffered such severe loss in the battle of Mariguanu that the town of Concepcion was abandoned in November, 1555. There was hard fighting again in 1556, in defence of the garrisons at Imperial and Valdivia. Early in the following year Lautaro was intrenched with an army on the banks of the Mataquito, when he was surprised at dawn by Villagra. He made a gallant defence, but was killed; and six hundred warriors fell with him. Thus died one of the noblest patriots of the American race.

In the same year the viceroy, Marquis of Cañete, appointed his son, Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, a youth barely twenty-two years of age, to be governor of Chili. His cavalry, under Luis de Toledo, marched by land over the desert of Atacama, while the young governor embarked at Callao, and sailed for Chili with three vessels conveying seven hundred infantry. Among the officers was Don Alonso de Ercilla, whose epic poem records the events of this famous war. Don Garcia landed at Coquimbo on the 25th of April, 1557, and the cavalry arrived on the following day. After having assumed the government at Santiago, and ungratefully dismissed Villagra, to secure the tranquillity of his own rule, he continued the interminable war. His first operation was to occupy the island of Quiriquina, off Talcahuano, and to build the fort of Pinto on the west side of the valley of the Penco. Here he was attacked by Caupolican with a great army. There were marvellous individual acts of bravery on both sides; Don Garcia himself was wounded, and two thousand Araucanians were slain. The governor then crossed the river Biobio and fought another great battle, Caupolican retreating with heavy loss. Don Garcia disgraced his victory by hanging twelve captive chiefs, including the heroic Galvarino.

[Fac-simile of a copperplate in Ovalle’s _Historica Relacion de Chile_, Rome, 1648.—ED.]]

Penetrating far to the south, the town of Osorno was founded beyond Valdivia, and the archipelago of Chiloe was discovered. During the governor’s absence in the far south, the _toqui_ Caupolican was betrayed into the hands of Alonso de Reinosa, the captain in command at Tucapel, who put him to a horrible death by impalement.

[After the sketch in Benzoni, edition of 1572, p. 168.—ED.]]

There was now a brief interval of peace. Don Garcia had brought with him to Chili the good licentiate Gonzalez Marmolejo, afterwards first bishop of Santiago, who prepared rules for the humane treatment of the peaceful natives. Only a sixth were allowed to be employed at the mines; no one was to work who was under eighteen or over fifty; no laborer was to be forced to work on feast days, and all were to be paid and supplied with food. On the 5th of February, 1561, Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza embarked at Valparaiso and left Chili, being succeeded by Francisco de Villagra, the old companion in arms of Valdivia. Villagra died in 1563, and was succeeded by Rodrigo de Quiroga. In 1563 the bishopric of Santiago was founded, and in 1565 the royal _Audiencia_ of Chili was instituted, with Dr. Melchor Bravo de Saravia as its first president. Its seat was fixed in the city of Concepcion.

* * * * *

We must now return to the course of events in Peru. The scandalous death of the viceroy Conde de Nieva seems to have induced the king to choose his successor from among men learned in the law rather than from the nobility, and to drop the title of viceroy. Lope Garcia de Castro had been a judge of the _Audiencia_ of Valladolid, and afterwards a member of the council of the Indies. He was appointed governor and captain-general of Peru, and president of the _Audiencia_ of Lima, where he made his public entry Sept. 22, 1564. To avoid scandal, the belief had been encouraged that the Conde de Nieva had been murdered in bed. But everybody knew that he had been struck to the ground by several stout negroes with bags full of sand; that the blows had been continued until life was extinct; and that after the murder people came out of the house of the Zarates, and carried the body to the palace. The culprit was Don Rodrigo Manrique de Lara, a powerful citizen of proud lineage, who had discovered love passages between his young wife and her near relative the viceroy. But the judges thought there would be grave scandal if the delinquent was brought to justice, and the new governor took the same view. The affair was hushed up.

Lope de Castro established a mint, imposed the _almojarifazgo_, or customs dues, and organized the work at the newly-discovered quicksilver mines of Huancavelica, and at the silver mines. In 1567 the Jesuits arrived in Peru, and in the same year the second council of Lima was convoked by Archbishop Loaysa, the governor assisting as representative of the king. The first council was in 1552. At the second the decisions of the council of Trent were accepted, and the parochial arrangements were made; while the governor proceeded with the work of fixing the divisions of land among the Indians, and marking out the country into _corregimientos_, or provinces, under _corregidors_. In 1567 Castro despatched an expedition from Callao, under the command of his nephew, Alvaro de Mendaña, who discovered the Solomon Islands. Lope Garcia de Castro governed Peru for five years, handing over his charge to his successor, in 1569, to return to Spain and resume his seat at the council board of the Indies.

Don Francisco de Toledo, second son of the third Count of Oropesa, was the king’s major-domo, and was advanced in years when he was selected to succeed the licentiate Lope de Castro. In his case the title of viceroy was revived, and was retained by his successors until the independence. Landing at Payta, the viceroy Toledo travelled along the coast, closely observing the condition both of Spaniards and Indians; and he then made up his mind to visit every province within his government. He made his public entrance into Lima on the 26th of November, 1569.

Toledo was assisted by statesmen of great ability and experience, who warmly sympathized with the aboriginal races, and were anxious for their welfare. Chief among his advisers was the licentiate Polo de Ondegardo, who had now been several years in Peru, had filled important administrative posts,—especially as _corregidor_ of Charcas and of Cusco,—and had studied the system of the government and civilization of the Yncas with minute attention, especially as regards the tenures of land, and always with a view to securing justice to the natives. The licentiate Juan Matienzo was another upright and learned minister who had studied the indigenous civilization and the requirements of colonial policy with great care; while in affairs relating to religion and the instruction of the people, the viceroy consulted the accomplished Jesuit author, José de Acosta.

But the conduct of Toledo with regard to the Ynca royal family was dictated by a narrow view of political expediency, and was alike unwise and iniquitous. He reversed the generous and enlightened policy of the Marquis of Cañete. After the death of Sayri Tupac, the Ynca court had again retired into the mountain fastnesses of Vilcabamba, where the late Ynca’s two brothers, Titu Cusi Yupanqui and Tupac Amaru, resided with many native chiefs and followers. When the new viceroy arrived at Cusco, in January, 1571, the Ynca Titu Cusi sent an embassy to him, and requested that ministers of religion might be sent to Vilcabamba. Accordingly, the friar Diego Ortiz arrived at the Ynca court; but almost immediately afterward Titu Cusi sickened and died, and the superstitious people, believing that it was the work of the friar, put him to death. The youthful Tupac Amaru was then proclaimed Ynca, as successor to his brother. This gave the viceroy the pretext he sought. He despatched a strong force into Vilcabamba, under the command of Martin Garcia Loyola, who was married to an Ynca princess, the daughter of Sayri Tupac. Loyola penetrated into Vilcabamba, and took young Tupac Amaru prisoner on the 4th of October, 1571. He was brought to Cusco and confined in a palace, under the shadow of the great fortress, which until now had belonged to the family of his uncle, the Ynca Paullu. But the viceroy had seized it as a strong position to be held by Spanish troops under his uncle Don Luis de Toledo. There was a trial for the murder of the friar; several chiefs were sentenced to be strangled, and Tupac Amaru, who was perfectly innocent and against whom there was no evidence, was to be beheaded.

The young sovereign was instructed for several days by two monks who were excellent Quichua scholars, and who spoke the language with grace and elegance. He was then taken to a scaffold, which had been erected in the great square. The open spaces and the hills above the town were covered with dense crowds of people. When the executioner produced his knife, there was such a shout of grief and horror that the Spaniards were amazed, and there were few of them with a dry eye. The boy was perfectly calm. He raised his right arm, and there was profound silence. He spoke a few simple words of resignation, and the scene was so heart-rending that the hardest of the conquerors lost self-control. Led by the bishop and the heads of the monasteries, they rushed to the house of the viceroy and threw themselves on their knees, praying for mercy and entreating him to send the Ynca to Spain to be judged by the king. Toledo was a laborious administrator, but his heart was harder than the nether millstone. He sent off the chief Alguazil, of Cusco, to cause the sentence to be executed without delay. The crime was perpetrated amid deafening shouts of grief and horror, while the great bell of the cathedral was tolled. The body was taken to the palace of the Ynca’s mother, and was afterward interred in the principal chapel of the cathedral, after a solemn service performed by the bishop and the chapter. Toledo caused the head to be cut off and stuck on a pike beside the scaffold; but such vast crowds came to worship before it every day, that it was taken down and interred with the body.

[Fac-simile of the engraving as given in Montanus and in Ogilby. Garcilasso de la Vega describes Cusco soon after the Conquest, and explains the distribution of buildings which was made among the conquerors. A plan of the ancient and modern city, showing the conquerors’ houses, is given in Markham’s _Royal Commentaries of De la Vega_, vol. ii., and in the _Journal of the Royal Geographical Society_, 1871, p. 281. A plan of the ancient and modern town, by E. G. Squier, is given in that author’s _Peru, Land of the Incas_ (New York), 1877, p. 428. The house of Pizarro is delineated in Charton’s _Voyageurs_, vol. iii. p. 367; and the remains of the palace of the first Inca, in Squier’s _Land of the Incas_, p. 451.

Cieza de Leon says: “Cusco was grand and stately; it must have been founded by a people of great intelligence.” (Markham’s edition. _Travels_, pp. 322, 327.)

Early plans or views of Cusco are given in Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 412 (see _ante_, p. 554); in Münster’s _Cosmographia_, 1572 and 1598; in Braun and Hogenberg’s _Civitates orbis terrarum_; in De Bry, part vi., and in Herrera (1728), vol. iii. p. 161. There is a large woodcut map of Cusco, in Ant. du Pinet’s _Plantz, Pourtraitz et Descriptions de plusieurs Villes_, etc., Lyons, 1564.

Vander Aa published a view at Leyden, and another is in Rycaut’s translation of Garcilasso de la Vega, p. 12. Accounts of the modern town are given by Markham, Squier, and others, and there is a view of it in _Tour du Monde_, 1863, p. 265.—ED.]]

The judicial murder of Tupac Amaru was part of a settled policy. Toledo intended to crush out all remains of reverence and loyalty for the ancient family among the people. He confiscated the property of the Yncas, deprived them of most of the privileges they had hitherto been allowed to retain, and even banished the numerous half-caste children of Spaniards by Ynca princesses.

At the same time he labored diligently to formulate and establish a colonial policy and system of government on the ruins of the civilization of the Yncas.

* * * * *

The instructions of the kings of Spain, through their council of the Indies, were remarkable for beneficence and liberality in all that concerned the natives. Strict orders were given for their instruction and kind treatment, and special officers were appointed for their protection. But at the same time there were incessant demands for increased supplies of treasure from the mines. It was like the orders of the directors of the East India Company to Warren Hastings,—justice to the natives, but more money. The two orders were incompatible. In spite of their beneficent rules and good intentions, the Spanish kings must share the guilt of their colonial officers, as regards the treatment of the natives. It is right, however, that the names of those conquerors should be recorded who displayed feelings of sympathy and kindness for their Indian vassals. Lorenzo de Aldana, who took a prominent and important part in the civil wars, died at Arequipa in 1556, and left all his property to the Indians whom he had received in _repartimiento_, for the payment of their tribute in future years. Marcio Sierra de Leguizamo described the happy condition of the people when the Spaniards arrived, and in his will expressed deep contrition at having taken part in their destruction. Garcilasso de la Vega was ever kind and considerate to his Indian vassals. Cieza de Leon in his writings[1481] shows the warmest sympathy for the Ynca people. There were, however, too many of the first conquerors of a different stamp.

* * * * *

The viceroy Toledo wisely based his legislation on the system of the Yncas. His elaborate code, called the _Libro de Tasas_, was the text-book for all future viceroys. He fixed the amount of tribute to be paid by the Indians, wholly exempting all males under the age of eighteen, and over that of fifty. He recognized the positions of hereditary nobles or _curacas_, assigning them magisterial functions, and the duty of collecting the tribute and paying it to the Spanish _corregidors_. He enacted that one seventh part of the population of every village should be subject to the _mita_, or forced labor in mines or factories; at the same time fixing the distance they might be taken from their homes, and the payment they were to receive. It was the abuse of the _mita_ system, and the habitual infraction of the rules established by Toledo, which caused all the subsequent misery and the depopulation of the country. Humane treatment of the people was incompatible with the annual despatch of vast treasure to Spain. Toledo also fixed the tenures of land, organized local government by _corregidors_, and specified the duties of all officials, in his voluminous code of ordinances.

In the days of this viceroy the Inquisition was introduced into Peru, but the natives were exempted from its penalties as catechumens. Heretical Europeans or Creoles were alone exposed to its terrible jurisdiction. The first _auto da fé_ took place at Lima on November 19, 1573, when a crazy old hermit, suspected of Lutheranism, was burned. Another was celebrated with great pomp on the 13th of April, 1578, the viceroy and judges of the _Audiencia_ being present in a covered stand on the great square of Lima. There were sixteen victims to suffer various punishments, but none were put to death.

During the government of Toledo, in 1579, Sir Francis Drake appeared on the coast of Peru,[1482] and in the following year the viceroy despatched an important surveying expedition to the Straits of Magellan under Sarmiento. After a long and eventful period of office, extending over upwards of twelve years, Don Francisco de Toledo returned to Spain. He was coldly received by Philip II., who said that he had not been sent to Peru to kill kings, and dismissed him. He was a hard-hearted man, but a conscientious and able administrator, and a devoted public servant.