 Section 1 of the South American Republics, Volume 2, by Thomas Clelland Dawson. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recorded by Piotr Natter. The South American Republics, Volume 2, by Thomas Clelland Dawson. Part 1, Peru. Chapter 1, The Inca Empire. For many centuries before the Spanish conquest and before the rise of the Incas, a succession of great empires existed in Peru. Ruined edifices of unknown date proved that at some remote period advanced civilizations and powerful nations were developed in the coast valleys and on the Andean Plateau. In the tombs which vastly antedate even these megalithic palaces and fortresses, cotton twine, woven cloth, and cobs of maize have been found. The domestication and breeding to perfection of the liama as a beast of burden, and the alpaca as a fleece bearer, the development of potatoes, maize, and the quinoa grain must have consumed untold cycles of time. There is no doubt of the remote antiquity of the civilization of the Indians who inhabit the Andean Plateau south of the equator, nor that their culture was wholly self-developed, owing nothing to outside influences. About the year 1000, the Incas were merely one of several tribes living on the high, beautiful, and fertile plateau of Cusco, which lies on the eastern edge of the gigantic uplift of the Andes. Down the precipitous gorges into the steaming and impenetrable forests of the Amazon plain, the civilized Indians never cared to go. The maize, quinoa, and potatoes upon which they depended for food could not flourish in the intense heat and heavy rainfall of those regions. Neither themselves nor the liamas and alpacas could thrive in the montaña or forested plains. Their natural habitat was the rough plateau, broken by numerous valleys, which lies between the eastern and the central cordilleras, and extends from the Vircaniota Nudo, shutting enough from the Titicacabezan, to the transverse range of the Cerro de Pasco in the north. The ocean lies 250 miles southwest, beyond the central and maritime cordilleras, and the bleak plateau, which lies between them. This great central section, on whose eastern edge, near its southern border, we first find the Incas, is the heart of Peru. Although the climate of a few of its gorges is almost tropical, the valleys have the temperature of Italy or Spain. Higher up, the crops of northern Europe flourish. Then are pasture lands, and above all bleak wilds and peaks covered with perpetual snow. At the dawn of authentic Peruvian history, this favored region was thickly inhabited by many independent tribes, probably all speaking dialects of the same language, and certainly very similar in their industrial life and social customs. Tradition recounts that the Incas had migrated to Cusco from unknown ancestral seats, by some conjectured to have been the shores of the prehistoric freshwater sea of the Amazon plain, under the leadership of Manco Capac, the first of an unbroken line of sovereigns who claimed descent from the sun god, and ruled the Incas until the Spanish conquest. The Incas developed a religion whose elaborate and rigid ritual, which regulated every act of their lives, finds its best parallel among the Hebrews. Each family had its household god. Each sect worshipped an imaginary ancestor. The whole nation adored the sun as the progenitor of the reigning family, and the monarch's person was revered as divine. So profound was the religious feeling of these people that they finally rose to the conception of a supreme deity, a creator of the universe. His temple filled one side of the Great Square at Cusco. Even more remarkable than their religious system was the social and industrial organization of the Incas. Private property in land did not exist. It belonged to the septs, and was from time to time allotted to the heads of families. Every person was obliged to work, all males being divided into classes according to age and strength, and suitable labor assigned to each. The produce, whether crops or livestock, was divided between the government, the priesthood, and the communes. Scarcity in one section was made up from the plenty in others. Public officers annually revised the allotments, and turns at the irrigation works were taken in accordance with fixed rules. Not a spot of cultivable land was left unused. Habitations were built on rocky hills. Deserts or the sites of barren cliffs were used for cemeteries. Whole mountain sites were terraced up thousands of feet, and land was literally created by years of patient labor employed in bringing earth in baskets and lying it on the bare rocks. By no people has irrigation been more extensively and successfully applied. And in spite of their ignorance of iron and steam, of labor-saving appliances and instruments of precision, the Incas constructed a system which in real effectiveness has never been surpassed. Many of their canals, reservoirs, and terraces were allowed to crumble by the Spanish conquerors, but modern Peru still lives upon the half-ruined fragments of the mighty works of the Incas. Secured from want by this intelligent socialism, their lives and rights safe under laws administered with inflexible severity, bound closely by family and governmental ties, trained from childhood in industry and obedience, the Incas seemed destined to dominate and absorb the more loosely organized tribes with whom they came in contact, provided that they did not become inert, stationary and unwarlike and ceased to produce individuals possessing initiative. The dynamic elements indispensable to expansion were furnished by the ruling clan and by fanaticism. The offspring of Manco Capac partook of his divinity, and each emperor left numerous sons whose descendants constituted a privileged class. In the process of time, their gathered around the emperor thousands of men of his own kindred devoted from their birth to warfare and statecraft. Under the fourth emperor, the Incas were successful in a life-and-death struggle against a tribe with whom they had hitherto shared the valley that surrounded Cusco. Under the two succeeding emperors, they extended their dominions south to the transverse range of the mountains, which separates the Peruvian from the Titicacan Plateau. Yawar Huacac, the seventh sovereign, conquered the tribes of the Eastern Slopes, and by the beginning of the 14th century, the Inca domain included the southern third of the Great Valley of Peru, an area of 15,000 square miles containing probably two million of people. Uyracocha, the eighth emperor, began that wonderful series of conquests which within a century and a half extended over half of South America. On the other side of the Vilcaniota Nudo lay the vast basin which takes its name from Lake Titicaca. Too high and too cold for serials, the Plateau was inhabited by tribes of shepherds, who made no prolonged resistance when attacked by the armies of the Inca. Their rapid and complete incorporation into the Inca system followed. Colonies swarmed from the overpopulated provinces of the old Peru into the newly acquired territories. The Titicacan copper mines furnished the material for weapons and tools, and a great commerce in exchanging the wool, potatoes and livestock of the higher regions for the maize and cotton of the lower added to the prosperity of the whole empire. This conquest doubled the extent of the Inca domain and opened up a vast field for colonizing expansion within their own territory. Once achieved, the nation turned its attention to the conquest of the north. Beyond the gorge of the Apurimac, the Inca boundary in that direction, lay the rival nation of the Ciancas, a vigorous and expanding people who were at the head of a great confederation of tribes, which covered the northern two-thirds of the central Plateau of Peru and probably also included the Quechua-speaking tribes of the coast. The Canchas defeated Urco, Uiracocha's oldest son and successor, and their army advanced towards Cusco, subjugating the northern allies of the Incas. The victors came within sight of the capital, where meanwhile the energetic Upanqui, Urco's younger brother, had gathered the whole force of the empire. The battle which decided the fate of Peru was fought on the heights above Cusco, the Canchas were defeated and fell back only to be pursued and overwhelmed by Upanqui. He returned in triumph and was installed as emperor in place of his incompetent brother, assuming the title of Pachacutec, or reformer of the world. The Incas pressed their advantage relentlessly, all the tribes of the Canca confederacy were subjected, and Pachacutec's generals even extended their conquests north of Cerro de Pasco. The Incas had now conquered a practicable route to the Pacific, and the coast tribes about Lima soon also fell under their control. Pachacutec built a great military road from Cusco north along the fertile plateau, through the smiling valley of Hawcha, and down the short descent to the neighborhood of Lima. Colonies were established at strategic points, and the new territory became so rapidly welded to the Inca system, that when the Spaniards arrived 150 years later, they found the whole of central and southern Peru occupied by homogenous people perfectly loyal to the Inca dynasty. Pachacutec's successor, Tupac Upanqui, proved even more successful than his father. The 500 miles of rainless coast from Lima to the Ecuador border was inhabited by a mysterious race, in civilization and origin entirely distinct from the Quechua-speaking mountain tribes to which the Incas belonged. Short rivers rushing down from the Andes each irrigated a portion of the desert, which only requires water to become extremely fertile. The irrigation works of these people were on a gigantic scale, one of their reservoirs having its lower end guarded by a dumb 80 feet thick at the base. The valleys were cultivated to the highest degree of perfection, and filled with a swarming and industrious population housed in cities whose ruins still survive to attest the skill of their builders. Enervated by centuries of peace, the inhabitants had long confined their warlike operations to building defensive fortresses. Nevertheless, when Tupac advanced up the coast, he met a desperate and prolonged resistance until one after another the fortresses fell. The capital of the Confederacy was laid in ruins, and great numbers of the people were transported to distant provinces. Garrisons and Inca colonies were established, and a military road was constructed along the coast. However, the country was really held only by force, and even in Spanish times Quechua had not displaced the Mochica Tongue and halved the northern coast valleys. Tupac next turned his attention to enlarging the southern limits of his empire. From Titicaca his armies advanced over hundreds of miles of bleak plateaus and barren deserts and down the steep Andean slopes into the fertile valleys of central Chile. His conquest extended as far south as the River Maula, 300 miles beyond Santiago, but the tribes retained their autonomy and became rather allies than subjects. On the eastern side of the Andes, he obtained the allegiance of the peoples living in the mountain valleys of northwestern Argentina, and he completed the incorporation of the vast and fertile plateau which extends from the Titicacan Basin to the present Argentine border. Returning to the northern frontier, he reduced the peoples who lived in the confused tangle of mountains and gorges which lies between the two Cordilleras north of Cerro de Pasco, thus extending his boundaries nearly to the present Ecuador line. The rest of northern Peru and all of southern Ecuador belonged to the tribes who were loosely attached members of the Confederacy headed by the Caras of Quito. They opposed only a short resistance to the arms and diplomacy of Tupac, and he made their territory the base for the Great War which he proposed to undertake against the ancient kingdom of Quito. About the year 1455 he advanced with a great army, largely recruited from the tribes, recently rested from the Quito monarch, and defeated the Caras in a great battle. The whole plateau as far north as Riobamba submitted, reducing the Shiri's domain to the neighborhood of Quito itself and a small region north of that city. However, all of Tupac's efforts to force the last barrier which interposed between him and the Cara capital failed, and he was compelled to content himself with extending his conquests on the coast as far as the Gulf of Guayaquil. In 1460 he returned to Cusco, where three years later he was enraged to hear that the Shiri was making a desperate and partly successful effort to recover the lost provinces. Tupac's preparations for a final campaign to wipe the Quito kingdom out of existence were interrupted by his own death. Huayna Capac succeeded to the throne and continued his father's preparations. Bad news, however, from the far southern provinces compelled him first to undertake a campaign into Chile, in which he was victorious. He then proceeded north and devoted the rest of his life to conquering and incorporating the Cara Empire. He first constructed a military road from the northern Peruvian coast to the Plateau in southern Ecuador. Then he exterminated or reduced to obedience the tribes on the Gulf of Guayaquil and the coast beyond, nearly as far as the equator. Returning south he defeated the wild savages of the regions where the Amazon leaves the mountains. Having thus secured himself against an interruption of his line of communications, he advanced against Quito in overwhelming force. The Caras and their allies among the brave tribes of northern Ecuador made a desperate resistance, but were overthrown in battle after battle and Huayna Capac entered Quito in triumph. All the tribes of the Confederacy submitted except the Caranches, a warlike people who lived north of Quito. These achieved some minor successes, but were finally overwhelmed and exterminated. The Inca Empire, now at its greatest extent, included all the inhabitable portions of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, three-fourths of Chile and a large part of the Argentine, stretching 2,200 miles north and south and from the Pacific to the eastern foot of the Andes. Except for the Plateaus of Columbia, practically the whole Andean region had been united under one government. The rest of South America was occupied by savage peoples, divided into small bands who picked up a precarious existence along the streams and the Inca Empire was safe from any serious attack on its continental boundaries. But the later conquests of Tupac and Huayna Capac had incorporated peoples in civilization and war-likeness hardly inferior to the Incas themselves. Indeed, in the light of subsequent events, it is clear that the later campaigns weakened the real military power and homogeneity of the Empire, while the older parts, Southern Peru and Bolivia, the heart of the Inca domain, formed a homogeneous and thoroughly loyal center, whose inhabitants all spoke the same language and were socialism and the worship of the sun according to the Inca rights prevailed. From the latitude of Lima north, the country had been too recently subdued to be counted upon. The northern coast still required to be kept down by permanent garrisons. The mountain tribes of northern Peru retained a certain measure of autonomy, and the vast territories where the Shiri of Quito had held sway for so many centuries were very loosely attached. Tupac, the first conqueror, founded advisable to remain there almost continuously during the last half of his reign, and Huayna Capac, his heir, was born in Ecuador and devoted his whole life to that region. He married the daughter and heiress of the defeated Shiri and was regarded rather as the legitimate successor of the ancient dynasty than as an alien conqueror. In 1525 Huayna Capac died at Quito, leaving a will by which he bequeathed the northern kingdom to Atahualpa, a son born to him by the Shiri's daughter. Peru, with the southern provinces, fell to Huascar, his son by a princess of Inca blood. As the eldest and the legitimate heir, according to the rules of succession which governed in the Inca dynasty, the latter was to be paramount, thus retaining a semblance of unity. Huascar and the Inca nobles who surrounded him at the old Peruvian capital were unwilling to acquiesce in this virtual division of the empire. The chief of the Canaris, a tribe always hostile to Quito, sent a messenger to Cusco, offering to swear allegiance to Huascar. As soon as Atahualpa heard of this derogation of his authority, he ordered an army to march and unseat the Recalcitrant Prince and dispatched an ambassador to his brother with a conciliatory message, at the same time unequivocally asserting his claim to the lordship of all the ancient domain of the Shiri's. Huascar insisted that southern Ecuador, a region which had been rested from the Caras by their grandfather and whose tribes had only been allies of Quito, should not be included. His bitter feeling against his brother was increased by the reports that Atahualpa had assumed in Carial Insignia, which only a legitimate emperor was entitled to use. He returned a harsh answer, demanding immediate and unconditional obedience. Seeing nothing was to be hoped for from Huascar, Atahualpa began gathering the forces of the Quito kingdom. Huascar was delayed by insurrections which broke out among the tribes of northern Peru and at first could only send a few troops to the assistance of the Canaris. The latter managed to hold Atahualpa's generals in check until Huascar's main army advanced. Atahualpa retired slowly up the plateau to within 50 miles of his capital pursued by the Inca army. It seemed certain that he would quickly be defeated and either slain or brought to his brother's feet to receive a rebel's sentence. But against this invasion, inspired by the ruling oligarchy of Cusco, the warlike people of northern Ecuador stood nobly by the grandson of the last of their ancient line of monarchs. Though the Southerners were victorious in the first encounter, Atahualpa in person rallied his army and drew it up in an advantageous position at Naxiche. The Incas attacked confidently, but this time they were hopelessly routed and the chief generals slain with thousands of the common soldiery. The remnant fled in disorder to the territory of the Canaris. Atahualpa could not immediately follow up his advantage and by the time he had organized his forces for an offensive campaign, Huascar had sent another great army to the rescue under the command of his younger brother, Wanka Auki. When Atahualpa crossed the transverse barrier of Athwai and descended into the fertile plateau north of Cuenca, a terrific battle ensued which lasted two days. Both sides suffered severely, but the final advantage lie with the northerners and Wanka Auki suddenly retreated, abandoning Ecuador to Atahualpa. A fearful vengeance was taken on the Canaris while the other tribes joined the victor. Next year Atahualpa sent a great force under the command of Kiskes, the ablest Indian general of the time, into northern Peru. Wanka Auki was again defeated and abandoned the disputed territory while Atahualpa's troops poured into northern coast provinces. Having met with no serious resistance there, they ascended the Cordillera to the neighborhood of Cajamarca where they met the reinforced Inca army. Again they were victorious and Huascar's forces retreated south of the Cerro de Pasco followed by Kiskes whose army grew like a rolling snowball by enlistments among the warlike and half-independent tribes of northern Peru. Huascar's resources were, however, by no means exhausted by the crushing defeats he had suffered during the last four years. The great plateaus of Peru and Bolivia, the most populous and richest portions of the empire, remained faithful. The ruling classes regarded Atahualpa's revolt not only as an empire's rebellion against the legitimate emperor, but as a menace to their own continued supremacy in the state. Tens of thousands poured up from the southern provinces to reinforce the army which lay in the valleys south of the Cerro de Pasco in daily expectation of attack. But Tupac's and Huayna Capac's conquests had created a Frankenstein monster. When the rudder nations of the north were first attacked by the Inca armies, they did not know how to organize and were easily reduced in detail. Three quarters of a century of Inca rule had taught them what they lacked without destroying the spirit of individual initiative, nourished by local autonomy. The older parts of the empire had been frozen by rigid socialism and ritual, and the people's energies sapped by long centuries of tutelage. The northern tribes who followed Atahualpa's banner were superior in military prowess to the Incas who fought for Huascar, uniformly beating the latter with numbers constantly inferior. The balance of power had passed from Cusco and the center to Quito and the north. Kisky's forces finally crossed the Cerro de Pasco and poured down into the beautiful and populous valley of Jauja. Again they were victorious, and the Incas fled along the road leading towards Cusco. Huascar and his partisans determined to make their last stand at the capital itself. Reinforcements were harried up not only from Bolivia, but from Chile and the Argentine, and an army which was said to have numbered 70,000, the largest ever seen in South America, assembled at Cusco. Meanwhile Kisky's was relentlessly advancing along the plateau and his main body reached the neighborhood of the city intact. After some maneuvers for position in which the able and experienced northern generals obtained a decisive advantage, Huascar's camp was surprised at early dawn. His soldiers could not form and a frightful carnage ensued in the midst of which he himself was made prisoner. As soon as the capture became known, his followers fled in all directions. Kisky's advanced his camp to the heights overlooking the capital. All idea of further resistance was abandoned, the city submitted, and the principal partisans of Huascar perished in a cruel massacre. End of section one. Section two of the South American Republics, volume two, by Thomas Clelland Dawson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Piatnate. Part one, Peru, chapter two, the Spanish conquest. During the long campaigns by which his general Keith Keith had conquered Peru, Atahualpa had never left the north. He received the news of the crowning victory and the capture of Huascar in his palace at Tumibamba, on the Quencan Plain, and started at once for Cajamarca, the first great town on the plateau south of the Ecuador border, accompanied by only a small army. While waiting near Cajamarca, Atahualpa heard the wonderful news that 200 strangers had landed on the coast at Tumbeth, a port on the southern side of the Gulf of Guayaqu. They were white, and their faces were covered with hair. They had garments and arms different than any his informants had seen, and most extraordinary of all, they were accompanied by outlandish gigantic beasts who carried them over the ground with a terrifying speed. The effect of this intelligence upon Atahualpa and his advisors can only be conjectured. It was remembered that four years before a ship carrying a score or more of these same foreigners had sailed along the coast of Ecuador and northern Peru, landing at various places to back provisions and ask questions. Two had been left behind and were taken to the interior where their fate is unknown. It is, however, probable that these unfortunate Spaniards had given to Atahualpa's officers much information about the resources and intentions of their countrymen. The Inca emperor seemed to have realized that the importance and power of the foreigners was out of all proportion to their numbers. The newcomers protested that their purposes were amicable and sent friendly messages to Atahualpa, who resolved to act cautiously and avoid offending them unnecessarily. He dispatched his own brother as an ambassador with assurances of goodwill and a polite inquiry as to their wishes and intentions. But unfortunately for himself and his country, the Inca was dealing with a man whose profound and deceitful diplomacy was as much superior to his as a musket is to a crossbow. The Spanish leader returned word that he appreciated the kind expressions of the emperor and would at once proceed to Cajamarca to pay his respect in person. This was Francisco Pizarro, one of the greatest practical geniuses whom modern Europe has produced. Born out of wedlock at Trujillo, a town in Extremadura, the province which during centuries was the great fighting ground of Castilian and Moore, he passed his youth as a swine herd in the most abject poverty and illiteracy. And listening as a private soldier, he spent his young manhood in fighting under Gonzalo de Cordoba in those campaigns which carried the renown of the Spanish infantry to the farthest confines of Europe. An admirable soldier, conscious that he possessed powers of the highest order, hopelessly handicapped in old Europe by his base birth and illiteracy, the discovery of the new world opened up a field for his talents. He eagerly embraced the opportunity, embarking in 1509 with Alonso de Ojeda for the Darien gold mines. Four years later he accompanied Balboa in that memorable journey across the Isthmus which resulted in the discovery of the Pacific Ocean. To the city of Panama, looking out over the mysterious sea, adventurers flocked like a pack of wolves eager for a share in the spoils of its unknown shores, and Pizarro was among them. The news of Cortez's conquest of Mexico, brought to America a horde of soldiers of fortune, recklessly brave, experienced in the most scientific warfare of the time, arrogantly proud of their nationality, utterly careless of odds, ready to risk their lives on the chance of sudden fortune, a set of men better qualified for the work which fate through in their way could not be conceived. Panama had hardly been founded when rumors of the existence of a wealthy and civilized empire lying far to the south reached the ears of the Spaniards. In 1522 Pascual de Andagoya, a gentleman of distinguished family, who occupied a high office at Panama, made an expedition for a short distance along the coast and obtained valuable confirmation of the vague reports. Obliged to abandon the enterprise by his own illness, he turned it over to a partnership, formed for the purpose by Pizarro, Almagro, and a priest named Luque. The first enjoyed a great reputation for good judgment and fertility of resource, gained in expedition along the Caribbean coast, and by mere force of his talents had come to be regarded as one of the ablest and luckiest captains on the Isthmus. The active command was to be his, while Almagro, a soldier of more advanced age and hardly inferior reputation, backed him up and sent supplies and reinforcements. Luque was to be the moneyed man of the concern. They bought a small vessel at Panama, which Balboa himself had built eight years before, and in 1524 Pizarro started down the coast, but his supply of provisions was inadequate. It was impossible to obtain more from the savage natives of the forested shores of Colombia, and the first effort ended in failure. Nothing discouraged, Pizarro and his partners persevered. They had great difficulty in raising money to fit out properly the next expedition, but happily they succeeded in interesting the mayor of Panama. 18 months later Pizarro sailed once more with a better equipment and 160 men. For 500 miles he found nothing except the hot and swampy seashore of Colombia, inhabited by miserable naked tribes, and his companions had begun to believe that the empire they were seeking was a myth. When the pilot who had been sent out ahead came back with word that he had penetrated south of the equator, and there had met a sort of large seagoing raft coming from the south, manned by a clothed and civilized crew and laden with cloth, silverwork, metal mirrors, vases, and various other goods. These Indians said they came from Tumbef, a city in a fertile valley on a dry and penetrable coast, which lay not more than 200 miles further south. They were traders bringing up a stock to sell to the shore peoples of Ecuador, tribes who had long been compelled to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Incas, but who still lived in virtual independence under their own chiefs. The men on the raft told the Spaniards that the whole interior and the southern coast were inhabited by civilized peoples, subjects of an emperor whose capital was a great city in the mountains, hundreds of leagues to the south. Having received the disconfirmation of their most extravagant hopes, Pizarro and his men pushed on until they nearly reached the northern boundary of Ecuador, not far from the limits of the Inca Empire. It was clear, however, that their small force would never be able to cope with the armies of such a power. Almagro went back to Panama for reinforcements, while the indomitable Pizarro landed his already disheartened adventurers on a swampy island, where their clothes rotted in the steaming tropical heat and never ceasing rain. Fevers decimated them, mosquitoes tortured them, and eatable provisions were impossible to obtain. When Almagro reached Panama, the governor flew into a rage on hearing that Pizarro was holding his men against their will, and sent a ship to bring back all who wished. In tenths of the band deserted Pizarro, but he was indomitable, and thirteen heroes stood by him and his determination to reach Peru or Perish. For weary months he waited for provisions, but the moment they arrived he sent off for the south. Within twenty days he and his little band of adventurers reached the Gulf of Guayaquil, four hundred miles further on, and immediately landed at Tumbeath. With their own eyes they saw full confirmation of what the Indians of the Raft had told them. Irrigated fields, green with beautiful crops, lined the river bank. Eighty thousand people, all comfortably housed, lived in the valley. Commerce was flourishing. Large temples profusely ornamented with gold and silver testified to the wealth and culture. The government was well ordered and stable, and the people received the visitors with open-handed hospitality. After refreshing his followers, Pizarro continued his explorations down the coast for a couple of hundred miles, finding a succession of fertile valleys, interrupting the monotonous desert, each filled with villages and farms, and a thriving, civilized and prosperous population. In the fall of 1527 he returned to Panama, full of the idea of leading an expedition to conquer the great empire about which he had obtained such minute and exact information. He wisely resolved himself to go to Spain and secure the direct patronage and countenance of the government at Madrid. Taking with him natives brought from Tumbeath and specimens of products he set off, and on his arrival was granted an audience by Charles V. The emperor was greatly impressed by the story which the adventurer told. Naturally of a noble and commanding presence, the conscious dignity of Pizarro's manners corresponded to the high ambitions which filled his mind. In the doing of great things he had dropped all evidences of his base origin and contact with man and the habit of command had given him an ease of address and clearness of thought which made his hearers forget the deficiencies of his early education. The concession he prayed for was granted. He himself was legitimized and ennobled and received the title of Adelantaro while the gallant followers who had refused to abandon him on the Colombian island were made gentlemen of coat armor. Pizarro and his partners were formerly authorized to conquer and settle Peru in the name of the Castilian sovereign and received a grant of money for the purchase of arms agreeing to remit to the royal treasury one-fifth of all the gold that they should find. Pizarro knew just the kind of man needed to assist in that hazardous enterprise and he took every precaution to select only those of whose valor and capacity he was well assured. His mother had bred up a family of lions in the little oldest Extremadura town and his four brothers were hardly his inferiors in valor and audacity. Hernando, the oldest and only legitimate son of Francisco's father, agreed to go. So did Juan and Gonzalo, two illegitimate brothers who were younger and also Francisco Alcantara, a half-brother on the mother's side. Hernando Cortés, the naval conqueror of Mexico, exerted himself to help Pizarro fill up his ranks with soldiers of the most approved courage and the latter finally sailed for the Isthmus with a small body picked from the very flower of the fighting men of the peninsula. Pizarro believed that a few hundred of good men well provided with artillery and horses would be as effective as thousands in striking terror to masses of Indians armed only with spears and swords. Arrived at Panama, it was arranged that he should proceed to Peru at once while Almagro would follow later with reinforcements recruited among the unemployed adventurers in Nicaragua. All sorts of good fortune favored the daring enterprise. For once the fitful winds which usually baffle sailing ships in the Gulf of Panama were kind and Pizarro's clumsy little caravels traversed in 13 days the 700 miles of inhospitable coast which lay between the Isthmus and the first Inca provinces. Landing among the half-civilized tribes of Ecuador he had the good luck to find a store of gold and emeralds. This he sent back as an encouragement to Almagro and marching down the Ecuador coast he reached the Gulf of Guayaquil on whose southern shore began the populous and civilized portions of the empire. He crossed to the island of Puna, overcame its fierce inhabitants with great slaughter and there was joined by a large and welcome reinforcement of men and horses under the command of Hernando de Soto afterwards so famous as the discoverer of the Mississippi who had come on his own motion to get his share in the spoils. So far Pizarro's operations had been among the outlying provinces owning only nominal allegiance to the Incas but he now felt strong enough to cross over to Tumbeath and establish a footing in their real domain. From Tumbeath he marched south to Paita where he determined to establish his base. The quick eye of the master general appreciated the strategical advantages of this valley. At this point the great military road coming down from the plateau of Ecuador debouched on the coast plain. Communication to the south was easy by a road which connected all the coast valleys with branches climbing to the plateaus. An anchorage at the valley's mouth afforded a sure means of keeping open the communication with Panama which was so essential to success. Reinforcements could reach him in whatever part of Peru he might venture and a garrison left at Paita would command the main route connecting Quito and Cusco cutting the Peruvian empire in two. On receiving Pizarro's answer to his friendly message Atahualpa resolved to await the promised visit apparently suspecting no evil. The audacious Spaniard had however conceived the design of capturing the victorious claimant to the throne of the Incas while knowing that in its actual distracted condition the country would be left without a center about which it could rally. Open war no matter how overwhelming his first victory might be could hardly be ultimately successful. Atahualpa once saved Cusco or Quito and surrounded by the disciplined soldiers who had overthrown Huascar a defensive campaign might be undertaken in which Pizarro would find every step toward either capital bitterly disputed. Hundreds of thousands of Peruvians pouring up from the numberless provinces of the empire would be thrown in a never ceasing succession of armies against his little band of Spaniards and the latter would infallibly be driven back to the coast by starvation and fatigue if not by defeat in the field. Apparently full-hardy in fact Pizarro's plan offered the only chance of success. Never dreaming that such a step was in contemplation Atahualpa took no precautions leaving 55 men at the little post of San Miguel in the Paita Valley to secure his retreat Pizarro marched south with 102 foot soldiers, 62 horses and two small cannon 200 miles along the coast plain to a point opposite Cajamarca and ascended along an Inca military road meeting a friendly reception from the wandering natives and being supplied with provisions by Atahualpa's orders. On the 15th of November 1532 Pizarro entered Cajamarca. He found an open square in the middle of the town surrounded by walls and solid stone buildings which he received permission to occupy as quarters. From his camp outside Atahualpa sent word that the following day he would enter the town in state and receive the Spaniards. Marvelous good fortune favoured Pizarro's treacherous designs. The Indians had furnished a trap already made and now Atahualpa deliberately walked into it. On the morning of the 16th the Indian army broke camp and marched to Cajamarca followed by the emperor who was born in a litter and surrounded by his personal attendants the great chiefs and the nobles belonging to his own lineage. At sunset he entered the square accompanied only by these unarmed attendants and found Pizarro and a few Spaniards awaiting him. The rest were hidden in the houses around the square with their horses saddled, their breastplates on and musketry and cannon ready charged. From among the group which surrounded Pizarro stepped forward Friar Valverde and approached the Inca monarch who reclining in a litter raised high above the crowd on the shoulders of his attendants waited with dignity to hear what those strangers had to say. The priest advanced with a cross in one hand and a Bible in the other and began a harangue which clumsily translated by an Indian boy the Inca hardly understood. But in a few moments he realised that this uncouth jargon was meant to convey an arrogant demand that he acknowledge himself a vassal of Charles V and submit to baptism. With haughty surprise he threw down the book which Valverde tried to force into his hand. The priest shouted, Fall on, Castillans, I absolve you. And into the helpless crowd burst a murderous fire from the doors of the houses all around. Aghast and bewildered by this display of powers which to them seemed necromantic, the survivors nevertheless manfully stood to the attack of the male clad horsemen who rode into the huddled mass ferociously slashing and slaughtering. The Indians strove desperately to drag the Spaniards from the horses with their naked hands and interposed a living wall of human flesh between the murderers and their beloved sovereign. At length, Pizarro's own hands snatched Atahualpas from the litter. The Indian soldiers outside, hearing the firearms and the noise of the struggle, tried to force their way into the square but the Spanish musketry and cannon by hundreds and they fled before the charges of the cavalry dispersing in the twilight. Pizarro took every precaution to prevent the escape or rescue of his prisoner and for the first few weeks treated him kindly. The Spaniard was playing a profound diplomatic game. He well knew that Atahualpas generals would fear to endanger the latter's life by undertaking any aggressive measures and that Huascar's partisans would take advantage of this providential opportunity to reorganize their forces. He conversed much with the captive emperor and at length began to hint to him the advisability of arbitration with Huascar. But the Inca took alarm and secretly sent off orders for his brother's execution. Seeing that the Indian was not to be cajoled, the Spaniard adopted a sterner attitude, pretended the greatest indignation at the fratricide and soon had Atahualpa willing to offer anything for his release. Shrewdly guessing that for gold the Spaniards would run any risk, the Inca negotiated for his ransom saying quote I will fill this room with gold as high as I can reach if only you will liberate me end quote. Pitharo agreed insisting however that the ransom be delivered in advance at Cajamarca. A formal contract was drawn up and executed before an ottery and the deluded emperor ordered all preparations for war on the Spaniards to be interrupted and that the temples be stripped of their gold ornaments to supply the enormous amount he had promised. Under protection of this truce, Pitharo sent out expeditions to explore the country and to expedite the process of gathering the treasure and while this was going on, Almagro arrived with reinforcements which doubled the Spanish forces. Finally the agreed sum was all in Cajamarca. It amounted to four million five hundred sterling in modern money. One fifth was sent to the royal treasury and the remainder divided making even the private soldiers rich for life. Nevertheless Atahualpa was not released. Large bodies of his troops were known to be on their way from Cusco and Pitharo realized that once at the head of his forces the Inca would wage an unrelenting warfare to expel the last Spaniard from Peru. If kept a prisoner his partisans would no longer hesitate to fight to release him appreciating now the uselessness of relying on Spanish promises. He must be got rid of and so after a mock trial in which he was charged with Vascar's murder and with conspiring against the Spaniards the Inca emperor was strangled to death in the public square at Cajamarca. Pitharo knew better than to allow the Indians time to settle the disputed succession. With masterful sagacity he resolved to strike at Cusco during the confusion. He suddenly evacuated Cajamarca and rapidly marched along the northern plateau and over the Cerro de Pasco into the fertile valley of Jauja. From this point a short road led down the Cordillera to the sea making it an admirable base for the campaign against Cusco. Leaving a garrison to protect his retreat to the ocean Pitharo advanced by forced marches along the great central plateau toward Cusco. Kiskis and the army which had defeated and captured Vascar two years before tried to oppose his progress but all the calculations of the Indian general were overthrown by the incredible speed of the Spanish cavalry. The horsemen reached the neighborhood of Cusco without encountering any considerable force of the enemy. Here the advance guard was surprised, lost a fourth of its number and was on the point of being overwhelmed when the opportune arrival of the main body dispersed the Indians. Though only a small part of Kiskis's army had taken part this defeat badly demoralized his soldiers. It seemed impossible to make any headway against these strangers clothed in steel mounted on great beasts and armed with weapons which slew their opponents before the latter could got in a blow. Moreover Kiskis was in a hostile country where sympathies were all with the Vascar party and where the executioners of Atahualpa were regarded as deliverers. Manco Capac, Vascar's brother and legitimate successor, went in person to the Spanish camp to propose a formal alliance and a joint war of extermination against the Atahualpa faction. Pitharo received him with every mark of honor and respect and renewed his assurances that the sole object of his march from Cajamarca was to crush the enemies of the rightful emperor. Kiskis tried hard to get his force into shape for resistance but his position near Cusco was untainable and after a slight skirmish he was obliged to leave the way open to the capital. Just a year from the day he had reached Cajamarca Pitharo entered Cusco by the sight of the legitimate emperor amid the acclamations of the people. Manco's inauguration was splendidly celebrated with all the ancient rites but among the procession of rejoicing incas, Rodin Omenus Cavalcade, the Spanish soldiers who now numbered nearly 500. The new emperor gathered an army and, assisted by some Spaniards, set off in pursuit of Kiskis whom he defeated a short distance north of Cusco. The old northern general, still indefatigable, made a rapid march on Jauja to surprise the Spanish garrison but was repulsed in this well-considered effort to cut Pitharo's communications with the coast and had to make his way, the best he could, back towards Quito. The central portion of the empire would now have been content to settle back into quiet allegiance to Manco but the latter soon found that his allies regarded the country as their own. Under the pressure of necessity for help against Kiskis he had acknowledged, as a matter of form, the titular supremacy of the Spanish king and he was now required to carry out his obligation to the latter. A municipal council, framed on the Spanish model, was installed as the governing body of the ancient capital. The great temples were turned into churches and monasteries. Other public edifices were seized to be used as residences or barracks for the Spaniards. Tombs, temples and private residences were searched for gold and the authorities were required to furnish troops and carriers for the expeditions which their oppressors planned against the remote parts of the empire. With the resignation characteristic of the race the Indians submitted to these exactions and Manco hesitated long before deciding to put himself at the head of a revolt. The transcendent, military and diplomatic qualities Pitharo had displayed were equaled by the energy and foresight which he now showed as an administrator. Realizing that his capital should be on the coast in order to secure direct communication with Panama he made a careful examination of routes and possible sites and selected the valley of the Rimak, just below Hawcha, where he founded Lima. From this point the military road by which the Incas had kept up communication from Cusco with the coast and the northern provinces ascended to the plateau. Lima and Hawcha were the strategical keys to central and southern Peru. San Miguel gave easy access to Quito and Pitharo ensured the region extending from Cerro de Pasco to the Ecuador border by establishing the city of Trujillo halfway up the coast. Their original agreement provided that Pitharo should have the northern half of the countries they might conquer and Almagro the southern. Accordingly, about two years after Cusco was occupied Almagro started for Bolivia and Chile accompanied by 500 Spaniards and two brothers of the Inca emperor leading a large native army. In Bolivia where the Inca power had been established for centuries he encountered no opposition and crossed the bleak plateaus of the Puna, descended the Andes and finally reached the fertile valleys of northern Chile. But so little gold was found that Almagro determined to return and set up a claim to Cusco. In the meantime the incas of central Peru had awakened from the dream of a continuance of the ancient dynasty under Spanish protection. Pitharo himself seems to have been guilty of few acts of wanton cruelty but he neither wished nor tried to restrain his followers from reducing the Indians to vassalage. The natives were fast crowded to the wall and the Spaniards divided the fairest parts of the country into estates treating the Indians as tenants from whom tribute was due. The sovereignty of the emperor soon became a mere fiction. In 1536 Manco escaped from Cusco and traced the standard of rebellion. The moment appeared favorable. The Spanish forces were scattered. Pitharo was at Lima and Almagro in the wilds of Chile but as a matter of fact the Incas labored under almost hopeless disadvantage. Their cities, fortresses and roads were all in the hands of the Spaniards and the kingdom of Quito, the most warlike part of the empire had meanwhile been reduced by a Spanish expedition from San Miguel. The rebellion was confined at first to the tribes who lived in the neighborhood of Cusco. These rose en masse and besieged the 200 Spaniards who under the command of Hernando Pitharo and his two younger brothers Juan and Gonzalo occupied the capital. The Indians captured the citadel overlooking the town and poured an incessant rain of stones and burning darts on their enemies. The Spaniards soon ran out of provisions and were forced to try to recapture the citadel or perish miserably by fire and starvation. Juan Pitharo led a desperate assault, ably assisted by Hernando and Gonzalo and all three proved themselves worthy of the name they bore. Juan fell mortally wounded in the moment of victory but the Incas fled in confusion giving the surviving Spaniards an opportunity to procure supplies of maize from the neighboring farms. This defeat disheartened the Indians. Numbers and bravery seemed useless against the horses and firearms of these strangers whose reckless courage was only equaled by their cruelty. The Incas kept up the siege for several months but without artillery their swords and spears could make little headway against men provided with firearms and protected behind solid stone walls. While the Spaniards in Cusco were thus fighting for their lives the Incas near Jauja rose and descended on Lima but Francisco Pitharo with his dreaded cavalry waited for them in Ambush and the Indians were surprised and cut to pieces. In spite of this success the governor's position remained most grave. He sent for help to Panama, Guatemala and Mexico but meanwhile had no means of relieving Cusco. Its fall meant not only the death of his beloved brothers but would almost certainly be followed by a greater insurrection and the loss of all the advantages gained in three years of fighting and scheming. He hurried forward 250 men, all he could possibly spare and had little prospect of success until news came that Almagro and his 500 followers had arrived at Arequipa on their way back from Chile. From Arequipa there is a pass to the northern end of Lake Titicaca and thence to Cusco the way was easy. Manco would be caught between Pitharo's army coming up from Lima and Almagro's descending from the south. The Inca gave up hope and with a few devoted followers retired into the wild region of Vilcabamba lying north of Cusco near the Amazonian plain. In those rugged and forested defiles he was safe from Spanish pursuit but his retirement ended all hope of organized and general resistance. The Inca Empire had fallen never to rise again. With stoical resignation the Indians made the best of their sad situation while the conquerors were left free to fight among themselves over the division of the magnificent spoils which had so miraculously fallen into their hands. End of section 2 Section 3 of the South American Republic's Volume 2 by Thomas Kleiland Dawson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Piotr Natter. Part 1. Peru. Chapter 3. Civil Wars Among the Conquerors The addict of Charles V conceded to Pitharro the territory for 270 leagues south of the river on the Ecuador coast where the conquest had begun and to Almagro the next 200 leagues. In his heart Almagro was dissatisfied with this award and even if he accepted the division there was wide room for misunderstandings and disputes. No one knew the exact latitude of the river when the measurement was to be made nor had anyone surveyed the distances along the winding roads. Almagro contended that Cusco and Arequipa lay within his province and this Pitharro vigorously and as it turned out correctly denied. Almagro's personal followers were disgusted with the rude poverty they had found in Chile and saw little chance of valuable spoil unless their leader should secure the fertile plateaus of Titicaca, Cusco and Arequipa. They urged him to cease by force what he believed to belong to him. After the flight of Manco his army reached Cusco before the force which Pitharro was sending up had penetrated nearer than a hundred miles. Hernando Pitharro had 200 men at Cusco but they were exhausted with long bounts of fighting against the Indian besiegers and could offer no effective resistance to the night attack by which Almagro surprised them. Hernando and his brother Gonzalo were captured and imprisoned and Almagro advanced against the army from Lima and defeated it. Quote, this, exclaimed Pitharro when he heard the news, is Almagro's return to me after losing a beloved and gallant brother and spending all I possess in pacifying the country. I mourn for the danger of my brothers and still mourn that two friends in their old age should plunge into a civil war to the injury alike of the king's service and of Peru. End quote. From this moment all the powers of his great mind and the resources of his profound cunning were devoted to securing his brother's safety first and afterwards revenge upon Almagro. Willing to agree to anything rather than leave them in the hands of enemies whom he knew to be as coldly cruel as himself and far more bloodthirsty he sent ambassadors to treat for the liberation of Hernando and Gonzalo. But Almagro thought he held the whiphand and marched his victorious army across the Cordillera opposite Cusco and up the coast nearly to Lima declaring his intention of founding a capital for his government in the valley of Chincha and announcing that he would be satisfied with nothing less in the session of all Peru from Lima south. To obtain Hernando's release the governor was forced to consent that Almagro should remain in possession of the disputed territory pending the decision of the king but Hernando was no sooner safe at Lima than Pizarro repudiated his promise. He declared war, his army under the leadership of Hernando and Valdivia afterwards famous as the conqueror of Chile advanced down the coast slowly raging at Pizarro's treachery the old man retreated making his way toward Cusco over one of the southern passes. His pursuers by a rapid march over a difficult and little used path reached the neighborhood of the Inca capital without resistance. Almagro was compelled to accept battle or to shut himself up in Cusco and let his enemies bring up artillery and butter him out at their leisure. His men outnumbered Pizarro's and were assisted by a large contingent of natives though inferior in discipline and arms. He chose the speedier alternative but the flank attacks of his native auxiliaries made no impression on Hernando's carefully disposed infantry and his spaniards fell into confusion when the main bodies met in the shock of battle. With a flank cavalry charge the route became general. Hernando Pizarro dashed in conspicuous with white bloom and orange colored doublet the most desperate partisans were slaughtered bravely fighting and the old man fled. He was soon captured and brought back to the very prison where he had so long confined Hernando. After languishing for a few months orders were given that he be strangled. Francisco made no sign to save the life of his old comrade and the sentence was inflicted. For the second time Pizarro entered Cusco in triumph wearing now an ermine robe presented to him by Hernando Cortes and once more he devoted himself to organizing his vast dominions and extending the Spanish power over the distant provinces. Gonzalo Pizarro went to Quito to make that expedition into the Amazon country in search of the Eldorado which so miserably failed in its immediate object but resulted in Oriana's discovery of the Great River. Hernando Pizarro proceeded to Bolivia to develop the mining industry a labor soon to be rewarded by the finding of Potosí. Valdivia undertook the conquest of Chile and Alvarado that of the mountains of northern Peru. The governor traveled himself over most of his dominions founding cities at strategic points in the more populous and fertile valleys. He visited Charcas, now Sucre, the Old Indian capital of southern Bolivia. He founded one city at Arequipa, commanding the greatest valley of the southern coast and another at Guamanga in a fertile plateau halfway between Hawcha and Cusco. The better parts of the country were divided into great feudal estates and distributed among his favorites and faithful followers while the partisans of Almagro made their way as best they could out of Peru or hung around in helpless poverty, gnawing their teeth as they saw their luckier comrades rapidly enriching themselves by Indian tribute and mining. Almagro's friends quickly carried the news of his illegal execution to Spain crying for justice against the Pizarros. The Spanish government was not unwilling to secure a selfish advantage from the disputes among the original conquerors and sent out Vaca de Castro to investigate and report. When the Royal Commissioner arrived at Panama early in 1541 the latest news from Peru was tranquilizing. Pizarro was busily engaged in enlarging and beautifying Lima in regulating the revenue and the administration in distributing encomiendas and in restraining the rapacity of his spaniards. However Lima was full of the men of Chile as Almagro's adherents were called all bitter enemies of the governor. They passed him in the street without saluting and their attitude was so menacing that Pizarro received repeated warnings and was urged to banish them. Absolutely incapable of personal fear magnanimous when his passions had not been aroused he only replied quote poor fellows they have had trouble enough we will not molest them end quote he even sent for Juan de la Rada the guide consular and guardian of the young half-breed who was Almagro's heir and condescended to try to argue him into a better frame of mind saying at parting quote ask me frankly what you desire end quote but the iron had entered too deeply into Rada's soul he had already organized a conspiracy to assassinate Pizarro at noon on Sunday the 26th of June 1541 Pizarro was sitting at dinner in his house with twenty gentlemen among them his half-brother Francisco Alcantara and several of the most illustrious knights who had taken part in the conquest the great door into the public square was lying wide open the conspirators to the number of a score had assembled in a house opposite all of a sudden they rushed into the square fully armed and carrying their swords naked in their hands a young page standing in front of the governor's house saw them and ran back shouting quote to arms all the men of Chile are coming to kill the Marquis our lord end quote the guests rose in alarm from the table and all but half a dozen fled to the windows and dropped him to the garden Pizarro threw off his gown and snatched up a sword while the valiant Francisco Chavez stepped forward through the ante room to dispute the passage at the staircase the ferocious crowd of murderers rushed up and laid him dead on the stairs Alcantara checked them for a few moments with his single sword but was soon forced back into the dining room and fell pierced with many thrusts the old lion shouted from the inside quote what shameful thing is this why do you wish to kill me end quote and with a cloak wrapped round one arm and his sword grasped in the other hand he rushed forward to meet his assassins and strike a blow to avenge his brother before he himself should fall only two faithful young pages remained at his side though over seven years of age his practised sword laid two of the crowd dead before he was surrounded the two boys were butchered and in the melee Pizarro received a mortal wound in the throat and falling to the floor made the sign of the cross on the boards and kissed it one of the ruffians had snatched up an earthen water jar and with this pounded out the old man's brains as he lay prostrate disdaining to ask for mercy and murmuring Jesus just as the fatal blow fell thus perished by the sword this great man of blood the measure he had meted out to Atahualpa and Almagro were measured to him again he who had shamelessly broken his oath times without number to gain his own high ends was slain by treacherous cowardly assault but his great vices should not blind us to his greater values courageous, indomitable, farsighted, patriotic, large-minded public spirited possessing a God-given instinct for seeing straight to the center of the problem and the energy to strike at the psychological moment he was equally great as an explorer, a soldier, a general a diplomatist and an administrator even his shocking moral delinquencies lose something of their terpitude when we consider the greatness of his aims and the baseness of his origin a bastard, a common soldier, a penniless adventurer a man who had to fight his way up by his own wits, courage and parts in the worst of schools it was not to be expected that he would be scrupulous but that his real nature was magnanimous, generous and truthful, was proven by the many instances in which he forgave his enemies and kept his word to his serious loss and that his ambition was not sordid is shown by his self-sacrificing devotion to the public good during the later years of his life formed in nature's grandest mold circumstances and environment had much deformed his character but the original linements are plain the news of the murder threw Peru into confusion in Lima the governor's friends hid themselves or fled a hundred sympathizers joined the assassins the rudders and sails of the ships in port were taken away so that no word could be sent to Panabá and all the treasure in the city was plundered young Almagro assumed the title of governor of Peru but he and Rada soon realized that the vast majority at Lima regarded them with execration while threatening messages came from the commanders in other towns Rada and the boy-userper started up the road for Hawca and Cusco at the former place Rada died but his protégé, though only 22 years old now showed unexpected ability and resource suppressing with bloody severity a quarrel among his captains he took the road to Cusco where his father's party was strongest in the meantime the royal commissioner now become legal governor of Peru had sailed from Panabá shipwrecked off the coast of southern Colombia he resolved to proceed by land and disembarking at Buenaventura made his way with infinite difficulty through the tangle forests and steep defiles of the Maritime Cordillera to the valley of the Cauca river thence to Quito over the highlands of Papayan and Pasto was easier as soon as the news of Pizarro's murder reached him he hastened south receiving many offers of help from the friends of the dead governor at Hawca he found a considerable army ready to his orders so he proceeded promptly to Guamanga to which point Almagro was advancing from Cusco the soldiers of the young Halfbreed knew that they were fighting with halters round their necks and the battle was the bloodiest since the Spaniards had landed in Peru of the 1200 white men who went into the fight only 500 escaped unwounded the rebels were practically annihilated two days after the battle Pizarro's murderers were executed in the great square at Guamanga young Almagro managed to escape to Cusco but he was quickly captured and relentlessly put to death upon the death of Francisco Pizarro the right to nominate a governor reverted to the Spanish crown though some disappointment was felt that Gonzalo Pizarro had not been appointed Vaca de Castro succeeded without opposition Gonzalo's selection would not have suited the new policy of the Spanish government Las Casas had written his famous book exposing the unspeakable inequities of the earlier conquerors towards the West Indian natives it produced a tremendous effect on public opinion and the authorities at Madrid decided to root up Indian slavery and gradually abolish the existing encomiendas manifestly such a step would excite bitter dissatisfaction among the adventurers in Peru and it seemed best to name a Viceroy who would be eeps of act of vested with absolute power and not subject to the influence of the conquistadors this dangerous post was entrusted to Blas Nunes de Vela an old bureaucrat of the Escorial whose integrity, piety and rigid obedience to orders had pushed him into high positions arriving in Peru early in 1544 he was received with outward courtesy and respect thinly veiling real alarm and distrust the quote-unquote new laws abolished personal service by Indians the grandees of estates must hereafter be content with a moderate tribute from their tenants and encomiendas might not be sold nor even dissent by inheritance and worst of all public officials and all Spaniards who had taken part in the wars between Almagro and Pizarro were to be deprived the provisions were drastic and rumors exaggerated them in his journey down the coast the Viceroy had sternly ordered that no Indian be forced to carry a burden against his will to the Spaniards this seemed an outrageous violation of the natural order of things the whole fabric of their fortunes rested upon forced Indian labor without it they could not work their mines farm their estates or transport their goods and these new laws enforced by conscientious and stubborn old bureaucrat would virtually rob them of all that their swords had won this might and comanderos wrote to Gonzalo Pizarro urging him to espouse their cause his own vast estates would infallibly be wrenched away by the Viceroy and he was told that his head was to be cut off as soon as Núñez Vela could lay hands on him with the Pizarro instinct of running to meet a danger he hastened from southern Bolivia to Cusco he was proclaimed Procurator General of Peru soldiers flocked to his camp he seized the artillery and stores at Cusco and soon was at the head of 400 desperate men well armed and provided many however shrank from open rebellion against the representatives of the Castilian King and the Pizarros had enemies the result was still doubtful when the Viceroy himself turned the scale by his own violent measures he imprisoned Vaca de Castro on suspicion of favoring the revolt quarreled with the judges of the royal court and finally in an altercation with the popular factor of Lima stopped his opponent with his own hand and then attempted to conceal the murder frightened at the burst of public indignation he fled to Trujillo while the royal judges took the direction of affairs into their own hands they ordered the arrest and deportation of the Viceroy and sent a conciliatory message to Gonzalo but he knew better than to rely upon the unauthorized promises of the judges his answer was to send a detachment to Lima which seized three deserters and hanged them on trees outside the town the judges having no troops upon whom they could rely were forced to recognize Pizarro as governor a few days later he made his triumphal entry riding at the head of 1200 men there was no mistaking the sincerity of the acclamations with which the Spaniards welcomed the devoted champion of their privileges nevertheless in the minds of most there lurked an uneasy consciousness that all this was in fact flat treason against the lawful sovereign and that no government could in the long run prevail without recognition from Madrid the sea captains to whose custody the blundering old Viceroy had been entrusted did not know what to do with their embarrassing prisoner and set him ashore at Tumbef whence he proceeded to Quito to get help from the anti-Pizarro faction the governor of southern Colombia joined him and he soon had 500 men under his orders Gonzalo flew to the point of danger the Viceroy retreated to Papayan but being joined by more recruits Rushley returned to the neighborhood of Quito to offer battle he was defeated and killed Pizarro went back to Lima while his lieutenant Carvajal hunted down and put to death every loyalist who remained under arms in southern Peru Gonzalo's administration lasted three years and they were golden ones for the Spanish adventurers the marvelous silver mines of Potosí and the gold washings of southern Ecuador were discovered the amiendas were lavishly granted the Indians went back to their fields the mining industry began that marvelous development which soon made Peru the treasure box of the world and Potosí a synonym for limitless wealth but the dazzling sunlight of prosperity was dimmed by the shadow of Pizarro's scaffold slowly creeping across the Atlantic and down the coast his chief lieutenants knowing they had sinned past forgiveness urged him to declare himself king of Peru but he was at once too proud and too patriotic to fling away his right to die a loyal Spaniard Philip, the leaden-eyed, close-mouthed despot was regent of Spain bitterly chagrined that the stream of Peruvian gold had ceased to flow into the royal treasury his vindictive heart held no mercy for the gallant soldier whose sword had helped win the riches now temporally diverted he selected a man after his own heart Pedro de la Gasca an ugly deformed little priest hypocritically humble though astute and untiring whose success as an inquisitor was a guarantee that he would be as bitterly cruel as even Philip could wish Gasca landed at Panama in the character of a modest ecclesiastic a humble man of peace who had been commissioned to investigate the sad situation of Peru and re-establish peace he said he would recommend the repeal of the obnoxious new laws and had authority to suspend them Gonzalo refused to put his head into the news and demanded substantial assurances but many Peruvians were more easily beguiled and welcomed the excuse to renew their allegiance to lawful authority while Gasca remained at Panama gathering troops from the neighboring provinces Pizarro's fleet deserted leaving the coast open to attack an advance guard came sailing down the coast sending letters ashore at every port promising amnesty and reward desertions were so numerous that Gonzalo was forced to give up the hope of defending clima and retreated toward Ariquipa Gasca ascended to Hawcha while Pizarro's old enemies in the Titicacan region rose gathered a thousand men and word to Gasca that they could overwhelm without help the 500 soldiers who remained faithful but Epizarro never waited to be attacked by forced marches he crossed the Dizipas where the Moyendo and Puna railway now runs and fell upon his enemies near the southern end of Lake Titicaca though outnumbered two to one the superior discipline of his men his admirable dispositions Carbajal's skillful handling of the artillery and his own cool and intrepid leadership of the cavalry charges gave him a decisive though dearly bought victory meanwhile Gasca was coming up the road from Hawcha to Cusco his army increasing by accession from every direction until it numbered over two thousand the wisest of Gonzalo's consulors advised him to retire to southern Bolivia and make a defensive campaign in that remote region but he preferred bold methods for once however he could not inspire his men with his own confidence they followed with heavy hearts his eager march against Gasca's overwhelming army he drew them up for the attack and the battle was about to begin when to his despair he saw several captains desert to the enemy and his soldiers surrendering without a blow knowing that all was over he turned to Juan Acosta with his side saying what shall we do brother Juan sir let us charge them and die like Romans better to die like Christians replied Pizarro and he rode across the plain and gave himself up the exulting priest grossly insulted the fallen warrior and called a court-martial to condemn him and his captains to immediate execution though only 41 years old when he went to the scaffold Gonzalo had for 16 years taken a leading part in nearly every one of the battles and expeditions of Peru and is justly regarded as the best fighting men among the conquistadores the property of Pizarro's friends was confiscated the prisons filled with wretched victims many were put to death many more mutilated or flogged even the staunchest loyalists were not safe Gasca evaded and delayed as long as possible the distribution of land grants among those who had earned and been promised such rewards and when he had to announce the list he sneaked to Lima by an unfrequented root in cowardly fear of his miserable life he never dared to try to put the new laws into effect and when a peremptory order came from Spain that enforced Indian labor must cease he kept it secret until he could resign the government to the royal judges leaving instructions that it should be published immediately he was at sea Peru was left in confusion the prohibition of Indian slavery added to the dissatisfaction felt over Gasca's awards the at interim governments could make little progress in securing its enforcements rebellion after rebellion broke out and civil war continued to desolate Peru with a few intervals of quiescence during which the government allowed the proprietors to do as they pleased until the arrival of the Marquis of Cagnete the quote-unquote good viceroy on the 29th of June 1556 end of section 3 section 4 of the South American Republics volume 2 by Thomas Clelland Dawson this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Piotr Natter part 1 Peru chapter 4 the colonial period the Spanish occupation of Peru was a conquest not a colonization the narrow plateau from Colombia to Chile and the adjacent dry valleys on the Pacific and in northwestern Argentina had been found fully populated by civilized races the work of subjugating them was practically accomplished within 8 or 10 years after Pizarro landed in Ecuador and this marvelous result was achieved by private adventurers who though they held communications from Madrid really acted on their own responsibility a very few appreciated the advisability of well treating the Indians and thereby preserving the effective industrial organization but the vast majority concerned themselves only with immediate profit for 18 years the original conquerors and the adventurers who followed in their track fought over the spoils when the Marquis of Cagnete was appointed viceroy he found 8,000 Spaniards in Peru alone 489 of whom had grants of land and Indians we can never know the sufferings of the Indians during these civil wars the chroniclers tell us minutely the stories of the battles marches, sieges, surprises, assassinations and deeds of military prowess but little of the destruction and abandonment of the irrigating canals and terraces the ruin of the magnificent roads the breaking up of the ancient socialist system the impressment of natives into the rebel bands the death by exhaustion of thousands dragging artillery over the steep mountain paths the starvation of whole villages robbed of their crops but the sturdy physique of the Andean Indians and their perfect adaptation to the climatic conditions saved them from extermination in the midst of the devil's dance of Spanish carnage the Inca officers reported minutely the crops stolen or destroyed and the deficiencies were made up as far as possible from the villages which had escaped for the time being naturally the Spanish government was anxious to put an end to such a state of affairs considerations of self-interest reinforced the eloquent indignation of las casas but the new laws could not be put into effect notwithstanding the sentiment of fidelity to the Castilian king and the growth of considerable cities and customs were dominant the only real cities which the Incas had built were Cusco in central Peru, Quito in Ecuador and Charcas in Bolivia and after the conquest they continued a village dwelling people but the Spaniards, true to the instinct inherited from Roman times preferred to live in cities within a few years they had established municipalities not only at the three Inca capitals Trujillo, Loja, La Paz, Guamanga, Hauja and numerous other places the enlightened advisers of Charles V came to the conclusion that Peru could never become a loyal and profitable apanage of the crown until freedom of action was granted to its government Don Andres Urtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Cagnete accepted the difficult post of Viceroy he was a scion of the noble house of Spain distinguished alike in arms and letters capable and resolute of mature years and wide experience his salary was fixed at the then fabulous sum of 40,000 ducats in order to enable him to maintain regal state and accompanied by his vice-queen and an imposing retinue he assumed power with ceremonial splendor he prohibited further immigration from Spain and ordered that no Spaniard in Peru should leave his district without permission though the Incomienderos were left in possession of their estates they were made to understand that they must seize the more outrageous forms of oppressing the natives he sent for the most notorious disturbers and they came joyfully expecting to receive grants but they were summarily disarmed and banished he employed the more adventurous in expeditions to the interior and him completing the conquest of Chile all the artillery in the country was gathered under his eye and the corregidors were required to dismiss most of their soldiery finally, the Viceroy continued Pizarro's policy of founding cities into which were gathered the Spaniards who remained scattered over the country he did much to alleviate the lot of the natives though he dared not venture on giving them all the rights guaranteed by Spanish law no efforts were spared to hispanolize the Inca nobles and native chiefs who could prove their right by dissent were formally allowed to exercise jurisdiction as magistrates even the rightful emperor, Sairi Tupac who had maintained his independence in the wilds of Vilcabamba was induced to swear allegiance and accept a pension and estate in the valley of Yukai when the Inca had attested the documents by which he renounced his sovereignty he lifted up the gilded fringe of the tablecloth saying quote all this cloth and its fringe were mine and now they give me a thread of it for my sustenance and that of all my house end quote returning to Yukai he sent into a deep melancholy and died within two years in the meantime Charles V had been succeeded by Philip II the Marquis of Canietta's liberal and enlightened policy did not ring money from the unhappy country fast enough to suit the greedy despot he listened to the slanders against the good viceroy brought home by disappointed Spaniards and Canietta's reward for five years of brilliant service was a recall only his death saved him from hearing with his own ears the reproaches of his ungrateful sovereign several years elapsed before Philip found a man who possessed the courage, capacity, mercilessness and obstinacy to devise and apply a system which would make Peru a mere machine to produce gold and silver for the Spanish crown such a one was Don Francisco de Toledo a member of the same ancient house to which the Duke of Alva belonged to him belongs the distinction of founding the infamous colonial system the origin of the misery and disorder from which Spanish South America has suffered ever since and the potent, if not the principal cause of the decline of Spain herself and the loss of her magnificent colonial empire Toledo reached Lima in 1569 leaving Spain just after the news had been received that William the Silent and his hollanders had risen in revolt against the cruelties of Alva and gained the victory of Groningen the new viceroy first devoted himself to the destruction of the native dynasty Sairi Tupac's younger brothers Tituyo Panky and Tupacamaru still roamed free in the forests of Vilcabamba the Spaniards had hitherto not interfered with the Indians celebrating their national festivals with their ancient solemnities and Toledo came to Cusco to be present at one which he had determined should be the last as soon as it was over he sent for Titu to come in and take the oath of allegiance Titu died of an illness but the chiefs swore feulty to the boy Tupacamaru and refused to put him in the power of the Spaniards the exasperated viceroy sent a force which captured the young emperor brought to Cusco Toledo ordered him to be decapitated and the head was stuck upon a pike and set up beside the scaffold one moonlit night a Spaniard went to the window of his bed chamber which overlooked the great square and saw the whole vast space packed with a crowd of kneeling silent people their faces all turned to the incas grisly head it was the Indians devoutly worshipping the last relic of their beloved and unfortunate sovereign but there was no spirit left in them for rebellion and no center for them to rally around Toledo's executions exterminated the leading incas and half-casts the celebration of Indian rights was forbidden and everything which might remind the people of the fallen regime destroyed or removed Toledo's Libro de Tassas or Code of Regulations is the base of the system under which the Spanish colonies were governed for more than two centuries the Spaniards were practically recognized as belonging to a privileged and governing caste the country was divided into about 50 districts called Corregimientos each under the rule of a Corregidor this official was substantially absolute so far as the Indians were concerned although an effort was made to keep up parts of the ancient incal organization and in practice the hereditary village chiefs administered justice and exercised considerable power every male Indian between the ages of 18 and 50 were compelled to pay a certain tribute or poll tax for whose collection their chiefs were responsible about one sixth of the Indians belonged to estates already granted and these paid their tribute to the proprietors the crown deducting one fifth the other five sixths paid directly to the representatives of the government in consideration of this tribute general and indiscriminate personal service was declared to be abolished but the commutation was not in full one seventh of the Indians were required to work for their masters and the wretched victims of this quote-unquote Mittha were sent by their khafsiks to the nearest Spanish town where they could be engaged by anyone who required their services but these were not all the burdens the natives of the provinces near the mines were compelled to furnish the labor necessary to work them and the poor creatures to whose lot it fell to go might never hope to return oppressive as was the latter of these laws their practical application was made infinitely worse by evasion practiced with the cognizance of the corregidos hundreds of Indians were hunted down and carried away to work on farms and in factories under the pretext that the Mittha returns had not been honestly made and though the population decreased the survivors were required to furnish the same number of victims each year in spite of the slaughter during the civil wars the Peruvian Indians numbered 8 millions in 1575 including the outlying provinces the population of the Inca Empire must have reached 20 billions in the heyday of its prosperity horrible as had been the decrease of the first 40 years of Spanish domination it was a trifle to that which followed the establishment of Toledo's system in 1573 the impressment for the Potosi mines produced 11,000 laborers 100 years later only 1600 could be found in the non-mining provinces the destruction was not so stupendous but some encomiendas originally containing a thousand adults were reduced to a hundred within a century and the miserable survivors were compelled to pay the same sum as had been assessed to their ancestors the total population of Peru proper had fallen to less than a million and a half within two centuries and that of the whole empire to not more than 4 millions so great had been the mortality among the feebler inhabitants of the warm coast valleys that they had practically died out and their places were taken by negro slaves whose importation began shortly after the conquest the Indians were the worst but not the only sufferers the creel descendants of the early Spanish settlers though they nominally enjoyed the same rights as the later arrivals in reality had small chance to participate in the offices and fat concessions each new viceroy brought a new swarm of needy noblemen who regarded the creels with lofty disdain commerce except with Spain was forbidden and even that was burdened with almost intolerable burdens as time went on new taxes were devised the deliberate purpose of the Spanish government to transfer all the gold and silver in perus mountains to the royal treasury not only were both imports and exports taxed but also every pound of provisions sold in the markets and shops one fifth of the products of the mines and one tenth of the crops went directly to the crown all kinds of businesses had to pay licenses quick silver and tobacco were monopolies and offices were regularly sold to the highest bidder nevertheless the Spanish occupation brought many incontestable benefits in South America to say nothing of the civilized system of jurisprudence the letters and the religion which have made the people of the continent members of the great western European family the introduction of new and valuable animals grains and fruits raised the level of average well-being among the surviving inhabitants horses, asses, cattle, sheep goats, pigs, chickens pigeons, wheat, barley oats, rice, olives grapes, oranges sugarcane, apples, peaches and related fruits and even the banana and the cocoa palm were introduced by the Spaniards in return Europe owes to Peru maize, potatoes chocolate, tobacco, cassava ipecaquania and quinine Toledo had put his colonial system in full operation by 1580 and from that time to nearly the close of the Spanish epoch the story of Peru offers little of interest expansion ceased, the colonists made no effort to spread over the Amazon plain or to prevent the Portuguese on the Atlantic coast from occupying the interior of the continent almost to the food of the Andes on the seacoast of Venezuela and the plains of the lower plate the Spanish race still showed a scanty fraction of that vigor and enterprise which had enabled the early conquerors to spread over half the continent in a few short years but in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia the country slowly decayed though the viceroys who followed each other in rapid succession were selected from among the greatest grandees of Spain they were held to an increasingly rigid account and the smallest concession to commerce or a failure to send home the utmost farthing which could be wrong from the people was severely and peremptorily punished, their jurisdiction extended over all Spanish South America the captain's general of New Granada, Venezuela and Chile, the royal audience of Bolivia, the president of Ecuador and the governors of Tucumán Paraguay and Buenos Aires being all nominally subject to their orders but in practice these widely separated divisions of the continent were largely independent Lima was, however the political, commercial and social center of South America to its port came from Panama, the ghouls destined for Peru Chile, Bolivia and even Paraguay and Buenos Aires many of the viceroys were lovers of letters and the university produced scholars and authors not unworthy comparison with those of the old world the continual influx of Spaniards of distinguished Castilian ancestry and gentle training made the language of even the common people singularly pure and the sonorous elegance of the Spanish tongue as spoken during the classical period has been best preserved in the comparative isolation of Peru the influence of the bishops and priests, the Jesuits and the Franciscans was hardly inferior to that of the officials the clergy controlled education, every village had its parish priest who compelled the Indians to go to mass and made them pay heavily for the privilege the inquisition was early introduced and performed its dreadful functions without let or hindrance the regulations which attempted to confine the oppression of the Indians within bearable limits were persistently violated not only by private individuals but by corregitors themselves kidnapping was reduced to a system and often all the male adults of a village were dragged off to work in the mines leaving only the women and children to till the fields the corregitors went into partnership with merchants and the poor Indians were compelled to purchase articles for which they had no use and thrown into slavery to work out the debt if they failed to pay the wiser Viceroy's did not waste their energies in vain efforts to mitigate the profitable abuses they devoted their attention rather to the exaction of the last penny of taxes to be spent in maintaining the horde of office holders or to be remitted to Spain so rigidly was taxation enforced and so successful were the Spaniards in finding rich mines of silver gold and mercury that early in the 17th century the revenue had reached the sum enormous of those days of low prices of nearly 500,000 pounds of which about half was regularly sent to Madrid foreign nations could not effectively interfere with Spain's commercial and fiscal monopoly the Isthmus was in her hands and the voyage through Magellan's streets or around Cape Horn was too stormy and uncertain for the slow clumsy ships of that age and only a few English and Dutch expeditions half trading half piratical ravaged the coast towns in the 17th century the most memorable event of Peru's history during the 17th century was the revelation of the sovereign virtue of quinine the Lima physicians were unable to cure the countess of Chinchon, the viceroy's wife of a stubborn attack of malaria fever but director of the Jesuit college had received some fragments of an unknown bark from a Jesuit missionary to whom they had been given by an Indian in the mountainous wilds of southern Ecuador. Doses of this quickly restored the vice queen and when Linneus named the world's plants in scientific order he called the genus to which the three belonged, Chinchon, from the viceroy through whom its virtues had come to notice. The succession of the Bourbons to the Spanish crown at the beginning of the 18th century brought about a considerable change of colonial policy to England was conceded the privilege of exporting Negroes to South America and French vessels were permitted to come round the Horn and trade at Peruvian ports. The latter concession was soon revoked and the commerce of the Pacific coast again became a monopoly for the ring of merchants at Cadiz. The Atlantic however by this time swarmed with ships of all the European maritime powers and it was impossible to prevent smuggling at the Caribbean and Argentine ports. The Madrid government reluctantly came to the conclusion that it was impossible to administer effectually from Lima the provinces which were commercially tributary to the Caribbean sea. In 1740, Bohota on the populous plateau of eastern New Granada was made the capital of a new vice royalty under whose jurisdiction were placed the captaincy general of Venezuela and the presidency of Quito. Buenos Aires was a resort for contraband traders under non-Spanish flags and smuggling through that port so increased that goods coming from Spain by the Panama route were undersold in the markets of Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia and even Peru itself. In 1776 the Southern Atlantic region was detached from Lima and to the new vice royalty of Buenos Aires were attached not only the plate provinces Buenos Aires and Paraguay but also that part of Chile which lay east of the Andes as well as Tucumán and the Audiencia of Charcas as far north as Lake Titicaca. By these changes Peru was reduced to its present dimensions except that Chile remained attached as a semi-independent captaincy general. Three times since its foundation had Lima been nearly destroyed by earthquakes but none of them was to be compared with the convulsion which in 1746 reduced the whole city to a shapeless mass of ruins. More than a thousand people perished a great wave engulfed Cayao drowning half the population and carrying great ships far inland. The expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 was effected without difficulty. In the neighborhood of Lima alone they owed 5000 Negro slaves and property to the value of 2 million dollars and every penny of their immense accumulations was confiscated by the government. The great Indian rebellion which had so long been expected broke out in 1780 under the leadership of Tupac Amaru the lineal descendant of the last of the reigning Inca emperors. In Peru proper it did not spread beyond the southern frontier provinces and the story of its suppression belongs to Bolivia. The authorities were so alarmed that the reforms to procure which Tupac had risked and lost his life were shortly after voluntarily adopted. The vitality and fighting qualities of the half breeds now stood revealed and the Creoles, jealous of imported officials and dissatisfied at their exclusion from places of honor and profit, realized that a weapon lay ready to their hands when they should determine upon revolution. General Theodore the Croix, a flaming was entrusted with the reorganization and reform made necessary by the Indian rebellion. The Corregidors, petty tyrants over whom no effective control could be maintained were abolished. The country was divided into a few great provinces each ruled by an attendant to whom were responsible the Subdelhados who had charge of local affairs and measures taken for the enforcement of the laws intended to protect the Indians. By the year 1790 these valuable reforms had been put into effect but they came too late. Ideas of liberty had begun to infiltrate into the educated classes and among the Creoles the abstract right of Peru to autonomous government became the subject of secret the widespread discussion. A succession of able and liberal viceroys however averted the danger for the time and the outbreak of the revolution in the rest of South America found Peru ruled by Abascal whose energy, foresight and determination not only prevented an insurrection at Lima but nearly saved all South America to Spain. End of section 4