USA > California > The Spanish Pioneers And The California Missions > Part 14
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1 Pronounced kay-brah-das.
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distrust. Nothing but a confident front could save them now.
The Spaniards suffered much from cold in cross- ing that lofty upland ; and even the descent on the east side of the Cordillera was full of difficulty. On the seventh day they came in sight of Caxamarca in its pretty oval valley, - a pocket of the great range. Off to one side was the camp of the Inca war-captain and his army, covering a great area. On the 15th of November, 1532, the Spaniards entered the town. It was absolutely deserted, - a serious and danger- ous omen. Pizarro halted in the great square or common, and sent De Soto and Hernando Pizarro with thirty-five cavalry to Atahualpa's camp to ask an interview. They found the Indian surrounded by a luxury which startled them ; and the overwhelming number of warriors impressed them no less. To their request Atahualpa replied that to-day he was keeping a sacred fast (itself a highly suspicious fact), but to-morrow he would visit the Spaniards in the town. "Take the houses on the square," he said, " and enter no others. They are for the use of all. When I come, I will give orders what shall be done."
The Peruvians, who had never seen a horse before, were astounded at these mounted strangers, and doubly charmed when De Soto, who was a gallant horseman, displayed his prowess, - not for vanity ; it was a matter of very serious importance to impress these outnumbering barbarians with the dangerous abilities of the strangers.
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The events of the next day deserve special atten- tion, as they and their direct consequences have been the basis of the unjust charge that Pizarro was a cruel man. The real facts are his full justification.
On the morning of November 16, after an anxious night, the Spaniards were up with the first gray dawn. It was plain now that they had walked right into the trap ; and the chances were a hundred to one that they would never get out. Their Indian spy had warned them truly. Here they were cooped up in the town, one hundred and sixty-eight of them; and within easy distance were the un- numbered thousands of the Indians. Worse yet, they saw their retreat cut off; for in the night Atahualpa had thrown a large force between them and the pass by which they had entered. Their case was absolutely hopeless, - nothing but a miracle could save them. But their miracle was ready, -it was Pizarro.
It is by one of the finest provisions of Nature that the right sort of minds think best and swiftest when there is most need for them to think quickly and well. In the supreme moment all the crowding, jumbled thoughts of the full brain seem to be sud- denly swept aside, to leave a clear space down which the one great thought may leap forward like the runner to his goal, - or like the lightning which splits the slow, tame air asunder even as its fire dashes on its way. Most intelligent persons have that mental lightning sometimes ; and when it can be relied on to come and instantly illumine the
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THE CONQUEST OF PERU.
darkest crisis, it is the insight of genius. It was that which made Napoleon, Napoleon; and made Pizarro, Pizarro.
There was need of some wonderfully rapid, some almost superhuman thinking. What could over- come those frightful odds? Ah! Pizarro had it ! He did not know, as we know now, what super- stitious reasons made the Indians revere Atahualpa so ; but he did know that the influence existed. Somewhat as Pizarro was to the Spaniards, was their war-captain to the Peruvians, - not only their military head, but literally equal to " a host in him- self." Very well ! If he could capture this treach- erous chieftain, it would reduce the odds greatly ; indeed, it would be the bloodless equivalent of depriving the hostile force of several thousand men. Besides, Atahualpa would be a pledge for the peace of his people. And as the only way out of destruction, Pizarro determined to capture the war-captain.
For this brilliant strategy he at once made care- ful preparations. The cavalry, in two divisions commanded respectively by Hernando de Soto and Hernando Pizarro, was hidden in two great hallways which opened into the square. In a third hallway were put the infantry ; and with twenty men Pizarro took his position at a fourth commanding point. Pedro de Candia, with the artillery, - two poor little falconets, - was stationed on the top of a strong building. Pizarro then made a devout address to his soldiers; and with public prayers to God to
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aid and preserve them, the little force awaited its enemy.
The day was nearly gone when Atahualpa entered town, riding on a golden chair borne high on the shoulders of his servants. He had promised to come for a friendly visit, and unarmed ; but singu- larly his friendly visit was made with a following of several thousand athletic warriors ! Ostensibly they were unarmed ; but underneath their cloaks they clutched bows and knives and war-clubs. Ata- hualpa was certainly not above curiosity, uncon- cerned as he had seemed. This new sort of men was too interesting to be exterminated at once. He wished to see more of them, and so came, but per- fectly confident, as a cruel boy might be with a fly. He could watch its buzzings for a time; and when- ever he was tired of that, he had but to turn down his thumb and crush the fly upon the pane. He reckoned too soon. A hundred and seventy Spanish bodies might be easily crushed ; but not when they were animated by one such mind as their leader's.
Even now Pizarro was ready to adopt peaceful measures. Good Fray Vicente de Valverde, the chaplain of the little army, stepped forth to meet Atahualpa. It was a strange contrast, - the quiet, gray-robed missionary, with his worn Bible in his hand, facing the cunning Indian on his golden throne, with golden ornaments and a necklace of emeralds. Father Valverde spoke. He said they came as servants of a mighty king and of the true God. They came as friends; and all they asked
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was that the Indian chief should abandon his idols and submit to God, and accept the king of Spain as his ally, not as his sovereign.
Atahualpa, after looking curiously at the Bible (for of course he had never seen a book before), dropped it, and answered the missionary curtly and almost insultingly. Father Valverde's exhortations only angered the Indian, and his words and manner grew more menacing. Atahualpa desired to see the sword of one of the Spaniards, and it was shown him. Then he wished to draw it; but the soldier wisely declined to allow him. Father Valverde did not, as has been charged, then urge a massacre ; he merely reported to Pizarro the failure of his con- ciliatory efforts. The hour had come. Atahualpa might now strike at any moment ; and if he struck first, there was absolutely no hope for the Spaniards. Their only salvation was in turning the tables, and surprising the surprisers. Pizarro waved his scarf to Candia ; and the ridiculous little cannon on the housetop boomed across the square. It did not hit anybody, and was not meant to; it was merely to terrify the Indians, who had never heard a gun, and to give the signal to the Spaniards. The descriptions of how the "smoke from the artillery rolled in sulphurous volumes along the square, blinding the Peruvians, and making a thick gloom," can best be appreciated when we remember that all this deadly cloud had to come from two little pop-cannon that were carried over the mountains on horseback, and three old flintlock muskets ! Yet in such a ridicu-
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lous fashion have most of the events of the conquest been written about.
Not less false and silly are current descriptions of the "massacre " which ensued. The Spaniards all sallied out at the signal and fell upon the Indians, and finally drove them from the square. We cannot believe that two thousand were slain, when we con- sider how many Indians one man would be capable of killing with a sword or clubbed musket or cross- bow in half an hour's running fight, and multiplying that by one hundred and sixty-eight ; for after such a computation we should believe, not that two thou- sand, but two hundred is about the right figure for those killed at Caxamarca.
The chief efforts of the Spaniards were necessa- rily not to kill, but to drive off the other Indians and capture Atahualpa. Pizarro had given stern orders that the chief must not be hurt. He did not wish to kill him, but to secure him alive as a hostage for the peaceful conduct of his people. The body- guard of the war-captain made a stout resistance ; and one excited Spaniard hurled a missile at Atahu- alpa. Pizarro sprang forward and took the wound in his own arm, saving the Indian chief. At last Atahualpa was secured unhurt, and was placed in one of the buildings under a strong guard. He admitted - with the characteristic bravado of an Indian, whose traditional habit it is to show his courage by taunting his captors-that he had let them come in, secure in his overwhelming numbers, to make slaves of such as pleased him, and put the
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others to death. He might have added that had the wily war-chief his father been alive, this never would have happened. Experienced old Huayna Capac would never have let the Spaniards enter the town, but would have entangled and annihilated them in the wild mountain passes. But Atahualpa, being more conceited and less prudent, had taken a needless risk, and now found himself a prisoner and his army routed. The biter was bitten.
The distinguished captive was treated with the utmost care and kindness. He was a prisoner only in that he could not go out ; but in the spacious and pleasant rooms assigned him he had every comfort. His family lived with him; his food, the best that could be procured, he ate from his own dishes ; and every wish was gratified except the one wish to get out and rally his Indians for war. Father Valverde, and Pizarro himself, labored earnestly to convert Atahualpa to Christianity, explaining the worthless- ness and wickedness of his idols, and the love of the true God, - as well as they could to an Indian, to whom, of course, a Christian God was incomprehen- sible. The worthlessness of his own gods Atahualpa was not slow to admit. He frankly declared that they were nothing but liars. Huayna Capac had consulted them, and they answered that he would live a great while yet, - and Huayna Capac had promptly died. Atahualpa himself had gone to ask the oracle if he should attack the Spaniards : the oracle had answered yes, and that he would easily conquer them. No wonder the Inca war-chief had lost confidence in the makers of such predictions.
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The Spaniards gathered many llamas, considerable gold, and a large store of fine garments of cotton and camel's-hair. They were no longer molested ; for the Indians without their professional war-maker were even more at a loss than a civilized army would be without its officers, for the Indian leader has a priestly as well as a military office, - and their leader was a prisoner.
At last Atahualpa, anxious to get back to his forces at any cost, made a proposition so startling that the Spaniards could scarce believe their ears. If they would set him free, he promised to fill the room wherein he was a prisoner as high as he could reach with gold, and a smaller room with silver ! The room to be filled with golden vessels and trinkets (nothing so compact as ingots) is said to have been twenty- two feet long and seventeen wide ; and the mark he indicated on the wall with his fingers was nine feet from the floor !
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VI. THE GOLDEN RANSOM.
T HERE is no reason whatever to doubt that Pizarro accepted this proposition in perfect good faith. The whole nature of the man, his reli- gion, the laws of Spain, and the circumstantial evi- dence of his habitual conduct lead us to believe that he intended to set Atahualpa free when the ransom should have been paid. But later circum- stances, in which he had neither blame nor control, simply forced him to a different course.
Atahualpa's messengers dispersed themselves through Peru to gather the gold and silver for the ransom. Meanwhile, Huascar, - who, you will re- member, was a prisoner in the hands of Atahualpa's men, - having heard of the arrangement, sent word to the Spaniards setting forth his own claims. Pizarro ordered that he should be brought to Caxamarca to tell his story. The only way to learn which of the rival war-captains was right in his claims was to bring them together and weigh their respective pretensions. But this by no mean suited Atahualpa. Before Huascar could be brought to Caxamarca he was assassinated by his Indian keepers, the henchmen of Atahualpa, - and, it is commonly agreed, by Atahualpa's orders.
17
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The gold and silver for the ransom came in slowly. Historically there is no doubt what was Atahualpa's plan in the whole arrangement. He was merely buying time, - alluring the Spaniards to wait and wait, until he could collect his forces to his rescue, and then wipe out the invaders. This, indeed, began to dawn on the Spaniards. Tempting as was the golden bait, they suspected the trap behind it. It was not long before their fears were confirmed. They began to learn of the secret rallying of the Indian forces. The news grew worse and worse ; and even the daily arrival of gold -some days as high as $50,000 in weight - could not blind them to the growing danger.
It was necessary to learn more of the situation than they could know while shut up in Caxamarca ; and Hernando Pizarro was sent out with a small force to scout to Guamachucho and thence to Pacha- cámac, three hundred miles. It was a difficult and dangerous reconnoissance, but full of interest. Their way along the table-land of the Cordillera was a toil- some one. The story of great military roads is largely a myth, though much had been done to improve the trails, - a good deal after the rude fashion of the Pueblo's of New Mexico, but on a larger scale. The improvements, however, had been only to adapt the trails for the sure-footed llama ; and the Spanish horses could with great difficulty be hauled and pushed up the worst parts. Especially were the Spaniards impressed with the rude but effective swinging bridges of vines, with which the Indians
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had spanned narrow but fearful chasms; yet even these swaying paths were most difficult to be crossed with horses.
After several weeks of severe travel, the party reached Pachacamac without opposition. The fa- mous temple there had been stripped of its treasures, but its famous god-an ugly idol of wood - re- mained. The Spaniards dethroned and smashed this pagan fetich, purified the temple, and set up in it a large cross to dedicate it to God. They explained to the natives, as best they could, the nature of Christianity, and tried to induce them to adopt it.
Here it was learned that Chalicuchima, one of Atahualpa's subordinate war-captains, was at Xauxa with a large force ; and Hernando decided to visit him. The horses were in ill shape for so hard a march ; for their shoes had been entirely worn out in the tedious journey, and how to shoe them was a puzzle : there was no iron in Peru. But Her- nando met the difficulty with a startling expedient. If there was no iron, there was plenty of silver; and in a short time the Spanish horses were shod with that precious metal, and ready for the march to Xauxa. It was an arduous journey, but well worth making. Chalicuchima voluntarily decided to go with the Spaniards to Caxamarca to consult with his superior, Atahualpa. Indeed, it was just the chance he desired. £ A personal conference would enable them to see exactly what was best to be done to get rid of these mysterious strangers.
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So the adventurous Spaniards and the wily sub-chief got back at last to Caxamarca together.
Meanwhile Atahualpa had fared very well at the hands of his captors. Much as they had reason to distrust, and did distrust, the treacherous Indian, they treated him not only humanely but with the utmost kindness. He lived in luxury with his family and retainers, and was much associated with the Spaniards. They seem to have been trying their ut- most to make him their friend, - which was Pizar- ro's principle all along. Prejudiced historians can find no answer to one significant fact. The Indi- ans came to regard Pizarro and his brothers Gonzalo and Juan as their friends, - and an Indian, suspi- cious and observant far beyond us, is one of the last men in the world to be fooled in such things. Had the Pizarros been the cruel, merciless men that partisan and ill-informed writers have represented them to be, the aborigines would have been the first to see it and to hate them. The fact that the people they conquered became their friends and admirers is the best of testimony to their humanity and justice.
Atahualpa was even taught to play chess and other European games; and besides these efforts for his amusement, pains was also taken to give him more and more understanding of Christianity. Notwithstanding all this, his unfriendly plots were continually going on.
In the latter part of May the three emissaries who had been sent to Cuzco for a portion of the ransom got back to Caxamarca with a great treasure. From
ATAHUALPA'S HOUSE, CAXAMARCA
1
.
I
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THE GOLDEN RANSOM.
the famous Temple of the Sun alone the Indians had given them seven hundred golden plates; and that was only a part of the payment from Cuzco. The messengers brought back two hundred loads of gold and twenty-five of silver, each load being carried on a sort of hand-barrow by four Indians. This great contribution swelled the ransom per- ceptibly, though the room was not yet nearly filled to the mark agreed upon. Pizarro, however, was not a Shylock. The ransom was not complete, but it was enough; and he had his notary draw up a document formally freeing Atahualpa from any further payment, -in fact, giving him a receipt in full. But he felt obliged to delay setting the war- captain at liberty. The murder of Huascar and similar symptoms showed that it would be suicidal to turn Atahualpa loose now. His intentions, though masked, were fully suspected, and so Pizarro told him that it would be necessary to keep him as a hostage a little longer. Before it would be safe for him to release Atahualpa he knew that he must have a larger force to withstand the attack which Ata- hualpa was sure at once to organize. He was rather better acquainted with the Indian vindictive- ness than some of his closest critics are.
Meantime Almagro had at last got away from Pan- ama with one hundred and fifty foot and fifty horse, in three vessels; and landing in Peru, he reached San Miguel in December, 1532. Here he heard with astonishment of Pizarro's magical success, and of the golden booty, and at once communicated with him. At the same time his secretary secretly
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forwarded a treacherous letter to Pizarro, trying to arouse enmity and betray Almagro. The secretary had gone to the wrong man, however, for Pizarro spurned the contemptible offer. Indeed, his treat- ment of his unadmirable associate from first to last was more than just ; it was forbearing, friendly, and magnanimous to a degree. He now sent Almagro assurance of his friendship, and generously welcomed him to share the golden field which had been won with very little help from him. Almagro reached Caxamarca in February, 1533, and was cordially received by his old companion-in-arms.
The vast ransom - a treasure to which there is no parallel in history - was now divided. This division in itself was a labor involving no small prudence and skill. The ransom was not in coin or ingots, but in plates, vessels, images, and trinkets varying greatly in weight and in purity. It had to be reduced to something like a common standard. Some of the most remarkable specimens were saved to send to Spain ; the rest was melted down to in- gots by the Indian smiths, who were busy a month with the task. The result was almost fabulous. There were 1,326,539 pesos de oro, commercially worth, in those days, some five times their weight, - that is, about $6,632,695. Besides this vast sum of gold there were 51,610 marks of silver, equivalent by the same standard to $1,135,420 now.
The Spaniards were assembled in the public square of Caxamarca. Pizarro prayed that God would help him to divide the treasure justly, and the apportionment began. First, a fifth of the whole
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great golden heap was weighed out for the king of Spain, as Pizarro had promised in the capitulacion. Then the conquerors took their shares in the order of their rank. Pizarro received 57,222 pesos de oro, and 2,350 marks of silver, besides the golden chair of Atahualpa, which weighed $25,000. Hernando his brother got 31,080 pesos de oro, and 2,350 marks of silver. De Soto had 17,749 pesos de oro, and 724 marks of silver. There were sixty cavalrymen, and most of them received 8,880 pesos de oro, and 362 marks of silver. Of the one hundred and five infantry, part got half as much as the cavalry each, and part one fourth less. Nearly $100,000 worth of gold was set aside to endow the first church in Peru, - that of St. Francis. Shares were also given Almagro and his followers, and the men who had stayed behind at San Miguel. That Pizarro suc- ceeded in making an equitable division is best evi- denced by the absence of any complaints, - and his associates were not in the habit of keeping quiet under even a fancied injustice. Even his defamers have never been able to impute dishonesty to the gallant conqueror of Peru.
To put in more graphic shape the results of this dazzling windfall, we may tabulate the list, giving each share in its value in dollars to-day : -
To the Spanish Crown $1,553,623
" Francisco Pizarro . 462,810
" Hernando Pizarro . 207,100
" De Soto . 104,628
" each cavalryman 52,364
" each infantryman 26,182
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All this was besides the fortunes given Almagro and his men and the church.
This is the nearest statement that can be made of the value of the treasure. The study of the enor- mously complicated and varying currency values of those days is in itself the work for a whole lifetime ; but the above figures are practically correct. Pres- cott's estimate that the peso de oro was worth eleven dollars at that time is entirely unfounded ; it was close to five dollars. The mark of silver is much more difficult to determine, and Prescott does not attempt it at all. The mark was not a coin, but a weight ; and its commercial value was about twenty- two dollars at that time.
ATAHUALPA'S TREACHERY.
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VII.
ATAHUALPA'S TREACHERY AND DEATH.
B UT in the midst of their happiness at this realization of their golden dreams, - and we may half imagine how they felt, after a life of pov- erty and great suffering, at now finding themselves rich men, - the Spaniards were rudely interrupted by less pleasant realities. The plots of the Indians, always suspected, now seemed unmistakable. News of an uprising came in from every hand. It was reported that two hundred thousand warriors from Quito and thirty thousand of the cannibal Caribs were on their way to fall upon the little Spanish force. Such rumors are always exaggerated; but this was probably founded on fact. Nothing else was to be expected by any one even half so familiar with the Indian character as the Spaniards were. At all events, our judgment of what followed must be guided not merely by what was true, but even more by what the Spaniards believed to be true. They had reason to believe, and there can be no ques- tion whatever that they did believe, that Atahualpa's machinations were bringing a vastly superior force down upon them, and that they were in imminent peril of their lives. Their newly acquired wealth
.
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only made them the more nervous. It is a curious but common phase of human nature that we do not realize half so much the many hidden dangers to our lives until we have acquired something which makes life seem better worth the living. One may often see how a fearless man suddenly becomes cau- tious, and even laughably fearful, when he gets a dear wife or child to think of and protect; and I doubt if any stirring boy has come to twenty years without suddenly being reminded, by the posses- sion of some little treasure, how many things might happen to rob him of the chance to enjoy it. He sees and feels dangers that he had never thought of before.
The Spaniards certainly had cause enough to be alarmed for their lives, without any other consid- eration ; but the sudden treasure which gave those lives such promise of new and hard-earned bright- ness undoubtedly made their apprehensions more acute, and spurred them to more desperate efforts to escape.
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