History of the Conquest of Peru Part 31

The doom of the Inca was proclaimed by sound of trumqet in the great square of Caxamalca; and, two hours after sunset, the Spanish soldiery a.s.sembled by torch-light in the plaza to witness the execution of the sentence. It was on the twenty-ninth of August, 1533. Atahuallpa was led out chained hand and foot, - for he had been kept in irons ever since the great excitement had prevailed in the army respecting an a.s.sault. Father Vicente de Valverde was at his side, striving to administer consolation, and, if possible, to persuade him at this last hour to abjure his superst.i.tion and embrace the religion of his Conquerors. He was willing to save the soul of his victim from the terrible expiation in the next world, to which he had so cheerfully consigned his mortal part in this.

During Atahuallpa's confinement, the friar had repeatedly expounded to him the Christian doctrines, and the Indian monarch discovered much acuteness in apprehending the discourse of his teacher. But it had not carried conviction to his mind, and though he listened with patience, he had shown no disposition to renounce the faith of his fathers. The Dominican made a last appeal to him in this solemn hour; and, when Atahuallpa was bound to the stake, with the f.a.gots that were to kindle his funeral pile lying around him, Valverde, holding up the cross, besought him to embrace it and be baptized, promising that, by so doing, the painful death to which he had been sentenced should be commuted for the milder form of the garrote, - a mode of punishment by strangulation, used for criminals in Spain. *30

[Footnote 30: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p.

234. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms. - Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 400.

The garrote is a mode of execution by means of a noose drawn round the criminal's neck, to the back part of which a stick is attached. By twisting this stick, the noose is tightened and suffocation is produced. This was the mode, probably, of Atahuallpa execution. In Spain, instead of the cord, an iron collar is subst.i.tuted, which, by means of a screw is compressed round the throat of the sufferer.]

The unhappy monarch asked if this were really so, and, on its being confirmed by Pizarro, he consented to abjure his own religion, and receive baptism. The ceremony was performed by Father Valverde, and the new convert received the name of Juan de Atahuallpa, - the name of Juan being conferred in honor of John the Baptist, on whose day the event took place. *31

[Footnote 31: Velasco, Hist. de Quito, tom. I. p. 372.]

Atahuallpa expressed a desire that his remains might be transported to Quito, the place of his birth, to be preserved with those of his maternal ancestors. Then turning to Pizarro, as a last request, he implored him to take compa.s.sion on his young children, and receive them under his protection. Was there no other one in that dark company who stood grimly around him, to whom he could look for the protection of his offspring? Perhaps he thought there was no other so competent to afford it, and that the wishes so solemnly expressed in that hour might meet with respect even from his Conqueror. Then, recovering his stoical bearing, which for a moment had been shaken, he submitted himself calmly to his fate, - while the Spaniards, gathering around, muttered their credos for the salvation of his soul! *32 Thus by the death of a vile malefactor perished the last of the Incas!

[Footnote 32: "Ma quando se lo vidde appressare per douer esser morto, disse che raccomandaua al Gouernatore i suoi piccioli figliuoli che volesse tenersegli appresso, & con queste valme parole, & dicendo per l'anima sua li Soagnuoli che erano all intorno il Credo, fu subito affogato." Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap.

Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 399. Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 234. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms. - Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms. - Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib.

2, cap. 7.]

The death of Atahuallpa has many points of resemblance with that of Caupolican, the great Araucanian chief, as described in the historical epic of Ercilla. Both embraced the religion of their conquerors at the stake, though Caupolican was so far less fortunate than the Peruvian monarch, that his conversion did not save him from the tortures of a most agonizing death. He was impaled and shot with arrows. The spirited verses reflect so faithfully the character of these early adventurers, in which the fanaticism of the Crusader was mingled with the cruelty of the conqueror, and they are so germane to the present subject, that I would willingly quote the pa.s.sage were it not too long. See La Araucana, Parte 2, canto 24.]

I have already spoken of the person and the qualities of Atahuallpa. He had a handsome countenance, though with an expression somewhat too fierce to be pleasing. His frame was muscular and well-proportioned; his air commanding; and his deportment in the Spanish quarters had a degree of refinement, the more interesting that it was touched with melancholy. He is accused of having been cruel in his wars, and b.l.o.o.d.y in his revenge. *33 It may be true, but the pencil of an enemy would be likely to overcharge the shadows of the portrait. He is allowed to have been bold, high-minded, and liberal. *34 All agree that he showed singular penetration and quickness of perception. His exploits as a warrior had placed his valor beyond dispute. The best homage to it is the reluctance shown by the Spaniards to restore him to freedom. They dreaded him as an enemy, and they had done him too many wrongs to think that he could be their friend. Yet his conduct towards them from the first had been most friendly; and they repaid it with imprisonment, robbery, and death.

[Footnote 33: "Thus he paid the penalty of his errors and cruelties," says Xerez, "for he was the greatest butcher, as all agree, that the world ever saw; making nothing of razing a whole town to the ground for the most trifling offence, and ma.s.sacring a thousand persons for the fault of one!" (Conq. del Peru, ap.

Barcia, tom. III. p. 234.) Xerez was the private secretary of Pizarro. Sancho, who, on the departure of Xerez for Spain, succeeded him in the same office, pays a more decent tribute to the memory of the Inca, who, he trusts, "is received into glory, since he died penitent for his sins, and in the true faith of a Christian." Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 399.]

[Footnote 34: "El hera muy regalado, y muy Senor," says Pedro Pizarro. (Descub. y Conq., Ms.) "Mui dispuesto, sabio, animoso, franco," says Gomara. (Hist. de las Ind., cap. 118.)]

The body of the Inca remained on the place of execution through the night. The following morning it was removed to the church of San Francisco, where his funeral obsequies were performed with great solemnity. Pizarro and the princ.i.p.al cavaliers went into mourning, and the troops listened with devout attention to the service of the dead from the lips of Father Valverde. *35 The ceremony was interrupted by the sound of loud cries and wailing, as of many voices at the doors of the church. These were suddenly thrown open, and a number of Indian women, the wives and sisters of the deceased, rushing up the great aisle, surrounded the corpse. This was not the way, they cried, to celebrate the funeral rites of an Inca; and they declared their intention to sacrifice themselves on his tomb, and bear him company to the land of spirits. The audience, outraged by this frantic behaviour, told the intruders that Atahuallpa had died in the faith of a Christian, and that the G.o.d of the Christians abhorred such sacrifices. They then caused the women to be excluded from the church, and several, retiring to their own quarters, laid violent hands on themselves, in the vain hope of accompanying their beloved lord to the bright mansions of the Sun. *36

[Footnote 35: The secretary Sancho seems to think that the Peruvians must have regarded these funeral honors as an ample compensation to Atahuallpa for any wrongs he may have sustained, since they at once raised him to a level with the Spaniards!

Ibid., loc. cit.]

[Footnote 36: Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.

See Appendix, No. 10, where I have cited in the original several of the contemporary notices of Atahuallpa's execution, which being in ma.n.u.script are not very accessible, even to Spaniards.]

Atahuallpa's remains, notwithstanding his request, were laid in the cemetery of San Francisco. *37 But from thence, as is reported, after the Spaniards left Caxamalca, they were secretly removed, and carried, as he had desired, to Quito. The colonists of a later time supposed that some treasures might have been buried with the body. But, on excavating the ground, neither treasure nor remains were to be discovered. *38

[Footnote 37: "Oi dicen los indios que esta su sepulcro junto a una Cruz de Piedra Blanca que esta en el Cementerio del Convento de Sn Francisco." Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1533.]

[Footnote 38: Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 22.

According to Stevenson, "In the chapel belonging to the common gaol, which was formerly part of the palace, the altar stands on the stone on which Atahuallpa was placed by the Spaniards and strangled, and under which he was buried." (Residence in South America, vol. II. p. 163.) Montesinos, who wrote more than a century after the Conquest, tells us that "spots of blood were still visible on a broad flagstone, in the prison of Caxamalca, on which Atahuallpa was beheaded." (Annales, Ms., ano 1533.) - Ignorance and credulity could scarcely go farther.]

A day or two after these tragic events, Hernando de Soto returned from his excursion. Great was his astonishment and indignation at learning what had been done in his absence. He sought out Pizarro at once, and found him, says the chronicler, "with a great felt hat, by way of mourning, slouched over his eyes," and in his dress and demeanour exhibiting all the show of sorrow. *39 "You have acted rashly," said De Soto to him bluntly; "Atahuallpa has been basely slandered. There was no enemy as Guamachucho; no rising among the natives. I have met with nothing on the road but demonstrations of good-will, and all is quiet. If it was necessary to bring the Inca to trial, he should have been taken to Castile and judged by the Emperor. I would have pledged myself to see him safe on board the vessel." *40 Pizarro confessed that he had been precipitate, and said that he had been deceived by Riquelme, Valverde, and the others. These charges soon reached the ears of the treasurer and the Dominican, who, in their turn, exculpated themselves, and upbraided Pizarro to his face, as the only one responsible for the deed. The dispute ran high; and the parties were heard by the by-standers to give one another the lie! *41 This vulgar squabble among the leaders, so soon after the event, is the best commentary on the iniquity of their own proceedings and the innocence of the Inca.

[Footnote 39: "Hallaronle monstrando mucho centimiento con un gran sombrero de fieltro puesto en la cabeza por luto e muy calado sobre los ojos." Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 22.]

[Footnote 40: Ibid., Ms., ubi supra. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - See Appendix, no. 10.]

[Footnote 41: This remarkable account is given by Oviedo, not in the body of his narrative, but in one of those supplementary chapters, which he makes the vehicle of the most miscellaneous, yet oftentimes important gossip, respecting the great transactions of his history. As he knew familiarly the leaders in these transactions, the testimony which he collected, somewhat at random, is of high authority. The reader will find Oviedo's account of the Inca's death extracted, in the original, among the other notices of this catastrophe in Appendix, No. 10]

The treatment of Atahuallpa, from first to last, forms undoubtedly one of the darkest chapters in Spanish colonial history. There may have been ma.s.sacres perpetrated on a more extended scale, and executions accompanied with a greater refinement of cruelty. But the blood-stained annals of the Conquest afford no such example of cold-hearted and systematic persecution, not of an enemy, but of one whose whole deportment had been that of a friend and a benefactor.

From the hour that Pizarro and his followers had entered within the sphere of Atahuallpa's influence, the hand of friendship had been extended to them by the natives. Their first act, on crossing the mountains, was to kidnap the monarch and ma.s.sacre his people. The seizure of his person might be vindicated, by those who considered the end as justifying the means, on the ground that it was indispensable to secure the triumphs of the Cross. But no such apology can be urged for the ma.s.sacre of the unarmed and helpless population, - as wanton as it was wicked.

The long confinement of the Inca had been used by the Conquerors to wring from him his treasures with the hard gripe of avarice.

During the whole of this dismal period, he had conducted himself with singular generosity and good faith. He had opened a free pa.s.sage to the Spaniards through every part of his empire; and had furnished every facility for the execution of their plans.

When these were accomplished, and he remained an enc.u.mbrance on their hands, notwithstanding their engagement, expressed or implied, to release him, - and Pizarro, as we have seen, by a formal act acquitted his captive of any further obligation on the score of the ransom, - he was arraigned before a mock tribunal, and, under pretences equally false and frivolous, was condemned to an excruciating death. From first to last, the policy of the Spanish conquerors towards their unhappy victim is stamped with barbarity and fraud.

It is not easy to acquit Pizarro of being in a great degree responsible for this policy. His partisans have labored to show, that it was forced on him by the necessity of the case, and that in the death of the Inca, especially, he yielded reluctantly to the importunities of others. *42 But weak as is this apology, the historian who has the means of comparing the various testimony of the period will come to a different conclusion. To him it will appear, that Pizarro had probably long felt the removal of Atahuallpa as essential to the success of his enterprise. He foresaw the odium that would be incurred by the death of his royal captive without sufficient grounds; while he labored to establish these, he still shrunk from the responsibility of the deed, and preferred to perpetrate it in obedience to the suggestions of others, rather than his own. Like many an unprincipled politician, he wished to reap the benefit of a bad act, and let others take the blame of it.

[Footnote 42: "Contra su voluntad sentencio a muerte a Atabalipa." (Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.) "Contra voluntad del dicho Gobernador." (Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.) "Ancora che molto li dispiacesse di venir a questo atto."

(Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 399.) Even Oviedo seems willing to admit it possible that Pizarro may have been somewhat deceived by others. "Que tambien se puede creer que era enganado." Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 22.]

Almagro and his followers are reported by Pizarro's secretaries to have first insisted on the Inca's death. They were loudly supported by the treasurer and the royal officers, who considered it as indispensable to the interests of the Crown; and, finally, the rumors of a conspiracy raised the same cry among the soldiers, and Pizarro, with all his tenderness for his prisoner, could not refuse to bring him to trial. - The form of a trial was necessary to give an appearance of fairness to the proceedings.

That it was only form is evident from the indecent haste with which it was conducted, - the examination of evidence, the sentence, and the execution, being all on the same day. The multiplication of the charges, designed to place the guilt of the accused on the strongest ground, had, from their very number, the opposite effect, proving only the determination to convict him.

If Pizarro had felt the reluctance to his conviction which he pretended, why did he send De Soto, Atahuallpa's best friend, away, when the inquiry was to be inst.i.tuted? Why was the sentence so summarily executed, as not to afford opportunity, by that cavalier's return, of disproving the truth of the princ.i.p.al charge, - the only one, in fact, with which the Spaniards had any concern? The solemn farce of mourning and deep sorrow affected by Pizarro, who by these honors to the dead would intimate the sincere regard he had entertained for the living, was too thin a veil to impose on the most credulous.

It is not intended by these reflections to exculpate the rest of the army, and especially its officers, from their share in the infamy of the transaction. But Pizarro, as commander of the army, was mainly responsible for its measures. For he was not a man to allow his own authority to be wrested from his grasp, or to yield timidly to the impulses of others. He did not even yield to his own. His whole career shows him, whether for good or for evil, to have acted with a cool and calculating policy.

A story has been often repeated, which refers the motives of Pizarro's conduct, in some degree at least, to personal resentment. The Inca had requested one of the Spanish soldiers to write the name of G.o.d on his nail. This the monarch showed to several of his guards successively, and, as they read it, and each p.r.o.nounced the same word, the sagacious mind of the barbarian was delighted with what seemed to him little short of a miracle, - to which the science of his own nation afforded no a.n.a.logy. On showing the writing to Pizarro, that chief remained silent; and the Inca, finding he could not read, conceived a contempt for the commander who was even less informed than his soldiers. This he did not wholly conceal, and Pizarro, aware of the cause of it, neither forgot nor forgave it. *43 The anecdote is reported not on the highest authority. It may be true; but it is unnecessary to look for the motives of Pizarro's conduct in personal pique, when so many proofs are to be discerned of a dark and deliberate policy.

[Footnote 43: The story is to be found in Garcila.s.so de la Vega, (Com. Real., Parte 2, cap. 38,) and in no other writer of the period, so far as I am aware.]

Yet the arts of the Spanish chieftain failed to reconcile his countrymen to the atrocity of his proceedings. It is singular to observe the difference between the tone a.s.sumed by the first chroniclers of the transaction, while it was yet fresh, and that of those who wrote when the lapse of a few years had shown the tendency of public opinion. The first boldly avow the deed as demanded by expediency, if not necessity; while they deal in no measured terms of reproach with the character of their unfortunate victim. *44 The latter, on the other hand, while they extenuate the errors of the Inca, and do justice to his good faith, are unreserved in their condemnation of the Conquerors, on whose conduct, they say, Heaven set the seal of its own reprobation, by bringing them all to an untimely and miserable end. *45 The sentence of contemporaries has been fully ratified by that of posterity; *46 and the persecution of Atahuallpa is regarded with justice as having left a stain, never to be effaced, on the Spanish arms in the New World.

[Footnote 44: I have already noticed the lavish epithets heaped by Xerez on the Inca's cruelty. This account was printed in Spain, in 1534, the year after the execution. "The proud tyrant," says the other secretary, Sancho, "would have repaid the kindness and good treatment he had received from the governor and every one of us with the same coin with which he usually paid his own followers, without any fault on their part, - by putting them to death." (Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 399.) "He deserved to die," says the old Spanish Conqueror before quoted, "and all the country was rejoiced that he was put out of the way." Rel. d'un Capitano Spagn., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol.

377.]

[Footnote 45: "Las demostraciones que despues se vieron bien manifiestan lo mui injusta que fue, . . . . puesto que todos quantos entendieron en ella tuvieron despues mui desastradas muertes." (Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms.) Gomara uses nearly the same language. "No ai que reprehender a los que le mataron, pues el tiempo, i sus pecados los castigaron despues; ca todos ellos acabaron mal." (Hist. de las Ind., cap. 118.) According to the former writer, Felipillo paid the forfeit of his crimes sometime afterwards, - being hanged by Almagro on the expedition to Chili, - when, as "some say, he confessed having perverted testimony given in favor of Atahuallpa's innocence, directly against that monarch." Oviedo, usually ready enough to excuse the excesses of his countrymen, is unqualified in his condemnation of this whole proceeding, (see Appendix, No. 10,) which, says another contemporary, "fills every one with pity who has a spark of humanity in his bosom." Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.]

[Footnote 46: The most eminent example of this is given by Quintana in his memoir of Pizarro, (Espanoles Celebres, tom.

II.,) throughout which the writer, rising above the mists of national prejudice, which too often blind the eyes of his countrymen, holds the scale of historic criticism with an impartial hand, and deals a full measure of reprobation to the actors in these dismal scenes.]

Chapter VIII

Disorders In Peru. - March To Cuzco. - Encounter With The Natives. - Challcuchima Burnt. - Arrival In Cuzco. - Description Of The City. - Treasure Found There.

1533-1534.

The Inca of Peru was its sovereign in a peculiar sense. He received an obedience from his va.s.sals more implicit than that of any despot; for his authority reached to the most secret conduct, - to the thoughts of the individual. He was reverenced as more than human. *1 He was not merely the head of the state, but the point to which all its inst.i.tutions converged, as to a common centre, - the keystone of the political fabric, which must fall to pieces by its own weight when that was withdrawn. So it fared on the death of Atahuallpa. *2 His death not only left the throne vacant, without any certain successor, but the manner of it announced to the Peruvian people that a hand stronger than that of their Incas had now seized the sceptre, and that the dynasty of the Children of the Sun had pa.s.sed away for ever.

[Footnote 1: "Such was the awe in which the Inca was held," says Pizarro, "that it was only necessary for him to intimate his commands to that effect, and a Peruvian would at once jump down a precipice, hang himself, or put an end to his life in any way that was prescribed." Descub. y Conq., Ms.]

[Footnote 2: Oviedo tells us, that the Inca's right name was Atabaliva, and that the Spaniards usually misspelt it, because they thought much more of getting treasure for themselves, than they did of the name of the person who owned it. (Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 16.) Nevertheless, I have preferred the authority of Garcila.s.so, who, a Peruvian himself, and a near kinsman of the Inca, must be supposed to have been well informed. His countrymen, he says, pretended that the c.o.c.ks imported into Peru by the Spaniards, when they crowed, uttered the name of Atahuallpa; "and I and the other Indian boys," adds the historian, "when we were at school, used to mimic them." Com.

Real., Parte 1, lib. 9, cap. 23.]

The natural consequences of such a conviction followed. The beautiful order of the ancient inst.i.tutions was broken up, as the authority which controlled it was withdrawn. The Indians broke out into greater excesses from the uncommon restraint to which they had been before subjected. Villages were burnt, temples and palaces were plundered, and the gold they contained was scattered or secreted. Gold and silver acquired an importance in the eyes of the Peruvian, when he saw the importance attached to them by his conquerors. The precious metals, which before served only for purposes of state or religious decoration, were now h.o.a.rded up and buried in caves and forests. The gold and silver concealed by the natives were affirmed greatly to exceed in quant.i.ty that which fell into the hands of the Spaniards. *3 The remote provinces now shook off their allegiance to the Incas.