of their Parents In times of War the Generals and Captains assumed the same power over their Souldiery and took the same care of them as the Decurions did in the time of Peace whose Offices besides the matters before mentioned obliged them to take an account of the Births and Burials of all those that were born or died that year under their jurisdiction and of those who went to the War. Those people whom they conquered though subdued by force of Arms yet they did never plunder or take away their goods This word Decurion which is composed from the Latin Decem which is ten and cura care that is a care over ten answers directly to the Indian word Chunca camayu chunca signifying ten and camayu care and by information of these the Incas came to a knowledge of the number of their Subjects in every Province that so according thereunto they might proportion the Taxes and Impositions for publick Works such as the building of Bridges making and repairing High-ways erecting Forts and Royal Palaces with what number of Souldiers they ought to serve the Inca in his Wars By these computations also the Inca was better enabled to send Provisions into those Provinces which by reason of the sterility of the year occasioned by Flouds or unseasonable weather were become wanting of Corn or Cottons or Wool all which were administred and sent with such readiness and expedition that as Blas Valera often says the Incas took such care of their Subjects providing for them in all their necessities that they might rather be styled Fathers of their Countrey and Guardians of their Pupils than Kings over Subjects and to express this care in one word the Indians gave them the title of Lovers of the Poor And lest the Superiour Governours should be remiss or negligent in the execution of their Offices there was a Monitor or Remembrancer appointed called Tucuy-ricoc which is as much as a Supervisor or Informer and his duty it was to put the Officers in mind of the matters relating to their Government so that in case any of these should be found remiss in his charge or guilty of any crime his punishment was always proportioned to his quality rather than his fault it being an opinion amongst them that the least evil was not to be tolerated in a Minister of Justice who was chosen by the Sun and the Inca to eradicate Evils and therefore was obliged to be more upright and observant of the Laws than the other Subjects CHAP. VI. Of certain Laws Ordained by the Incas and of the Opinion That the Incas and those of the Royal Bloud can doe no wrong or offend contrary to Law. PEcuniary Mulcts or Confiscation of Goods were never imposed by the Incas in way of punishment for any offence they esteeming nothing satisfactory to Law but that which required the extirpation of the Evils rather than the Life of the Offendour for that all other remedies give but onely encouragement and liberty to transgress If a Curaca or Lord rebelled which was always punished with most severity by the Inca and that thereby he forfeited his life the Estate notwithstanding descended to his Son or to his Heir but with due admonition that by such example he should beware of the Treason and Rebellion of his Father so likewise if any Cacique or Officer was deprived of his place or his Seigniory for faults committed the next Heir succeeded in it whether he were a Son or a Brother the same rule also was observed amongst the Souldiery whose Commanders were Natives of the Countrey and their Generals or chief Commanders were Princes of the Bloud under whom the Captains and Superiour Officers esteemed it for a particular honour and favour to serve No Judge had power to moderate the Sentence of Law by any Rule of Equity but rather to exact the severity of it for being ordained by the Wisedom of the Incas and the concurrence of Wise men it ought neither to be controlled or rendred more equitable by the sense and practice of particular Judges who are capable of being corrupted or overcome by favour or affection to a party And though it may seem very barbarous and unreasonable that every offence should be punished with Death and that there should be no difference between the crimes of a higher and the faults of a lesser nature yet considering the benefit which the Publick received thereby and that the Evils rather than the Persons were taken away such a constitution ought not to be esteemed unjust or irrational For in regard that men naturally love life and fear and abhor death they studiously fled from the appearance of any thing which might bring them within the danger of it so that in all this great Empire which reaches 1300 Leagues in length consisting of divers Nations and Languages we scarce have heard in the space of a whole year so much as of the punishment of a single person and to this obedience and submission to Law the opinion of the Sanctity of it did much avail and the belief that it was delivered by the Sun who was their God and by revelation inspired into the minds of the Incas his children so encreased the veneration and honour they had for it that none could be esteemed a breaker of the Law but who also therewith was guilty of sacrilege or violation of the holy and divine Sanction Hence it was that many finding a remorse of conscience within themselves in sense of some secret faults they had committed have often without accusation presented themselves before the Tribunals of Justice confessing publickly their offences by reason of which diseases deaths and distresses had befallen their People and Nation and therefore desired that their lives might be offered to their God as an expiation and an attonement for their sin This sort of confession was the ground of the mistake of certain Spanish Historians who report that Auricular confession was practised amongst the Indians whereas I am certain that amongst those of Peru for I treat of no other it was never accustomary to make other Confessions than such as were publick No Appeals as we have said were allowable in any case whatsoever for every people having its proper Judge no Process was to continue longer than five days before it was finally determined onely in obscure and difficult cases the matter was brought before the Superiour Governour who resided in the capital City rather than before the common Judge of the Province The Inferiour Judges rendred every month an account to their Superiours of all the Law-suits which were brought before them and of the Sentences they gave in the determination thereof to the end that they might see and judge whether true Sentence were given and the Laws rightly administred This information from one to another came at length to the Inca and in regard they were not as yet arrived to the knowledge of Letters they gave these Informations to the Incas and his
For if there be a necessity of a common Language between Nations who desire commerce and conversation together much more is it requisite between people so remote as we are for indeed to treat by Interpreters ignorant of both Tongues is like the inarticulate sound of domestick Animals and such O Man of God seems this discourse thou hast made me by this Interpreter And now so far as I understand methinks the discourse seems much different to what your Ambassadours lately propounded for they treated of nothing but Peace and Friendship of Alliance and Consanguinity but now all the Words of this Indian are nothing but Menaces of Wars and Death and Fire and Sword with the Extirpation and Banishment of the Incas and their Progeny and that I must voluntarily or by force renounce a right to my Kingdom and become Tributary to another From whence I collect one of these two things that either you and your Prince are Tyrants and rove about to plunder the World and to dispossess others of their Kingdoms killing and spoiling those who owe you nothing and have never offered you injury or violence or otherwise you are the Ministers of God called by us Pachacamac whom he hath sent to visit us with vengeance and destruction And if it be so both I and my Vassals do offer our selves to death and to what punishment soever you will inflict upon us not for fear or out of any dread we have of your Menaces or Arms but in compliance with the Commands enjoyned us by my Father Huayna Capac at the time of his death which was that we should serve and honour a Nation with Beards like your selves which were to enter into these parts after his days and of which he prophesied some years before your Ships coasted about our Countrey and whom he declared to be Men of better Laws of more refined Customs more wise and more valiant than our selves Wherefore to fulfill the Prophecy and Testament of my Father we style you Viracochas understanding thereby that you are the Messengers of the Great God Viracocha whose Will and Pleasure just Indignation Arms and Power we are unable to resist and yet we are assured that he is all Goodness and Mercy And for that reason you who are his Ministers and Executioners of his Will ought to abstain from such Robberies Slaughter and Violences as you have committed in Tumpiz and the adjacent Countries In the next place your Interpreter acquaints me of five great Personages whom I am to acknowledge The first is God who is three and one that is four whom you call the Creator of this Universe which perhaps may be the same whom we call Pachacamac and Viracocha The second is the Father of all Mankind on whom all other Men have heaped their Sins The third you call Jesus Christ who was the onely Person excepted who did not cast his Sins on the first Man but that he dyed The fourth you name is the Pope The fifth is Charles whom in comparison with others you call the most Powerfull Monarch of the Universe and the Supreme Lord of all But then if Charles be the Prince and Lord of the World what need was there for the Pope to give a new Grant and another Commission to make War upon me and Usurp my Kingdoms for consequently the Pope must be a greater Prince than he and the most powerfull of any in the World. But I cannot but most admire at what you say that I am obliged to pay Tribute to Charles onely and not to others the which you alledge without giving me any reason and indeed I cannot conceive on what score I am obliged to pay it for if I were bound to pay Tribute and Service to any methinks it should be to that God who you say created all things and to that first Man who was the Father of all Mankind and to that Jesus Christ who had no Sins to impute unto him and in fine if Tribute were to be given it should rather be unto the Pope who hath Power and Authority to dispose of my Kingdoms and my Person And if you say that I owe nothing unto any of these I should imagine that I owe much less unto Charles who was never Lord of these Countries nor ever saw them And if the Pope's Grant and Concession be obligatory to me it were just and reasonable to declare it to me before you threaten me with War and Fire and Sword and Death for I am not so void of understanding and sense as not to obey the Pope in case you can shew me reason and justice and cause for it Moreover I desire to be informed who that good Man Jesus Christ was who you say never laid his Sins on another but that he dyed I would gladly know whether he dyed of a natural death or by the hands of his Enemies and whether he was numbred amongst the Gods before his death or afterwards And farther I desire to be informed whether these five which you highly honour are adored by you for Gods for if it be so you hold more for Gods than we who acknowledge no other than the Pachacamac who is the Supreme and the Sun who is inferiour to him and the Moon who is his Sister and Wife In which doubtfull Questions I heartily desire to be truly resolved by some other more able and faithfull Interpreter that â—â— I may be made more capable thereby to know and obey your Will and Commands CHAP. XXV Of the great tumult and disturbance which happened between the Indians and the Spaniards THE Inca observing the inability of the Interpreter endeavoured to assist him in expressing his Answer First by uttering his Speech by short periods causing him to express one thing before he proceeded to another and secondly he spake in the Language of Chincasuyu which the Interpreter understood better than the Language of Cozco by which means Philippillio did better express the sense and intention of the Inca though he did it in a most barbarous manner So soon as the Inca had ended his discourse the Keepers of the Quipus were commanded to note the sense and particulars of all things delivered by their Knots which were the onely cypher they had whereby to conserve their traditions to future Ages By this time the Spaniards growing weary of this long and tedious discourse began to quit their places and come up close to the Indians to fight with them and rob them of their Jewels of Gold and Silver and pretious Stones with which they had that day decked themselves that in a solemn manner they might appear in their finery to receive the Embassy which was sent them from the Universal Monarch of the World Some Spaniards also climbed a little Tower to plunder an Idol which they had adorned with Plates of Gold and Silver and pretious Stones the which outrage caused great noise and tumult amongst the Indians which when the Inca perceived he cried out with a loud voice
Francisco Carvajal Major General to Gonçalo Piçarro marches into the Charcas 721. The Character given of him 723. Carvajal continues â—his pursuit after Diego Centeno 724. His Cruelty 725. Cepeda the Judge accompanies Piçarro and fights more like a Souldier than a Lawyer 738. Centeno acts by Strategem of War against Francisco Carvajal 739. Francisco Carvajal kills Lope de Mendoça and enters into the Charcas 743. Sends his Head to Arequepa and how he suppressed a Mutiny 745 746. His gratitude in Arequepa to Corncjo 809. Carvajal writes to Piçarro to proclaim himself King and his Reasons for it 747 748. The Strategem used by him at Huarina 796 801. Centeno and his other Captains come out of their Caves and appear for his Majesty 769. He fights with Pedro de Maldonado and enters into Cozco 777. He is chosen Commander in chief 778. An Agreement is made between him and Alonso de Mendoça 779. He gives an Account to the President of a Message sent to him by Piçarro 792. He is overcome at the Battel of Huarina 798. and flyes 803. His unfortunate death in the Charcas 861. The Contrera's by their leud Practices and Follies lose the Treasure they had gotten with their Lives 873. Cepeda the Judge advises Piçarro to make a Peace with the President 812. Cepeda's death 870. A Challenge between Paulo de Meneses and Martin de Robles and how the Quarrel was taken up 890. Carvajal gives Counsel to Piçarro which is rejected 818. He persuades Gonçalo Piçarro not to march out of Cozco p. 825. He is taken and imprisoned 834. His Discourse with Gasca the â—â—endent 835. He is visited in Prison and his Discourses with those who visited him 836 837. What he said and did on the day of his death 840 841. His Cloaths and quaint Sayings 843. Other like Passages of Carvajal and what befell a Boy who touched one of his Quarters 845. Carvajal the Lawyer his unfortunate death at Cozco 861. Carrillo commits great Robberies and the manner of his death 954. Caâ—â—te a Marquis designed for Vice-king of Peru 981. He arrives there 984. He issues out Orders to prevent Mutinies 985. He puts Vazquez Picdrahita and Alonzo Diaz to death notwithstanding their Pardons 986. He banishes thirty seven men of those into Spain who make Demands for their late Services 989. He contrives means to bring the Inca who was Heir to the Empire out of the Mountains 991. He raises Horse and Foot for security of the Empire 1000. His Death 1007. Castro the Lawyer is appointed Governour of Peru. D. DIvision of their Flocks how and of other strange Beasts 146. Divinations made from their Sacrifices 221. Distinctions made between the Kings and other Inca's 231. Devils struck dumb by a Sacrament 465. Diego Centeno pursues Alonso de Toro 721. The Division of Lands the second time 869. Duels in the Charcas 888. E. EDucation of young Noble-men at Court 252. Emeralds vide Pearls The Embassy and Presents sent by the Inca's to the Spaniards 440. Embassadours sent to Atahualpa 443. The Speech and the Inca's Answer 446. They return again to their Companions 448. Executions done on several Captains belonging to Piçarro 837. Egas de Guzman a bold Fellow causes an Insurrection in Potocsi 896. What happened thereupon p. 903. He is drawn and quartered 904. F. THE manner of Fishing used by the Indians 80. The Festivals kept up when they tilled the Grounds dedicated to the Sun 133. Festivals to the Sun how celebrated 217 219. How at those Feasts they drank one to the other 223. The third Festival to the Sun 257. The fourth Festival 258. Feasts at night to purifie the City 260. Fruits and Trees of the largest Size 320. Fruits of Spain 392. Fowle wild and tame 334 326 337. Fish taken in the four great Rivers 338. Of Flax Asparagus c. 395. The Faithfulness of the Indians to their Masters 487. The Foundation of the City of Los Reyes and Truxillo 521. Festivals of Joy made for Gonçalo Piçarro 703. The Festival of the H. Sacrament celebrated at Cozco by Indians and Spaniards 977. G. THE Government of the ancient Inca's 8. Gold and Silver given to the Inca's not as tribute but in Presents 141. Of Gold and Silver 344. Giants in the Countrey of Manta 363. Garçilasso de la Vega and his Companions meet difficulties in discovering the Countrey of Buena Ventura 565. Gaspar Rodriguez and his Friends pardoned 685. He is killed 687. De la Gasca a Lawyer is chosen by the Emperour Charles the Fifth to reduce Peru 755. His Commission and Arrival at Nombre de Dios 757. Pedro de la Gasca hath the Title of President sends Hernan Mexia to quiet disturbances at Panama raised by Pedro de Hinojosa 759. Sends an Ambassadour to Gonçalo Piçarro 761. His Letter to him 764. He departs from Panama and goes to Tumpiz 772. He arrives there and issues out Orders 781. He comes to Sausa 792. He receives the ill News of the defeat of Centeno 811. His departure from Sausa and arrival at Antahuaylla 815. He comes to the River Apurimac and the Difficulties he found in the passage 823. Gasca the President marches towards Cozco p. 826. He publishes new Orders for the Suppression of Rebels 851. With what Difficulty he answers the Importunity of Pretenders 852. His Letter to them 853. He goes to Los Reyes and leaves Cozco ibid. His great Cares and Troubles he suppresses Mutinies his great Patience 863. He embarques for Spain 869. He recovers the Treasure he had lost 875. He arrives in Spain 876. Giron vide Hernandez A great Galeon with Eight hundred People therein how burned 982. H. OF their Handicraft-trades and Work p. 52. The High-priest his Name c. 90. Huswifery of the Women 112. Hanco-huallu the Valiant flies out of the Empire 177. Huntings how made 194 195. Of the Huanacu ibid. Huamachucu the good Curaca how reduced 207. Huacrachucu conquered by the Inca's 301. Huayna Capac's three Marriages His Father's Death and Sayings 316. A Chain of Gold made by Huayna Capac as big as a Cable 349. Huayna Capac his Valour 359. His Sayings relating to the Sun 365. He receives intelligence that the Spaniards sail along the Coast of Peru 371. His last Testament and Death 374. Horses and Mares how first bred in Peru and of the great Prices of them 376. Of Hens and Pigeons 385. Herbs for Gardens and other Herbs 393. Huascar raises Forces to resist his Brother Atabaliba 400. He demands Succour and Justice from the Spaniards 466. Huascar's death 469. Hinojosa named Pedro sails with a Fleet of Ships belonging to Piçarro unto Panama 726. Huarina vide Battel Hinojosa takes Vela Nunnez in his Voyage 728. He delivers the Fleet of Piçarro into the hands of the President Gasca 762. The great Estate given him 855. Hostages are sent between the President and Gonçalo Piçarro and the Caution used therein 783. Hernandez Giron greatly discontented and why p. 857. He receives a
discourse with the Devil imagining that by such submission and resignation of their Persons they obliged their Familiar to hear and answer them And of this Idolatry I can give testimony because I have seen it with my own eyes All the Priests of the Sun in the City of Cozco were of the Bloud-Royal though for the inferiour Officers of it such others were assigned as had gained the privilege of being called Incas Their High Priest was either to be Brother or Uncle to their King or some other of nearest Bloud their Priests used no Vestments different from others In other Provinces those which were Natives or related to the Principal men were made Priests though the Chief Priest amongst them was an Inca that matters might bear some conformity with the Imperial City which rule was also observed in all Offices relating to War and Peace that so the Natives might have their share in the Government and not seem to be slighted or neglected They had also some Houses for Virgins which professed a perpetual Virginity where they ever remained Recluses of which and of the King's Concubines we shall have occasion hereafter to treat more at large All these Laws in Government and Rites in Religion they pretend for the greater authority of them to have received from their first Inca Manco Capac and that where Matters were imperfect it was left to his Successours to establish and complete For as they affirm that these Laws both in Religion and Government were derived from the Sun and inspired by him into his Children the Incas so it is hard to affirm to whom in particular such and such Laws were to be attributed CHAP. V. The Division of the Empire into four Parts and of the Registers kept by the Decurions and what their Office was THE Incas divided their Empire into four Parts which they called Tavantinsuyu and signifies the four Quarters of the Heavens viz. East West North and South The City of Cozco they esteemed the Point and Centre of all and in the Indian Language is as much as the Navel of the Earth for the Countrey of Peru being long and narrow in fashion of a Man's body and that City in the middle it may aptly be termed the Navel of that Empire To the Eastward they called the Countrey Antisuyu from the Province Anti which extends all along that great Mountain which runs through the snowy desert Eastward To the Westward they called the Countrey Cuntisuyu from that small Province which is called Cunti to the Northward lies the Province Chincha and to the Southward the Countrey Colla which extends it self to the Zur In these four Provinces are comprehended many great Countries and amongst the rest the Kingdom of Chile which contains about 600 Leagues in length towards the Zur and is within the Province of Colla and the Kingdom of Quita which is within the Division of Colla runs 400 Leagues to the Northward So that to name those Quarters is as much as to say East and West c. according to which the principal ways leading to the City were so called The Incas laid one method and rule in their Government as the best means to prevent all mischiefs and disorders which was this That of all the people in every place whether more or less a Register should be kept and a Division made of ten and ten over which one of the ten whom they called the Decurion was made Superiour over the other nine then every five Divisions of this nature had a Decurion over them to whom was committed the charge and care of fifty then over the two Divisions of fifty a Superiour Decurion was constituted to supervise a hundred so five Divisions of a hundred had their Captain which commanded five hundred and lastly ten Divisions had their General over a thousand for no Decurion had a greater number to govern or account for the charge of one thousand being esteemed a sufficient care for any that by his Under-Officers would undertake to account for his people and rule them well The Decurions of ten had a double duty incumbent on them one was with diligence and care to succour and sustain those which were under their Division giving an account to his Superiour Officer in case any of them should be in want or necessity of any thing as of Corn to sow or eat or Wool to cloath them or Materials to re-build their houses destroyed by fire or any other accident or should fall into any extremity whatsoever His other duty was to be Censor Morum or Monitor of their actions taking notice and giving information of the faults and irregularities of those under him which he was to report to his Superiour Officer who according to the nature of the Misdemeanour had the power of punishment howsoever the lower Officers had power to chastise the lesser defaults that so for every petty Misdemeanour they needed not to have recourse to the Superiour or General of them all whereby delays in Law-suits were avoided and long processes which tire and consume the people were speedily ended and litigious Causes and vexatious Actions determined without Appeals from one Judge to another and in case of publick differences between two Provinces they were always decided by the definitive sentence of one Justice which the Inca constituted by a special Commission What Officer soever either of higher or lower degree that was negligent or remiss in his duty incurred a penalty agreeable to the nature of his default If he administred not the assistence required or neglected to Indict an Offender though it were but the omission of one day without a lawfull excuse he was not onely liable to answer for his own default but to receive the punishment due to the crime of the Offendour And in regard every one of these Decurions had a Superiour over him who eyed and watched his actions they were all diligent in their duties and impartial in their justice no vagabonds or idle persons durst appear or trespasses were committed for the Accusation was readily brought in and the punishment was rigorous which in many small cases was even capital not so much for the sin it self as for the aggravation thereof being committed against the Word and Command of the Inca whom they respected as a God and though the Plaintiff or the injured person were willing to let fall his Suit and remit the penalty to the Offendour yet the course of the Law will still proceed imposing a punishment agreeable to the quality of the crime either death or stripes or banishment or the like In Families strict severity was observed to keep their Children within the rules of modesty and decent behaviour for there were Laws even against the ill manners of Children for whose miscarriages the Decurion as well as the Father was responsible So that the Children of the Indians who are naturally of a gentle and complying temper are educated in great awe and made modest by the correction and example
of Tupac Inca Yupanqui THE Inca being entred into Tumpiz raised a strong Fortress and put a considerable Garrison into it he built also a Temple for the Sun to which he adjoined a House for the Select Virgins the which Work being finished he passed forward into the Countrey of those who had slain the Captains Instructors and Doctors of Religion which his Father Tupac Yupanqui had formerly seated in that Countrey for the better Government and Erudition of that people as we have formerly mentioned In memory of which treacherous Villany Huayna Capac sent his Messengers to them commanding them immediately to repair to his Court to render an Account of the wickedness they had perpetrated and though they were conscious of the Fact and trembled with the thoughts of the punishment they had deserved yet they durst not refuse or neglect the Summons and therefore in due sense of their demerit they humbly approached the Inca casting themselves with all submission at his Feet The Inca hereupon assembled all the Curacas Ambassadours Counsellours and Nobles who were present at that Meeting when his Father at their request sent his Officers and Instructors amongst them the which they had treacherously murthered and all of them appearing before him a certain Colonel of the Army stood up and made a Speech to them in behalf of the Inca and in the first place upbraiding them with treachery breach of their Faith and cruelty he accused them of Ingratitude and want of Understanding for that whereas they ought to have adored the Inca and his Officers for withdrawing them from their brutish and bestial Life to live like Men with all the Comforts and Enjoyments of a rational Being they on the contrary had barbarously and cruelly murthered the Authours and Instruments of their Felicity to the great dishonour of the Sun his Father for which offence they had deserved so severe a punishment that if their whole Nation of both Sexes and all ages were extirpated and their Race extinguished they were not able with the effusion of all their Bloud to make expiation for this heinous crime But in regard that Huayna Capac was an Inca to whose Nature Mercy and Clemency were most agreeable and whose Title it was to be a Lover of the Poor he did freely forgive all the common people and as to those Authours and Contrivers of this Murther though they had all deserved Death yet he was contented to decimate them and every tenth Man to die as his Lot should fall upon him that so it might be evident that the Inca had no Spleen or Hatred to any in particular but onely to punish Offenders as Truth and Justice required And farther that a Mark and Testimony of this Treachery might remain in the Memory of future Ages the Inca commanded that the Curacas and principal Personages of the Nation Huancavillca should have two of their Teeth drawn from above and two from beneath and for ever to be so continued to them and their Posterity and to remain as a Mark whereby to reproach the falsity of the Words pronounced with their Mouths and the breach of the Promise of Fidelity and Vassalage made to his Father Tupac Yupanqui These Nations received the Sentence and Execution of Justice with great Humility and Resignation esteeming themselves very happy that the Infliction of their punishment was no greater fearing that it might have extended to a general Massacre of them all who were concerned in this Treachery for since the time that the Empire of the Incas began to be dilated nothing was punished with so much severity as Rebellion which Crime being complicated with the vile sin of Ingratitude made the punishment inflicted seem easie and not bear an equality with what the offence deserved so that when the whole Nation of Huanca-villca was punished for all the rest they supported the Sentence with Patience and Moderation and their Curacas and Captains willingly consented to have their Teeth drawn and to shew their readiness herein they made it the Badge and Distinction of their Nation drawing out the upper and nether Teeth of their Children so soon as having shed them they were grown again whereby it is observable that rude and barbarous People are as well pleased with Moderation in the Execution of Punishment as others are in the Excesses of Benefits I was once acquainted with an Indian Woman of Huancavillca in Cozco who recounted unto me at large all this Story the Men and Women as she said of that Countrey did usually boar their Nostrils for carrying Jewels of Gold and Silver in them and I remember when I was a Child that a Neighbour of ours called Coca had a Horse of a Chesnut colour which being broken-winded for his more easie breathing they slit his Nostrils with which Novelty the Indians being much pleased they called the Horse Huancavillca in similitude of one of that Nation CHAP. IV. The Inca visits his Empire consults the Oracles and gains the Island of Puna THE Inca Huayna Capac having reduced those Provinces punished the Offenders and placed sufficient Guards and Garrisons for subjecting the people and keeping them in obedience he returned to the Kingdom of Quitu and thence taking a compass to the Southward he proceeded to the Charcas by way of Cozco being a Journey of above seven hundred Leagues in length He also sent visitors to the Kingdom of Chili from whence they brought much Gold to himself as they had done to his Father in which Travels he spent four Years and then resided two Years in Cozco After which he raised fifty thousand Souldiers out of the Division of Chinchasuyu which is to the North of Cozco commanding them to make their Rendezvous on the Frontiers of Tumpiz whilst he in Person descended into the Plains to visit the Temples of the Sun of which there were many of great Devotion in those parts In the first place he went to the rich Temple of Pachacamac whom they adored for the unknown God and there commanding the Priests to consult the Oracle who was the Devil concerning the happiness of his Successes answer was made that he should proceed in his Enterprises for he should be prosperous in them and in all others that he should undertake for that he was chosen for supreme Lord of all the four Quarters of the World. Hence he passed to the Valley of Rimac where that famous prating Idol was seated the which he consulted in compliance with the Capitulations which his Great-grandfather had made with the Yuncas of which one was that that Idol should be always conserved by him in great veneration and having received his Answer which was full of Ambiguities and Flatteries he proceeded forward to the Vallies which border upon Tumpiz where being arrived he dispatched his accustomary Summons of Peace and War to the Inhabitants of the Island of Puna not far distant from the Main Land is a fruitfull soil abounding with all things necessary for humane Life This Isle
them into those parts to which they were designed which being performed the Inca also returned to Tumpiz on other important occasions for whereas these Princes employed their whole time to business for the better government of their People they omitted nothing which might tend to their good and to the happiness of their living and therefore might most justly be stiled Lovers of the Poor and Guardians of their People So soon as the Inca was departed his Captains and Officers prepared also for their passage ordering Boats and Ferries for their transportations the which were provided by the Natives in so small a number as were not sufficient to carry above half the People at a time the which they purposely contrived that so being on the Water they might be able to master that Party and execute their Design which was to kill them all Wherefore one half being embarked together with their Luggage or Baggage which was great for it appertained for the most part to Incas of the Bloud who were near the Person of the King and therefore carried many changes of Apparel with them which were very fine These Traitors which conducted the Boats being come to such a place of the Sea where they had designed to execute their Treachery cut the Cords and Ropes which bound the Timbers and Planks of the Boats together which carried the Incas with which all the Captains and Souldiers being plunged in the Sea the Assassinates took up the Oars and the Arms belonging to them and therewith knocked them on the Head not suffering one of them to escape with his Life And though some of them endeavoured to save themselves by swimming for most of the Indians are very expert in that Art yet it availed them little for they were not suffered to come ashore by the People of the Coast who preyed upon them in such manner as the Maritime Creatures do upon those of the Land. In this manner these Islanders having gained their Victory and made themselves Masters of the Spoils which were very great they with much Joy and Triumph saluted one the other from Boat to Boat applauding the contrivance and success of their Design with which they were so elevated being an ignorant and sottish People that they believed they had now not onely secured their Liberty but were able also to make themselves Masters of the Empire With this vain opinion they returned to the Island and with like Dissimulation and Wickedness of Intention took aboard the residue of the Captains and Souldiers which remained for the second adventure whom having brought to the same place where the former Villany was perpetrated they acted the like on them and then returning home they completed their Villany by putting all the Governours and Ministers to death whom the Inca had left to doe Justice and to oversee the Revenue belonging to the Sun and to the Inca the which they acted with incomparable Cruelty and Disdain of the Royal Person of the Inca placing the Heads of the murthered at the Gates of their Temples and sacrificing their Hearts and Bloud to their Idols complying hereby with the Vows they had made to their Spirits and Devils in case they would favour and prosper their Attempt CHAP. VI. Of the Punishment which was inflicted upon these faithless Rebels THE sad news of this unhappy success being made known to Huayna Capac he received it with as deep a sense of trouble as the loss of so many Incas of the Bloud Royal and of Men experienced in War and Peace did require condoling much that their Bodies should be cast into the Sea to be the Food and Prey of Fish for which being full of sorrow he put himself into mourning Weeds which amongst them is a Clothing of a greyish colour called Vellori But the Anger and Indignation of the Inca soon overcame his sorrow for having assembled his People together and provided all things necessary he with the greatest Expedition imaginable passed into the rebellious Provinces upon the Main-land and with great facility subjected the Inhabitants who were a silly people without Counsel Policy or Military Art whereby to defend themselves From the Subjection of these people on the Main the Inca passed into the Island in his way whereunto he encountred a slight resistence on the Sea but so inconsiderable and weak that the Enemy was immediately overcome and yielded to Mercy Whereupon the Inca commanded all the principal Authours and Counsellours of this Design together with the Captains and Souldiers of chiefest note who were in any wise concerned in this Treason to be seized and brought before his Tribunal of Justice to whom one of the Generals made a grave Speech representing to them the deformity of their Wickedness aggravated with all the black circumstances that were possible for that whilst the Inca was studying their good and endeavouring to reclaim them from their bestial and brutish Life that they might enjoy a condition more agreeable to a rational Being that then they were contriving to disappoint his good Intentions by the worst and soulest Cruelties Wherefore since Justice was to be performed and that the Inca could not exercise that Clemency and Compassion which was natural to his Temper they were to prepare themselves to receive a punishment agreeable to their demerit upon which Sentence being passed it was executed with divers sorts of Death according as the Inca directed that it might have some conformity to that kind of Cruelty which they acted on the people of the Inca they threw some into the Sea with great weights to sink them to the bottom others they ran through the Body with their Lances and pitched them on Spears before the Gates of their Temples others were quartered after their Throats were cut others they killed with their own Weapons and others were hanged Pedro de Cieça having at large described the particulars of this Rebellion and the Revenge of it writes afterwards these Words In this manner many thousands of Indians were killed and destroyed with different sorts of death the principal Leaders of which Councils were either drowned or empaled And after Huayna Capac had done Justice upon these Offenders he commanded that this dismal story should be made the Subject of those Songs which were to be recited on their days and times of Calamity which they in dolefull Ditties composed in their Language and Proprieties of their Countrey After which the Inca attempted to make a Causey over the River Guayaquile which certainly was a great and magnificent work according to those remains which to this day appear of it but it was never finished according to the manner that he designed being called to this day the Pass of Guayna Capa all which being performed commands were given to obey the Governour who resided in the Fortress of Tumbez with other matters relating to Government and so the Inca departed from those Quarters Thus far are the Words of Pedro de Cieça CHAP. VII Of the Mutiny which
Christ our Lord as is performed in the Mass and celebrated on such days as the Spaniards had time and leisure to hear it and that some Indians who had entered themselves into the Service of Spaniards received the Sacrament of Baptism and that likewise the Sacraments of Marriage and Penance were practised so soon I say as these four Holy Mysteries were made known and appeared for the other three were not as yet introduced into those Countries the Devils became dumb and silent and lost that familiar discourse and conversation in publick which as we have said they formerly used and practised with those Gentiles onely they whispered sometimes in secret with the famous Magicians who were said to have a greater power and influence upon them And though at first the party of Huascar gave out that this sullen reservedness and silence of the Oracles was caused by the anger and displeasure of the Sun for the tyrannies and cruelties committed by Atahualpa yet at length they were convinced of a more over-ruling cause which affected the Indians with a general fear and consternation believing that the entrance of these new Guests into their Countrey had over-awed and silenced their Oracles the which opinion served to augment the dread and reverence they had of the Spaniards and confirm the Name which they gave them of Viracocha who is the God especially adored by them and held in more esteem and worship than all their petty Huacas of which we have already given a more large relation CHAP. XXXI How Huascar Inca demanded succour and justice from the Two who went on discovery HErnando de Soto and Peter del Barco having travelled above a hundred Leagues came at length to Sausa where the Captains of Atahualpa held Huascar in imprisonment of which the Spaniards being informed they desired to see him and the Inca being in like manner desirous thereof though he was kept under close custody yet at length they obtained admission What discourse passed between them at that time was not well understood for want of an Interpreter nor could they express themselves in any other manner than by signs Onely afterwards it was reported That Huascar being informed by the Indians that the principal design of the Spaniards was to doe justice and to relieve Men under oppression and violence which pretence as the Spanish Writers affirm was always in a specious manner published by the Spaniards from the time of their first Invasion of those Countries and which at all times they boasted in pursuance of the Commands of his Majesty who enjoyned them to hurt none and to render unto every one his due Of which as we say Huascar being assured he with more assurance of redress complained of the tyranny cruelty and injustice which he had received from his Brother Atahualpa who not content to despoil him and his Heirs of his Kingdom and Dominions resolved to bereave him of his life and to that end had imprisoned him under strict and watchfull Guards Wherefore with all earnestness he conjured them not to abandon and leave him in that condition but to take him with them out of the hands of that Guard which designed so soon as they were departed to put him to death And whereas they had published and made known unto all persons that their intentions were to ease and relieve the oppressed he was well assured that so soon as they had received true information from the Captain-General of the justice of his cause they would restore him again to his Liberty and Kingdom Upon which condition he promised them not onely to fill the Chamber with Vessels of Gold and Silver unto the line drawn by his Brother but that he would raise and pile them up unto the very ceiling for the performance of which he esteemed himself much more able than his Brother in regard that he was well acquainted with the places where secret Treasures of his Father were concealed and where his Ancestours had amassed immense Sums and Riches which his Brother would have embezled and much diminished to build Temples and Altars for accomplishment of his Vows in which he had been so profuse that he was become poor and unable to comply with the Ransome which he had promised In answer whereunto Hernando de Soto and Peter del Barco gave him to understand by signs that in obedience to the Command of their Captain-General they were obliged to proceed as far as Cozco and for that reason could not stay with him but at their return they would perform whatsoever might tend to his service and advantage After which they departed leaving poor Huascar more sad and disconsolate than before for having once entertained some hopes and expectation of relief by their coming he became absolutely desperate and desponding of life and comfort believing as it afterwards happened that their visit and discourse was a prelude to his death CHAP. XXXII How these two Spaniards arrived at Cozco where they found Crosses in the Temples and Royal Palaces THese two Companions proceeding on their Journey towards Cozco arrived on the high Promontory of Carmenca from whence they took a survey of the Imperial City and much admired the neighbouring Towns and Villages which encompassed or were adjoyning to it The people coming forth to meet them received them with joy and mirth with Musick and Dances erecting Triumphal Arches in the ways crowned with Flowers and Garlands and strowing the streets with Rushes and lodged them in those Royal Apartments which were called Amarucancha belonging to Huayna Capac for being in their estimation persons of Divine Race they allotted those Chambers for them which appertained to their greatest and most beloved King. At the entrance thereunto was a very fair Tower being four Stories high each of which had a cieling of Timber in such manner as covered the Royal Chambers and which were so lofty that to speak in compass the Turret above was a high as any Spire in Spain unless that of Seville The top thereof was in form of a Globe as were all the Chambers and above all in the place of a Weather-cock or Vayne which the Indians did not understand they had erected a Ball which added much to the height and was so large that the hollow of it contained above sixty Foot in compass called by them Sunturhuaci which signifies as much as the rare piece of Architecture there being no other building adjoyning thereunto to support or hide it In my time it was thrown down or demolished to make the Market-place more large and airy though the truth is it took not up much place and now in lieu thereof the Jesuits have erected a high Coloseo or Pyramid as we have mentioned in the first Part of this History The next day after the Spaniards arrived the Indians carried them in several Palanchines or Seats placed on Mens shoulders to see and view the City and as they passed the people adored and worshipped them after the manner of their Gentilism and
for that fifth part which appertained to the King on account of the Ransome of Atahualpa the which Gold and Silver were as the first Fruits and as an earnest of that Treasure and Riches which they have already and are yet to carry from my Countrey to His Majesty The Silver as Augustin Carate reports was carried in pieces of massy Plate a Relation of which he gives in these Words They agreed said he to send Hernando Piçarro to give a Narrative to His Majesty of their prosperous Successes which had occurred untill that time but whereas as yet they could not make a just computation of what share His Majesty was to receive out of the Collections already made they took from their Heaps the value of two hundred thousand Pieces of Eight in Gold and twenty thousand Marks in Silver for which they chose the most fair and weighty Pieces of Plate for the better show and appearance in Spain All which were weighed out and the Jars Pans Figures of Men and Women and Sheep were all cast into the Scale to make up the full weight and value already mentioned With this Prize Hernando Piçarro embarked to the great grief of Atabaliba who had a great kindness for him and entertained such confidence in him that he freely communicated all his thoughts to him wherefore at his departure he said to him And do you go Captain I am troubled for it at my very heart for when you are gone I am sure that fat Fellow and that blind Rascal will soon make an end of me meaning Almagro who as we said before was blind of one Eye and Alonso Requelme His Majesty's Treasurer whom he had observed to murmur and quarrell about him on the occasion before related And so indeed it happened for no sooner was Hernando departed than that immediately they contrived his Death by means of their Interpreter Philipillio who was an Indian c. And Gomara confirms what we shall more at large hereafter relate That Hernando Piçarro carried the fifth part of what appertained to His Majesty on account of the Ransome of Atahualpa and he farther adds these Words The Truth of what passed is this Hernando Piçarro carried no more with him from Cassamarca than what is before mentioned but soon after his departure followed the Death of Atabaliba and then a Dividend was made of his Ransome untill which time his Execution was rather deferred than his Life granted or Freedom intended Afterwards sixty of these Adventurers returned into Spain having made a Division of their Spoils which amounted to forty or fifty thousand Pieces of Eight a Man besides the fifth which appertained to His Majesty These Persons departed after Hernando Piçarro and overtook him at Nombre de Dios where they embarked and returned altogether in company to Spain Thus we see how all Authours agree together in the same Relation of this matter Soon after the Departure of Hernando Piçarro Hernando de Soto and Pedro del Barco returned from Cozco giving a Report of the Riches which they had seen in that City as also in the Temples of the Sun and in the Palaces of the late Kings in the Fortress and in the Sanctuaries and private Cells where the Devil entertained Discourses with their Wizards Priests and others his Votaries all which places being esteemed sacred were adorned with Gold and Silver the like report was also brought by the other four Discoverers The Spaniards being highly pleased with this News were impatient untill they could take possession of these Treasures which that they might hasten with the more convenience and security they speedily determined the Death of Atahualpa to prevent the insurrections of the People that with the more ease and with the least opposition they might seize the Gold and Silver which was lodged in the Imperial City and in other parts Both the aforesaid Authours agree in all the material circumstances relating to the Death of Atahualpa wherefore we shall repeat the very Words of Lopez de Gomara specified in the 119th Chapter of his Book the Title of which is as followeth CHAP. XXXVI Of the Death of Atahualpa and how he was arraigned by Justice and upon the false Information and Testimony which was given against him THE Death of Atabaliba was forwarded by a means the least expected for Philipilio the Interpreter falling in love with one of the Wives of Atabaliba whom he intended to marry after he was dead raised a report that Atabaliba had secretly and under hand given order to raise Men whereby to overcome the Christians and free himself So soon as this report came to be spread and noised amongst the Spaniards their Jealousie created a Belief so that some cried out to have him killed for security of their own Lives and of those Kingdoms others were of opinion that they should not imbrue their Hands in the Bloud of so great a Prince though never so faulty but rather that they should send him to the Emperour This certainly had been the best course but the other prevailed by means as some report of that party which came with Almagro for they conceiving that no share of the Spoil would appertain unto them during the Life of Atabaliba and untill the conditions were complied with which according to Agreement were made for his ransome and Piçarro being also of opinion that his Death would free the Spaniards of much trouble and render the Conquest and Possession of the Countrey much more easie a resolution was taken by general consent to put him to Death In order to which that things might appear with a better face of Justice an Endictment was brought against him for the Murther of his Brother Huascar King of those Countries and for designing to raise War against the Spaniards though this last was a false and malitious suggestion of Philipillio who brought the Indians for Witnesses making them to say what he pleased and in regard the Spaniards understood not the Language whereby to cross examine the Witnesses all that Philipillio alledged passed for current and good Testimony howsoever Atabaliba stifly denied it saying That such an Accusation could have no ground of Reason in it considering that he remained under such Guards and Chains that it was impossible for him to make an escape wherefore he persisted in his Denial threatning Philipillio and desiring the Spaniards to give no credence to his Words After Sentence of Death was passed upon him he complained much of Francisco Piçarro for that having promised him his Life upon payment of the Ransome agreed he afterwards faltered with him and put him to Death Wherefore he earnestly intreated him rather to transport him into Spain than to imbrue his Hands in the Bloud of a Person who had never offended him but rather enriched him and done him good As they carried him to Execution those who attended to comfort him advised him to desire Baptism before he dyed for that without that they threatned to burn him alive Whereupon being
a vvhile he asked him the meaning of those Letters vvhich vvere vvrote on his Nail Novv Piçarro not knovving either to vvrite or read ansvvered that he could not tell by vvhich he collected that the knovvledge of Letters vvas acquired and not natural and from that time ever after he conceived a meaner esteem of the Governour than before for that as vve have said the Incas in their Moral Philosophy vvere taught that the Royal Family Nobles and Gentlemen ought to exceed their Inferiours in knovvledge and Vertues as appears in the Trial of Novitiates as vve have formerly related vvho vvere to run through all Exercises and Hardships vvhich might try and approve them so vvhen Atahualpa had discovered the Ignorance of Piçarro vvho being the Governour and Chief vvas according to his Rule to have excelled all his Inferiours in Learning and Vertues he conceived a meaner Opinion of him which when the Governour had observed he grew angry and offended with him which hastened the Death of Atahualpa This passage I have heard from those who were then present which may be a caution and an advertisement to Noble Persons in the Education of their Sons for that for want of Reading and Writing and a little Latin they may fall into Disgraces and be subject to Affronts though indeed in those times ignorance was more excusable than in this present age which affords many Masters in Spain where all Sciences and Learning flourish and where Noble-men value themselves not more on their honourable Birth than on their vertuous Education which yields a Lustre like pretious Stones enchased with Gold. Another thing is reported of Atahualpa for an Instance of his Wit and good Understand which was this that amongst many other things which the Spaniards brought to truck and barter with the Indians or as some say wherewith to cheat them there was one who had a Glass Cup of the finest sort of Metal which was made at Venice The Merchant of it hoping for a good Reward presented it to the King Atahualpa who received it so kindly that though he was then a Prisoner he ordered ten of his Cups of Gold and Silver to be given the Spaniard in return thereof The Inca looking and admiring much the curiosity of the Workmanship asked one that stood by if any other besides the Kings of Castile were served in such Vessels to which he that made the Answer supposing that he meant the Glass and not the Workmanship replied that not onely Kings and Nobles but the Commonalty of Spain made use of those Glasses which when Atahualpa heard he let it fall from his Hands saying that things so common were not worthy the esteem of a King. At which Words of an Indian all Persons then present did much admire Thus was Atahualpa put to Death by formal process of Justice as is related and before the quantity of Gold and Silver which he had promised for his Ransome was fully completed because time was not given him to make due compliance though some report that they put him to death after he had paid the entire quantity but whatsoever that was the Spaniards divided to every Man his Share in the nature of Spoils taken in War. But what the value of this Ransome was Augustin de Carate and Francis Lopez who wrote in those days variously report I suppose that their Errours were in the heap or mass I shall mention some particulars thereof that we may make a better judgment of the whole matter Carate in the 7th Chapter of his second Book hath these precise Words There was due to His Majesty for his Fifths thirty thousand Marks of pure fine Plate wrought and embossed and in Gold an hundred and twenty Millions of Marks c. Gomara in the 118th Chapter saith That Francisco Piçarro after he had made an Effaâ— the Gold â—â— Silver he caused them to be weighed and found fifty two thousand Mâ—â— in good Silver and a million and three hundred and twenty six thousand and five hundred weight or Ducats of Gold. In case we compare these two Authours together we shall find that Gomara comes short of the Sum which Carate mentions at least one hundred thousand Marks of Silver because that to make the King 's Fifth to amount unto thirty thousand Mark the principal must consist of one hundred and fifty thousand the like Errour and much more there is in the Gold for whereas Carate saith that His Majesty's Fifth of the Gold amounted unto an hundred and twenty millions of Marks which must be a plain Errour in the Print for if according to the value we multiply every Mark of Gold at seventy two Ducats the sum will become so vast and immense that there will scarce be numbers in Arithmetick sufficient to contain the account And if by Marks they mean Maravedis the Errour will be as low on that side as it was excessive in the other because an hundred and twenty millions of Maravedis make onely three hundred and twenty thousand Ducats which likewise is more evident as will hereafter appear by the account of Division which these Authours make in the share and proportion which belonged to every single Person out of the Ransome of Atahualpa whereby they make the value of the Gold reduced into Silver to amount unto seven hundred and eighty six thousand and six hundred Ducats According to which I am inclined to make out every Man's share and proportion of Gold and Silver rather than to follow an opinion of such incredible Sums as are before mentioned And herein I am more willing to give credit unto Carate who was Accountant General in such Sums as he sets down precisely than to the reports of Goers and Comers who speak at random Onely as to the quantity of Silver which was divided I follow that which Gomara relates because Carate is silent in that particular as also in the proportions divided to each Captain as appears by his History onely the share which appertained to the General we have taken upon the information of those who were present Both Authours agree that the Horsemen were sixty in number and the Foot or Infantry one hundred and fifty Though Cieça de Leon speaking of Cassamarca where Atahualpa was imprisoned saith that those who took him were sixty Horse and an hundred Foot in which report concerning the Foot I rather follow this Authour than Gomara for besides that he was actually in Peru when he wrote of these matters I am also much more apt to keep within the compass of Accounts and set down ten too little rather than five too much These Authours also differ much about the shares which every Souldier received for to the Souldiers they allot six parts in Gold and one in Silver and to the Governour and his Captains and the People with Almagro they give three parts in Gold and one in Silver Why in those times the Gold so much exceeded the quantity of the Silver the contrary to which now
augmented Many of his friends who knew the true state of matters and how ill the Death of Almagro would be resented by the Emperour dissuaded Fernando from this intention especially since Diego de Alvarado was then residing at the Court and ready to accuse him saying That this matter would be better negotiated at a distance than upon the place Howsoever Fernando would not hearken thereunto being of a contrary opinion that he had greatly deserved of the Emperour for his many Services and for having by way of Justice cleared the Countrey of those turbulent Spirits who were Disturbers of the Peace At his departure he advised his Brother Francisco not to repose confidence in any of the Almagrians especially those who were gone into Chili whom he had found to be constant and affectionate to the Memory of Almagro And he farther counselled him not to permit them to Cabal for by experience he had found that five onely of them being together were plotting in what manner to kill him At length being departed he came to Spain and appeared at the Court with a great Equipage and Riches but it was not long before they carried him from Valladolid to the Prison of Medina de Campo from whence as yet he is not freed And herewith Gomara ends that Chapter For the better understanding of which we are to know That though Gonçalo de Mesa had served Hernando Piçarro in Quality of Captain of the Artillery yet he with many others was much discontented because he looked upon himself as ill rewarded for his former Services and that when he expected to have been sent Commander in Chief he was then employed Under-Captain to Pedro de Candia Wherefore finding himself in this manner slighted without any place of Honour or Advantage he began to speak ill of Hernando Piçarro and to threaten that he would set Almagro at liberty whensoever they brought him forth to carry him to los Reyes All which he declared openly and without any consideration of the danger he incurred of his life he assembled his friends and formed a party for Almagro in which he found many that were ready to comply So soon as Hernando Piçarro was informed hereof he immediately with all diligence went to the Collao but Mesa was not then Quartered there being newly returned with Pedro de Candia from the Frontiers and was then at Mussus which lyes Eastward from Collao a Countrey very Mountainous and full of deep Rivers as we have described at large in the Life of the King Inca Yupanqui The Spaniards by reason of these impediments not having been able to make their Conquests were returned from Collao when Hernando met them and put Gonzalo de Mesa to Death and cashiering Pedro de Candia from his Command he bestowed it on a certain Gentleman called Peranzures de Campo Redondo who afterwards made an entrance into that Countrey and did more than any that went before him howsoever the ways and passages were so difficult that all his labours and endeavours proved vain and fruitless Pedro de Candia esteeming himself affronted and agrieved hereby being troubled to be deprived of his Command concealed the anger hereof in his breast untill such time as an opportunity presented that he might declare for the Almagrians the success whereof was fatal to him as we shall see hereafter For Pedro de Candia could not so well dissemble his resentments but that they were visible to Hernando and appeared in his countenance for though the Tongue be silent yet the Face commonly discovers the grief or the delight of the Heart the like dissatisfaction was also apparent in the behaviour of many others Wherefore considering that his endeavours to lessen the numbers of his Enemies served to multiply them he was as it were forced to put Almagro to death which he accordingly executed after his return to Cozco from Collao supposing that when the cause and object of all these Mutinies and Disturbances was removed all things would return to the usual and setled condition of peace and quietness but it happened out quite contrary For by the dolefull Tragedy of the Death of Almagro Hernando Piçarro rendred himself so odious that his condition was much more secure by putting himself into the hands of the Justice of Spain where Diego de Alvarado was ready to accuse him than if he had remained in Peru where the opposite Faction of Almagro watched onely an opportunity to destroy him Hernando Piçarro was a discreet Person and against the opinion and persuasion of all his friends judged it the least evil to make a Voyage into Spain where he imagined that the great Services he had performed in the Conquest of that Empire and the insuperable Labours he had overcome in the Siege vvould justifie his Cause before his Majesty and the Riches vvhich he imported vvith him for the King 's and his ovvn account vvould make his Access easie to the Royal Presence and obtain more mercy for him than he could expect from his Enemies in Peru who onely attended an opportunity to kill him Hernando having on these Considerations left the Indies and escaped out of the hands of his Enemies that hatred which was prepared for him was converted against his Brother the Marquis and proceeded so far as in the end to effect his ruine the which will appear in what is to follow Hernando Piçarro being arrived in Spain Diego de Alvarado brought a severe Indictment against him desiring that the Cause might be tried either by the Civil Law or by a Court-Marshal as his Majesty should direct or otherwise he challenged him to a single Combat offering to prove by force of Arms that he had violated both his Word and Faith and that he himself was guilty of those crimes which he had objected against Almagro Moreover he laid many other things to his charge which for brevity sake we shall pass by Upon these Accusations Hernando was committed to the Prison of Medina del Campo during which time and whilst Alvarado was prosecuting his Suit he complained that many rich Presents both of Gold and Silver and pretious Stones were given with intention to corrupt the minds of certain persons the which being proved was occasion of trouble to some great and considerable Men. But this being a nice point we have onely touched upon it and the rather because in the heat of this prosecution Alvarado died not without suspicion of poison by reason as Gomara saith that his Death was sudden and unexpected Howsoever before that time he had so well grounded his process and proceeded so far that he had obtained several Verdicts against his Adversary Howsoever at length time which accomplishes every thing moderated the severities of his Imprisonment from whence he procured his discharge in the year 1562 after twenty three years that he had remained in custody which he sustained with great equality of mind of which he gave most certain proofs in all the particulars of his adverse fortune which
the Elder To appease which and to examine the true state of all matters his Majesty was pleased to give Commission to Dr. Vaca de Castro one of His Privy Council to examine all matters concerning the Death of Don Diego de Almagro without making any alteration in the Power and Government of the Marquis but in case the Marquis should be dead before his Arrival then by a provisional Commission he was constituted Governour in his place This worthy Person for so his Actions shew him was a Native of the City of Le◠and of the Families of the Vacas de Castro and Quinnones which are noble Houses amongst many others which flourish in that Royal City Vaca de Castro embarked at Sevil for Peru and after many Difficulties and stormy Weather to which that Northern Sea is subject he arrived at Nombre de Dios much later than was expected from whence he went to Panama where he again embarked for Peru upon a Ship not so well provided for such a Voyage as was requisite especially since it was to execute a Commission of such great importance for the Ship being defective had not proceeded many Leagues on her Voyage before she was detained on the Coast by contrary Winds by force of which having lost one of her Anchors she was carried by the Current into that Bay which is called the Bay or Gulf of Gorgona which is a bad place and very hard for any Ship to get out which is bound to Peru. Wherefore Vaca de Castro encouraged the Mariners to use all the diligence they were able but finding all ineffectual and to little purpose he resolved to go by Land since he could not avail to go by Sea. But the Journey was long difficult and tedious by reason of the craggy Mountains the great Rivers and Desarts which they were to pass with want of those Provisions which were good and wholsome This long delay gave opportunity to Almagro to revenge the Death of his Father of which he was impatient seeing that the Justice which His Majesty had promised was so long deferred At length after various chances of a difficult Journey Judge Vaca de Castro came to the Frontiers of Quitu where Pedro de Puelles resided in Quality of Deputy to Gonzalo Piçarro So soon as he found himself within the Limits of his own Countrey and had been rightly informed of all matters which had passed in Peru and of the Practices and Designs of the several Factions he wrote unto all parts giving them advice of his Arrival and of the Commission he brought with him from His Majesty by virtue of which he required them to receive him for their Governour And whereas he had thereby a power to substitute other Officers he dispatched his Commissions to all the Cities of Peru constituting such Men Judges thereof who as he was informed were moderate Persons and not interested or engaged in either party CHAP. XII The People of Rimac and other parts receive Vaca de Castro for Governour Peralvarez and his Complices contrive a Strategeme of War against Almagro and join with Alonso de Alvarado AMongst the Commissions which Judge Vaca de Castro dispatched to several places that for the City of Los Reyes was directed to Friar Thomas de St. Martin Provincial of the Order of the Dominicans and to Francis de Barionuevo and to Geronimo de Aliaga giving them power and authority to superintend the Government of that City and of the parts thereunto belonging untill he himself arrived there in Person These Commissions were brought and delivered in the Convent of St. Dominick some few days after the departure of Almagro and in the absence also of the Father Provincial whom Almagro had carried with him to countenance his Enterprise with the presence of such a Person Howsoever the Mayor and Aldermen of the City assembled in the night and having opened the Commission they with common consent obeyed it and received Vaca de Castro for Governour of that Empire and Geronimo de Aliaga to be his Deputy as the Commission specified So soon as the Citizens had passed this Act they fled to Truxillo fearing the return of Almagro who as yet was not advanced so far on his march but that upon the News of this Revolution he was ready to have returned with full intent to avenge this sudden desertion on the City with Fire and Sword and other Cruelties but then fearing lest this delay should give an advantage to Alvarez Holguin he resolved to proceed and to pursue his Design which vvas of greatest importance Hovvsoever in the Execution thereof many cross and unfortunate Accidents occurred for so soon as it vvas knovvn in the Army that a Governour from His Majesty vvas arrived in the Countrey many of the principal Men revolted and deserted him amongst vvhich vvere the Father Provincial John de Saavedra the Agitant Yllen Suarez de Carvajal de Aguero and Gomez de Alvarado Hovvsoever in despight of all these discouragements Almagro resolutely pursued his Point and Design though to his great disappointment and prejudice his Lieutenant General John de Rada fell sick by reason of vvhich he vvas greatly confused vvithin himself vvhat course to take for in case he left him behind he vvas in danger of falling into the Hands of the Enemy nor did the Extremity of his Sickness admit of any motion hovvsoever for his sake he lessened his days journies and marched very softly knovving that his principal business vvas to overthrovv Alvarez Holguin Pedro Alvarez being informed that the Enemy vvas dravving near to vvhom his Force vvas much inferiour he thought it no vvise prudent to adventure the success of Affairs on the hazard of a Battel considering that the subsistence of his Army vvas of great importance to the Service of his Majesty vvherefore to supply that vvhich vvas vvanting in strength by some Strategeme of War it vvas agreed by a Council of War to detach a Body of tvventy choice Horse to serve for Scouts and to use all their endeavours to take some of the Souldiers of Almagro vvhich accordingly happened out for these Horse took three Spies belonging to the Enemy vvhich being brought to Alvarez he hanged up tvvo of them and the third he saved making him great promises of Revvard for the future and in hand bestovved on him three thousand Pesos of Gold conditionally that he should return to the Camp of Almagro and there persuade several of those vvhom he knevv to be vvell affected to him to revolt from Almagro and assist him in the Fight for that he designed the next day by tvvilight of the morning to assault the Army of Almagro on the East-side of the Camp vvhich by reason that it bordered on the Skirts of the snovvy Mountain he imagined vvould be the worst guarded and that therefore little or no provision would be made on that part against any Attempt And farther they gave him instructions to assure such Friends as should join herein of the
Name though I think fit to conceal it in this place and onely recount the fact in general to the end that such a piece of cowardise may be hated and scorned by all Persons of Quality and Worthy Souldiers In short the Souldiers of Vaca de Castro made such haste that without much hurt they mounted the Hill where the Squadrons of Almagro were drawn up being much disordered and removed out of that good posture in which they were first placed Howsoever the Harquebusiers received them with such a Volley of Shot that they killed many of the Foot and wounded the Major General Gomez de Tordoya with three Bullets of which he dyed two days afterwards Nunno de Castro was also desperately wounded besides many others who were slain which being observed by Francisco de Carvajal he commanded the Horse to charge them for they were the chief Force to which he trusted being more in number than those of Almagro accordingly the Horse engaged and both sides maintained the Fight with such bravery that the Victory for a long time remained doubtfull Pedro Alvarez Holguin was killed with a Musquet-shot for being clothed in white and by his Colour and Habit known to all he became the common Mark every one aiming to hit so famous a Person On the other side the Infantry of Vaca de Castro charging the Enemy came valiantly up to the very Cannon which were now of no use in regard that by the ill discipline and disorder of Almagro's Commanders they had interposed their own Souldiers between their Cannon and the Enemy Howsoever both sides fought with such animosity and bravery that they continued fighting in the night which when it was so dark and obscure that they could not see each other they then made use of the words Chili and Pachacamac to make their distinctions whereby the Piçarrists and Almagrians knew their parties the greatest slaughter was amongst the Horse who after the use of their Lances coming to a closer Fight killed each other with their Swords and Pole-axes The success of this Battel being of high concernment animated both sides with a resolution to dye or gain the victory being well assured that as the Dominion of that Empire and the Riches depended on this Victory so being overthrown there remained no other reward for them but death or slavery It was now above two hours in the night and yet the Fight continued with equal slaughter being full four hours since it first began At length the Governour charged the left wing of the Enemy which was still entire and not as yet broken so that the Battel seemed to be again renewed Howsoever at length the Governour routed and defeated them with the loss of ten or twelve of his Guard amongst which were Captain Ximenez formerly a Merchant in Medina and Nunno Montalvo By this time both sides began to think themselves secure of Victory and yet still the Fight continued At length the Forces of Almagro seemed to grow faint which when he observed he put himself into the head of them and being seconded by those few which were his Life-guard he entred amidst the thickest of his Enemies with that valour and resolution that he performed Miracles by his own Person being desirous to be slain on the place but being unknown and well armed he escaped with his life and without a wound fighting bravely as Gomara reports of him in Chapter 150. And now Victory began to incline to the side of the Governour which when Almagro and his chief Officers observed they called out aloud and said I am such an one it was I who killed the Marquis and so they fought with fury and despair untill they were slain and cut in pieces Many of Almagro's people escaped by favour of a dark night having taken off their white Ribbons and placed the Colours of Vaca de Castro in their stead with which they supplied themselves from those who were slain on the other side Almagro himself seeing that there was no hopes of Victory left and that Death fled from him he escaped out of the Battel with six Companions namely Diego Mendez Bergan and John de Guzman and three others whose Names I have forgotten Thence he fled to Cozco where he met that Death which he could not receive from his Enemies by the hands of those Men whom he had there constituted in Offices of Justice and Military Employments For so soon as they understood that he had lost the day Rodrigo de Salazar who was a Native of Toledo and deputed by Almagro for his Governour in that place and Antonio Ruyz de Guevara who was Commissionated also by him to be chief Justiciary immediately laid hands on him and made him Prisoner and to consummate this cruelty they took those also who were his Companions and attended his Person To confirm which particular Carate in the 19th Chapter of his fourth Book hath these Words which follow Thus ended the Reign and Government of Don Diego de Almagro who was one day Commander in Chief of all Peru and the day following was seized by an Officer whom by his own Authority he had constituted chief Justiciary of Cozco This Battel was fought the 16th of September 1542. Thus far Carate and herewith he concludes the Chapter aforesaid This Victory was in part obtained about nine of the Clock at night but not completed for the noise of fighting and clashing of Arms was heard in several places of the Field And lest Almagro should again rally and in the Morning renew the Battel for as yet his flight and escape was not known the Governour commanded his Serjeant-Major to sound a retreat to his Army and put them again into a posture of Battel placing the Horse and Foot in their respective stations with Orders to stand to their Arms untill the Morning when the light would discover the state of their Victory Which being accordingly executed they continued on their Guard and in a readiness to receive whatsoever should occur CHAP. XVIII Wherein those Principal Commanders are named who were present at this Battel the Number that was slain the Punishment of the Rebels and the Death of Don Diego de Almagro THE Governour passed a great part of the Night in discourse to his Souldiers praising the courage and resolution which his Captains Cavaliers and Souldiers had shewed in that days Engagement he applauded and admired their bravery which they had made appear in the Service of his Majesty He then recounted some particular Actions performed by such and such naming them by their Names whereby he acknowledged the fidelity love and friendship which they had evidenced to the Memory of the Marquis Don Francisco Piçarro for whose sake and in revenge of whose Death they had exposed their own lives to all the hazards and perils in the World. Nor did he omit to mention the bravery of Almagro whereby he had signalized himself to revenge the Death of his Father having therein performed above what could have
Peces John Diente and Martin Cote and thirty others of the most culpable or chiefest Offenders others who were pardoned for life were banished into the remote parts of that Kingdom Whilst the Governour was thus employed in doing justice at Huamanca he received intelligence that Almagro was taken and imprisoned at Cozco wherefore hastning to that place and arriving there he immediately caused the Sentence to be executed which he had passed upon him before the Battel not being willing to spend more time in new Processes Carate saith that they cut his throat in the same place and by the same Executioner who put his Father to death and who stripped him and took his Cloaths in the same manner as he had done his Father's onely some friends agreed for his Breeches Wastcoat and Shirt which were conserved to him his Body was laid out and exposed the whole day to publick view afterwards they carried it to the Convent of our Lady of the Merceds and there buried it by the side or in the very Grave of his Father without Winding-sheet or other Shroud than his own Cloaths onely out of charity some few Masses were said for his Soul. This was the end of Don Diego Almagro Junior which was so like to that of his Father that fortune seemed to make the circumstances of their lives parallel in every thing for besides that they were Father and Son and had the same Name they were endued with equal courage and conduct in War and with the same prudence and counsel in Peace and if there was any thing of excellency more in one than in the other it appeared in the Son who from his youth had been trained up in good literature in which by help of his good parts both for judgment and quickness of fancy he made great improvement they resembled each other in their Deaths which happened in the same place and almost in the same manner their Funerals were much alike for having been rich and powerfull they died so poor that their Burial-charges were paid upon charity and to render the circumstances of their lives in all things agreeable the Battels they fought and lost were both upon a Saturday Thus poor Don Diego Almagro Junior concluded the Scene of his Life who had been the bravest Mestizo that is one begot by a Spaniard on the body of an Indian Woman that ever this new World produced had he taken the right side and obeyed the Governour who was constituted by Commission from his Majesty He was a Man who had a handsome seat on Horse-back in both Saddles either riding with his legs at length or short as is the fashion on the Gennet At last he died like a good Christian with great repentance for his sins Almagro being dead they hanged up John Rodriguez Barragan and Ensign Enriquez with eight others who adventured to follow Almagro unto Cozco Gomez Perez and Diego Mendez and another companion of theirs made their escape out of Prison but finding no secure place wherein to conceal themselves in all Peru they fled to the Mountains where Prince Manco Inca remained in retirement and were followed by five others who went also to hide and cure themselves of their wounds in that place All which were received with great kindness and with as good entertainment by the Inca as he was able to give them but in what Coin they again repaid him will appear by the sequel for he was killed by one of them in requital for his favours and kindness towards them CHAP. XIX The good Government of Vaca de Castro the peace and quietness of Peru the cause and original of other Troubles DOn Diego Almagro Junior being dead and all the Complices and Heads of that party being either put to death or banished the whole Empire of Peru began to enjoy peace and settlement the name and interest of that Almagrian Faction being totally extinguished Judge Vaca de Castro being a prudent and a discreet Person in all his actions governed with much Equity and Justice to the great satisfaction and contentment both of Spaniards and Indians having established several Laws so advantageous to the Welfare of both Nations that the Indians themselves rejoyced in such happy constitutions and esteemed them equal to those which had been made by their Incas Likewise the Governour bestowed such Plantations of Indians which were void and forfeited for Rebellion on persons who had well deserved for their Services to his Majesty in the late War He also encreased the Possessions of others or exchanged them for those which were better in other places or Cities where they were most pleased to chuse their habitation At that time many of the Inhabitants of Charcas transplanted themselves and Families to Cozco amongst whom my Lord Garçilasso de la Vega was one who as we have said formerly had left the Province Tapac-ri to settle himself in the Province Quechua which belongs to the Nation Cotanera and Huamampallpa And though the Governour in the Divisions he made proceeded with all the equality and caution imaginable as was apparent to all the World yet many were discontented for want of having Lands and Plantations of Indians allotted to them which they believed and presumed to be due for all their Services and Labours they had sustained in the Conquest of Peru. Amongst these discontented persons there was a certain Gentleman called Hernando Mogollon born at Badajoz of whom we have made mention in the third Chapter of the first Book of our History of Florida This Gentleman presuming that he had well deserved and performed great Services in the Conquest of these new Countries and particularly at the Battel of Chupas where he signalized his bravery in an extraordinary manner of which Vaca de Castro himself was a Witness for which finding he had no reward or Lands or Indian Servants divided to him he went and applied himself to the Governour and told him plainly Sir In this Countrey as your Lordship well knows all People eat from the Labours of Mogollon and he alone starves with hunger And in regard that he was one of those who discovered Florida and was forward and active in other important Conquests which have been acquired to the Crown of Spain and lastly was present in the Battel of Chupas where he fought under your Lordship's Standard it is but reason that some remembrance should be had of him who hath not forgotten his Duty and Service to his Majesty The Governour considering well the Merits of the Man and that he asked nothing but what was very reasonable he bestowed upon him a small share of Lands inhabited by Indians And as an expedient to quiet the minds of other complaining and indigent Souldiers of which many were unrewarded and to prevent a farther Mutiny he imitated the example of Marquis Piçarro who on the like occasion dispeeded several Companies with their Captains to conquer and possess divers other parts of the Countrey by which means enlarging their Territories
there excepting some few who made their escape in a small vessel so that there remained not one Spaniard alive in all the Coast where the Pearl is taken So soon as Bartholomew de las Casas was informed of the death of his friends and the loss of the King's Treasury he entred himself a Frier amongst the Dominicans with which an end was put to all his great Actions so he neither advanced the King's revenue nor ennobled his Artisans nor sent his Pearls to the Flemins and Burgundians as he had promised And thus far are the words of Gomara This and much more to the prejudice and disparagement of Bartholomew de las Casas was reported by those who found themselves aggrieved by the late new regulations though Gomara endeavours to mince and disguise much the matter but those of Peru who speak more plainly of this matter report that he had turned Frier in discontent because he was fallen under his Majesties displeasure and feared lest he should be called to account for the false relations he had given of matters which he had never seen nor understood of the Countrey of Cumana and because he was conscious to himself that he had been a principal Contriver of the new Statutes upon the specious pretence of raising the King's revenue and out of a zeal he shewed to the good and benefit of the Indians but how real and sincere all this was may very well be judged by his actions of which people spake and talked more at large than can be expressed in this History Diego Fernandes reports that this Frier Bartholomew was by the Emperour created Bishop of Chiapa which is a Countrey in the Kingdom of Mexico but he durst not go to his See by reason of the many mischiefs which he had been the Authour of in the Indies In the year 1562. I met him at Madrid where he gave me his hand to kiss but when he understood that I was of Peru and not of Mexico he was a little more reserved in his behaviour towards me CHAP. IV. The Reasons which the Complainants gave against the new Regulations And the manner how they prepared to receive the Vice-king MUCH and many were the Reasons which the Complainants produced against the new Regulations as well those of the City of Los Reyes as of all Peru. And the better to clear this point we must observe that both at Mexico and in Peru the Spaniards had then a Custome amongst them which continued untill 1560 which was the year that I came from thence to make choice of four Gentlemen of principal quality in whom they could repose most confidence and trust to be Officers of the Royal revenue to collect the fifths of the King's gold and silver in what part soever it did arise and this was the first Tribute which the Catholick Kings imposed upon the new World. These Officers of the revenue were Treasurers Accountants Factours and Comptrollers and to them was committed the care besides the fifths to collect such Tribute from the Indians as became due by the death of the Inhabitants who all held their Estates of the King. Besides which Offices the Spaniards every year in all parts where they inhabited made choice of two chief Constables in ordinary one Judge and a deputy Judge with 6 8 or 10 Justices of the peace more or less according to the extent of the Countrey and to them several other Officers were adjoined to conserve the safety and welfare of the Commonwealth These Officers as also all Governours Presidents Judges and other Ministers of Justice and their Deputies were concerned in the third ordinance by virtue of which both they and such as had been employed in Offices were commanded to quit all claim interest and power in and over the Indians In opposition whereunto the Complainants made this Reply We said they at the hazard and expence of our Lives and Bloud have gained this large Empire which contains many Kingdoms and Dominions the which we annexed to the Crown of Castile In reward of these our services and adventures the Indians which we now possess and retain in our services were given and granted to us for two Lives the which dominion and jurisdiction ought to be as firm and valid as the Seigniories or Lordships are in Spain Now the reason why this privilege is taken from us is no other than because we are chosen to be Commissioners of his Majesties Royal revenue and employed in the Offices of Justices of the peace and Judges If we have administred these Offices faithfully and without the prejudice or aggrievance of any person what reason is there that we should be deprived of our Indians onely because we are in the service of his Majesty and bear our part in the Government of the people It had been better for us to have been Thieves Adulterers Homicides and Robbers rather than honest men since that the Law is in force against the latter and not against the former With like liberty and freedom of speech did those who were comprehended under the fourth Law vent their anger namely those who had taken party with the two Factions of the Piçarrists and Almagrians by virtue of which as Diego Fernandez observes no person in all Peru could be master of Indians or Estates What fault said they had we who obeyed the Governours and Magistrates which his Majesty had sent us as both those were and who acted by Commission from his Majesty And if there arose private quarrels and animosities amongst themselves by the instigation of the Devil to which men diversly adhered yet neither of these Parties acted against the Crown And if one Party was in the wrong and was guilty of Delinquency yet the other acted for the King's service and why then should they be equally punished by confiscation of their Goods and Estates with those who have offended which seems to be such a piece of Injustice as is not to be parallel'd by the tyranny of Nero and seems rather to proceed from an arbitrary Constitution to satisfie the lust and interest of certain persons than from a desire tending to the welfare and good of the Subject To all which they added a thousand curses upon those who had contrived these new Laws or counselled his Majesty to pass and sign them and to order the execution of them with such severity on pretence that it was for his service and advancement of his Royal Crown If they said they had been at the Conquest of Peru and sustained those labours and hazards which we have done they would have been of another mind than to make such Laws nay rather they would have been the first to oppose them In confirmation whereof they quoted several passages in History both ancient and modern which might be compared to the civil Wars between the Almagrians and the Piçarrists and particularly said they in the Wars of Spain between those two Kings Don Pedro the Cruel and his Brother Don Henrique to
not justifyable and therefore according to the rules of Justice they could not doe less than to set him at Liberty Hereunto the Vice-king replyed that he was committed by his order and that he intended to have hanged him as well for that Motto or Sentence which was wrote on the wall of his Inn as also for several other scandalous reports he had vented against his person And though he had no witness to produce in this matter yet by the authority and privilege of a Vice-king he had power not onely to imprison him but also to put him to death if he so pleased without rendering an account to any person whatsoever to which the Judges replyed that there was no Government but what was agreeable to Justice and founded on the Laws of the Kingdom and on these terms they parted so that the Judges on the Saturday following freed Antonio Solar from the prison and confined him onely to his own house and speedily afterwards they set him at liberty This manner of proceeding angred the Vice-king to the very soul and provoked him to contrive some way of revenge which he supposed he had effected in this manner which was this It seems that these Judges with their Servants were lodged and dieted in the house of one of the richest Citizens in the whole town and had been there lodged and boarded by order of the Vice-king for a short time untill they could otherwise provide for themselves And now the Vice-king thinking to doe them a discourtesie recalled the aforesaid Order forbidding the Citizens to entertain them longer upon pretence that it was not suitable to the King's honour nor to their own quality to lodge upon free-quarter or to keep company with Citizens and Merchants To which the Judges gave for answer That as to their lodging they could find no other convenient place untill such time as they could hire a house by lease for some term of years that for the future they would pay for their diet And for matter of their conversation with Merchants it was not unlawfull or prohibited but on the contrary it was practised in Castile by all those who were of the King's Council as being beneficial to them to understand by information from trading men all the transactions and businesses of the World. In this manner both parties remained at variance each with other which was apparent at all times whensoever occasion offered In pursuance whereof one day Dr. Alvarez made Affidavit before a Master of Chancery that he had paid a certain sum in Gold to Diego Alvarez who was brother-in-law to the Vice-king to have him nominated and preferred to an Office by the Vice-king the which deposition he highly resented Thus far are the words of Carate and the same is again confirmed by Diego Fernandez almost to the same purpose For in this manner saith he the Vice-king and the Judges seemed like two different factions and parties to increase which so soon as Antonio Solar was set at liberty he went privately about raising mutinies and discontents in the minds of the people against the Vice-king to increase and inflame which they reported abroad many bad things which the Vice-king had said and done And though all was so far from being true that nothing of that nature did so much as enter into the thoughts or imagination of the Vice-king yet by reason that Blasco Nunnez was hated and detested by the people all the evil that was said of him found easie admittance and he appeared as black as common same could make him for such indignation the people conceived against him that the name of Vice-king became as odious though the first that ever governed Peru as the name of King was to the Romans after they had expelled Tarquinius Superbus and his Family Thus far are the words of Diego Fernandez Palentino Also Dr. Gonçalo de Yllescas in his Pontifical History of the Popes having occasion to treat of the affairs of Peru gives this Character of the froward and uneasie disposition of Blasco Nunnez Vela After these things says he Vaca de Castro for the space of a year and a half quietly and peaceably governed all matters untill such time as he was superseded by Blasco Nunnez Vela a Gentleman of good quality of Avola who was sent thither with Character of Vice-king bringing with him many severe Rules and Laws which he put in execution over and above which he put in practice others for which he had no Commission the which this Doctor Yllescas declares in a few words and says more than all our Historians durst to say or write upon this particular subject Whilst these disturbances happened in the City Los Reyes the like mutinies or greater arose in other Towns and Corporations of less consideration Howsoever the like spirits of Ambition Envy Tyranny and Desire of Government did not so far prevail as they did in that City of Los Reyes And now dissention and quarrels over-ran all and amidst these Turmoils the poor Prince Manco Inca had the misfortune to be killed though he remained content and quiet in his retirement and became a voluntary exile whilst other men striving for his Empire committed many murthers and slaughters as appeared in the late Wars and we might apprehend others more bloudy yet to come in case it were possible for any to be more bloudy and cruel than those which were past And here it is to be noted That Diego Mandez and Gomez Perez with six other Spaniards whom we formerly nominated and mentioned to have made their escape out of prison where they had been confined by the faction of the Piçarros and by the Justice of Vaca de Castro and having taken refuge with this Inca they by his means came to know and receive all the Informations and Advices concerning the new Troubles and Dissentions arising upon the execution of the new Laws for whereas it was reported that the Vice-king came to turn all things upside down and to change and alter all the Constitutions of the Countrey the Inca who was encompassed within the craggy and lofty mountains was informed by his Subjects of all these revolutions which he thought might be of benefit and concernment to him With this news Diego Mendez and his Companions were highly pleased and persuaded the Inca to write a Letter to the Vice-king desiring his Licence to be enlarged from his retirement and appear in his presence and serve his Majesty in any thing as occasion should offer the Inca was induced at the persuasion of the Spaniards to make this Petition who told him that it might be a means to open a way to his recovery of the whole Empire or at least of the best part of it The Spaniards also wrote as from themselves desiring a pardon for what was past and a protection or safe conduct in the attendance of his Lordship to perform their duty to him Gomez Perez was the person appointed and elected to be Ambassadour from
examined the cause of the principal Mutiniers who were Francisco de Miranda and Alonso Hernandez Melgarejo he hanged them up without any regard to their Nobility though they claimed the privilege of Gentlemen The which when Alonso Barrioneuevo knew who was also condemned he sent to the Mayor or Governour desiring that he might enjoy the privilege of a Gentleman that is that he might have his Throat cut and not be hanged alledging that in case he were hanged he should despair of his Salvation and be condemned everlastingly to the Torments of Hell. At the instance of certain friends the Governour granted the request and with some unwillingness commanded his Throat to be cut which I know to be true because I saw them all three after they were dead for being a Boy at that time I had the curiosity to see those things as they passed six or seven others were banished out of the Kingdom the rest made their escape away But as to Don Pedro Portocarrero he remitted his causes to the Lords Justices who having examined him set him at liberty Palentino speaking of Francisco de Miranda names him for a Citizen of Cozco whereas in reality he was not unless we will give the title of Citizen to any Inhabitant after the Castilian Style different to the Custome used in Peru and Mexico where none is called a Citizen unless he hath a Plantation and a Command over Indians in vassalage to him and is obliged as we noted in the first Part of these Commentaries to maintain his Houses in the place of his residence but Miranda could claim nothing of this matter for I knew him very well for a Niece of his was bred up in the same house with me she was born of an Indian mother and proved a woman of great probity and vertue Some few months after this punishment executed a small disturbance happened of which Palentino makes a long Story though in reality it was rather a Pretence raised to take revenge upon a poor Gentleman who without any malice had undertaken to give an account of Bastardies in several great and ancient Families and not onely on the man's side but on the woman's side also but what these Families were there is no reason we should mention in particular Moreover there were several other discontents in those days which turned into publick mutinies the punishment of all which fell upon a poor young Gentleman onely not of above twenty four years of age called Don Diego Enriquez a Native of Seville whom they put to death his untimely end was much lamented by all the City for though there had been above two hundred persons as Palentino reports concerned in the sedition yet the fate of this poor Gentleman was without any fault to pay for all The Justice also proceeded to execute farther Severities on Indians of principal note and on the Vassals and Servants of Noble and rich Citizens which ought rather to have been inflicted on the Masters themselves who had been the causes thereof These mutinies and disturbances of which Palentino gives so long and large relations proceeded originally from the Orders and Decrees which the Justices had made for taking off the personal Services of Indians towards their Lords requiring that such as found themselves aggrieved in this matter should not appear by their common Atturney in behalf of the Generality but that every man should appear and plead in his own person All which as we have formerly said were Artifices of the Devil contrived purposely to raise discord among the Spaniards whereby the progress of the doctrine of the Gospel might be hindred and the Conversion of the Indians to the Catholick Faith delayed the which proceeding was contrary to the sense and opinion of that wise and prudent person the President Gasca who having had experience that the new Laws which the Vice-king Blasco Nunnez Vela had brought and put in execution in Peru had raised those commotions as would certainly have been the total destruction of that Empire had they not been repealed and having observed that whensoever any thing of that kind was moved all the Countrey was put into a flame he wisely therefore before his departure suspended the execution of his Majesty's command requiring him to free the Indians from services to their Lords But the Justices followed not this rule but sent their commands over all the Kingdom as before mentioned which gave occasion to the Souldiers to utter rebellious and seditious Speeches and were encouraged therein by considerable persons and men of Estates as Palentino writes at large in the second Part and first Chapter of the second Book CHAP. XVII Don Antonio de Mendoça is sent in quality of Vice-king to Peru he employs his Son Don Francisco to visit and survey the Countrey as far as the Charcas and dispatches him into Spain with a relation thereof A severe action is executed by a Judge ABout this time a new Governour or Captain-General of the whole Empire arrived in Peru with title of Vice-king called Don Antonio de Mendoça who was Second Son of the House of the Marquis de Mondexar Count of Tendilla who as we have mentioned in the History of Florida was Vice-king in the Empire of Mexico a person of great Sanctity and Religion endued with Christian Vertues and much a Gentleman The City of Los Reyes received him with great joy and solemnity and desired to introduce him under a Canopy of State but neither the Archbishop nor the Magistrates of the City could prevail with that Prince to accept of that honour as if it had been a piece of Treason towards his Majesty much contrary to the custome in these days in which great Men esteem more of one hour of such Pageantry than all the time of their life afterwards with him he brought his Son Don Francisco de Mendoça who was afterwards made General of the Galleys of Spain I saw him both here and there he always behaved himself like the Son of such a Father whose goodness and vertues he imitated and followed both in his youth and in the years of his old age When this Vice-king arrived in Peru he was much empaired in his health by long abstinence and acts of penance by which his natural heat began so far to fail that to recover it he used violent exercise and though that climate was naturally very hot yet he would chuse to go abroad at noon day with a certain little Hawk of that Countrey which they had taught to kill upon the Sands a sort of small Owls or other Birds and with this sport he divertised himself as often as his vacation from business would permit And by reason of his want of health he sent his Son Don Francisco to all the Cities from Los Reyes as far as the Charcas and Potocsi to bring him a true relation of the state thereof for information of his Majesty Don Francisco went accordingly upon this Visitation and as he passed I
Major Hernando de Guillado and Garci Tello de Vega were made Captains and Pedro de Castillo Captain of the Artilery and Alvar Perez Payan Proveditor General Diego Perez was made High Sheriff and Bartholomew de Santa Ana his under Sheriff Thus far Palentino Rodrigo de Orellana took part with the Rebels rather out of fear than love the like did other Citizens and Souldiers of good reputation who were truly Loyal to his Majesty being forced thereunto by the greater power of the Rebels who had the Arms in their hands and resolved to kill all those who complied not with them CHAP. XXIV The Orders and Methods which Don Sebastian took in his Affairs Egas de Guzman is directed to make an Insurrection in Potocsi the several strange Revolutions which happened in that Town DON Sebastian himself made choice of one of his Souldiers in whom he had the greatest confidence called Diego Mendez to be Captain of his Guard and for better security of his person thirteen Souldiers were chosen to be listed therein being all esteemed stout Men and true and faithfull to him and yet when this poor Gentleman had occasion for them not one man would appear in his defence Another Souldier called Garçia de Baçan was sent with a small party to the Estate and Lands of Pedro de Hinojosa to seise his Slaves Horses and all other his Goods and Faculties with Orders to bring back with him those Souldiers who were dispersed abroad and lived amongst the Indians for want of clothing after the Spanish Fashion which was very dear for with the Indians any thing served and also Orders were given by Don Sebastian to bring Diego de Almendras a prisoner Other Souldiers were dispeeded away in pursuit of Polo the Lawyer but neither party had success for Polo passing by the place where Diego de Almendras lived gave him advice of the death of General Hinojosa whereupon Almendras getting as many of the Slaves belonging to Hinojosa together as he was able with seven of his Horses he fled away in company with Polo which soon carried him far enough away out of the reach of the rebellious Souldiers likewise Don Sebastian dispeeded away two Souldiers to the quarters of Potocsi to inform Egas de Guzman of all that had passed that he also might take up Arms as others had done These and all the Actions mentioned in the preceding Chapter with what else we shall touch upon hereafter were performed the very day that Pedro de Hinojosa was killed of which he endeavoured to send the first intelligence to all parts the Messengers whereof carried it with such speed to Potocsi that though it was seventeen leagues thither and a bad rocky way and a River to pass yet they arrived there the next morning by break of day so soon as Egas de Guzman received this news he assembled his Souldiers which he had formerly listed upon this occasion and with them and the two messengers which brought the news and without other Arms or Provisions than their Swords and Daggers and Cloaks to cover them they went immediately to the Houses of Gomez de Solis and Martin de Almendras Brother of Diego de Almendras and took them with great ease and carried them Prisoners to the Town-house where they laid them in Chains and lodged them in a Chamber with a secure Guard upon them Upon the report of this pleasing Action many Souldiers came in and joined with Egas de Guzman and presently went to the King's house where they seised his Treasurer Francisco de Ysafiga with his Accomptant Hernando de Alvarado and broke open the Royal Treasury from whence they robbed above a Million and a half of Silver and made immediate Proclamation that every man upon pain of Death should repair to the Market place to join with the Squadron Then did Guzman make choice of a Souldier called Antonio de Luxan to be Chief Justice or Recorder of the Town who so soon as he was in Office put the Accomptant Hernando de Alvarado to death upon an Accusation as Palentino saith that he had been in the Conspiracy with the General Pedro de Hinojosa to make a Rebellion in the Countrey Likewise Egas de Guzman dispatched away six or seven Souldiers to a Village called Porcu to get what Men Arms and Horses they could find in those parts At this time a certain Knight of the Order of St. John being amongst his Indian Vassals where he had a good Estate assigned him and hearing of the Murâ—â—er of Pedro de Hinojosa wrote a congratulatory Letter to Don Sebastian upon that subject wishing him much joy of his high promotion and desired him presently to send him twenty Musquetiers that he might go and take Gomez de Alvarado and Lorenço de Aldana who were his neighbours and to take away call jealousie and suspicion of the design he advised that the Souldiers should not be sent by the ordinary road but by private ways and untrodden paths for which good contrivance this good Gentleman paid afterwards to his cost The day following after the death of Hinojosa Baltasar de Velazquez and Basco Godinez came to the City who had been chief Instruments in that Mutiny and such as had contrived and fomented the Plot as will appear hereafter and which is confirmed by Palentino in these words Whilst Don Sebastian was preparing to receive them they both entred the Town Sebastian was over-joyed to see them and alighting from his Horse he met Godinez a foot and they both embraced with all the Ceremony of good correspondence Then said Basco Godinez to Sebastian Sir about five leagues from hence I first received the joyfull news of this glorious Action so much desired by me To which Don Sebastian taking off his hat made answer These Gentlemen here were pleased to make choice of me for their General which Charge I accepted until such time as you arrived here to ease me thereof which therefore now I renounce and willingly resign it into your hands But Basco Godinez refused to accept it saying that that Office could not be better supplied by any than by himself and that his endeavours tended wholly to see him advanced to that Dignity and Charge After which Complements they retired from the Company and discoursed together privately and apart After which Don Sebastian made Proclamation whereby Basco Godinez was declared Lieutenant General and that he should be obeyed accordingly by the Souldiery upon pein of death and Baltasar de Velazquez was made Captain of Horse Moreover Sebastian said to Godinez Sir it was impossible to have deferred this action untill your coming for if we had we had lost our opportunity but for the future we shall regulate our selves by your direction To which Godinez replied that neither then nor at any other time could he erre in such wise proceedings and that he hoped in God that those steps he had made with so much difficulty and hazard would tend to the happiness and settlement
newly arrived to assemble together in Council and join with the rest in confirming the Election of him to be Chief Justice and Captain-General and also the Settlement made upon him of the Estate of Pedro de Hinojosa To which demand they made answer that they had no power nor authority so to doe nor was an act of theirs either legal or valid and if he would take their counsel as Friends they would advise him to desist from such like pretensions for that it would look as if the killing of Don Sebastian de Castilla had been acted by him for the sake of his own interest and not for the service of his Majesty with this answer Godinez grew highly incensed and with a loud voice vowed that whosoever pretended to abate the least tittle of his honour he would pretend to take away their lives Wherefore he commanded them all to enter into Consultation and having set sixty or eighty Souldiers at the Door of the Room where they were assembled he gave orders to kill him or them who should refuse to sign or set his hand to any thing which he required to be done which when Paulo de Meneses and his Companions understood they approved the Election though much against their will and would have done much more if it had been demanded for Gomez Hernandez the Lawyer assured them that in case they complied not with him he was resolved to put every one of them to death Godinez finding himself now confirmed by the authority of two Assemblies was very much pleased though both Sentences served onely for his greater condemnation Riba Martin who was the chief of five Musquetiers sent to take Don Garcia Tello de Guzman had the fortune to apprehend him about five leagues distant from the City being on his way thither in hopes of the favour and protection of Don Sebastian de Castilla and his party but when he understood that Basco Godinez and Baltasar Velazquez and Gomez Hernandez who had been the chief Conspiratours and contrivers of the Murther of Pedro de Hinojosa and had been deepest in the Rebellion and who had been the most intimate Friends of Don Sebastian were the persons who had assassinated him he could not but greatly admire and remain astonished thinking it impossible that those who were more deeply concerned in that black Murther and Rebellion than Don Sebastian should object that crime to him onely and kill him for that which was their own Plot and Conspiracy And whereas he was a Man who had been principally concerned in all the Plots and Intrigues of the Rebels he told Riba Martin that he did not question but that they would kill him to prevent the discoveries he might make of all the Plots and Villanies they had contrived and acted And so it happened for so soon as he was brought to the City Basco Godinez gave order to Velazquez as Palentino saith to kill him which he accordingly performed to prevent the Testimonies and Evidence which he might produce against them These are the words of that Authour who afterwards proceeds as follows When Don Garcia perceived saith he that he had but a short time to live he desired to be admitted to confession and when John Ortiz de Carate came in to see him he beseeched him that since he was shortly to die he would intercede for him to have one days time to recollect himself and consider of his sins for that he was a young man and had been a great sinner At that instant Baltasar Velazquez entred the Chamber and without suffering John Ortiz so much as to speak he commanded him to void the Room and told Don Garcia that he had but an hours time given him to live which he was to make use of for preparation of his Soul and being in confession he often admonished him to dispatch and before he had done he threw the Cord about his Neck which he drew so hard that it brake and then applying another Rope which he supposed too slow in doing execution he drew out his Sword and cut his Throat and Head off therewith which being done John de Ortiz clothed him in his Burial Shrouds and caused him to be interred The like sort of Justice they passed upon others not admitting any of them to confession nor to any legal proceedings lest at the Tribunal of Justice they should have impeached them to have been the chief and original Plotters and Contrivers of this Rebellion Thus far Diego Hernandez Chap. 19. who a little before discoursing of this matter saith as follows It was the great Master-piece of all their policy to put men to death without giving them time to confess lest they should accuse them and discover their Plots and Treacheries and as to those in whom they had any confidence of being secret and faithfull to the designs they would keep in hand and encourage allowing them time to be gone and make their escape which they acted by traversing Justice to that side and party whereunto their own interest most chiefly directed Herewith Diego Hernandez concludes his eighteenth Chapter and with much reason detests the abominable practices cruelties and treacheries which these men acted upon their best and most intimate Friends for they were the wretches who had designed and contrived the death of Pedro de Hinojosa and had above three years before resolved to kill him in case he should refuse to become their Head and chief Commander in their intended Rebellion And then afterwards the villany and barbarous cruelty of these men is not to be expressed who killed those who knew their wickedness and caused themselves to be elected Judges and chief Magistrates to condemn those whom they had caused to sin and rendred guilty of all those murthers and bloudy cruelties which they had plotted and contrived But Heaven found them out at last and punished them according to their demerit as we shall see hereafter CHAP. XXVII Of what happened in Potocsi Egas de Guzman is drawn and quartered Other outrages are committed by the Souldiers Many brave men are put to death Cozco arms against the Rebels THese and many others were the horrible and execrable Villanies which passed in the City of Plate and now we shall proceed to what was committed in Potocsi where they robbed all the Treasure belonging to his Majesty which was so great and vast a sum that it amounted to a million and a half of pieces of Eight which all vanished to nothing and never was there one farthing of it recovered for it was taken away after the death of Hernando de Alvarado his Majesty's Accomptant-General whom Antonio de Luxan having made himself Chief Justice of that Town and parts thereunto belonging had sentenced to die and as he went to Execution he published his Crime to have been that he had sided with the General Pedro de Hinojosa with intention to raise all the Kingdom in arms against his Majesty And now we must understand that a certain Friend of
Antonio de Luxan called John Gonçales wrote a Letter to him giving him advice of the death of Don Sebastian of the imprisonment of Don Garcia and of the departure of John Ramon and others with intent to join with the Marshal Alonso de Alvarado This Letter was sent by a Janacuna which signifies an Indian Domestick Servant educated in a Family who are commonly the best Spies in the world and the Letter was made up in the soal of his Shoe to keep it from being intercepted by the Guards which were placed on the way where he was to pass herein he was counselled immediately to kill Egas de Guzman for that therewith all the Plots of those who were concerned in the death of Don Sebastian would be entirely overthrown so soon as Antonio de Luxan who had made himself chief Justice had received this Letter he immediately caused the Drum to beat for assembling the Souldiery in the Market-place where Egas de Guzman coming amongst the rest demanded the reason of that convention Antonio de Luxan to make trial whether this Letter were true or feigned and also to create a confidence of Egas de Guzman in him as his Friend he publickly produced the Letter in view of all those then present and asked whether that were the hand and firm of John Gonçales and when it was said that it was very like Gonçales's hand and that probably it was his and no others Egas de Guzman changed his countenance which shewed the inward trouble and apprehension of his mind Upon this certification and assurance of the death of Don Sebastian those who had before an intention to join with Egas de Guzman changed their minds and declared themselves Servants to his Majesty which was the design of Antonio de Luxan in publishing the Letter and also to make the Souldiers his instruments in killing Egas de Guzman as that paper advised upon reading whereof those present looked one upon the other and without speaking one word they understood each others meaning so that Antonio de Luxan and his party adventured to lay hands upon Egas de Guzman notwithstanding he had many that sided with him and set Gomez de Solis and Martin de Almendras at liberty and those very Chains and Irons with which they had been manacled they put upon Egas de Guzman and stripped off his Coat of Mail and gave it to Gomez de Solis and within the space of six hours Egas de Guzman notwithstanding all his courage and bravery was drawn and quartered together with another Companion of his called Diego de Vergara This effect had Gonçales's Letter in Potocsi and at the same time the Inhabitants of the City of Plate of which the principal persons were Basco Godinez Baltasar Velazquez and Gomez Hernandez the Lawyer having consulted with others of the same City they agreed all to march to Potocsi in a posture of War against Egas de Guzman not knowing as yet what had been the fate of that poor Gentleman Basco Godinez went General and Judge-Advocate of the Army which they so called though it scarce consisted of an hundred men and looked more like a training of Boys and a mock-show rather than an Army for to so few men they had two Captains of Foot and one of Horse with a Lieutenant-General and having marched about two leagues they received intelligence that Egas de Guzman was killed and the Town reduced to the service of the King upon which it was agreed that Basco Godinez should return again to the City of Plate and that Baltasar Velazquez and Gomez Hernandez with fifty select Souldiers should proceed forward to Potocsi and farther in pursuit of Gabriel de Pernia whom as we have said Egas de Guzman had sent with fifty five Souldiers to the City of Peace there to kill the Marshal Alonso de Alvarado But Gabriel de Pernia having with his people travelled several leagues received the news that John Ramon had disarmed Don Garcia upon which he declared for the Marshal and sent him word by Ordonno de Valencia that he was coming to serve him but he had not marched many leagues farther before his own Souldiers seised upon him and declared for Don Sebastian and with their Colours flying returned back again leaving Pernia with three other Companions to follow their own imaginations who accordingly joined themselves with the Marshal's party but the Souldiers returned back without Captain or Leader or Counsel either of themselves or others and travelled untill they received news of the death of Don Sebastian and then they proceeded as Palentino writes Chapter 21 in these words They pretended that the Ensign or Colours they carried were displayed in the name and for the service of his Majesty so that their Banner changed like the Weather-cock which turns to the part where the wind blows strongest and such was the loyalty of this people who always cried aloud may he live who overcomes so when they came to meet with Baltasar Velazquez the Ensign who carried the Colours with Pedro Xuares and two other Souldiers put themselves in the Front of all the rest and loaring their Colours three times resigned them up into the hands of Velazquez who immediately from thence dispatched Riba Martin and Martin Moneja to the City of Peace to signifie unto the Marshal that in regard the City of Plate was in quietness and peace and reduced to the obedience of his Majesty he was returning thither and carried with him Prisoners Alonso de Ariaça Francisco Arnao Pero Xuarez Alonso de Marquina Francisco Chaves the Moor and John Perez and when he came within a league and a half of the place be caused Francisco de Arnao to be executed and cut into four quarters and as he entred into the Town Alonso de Marquina was by his order drawn and quartered And the same night he entred into the Monastery of the Merceds and from thence drew out Pedro del Cotro and caused him to be hanged though upon his repentance for having had a hand in the death of the General he had admitted himself in the Convent and turned Friar Thus far Diego Hernandez But to abbreviate that which he discourses much more at large we say that Baltasar Velazquez delivered up the other Prisoners to Basco Godinez that so he who had made himself Chief Justice might bring them to their Trial or dispose of them as he should think fit that is that he might kill and destroy all such as had been privy to his plots and designs which he accordingly did and banished many into parts far remote from the City of Plate namely four five and six hundred leagues from thence he caused also Garci Tello de Vega to be quartered who was one of Sebastian's Captains and had been commissionated thereunto by Basco Godinez himself he also condemned another Souldier called Diego Perez to be disabled in both his Feet and afterwards to serve in the Galleys for a Galley-slave hath not much use of
his Feet thus did they contrive and meditate new ways of cruelty Then he dispatched Baltasar Velazquez with another Souldier of note called Pedro del Castillo to go to Lima there to publish and extoll the great services which Basco Godinez and they had done which are the words of Palentino who therewith concludes that Chapter Though Baltasar Velazquez by being absent in the Charcas escaped the punishment which Alonso de Alvarado had designed for him yet he could not avoid a more severe judgment which Heaven had prepared to bring him to his end The news of the Insurrection of Don Sebastian de Castillia ran like lightning through the whole Kingdom to the great trouble and consternation of those who had Estates in the Countrey for these were they who were likely to suffer by all wars and confusions which arise for not onely being Lords of Manors holding many Indians in vassalage they were upon all occasions of this nature put to a vast expence but likewise they held their lives by a hair or thread being ever in danger of being killed in those rebellious tumults by the Souldiers who gaped and longed after the enjoyment of their possessions So soon as this news came to the City of Cozco they put themselves into a posture of defence against the enemy and by consent of the Corporation they elected Diego Maldonado surnamed the Rich to be their General having formerly been the most ancient Governour of any in that City Garçilasso de la Vega and John de Saavedra were made Captains of Horse and John Julio de Hojeda Thomas Vazquez and Antonio de Quinnones and another Citizen whose name I have forgot were made Captains of Foot who presently applied themselves with all diligence to raise Souldiers and herein John Julio de Hojeda was so active that in five days time he marched into the Market-place with three hundred Souldiers after him all very well armed and accoutred which seemed strange in so short a time Three days after this making eight days in all with the former five news came of the death of Don Sebastian which put an end to the War for the present The like happened in the City of Los Reyes as Diego Hernandez mentions Chap. 22. in these words The Court of Justice received intelligence of all the revolutions and tempests which were arisen for at the end of March news came of the death of the General and of the rebellion of Don Sebastian six days after which came news that Egas Guzman was up in Arms in the quarters of Potocsi and in four days more advices were brought of the death and destruction of those rebellious Tyrants for which great rejoycing was made in the City of Lima. Thus far Diego Hernandez We shall now in the following Chapter relate what course and methods were used to bring these men to condign punishment CHAP. XXVIII The Royal Court of Justice constitutes the Marshal Alonso de Alvarado to sit Judge on the Trial of the Rebels Decrees and Orders were issued out by the Judge and others by the Souldiers The Imprisonment of Basco Godinez and of other Souldiers and Men of Estates THE days of joy and festival being past in the City of Los Reyes for the death of Don Sebastian de Castillia and the defeat and destruction of the Rebels in which Ordonno de Valencia whom Diego Hernandez often mentions in his History had proved a principal Instrument though he had acted a double part and been concerned on both sides Howsoever his good fortune guiding him to bring the first news of the death of Don Sebastian the Judges in reward thereof bestowed upon him a division of some Lands with vassalage of Indians in the City of Cozco to the value of five or six thousand pieces of Eight of yearly Revenue where I left him in the enjoyment of the same when I came for Spain But others failed in that design and gained a contrary reward being accused and endicted before a High Court of Justice of which the Marshal Alonso de Alvarado was constituted Lord Chancellour by Commission from the Lords Justices for that he being known to be an upright and a severe person was esteemed a proper Instrument to punish those many outrages murthers and violences which had been committed against God and contrary to the peace and quietness of our Sovereign Lord Charles the Fifth Emperour and King of Spain In like manner for Trial of Offenders in the Charcas John Fernandez the King's Attorney General was ordained and appointed to proceed against and judge those Delinquents Moreover another Commission was privately sealed whereby Alonso de Alvarado was ordained chief Governour and Justiciary of all those Provinces and Captain General of all the Forces with full power to raise Souldiers and to pay them and all necessary Expences of the War out of the Royal Treasury These Commissions were sent to Alvarado in the City of Peace by virtue of which he immediately applied himself to the trial and punishment of the Rebels and in order thereunto he dispatched several persons of entire confidence and integrity into divers parts to seise and apprehend such as had been guilty and were fled to avoid the course of Justice into private corners and concealments amongst the Indians One of those employed upon this message was called John de Henao who pursued them so hard as to search for them with Canoes or Indian Boats in certain little Islands within the Lake of Titicaca and to hunt them amongst the Osiers and Rushes which grew by the Banks of those Islands and having taken above twenty of the most malignant and culpable amongst them he delivered them into the hands of Pedro Enciso then Governour in Chucuytu who having first examined them and taken their Confessions he sent them with a safe Guard to the Marshal It being by this time made known over all the Charcas and Potocsi that the Marshal was by Commission constituted Judge of those Provinces divers Souldiers who were conscious of their own guilt advised Basco Godinez whose crimes they believed were too black to admit of Pardon to be wary and cautious of his own person and to raise Souldiers to resist the Marshal the which as Diego Hernandez says Chapter the twenty second they represented to him as a matter very easie to be effected and that he should cause it to be published abroad that the Marshal and Lorenço de Aldana and Gomez de Alvarado intended to raise Arms and in an arbitrary manner to tyrannize over the Countrey which being once fixed in the minds of the people he might have a very laudable pretence to kill them all which being done there could be none to oppose or confront him Howsoever Basco Godinez was of another opinion for depending much on the service he had done his Majesty in killing Don Sebastian de Castillia and upon the enmity which was between him and John Ramon who accused and complained of him for not standing firm to
his principles he resolved to come and claim a reward for his Services of which the Marshal having intimation he gave it out that he had a power in his Commission to gratifie all those who had had a hand in the death of Don Sebastian and had been instrumental in suppressing Rebels and that there was a particular Clause impowring him to confer the Estate and Indians formerly belonging to Alonso de Mendoça upon Basco de Godinez and John Ramon This rumour being published abroad Alonso Velazquez was dispatched away with some Orders and Instructions for Potocsi and with a particular Warrant to take and apprehend Basco Godinez though it was commonly given out that he carried a power to invest Godinez in an Estate and Lordship over Indians Thus far Diego Hernandez in the Chapter before mentioned Basco Godinez being then at the City of Plate received a Letter from a Kinsman of his that Alonso Velazquez was bringing the Order of the Justices to confer on him the Estate of Alonso de Mendoça at which Godinez seemed much offended and angry that it was not the Estate of the General Pedro de Hinojosa which he had before allotted and appropriated to himself by his own power and arbitrary pleasure of which when he read the Letter he greatly complained to those who were then present but they moderated his passion a little by telling him that these were good beginnings and that he was in a fair way to better his fortunes but he stormed and raged like a mad man as did other Souldiers then with him who entertaining an overweening opinion of their own merits pretended to the best and the most opulent Estates in all Peru. Soon after Godinez had received this feigned news in a Letter which was never intended for him Alonso Velazquez arrived at the City of Plate and being accompanied with some Friends of his he went directly to the Lodging of Basco Godinez and saluted him with the usual forms of ceremony and complement to which he returned a surly kind of an answer and looked very sullen and melancholy because all Peru was not conferred upon him for a reward of his deserts But not to suffer him to proceed farther in such vain imaginations as these Alonso Velazquez delivered him a Letter from the Marshal with others which were feigned to amuse him a while with vain hopes but whilst he was attent in reading them Alonso Velazquez laid hold on his Arme and said Senior Godinez you are my Prisoner with which he being much surprised he asked him by what Warrant Velazquez as Diego Hernandez says made answer that he charged him to go with him to a certain place where he would shew him by what authority No said Godinez let these persons present see your Orders and Warrant and afterwards we shall resolve to doe what is requisite in the case Then Velazquez with more choler and heat than before told him plainly that he would not capitulate with him but charged him without farther dispute to go with him and using some violence drew him into the Prison and as he was going Godinez desperately tore his Beard with his hand and listed his eyes to Heaven which some seeing comforted him and advised him to patience in regard that by this imprisonment the Justice of his Cause and the signal Services he had done his Majesty would more eminently appear But Godinez replied onely with Oaths and Curses and that the Devils would now fetch him who had reserved him to that unhappy time In short Velazquez clapt him up into close Prison with Chains and Manacles and committed him to the custody of a strong Guard and immediately wrote away to the Marshal giving advice of what had passed who speedily coming to Potocsi seised on many Souldiers and Inhabitants intending to bring them to condign punishment And in the first place he made Process against Martin de Robles Gomez de Solis and Martin de Almendras and others allowing them to make their legal defence and bring their witnesses and such proofs as were conducing to their discharge and herein especially he indulged the Citizens and those who had Plantations in the Countrey affording them a large time to make their defence most of which were saved by prolongations and delays rather than acquitted by the Sentence of Justice as will hereafter appear Thus far Diego Hernandez who therewith ends this Chapter In the conclusion of which he seems to have received his information from some person prepossessed with a prejudice against the Gentlemen who had Estates and were Lords of Vassals in Peru or perhaps he himself was so for he lays no crime to the charge of those against whom the Marshal proceeded but rather excuses them and says that the Rebels seised on Gomez de Solis and Martin de Almendras and that Martin de Robles escaped from them in his Shirt And yet after this he says that their lives were rather saved by prolongations and delays than acquitted by the course of Justice which shews him guilty of an apparent partiality as we shall observe in many passages for the future CHAP. XXIX The Judge puts many of the Rebels to death in the City of Peace and in the Village of Potocsi others were whipped and sent to the Gallies the like Justice he doth in the City of Plate The Sentence and Execution of Basco de Godinez THE Marshal began now to exercise his power in punishment of the Rebels in the City of Peace where he had erected a Court of Justice all the Prisoners sent him by Pedro de Enciso taken in the great Lake and other parts he condemned some of them were hanged others beheaded some were whipped and others sent to the Gallies so that all of them received their just reward From the City of Peace the Marshal travelled to Potocsi where he found many Prisoners of those Bravoes and Hectors that belonged to Egas de Guzman and Don Sebastian de Castilla on whom he executed the same justice as on the former as namely some were hanged and others beheaded whipped and sent to the Gallies He apprehended the person of Hernan Perez de Peragua who was Commissary-General and accused for holding a correspondence as we have said before with Don Sebastian to whom he wrote a Letter to send twenty Musquetiers to take him that he might not seem to surrender himself but in regard he was a Knight of the Habit of St. John or a Knight of Malta they confiscated the Plantation and Indians which he possessed in the City of Plate and sent his Person under a secure Guard to the Master of Malta These Sessions being ended at Potocsi the Marshal went to the City of Plate where Basco Godinez remained a Prisoner with several as brave Souldiers and men of note as any were within those Provinces on all which they executed the Sentence of the Law as before on those in Potocsi and in the City of Plate but very few were condemned to the Gallies by
to Hernandez and had given him advice of their design to surprize him in the night wherefore they changed their resolution and ordered their Souldiers to march unto a place called Villacori about five Leagues distant from their former quarters leaving thirty of their best Horse behind for a rere Guard and to give intelligence of what passed in those parts Lope Martin with three other Companions offered himself for this service and posted himself on a high Hill which surveyed the River Yca from whence he might discover and observe the motion of the Enemy But as Lope Martin with his three Companions were on the Hill they were discovered by a certain Indian of Cannari belonging to Hernandez from the lower parts which are full of thickets and trees of which he immediately carried the Intelligence to his Captain upon which advice Hernandez with his Souldiers encompassed the Hill on all sides so that it was impossible for any of them to escape for though Lope Martin could see at a distance yet by reason of the thickets and bushes he could discover nothing that was near at hand nor could he see when any passed the River Yca which runs just under the mountain I remember that having had occasion once to pass that way with some Companions of mine we had the curiosity to go up to the top of the Hill to see the place where Lope de Martin was surprized which indeed is such a situation that an enemy cannot be discryed untill he just appears close at hand and so it happened to Lope de Martin and his three Companions who fell unexpectedly into the hands of a Party sent from Hernandez without possibility to escape being all four taken And whereas it was not known which was Lope de Martin a certain Moor of Barbary who had been a servant to Alonso de Alvarado who was Brother-in-law to Thomas Vazquez they having married two Sisters chanced to know him and told those that carried him that they ought to look well to their Prisoner who was Lope de Martin The Souldiers triumphing with so great a prize carried him with much joy to Hernandez Giron who refused to see him but calling to remembrance how that Loçana one of his Captains was hanged by Altamirano the Judge Advocate he instantly passed sentence on Lope de Martin and upon one of his Companions that had formerly deserted him and caused them both to be executed without farther delay Lope Martin was beheaded and his Head pitched upon the point of a Lance was carried for a Trophy to Villacori as we shall presently relate And thus Lope Martin ended his days who was one of the first Conquerours of that Empire and concerned in the imprisonment of Atahualpa and one of the Chief Citizens of Cozco CHAP. XII The Justices send recruits to Paulo de Meneses Francisco Hernandez returns upon him and defeats him The death of Michael Cornejo The faithfulness of a Horse to his Master PAulo de Meneses going as we have said before in pursuit of Hernandez wrote to the Justice Santillan and to Don Geronimo de Loaysa Archbishop of Los Reyes who were the Generals of the Army advising them that the Enemy was very strong and that his Forces were weak and therefore he desired them to send him recruits without delay not doubting but to defeat the Rebels in that expedition The Generals with all readiness complyed with his desires and sent him a hundred men well armed and provided amongst which were divers Citizens of Cozco Huamanca and Arequepa who made such haste in their march that they arrived at Villacori some time before Paulo de Meneses himself came thither to the encouragement and satisfaction of both Parties at their meeting They were well informed that the Enemies quarters were not above five Leagues distant and that Lope de Martin and his three Companions were upon the watch and remained for Centinels attending the motion of the Enemy With which News they confidently reposed and remained in security without fear or suspicion of danger which was an errour in the Captains who in War ought ever to apprehend the worst and provide against the surprise of an enemy though distant and far removed for example of which we shall lay before them the present misfortune For Francisco Hernandez having been informed from Lope Martin and his Companions of the quarters and condition of Paulo de Meneses he presently put his Forces in order to march against him with all possible diligence and herein fortune favoured him very much for though one of Martin Lope's Companions had made his escape yet he was so affrighted with the apprehensions of death that he hid himself in a Cave and had not power to go forward with this information to Paulo Meneses which was of the highest importance to him for want of which on confidence of such vigilant Sentinels as Lope Martin and his Companions both he and his Souldiers reposed securely without fear or suspicion of any surprise About break of day in the morning a certain Souldier who went out of the Camp to gather a little Mayz in those Fields heard on a sudden the noise of people coming towards him and looking about him espied a party of about thirty Horse which Hernandez had sent for the Van-guard to amuse the enemy and entertain them with skirmishing untill the rest of his Forces were come up to their assistence The Souldier immediately ran in with the advice and gave the alarm but Paulo de Meneses supposing that the enemy was not more numerous than what the Souldier reported them to be he kept his ground and would not retreat untill seeing the enemy very near and appearing on the Sands and himself almost surrounded with Forces far greater than his own he then gave orders to make a retreat with all speed whilst he in person defended the Rere against the enemies attempt in which many were killed and wounded on one side and the other and in this manner they continued fighting and skirmishing the greatest part of the day untill the whole Force of Hernandez was come up and then the confusion was great as well amongst those who pursued as those that fled not being able by reason of the noise and dust to distinguish one from the other this pursuit continued for the space of three leagues in which Captain d◠Avalos with five or six more were wounded and about fourteen or fifteen were killed and amongst them Michael de Cornejo a very honest man and a Citizen of Arequepa and one of the first Conquerours to whom Francisco de Carvajal Lieutenant-General to Gonçalo Piçarro made many acknowledgments of friendship for the kindness and generosity he had shewn him as we have formerly mentioned His death was occasioned by the Borgonion he wore having the Visard close shut down whereby and with the dust raised by those who pursued and those who fled and by the violent heat which is always in those Valleys he was stifled and suffocated
a Counsel the Officers by a Royal Mandate discharged the two Generals of their Commands and conferred the Office of Commander in Chief upon Paulo de Meneses and constituted Pedro Portocarrero his Lieutenant-General which likewise caused murmurings and discontent in the whole Camp and men talked loudly that it was a shame and reproach to them to make choice of an unlucky fellow who but the other day had lost a Battel and had rather deserved ignominy and punishment for his ill conduct and to be debased to the meanest Souldier in the Field than to be raised to the highest dignity and place of command Howsoever the election was confirmed and the resolution notified to the two Generals who made some demur thereupon but they were over-ruled and forced to submit and farther it was agreed to pursue the Rebels with eight hundred men and for better expedition to march without Baggage or other incumbrance but this determination met with delays like the rest so that it was not put in execution till three days afterwards For the Justice Santillan being upon his return to Los Reyes was attended on his way with a numerous train of Friends and Relations to the number of about an hundred and fifty persons to the great diminution of their Forces and discomposure of their affairs of which Santillan being made sensible by one of his Friends who told him that the taking many men from the Army would look like a Rebellion and give his Adversaries occasion to pretend that he was jealous of his safety and suspicious of Plots and designs against him he presently apprehended the inconveniences and dismist his Friends and Kindred desiring them to return to the service of his Majesty in the Army which was much more necessary than their attendance upon him which they accordingly performed so that Santillan entred into Los Reyes with no greater attendance than of his own Servants By this time Hernandez was come to Nanasca being about sixty leagues distant from Los Reyes to which place he had marched without let or hindrance whatsoever for such had been the confusion and difference in his Majesty's Camp that nothing could proceed to his hurt or interruption and for his better advantage and information of every thing the Justices gave ear to the proposal of one who was a Serjeant in the King's Army and had been a Souldier in the Plot and Conspiracy of Diego de Rojas who offered to adventure into the enemy's Camp in the habit of an Indian and to bring them from thence a true information of the state of their affairs The Justices assenting hereunto gave him free license so that he as a false and treacherous Spie went over to Hernandez and told him that he had clothed himself in that habit to pass more easily to his Army for that in the King's Camp there were such quarrels and discords amongst the Officers and discontents amongst the Souldiers who had no will or courage to fight that nothing but destruction could be the end and issue thereof and for that reason out of a principle of self preservation he resolved to save himself in his service Moreover he reported that the Justices were much troubled and confused upon the news they had received that the City of St. Michael de Piura was in Rebellion against his Majesty and had declared themselves for Hernandez Giron and that a certain Captain named Pedro de Orsna was coming from the New Kingdom with many men in favour also of Hernandez all which being of great encouragement to his people he caused them for better credit thereof to be declared by publick out-cry But to qualifie this news a little he told them that the Marshal was coming from the Charcas with a powerfull force of twelve hundred men but they charged the Spie to make this report or at least to moderate it and say that he came with no more than six hundred men lest it should prove too great a discouragement to the Souldiers At the same time letters were intercepted from the Camp of the Justices conveyed by an Indian directed to a Souldier for which both of them were hanged though the Souldier after he had endured the torment twice would make no confession and that after his death in the Collar of his doublet a Parchment was found with a Pardon from the Justices for Thomas Vazquez The which Pardon was presently published by Hernandez with Assurances in the name of the Justices of great Rewards and of Lands with Services of Indians to whomsoever should kill Hernandez and other principal persons who were about him But before the Defeat given at Villacori Francisco Hernandez had raised a Company of Negroes consisting of about an hundred and fifty black fellows which they had taken out of the several Plantations Villages and Colonies which they had plundered to which he afterwards added above three hundred Ethiopian Souldiers and to encourage them the better he formed them into Companies distinct from the others Of these he ordained a Captain General called Mr. John who was an excellent Carpenter for I was well acquainted with him and had been a Slave to Antonio Altamirano as I have formerly mentioned Their Lieutenant was Master Antonio to whom a principal Souldier of the King's Camp had surrendered his Arms it is not fit to name him though I was well acquainted with him the report whereof coming into Spain caused a Gentleman who had lived in the Indies and was acquainted with this Souldier to send him a Sword and a Dagger handsomely gilt more in scorn to upbraid his Cowardise than on the score or in token of friendship which occasioned much discourse after the Wars were at an end Besides these chief Officers he appointed their Captains and gave them leave to make choice of their Ensigns Serjeants Corporals Drummers and Pipers and make their own Colours All which the Negroes performed very handsomely which was a means to allure and invite many of that sort from the King's Camp who seeing their Relations and Kindred so highly honoured and advanced in the Camp of Hernandez were induced to follow their example and so were engaged against their Masters during all the time of this War. The Rebels made great use of these Souldiers whom they sent abroad with a small party of Spaniards to forage and gather provisions which the poor Indians in fear and dread of them and to rescue themselves their Wives and Children from their Cruelties did readily administer and supply them with which afterwards was the cause of great famine and distress in the Countrey CHAP. XIV The Marshal makes choice of Captains for his Army He comes to Cozco and marches against Francisco Hernandez The unfortunate death of Captain Diego de Almendras IN the mean time whilst matters were thus transacted in Cozco Rimac and Villacori the Marshal Alonso de Alvarado who was in the Kingdom and Provinces of the Charcas remained not idle or unactive for as we have said before he
himself with his Sword Gomez Arias clapt his hand on the hilt commanding him to deliver up his Arms which Hernandez refusing to do and still striving Sylvestre thrust the point of his Lance to his Breast telling him that unless he did as Gomez Arias bid him he would immediately kill him Hereupon Hernandez resigned his Sword to Gomez Arias and having set him up on the Horse behind Arias they carried him away Prisoner and being come to the place where they intended to lodge that night Gomez Arias desired that the Prisoner might be committed to the custody of the Sheriff who was to take care to keep and secure him from an escape The Captains consented hereunto and ordered that he should be committed to Prison and being under a Guard of Souldiers they marched with him by the way of the Mountain until they came to the City of Los Reyes The Captains Michael de la Serna and John Tello intended to have executed Justice on many of the Rebbels that they had taken according to their Commission but seeing so many Noble Persons amongst them and some poor silly fellows they were touched with a remorse and compassion for them and so banish them into divers parts out of the Kingdom But that after these Acts of Mercy they might seem to execute some piece of Severity they put one of them to death named Guadramiros who had been concerned in the Conspiracy of Don Sebastian and was the boldest bloodiest Villain of any of those who adhered to Hernandez and so his Life satisfied for the Crimes of his Companions The fame of the taking Hernandez was soon spread and divulged into all parts upon news of which the Major General Don Pedro Portocarrero and Captain Baltatar Velazquez who some few days before had by order of the Justices marched out of Cozco with thirty Souldiers and two Colours in search of Hernandez made what haste they could to joyn with the other party who conducted the Prisoner that they might partake of the glory of that Victory which others had acquired and might enter into Los Reyes with triumph as if they also had been concerned in that happy exploit In this manner they met some few Leagues before they came to the City and made a triumphant entry with all four Colours flying but in regard the two Captains only were concerned in the taking of Hernandez they with their Companies marched in the middle between the party commanded by the Major General and Captain Baltatar Velazquez the Prisoner was placed in the midst between the four Colours and on each side and before him went the three Souldiers already named who took him After these followed the Infantry in rank and file and in like manner the Cavalry In the rear of all came the Major General and the three Captains The Musquetiers in token of rejoycing and triumph fired several Vollies as they marched and indeed the joy was universal to see an end put to that Rebellion which had given a disturbance to the whole Empire and had brought ruin and misery as well on the Indians as the Spaniards which was so great and enormous that if it were rightly scann'd and considered it will appear that we have not described the tenth part of the destruction and ruin it had produced CHAP. XXX The Justices make Laws to prevent future Insurrections They entertain a troublesome Conference with Souldiers who pretend Rewards for their great services Justice is done upon Francisco Hernandez Giron his Head is fixed on the Gallows and taken thence by a certain Gentleman with the Heads of Gonçallo Piçarro and Francisco de Carvajal The strange death of Baltatar Velazquez THE Justices coming from Pucara where Hernandez was defeated made a stay at Cozco for some few days to order several matters conducing to the good Government of the Empire which for above a year had been in confusion and subjected to the Arbitrary Lust of Tyrannical Rebels by which it was reduced to such misery as cannot be expressed Captain John Ramon was made Governour of the City of la Paz where his Estate lay and his Jurisdiction over Indians And Captain Don John de Sandoval was sent to the City of Plate and to Command that and the Provinces thereunto belonging And Garcilasso de la Vega was made Chief Justice and Governour of the City of Cozco and the Lawyer Doctor Mojaraz was appointed Deputy and Co-assessor with him and to continue in that Office during the Will and Pleasure of the Justices but the Governour not being pleased to have his Deputy at the disposal of another Power and not at his own desired to have that Clause amended which the Justices accordingly ordered And Doctor Mojaraz by the good and tractable disposition of the Governour and by the good Correspondence which passed between them so well acquitted himself that after the space of three years which determined his Office he was promoted to another place not inferiour to the former which was much different to the Lot and Fortune of his Successour as will appear hereafter During those few days that the Justices made their Residence in the City of Cozco several Captains and Souldiers grew very importunate with them to grant them Lands and Commands over Indians in reward of the many Services they had done his Majesty both in these present Wars as in those preceding To which the Justices made answer that as yet the Wars were not at an end since the Chief Rebel of all was not as yet taken and that many of his Souldiers were still actually in Arms and dispersed over all the Kingdom and that so soon as things were a little settled in peace and quietness that they would then take care to reward them in the name and behalf of his Majesty And in the mean time they advised them not to hold Cabals or private Consultations together lest thereby they should give occasion to scandalous Tongues to report matters tending to their dishonour and prejudice The Justices being by this answer freed from the Molestation of these Importunities News came that Francisco Hernandez was taken which caused them to hasten a dispatch of their business that they might come speedily to Loss Reyes to pass Judgment on this Arch-Rebel Doctor Saravia departed six or seven days before Santillan and Mercado his Brethren of the Bench. The Captains John Tello and Michael de la Serna who brought Hernandez Prisoner Committed him to the Royal Prison belonging to the Chancery and took from the Keeper a formal Receipt and Acknowledgment of his being delivered to his Custody which was drawn up in full and ample manner Two or three days afterwards Doctor Saravia came to Town having made great haste to be present at passing the sentence of Death on the Prisoner which was executed eight days after the Doctor 's arrival as Palentino declares Chapter 58 in these words His Examination being taken at the conclusion thereof he declared That all Men Women and Children Friers
Church-men and Lawyers of that Kingdom had all generally been of his Opinion In fine he was brought forth to Justice at Noon day and drawn upon a Hurdle fastned to the Tail of a poor lean Jade with the Cryer going before and with a loud voice said This is the Justice which his Majesty and the Right Honourable Don Pedro Portocarrero Major General command to be executed on this Man who hath been a Traytor to the Royal Crown and Dignity and a Disturber of this Kingdom by vertue of which Authority his Head is to be cut off and fixed on the Gallows of this City his Houses are to be demolished and the Ground sowed with Salt and a Pillar of Marble thereon erected declaring the many Crimes of which he was Guilty Howsoever he died in a Christian manner expressing great Sorrow and Repentance for his Sins and the Evils and Mischiefs of which he had been the Author Thus far Palentino with which he Concludes this Chapter In fine Francisco Hernandez ended his Life as we have said his Head was fixed upon an Iron Spike and set on the Gallows on the right hand of that of Gonçalo Piçarro and Francisco de Carvajal his Houses at Cozco where he contrived his Rebellion were not demolished the Rebellion of Hernandez from the time that it first begun to the end thereof and till the day of his Death continued for the space of thirteen Months and some few days It is said that he was the Son of a Knight of the Habit of St. John his Wife afterwards entered her self a Nun in a Convent in the City of Los Reyes where she lived with Religious Devotion But about ten years afterwards a Gentleman called Gomez de Chaues a Native of the City of Rodrigo being much affected with the Vertue Goodness and Devotion of Donna Mencia de Almaraz the Widow of Hernandez desired to perform some Action whereby â—he might please and oblige her and supposing that none could be more acceptable than to take her Husband's Head from the Spike on which it was fixed he with another Friend brought a Ladder by night to the place where the Head was and not distinguishing the Head of Hernandez from those of Piçarro and Carvajal to be sure of the right they took them all three away together and buried them privately in a Convent And though the Justice made diligent enquiry after those who had committed this piece of Robbery yet no discovery was made thereof For in regard the sight of the Head of Piçarro was an Eye-soar to the People to whom his Memory was still grateful Inquisition was not made with such strictness as the Commands of the Officers required This Relation was given me by a Gentlemen who spent several years of his Life in Service of his Majesty in the Empires of Mexico and Peru his Name is Don Lewis de Cannaveral and now lives in the City of Cordoua Howsoever at the beginning of the year 1612 a Frier of the Seraphical Order of St. Francis who was a great Divine and born in Peru called Lewis Geronino de Ore discoursing of these Heads gave me another Relation and told me That in the Convent of St. Francis in the City of Los Reyes five Heads were there deposited he named Piçarro Carvajal and Hernandez Giron but for the other two he could not say whose they were Only that that Religious House kept them there in Deposite without Burial and that he was very desirous to know the Head of Carvajal having been a Man of great Fame and Reputation in that Kingdom I told him that he might have known that by the Inscription engraven on the Iron Grate on which the Head was fixed but he answered that the Heads were taken from the Iron Spike and laid promiscuously together All the difference between these two Relations is that the Friers of the Convent would not bury the Heads for fear of being concerned in the Robbery but only kept them in Deposite or Custody to be forth-coming in case they should be demanded by the course of Justice This Religious Frier travelled from Madrid to Cadiz by Order of his Superiours and Command of the Royal Council of the Indies to dispatch away twenty four Friers and to accompany them himself to the Kingdoms of Florida to preach the Gospel to those Gentiles I cannot say certainly whether he went with them or whether he returned after he had dispatched those Apostles He desired me to give him one of the Books I had wrote of the History of Florida And I presented him with three Copies thereof and four of these our Commentaries with which the Good Father was much pleased which he testified by the many thanks he gave me May his Divine Majesty prosper them in this undertaking to the intent that they may draw those poor Wretches out of the dark abyss of Idolatry to the knowledge and Service of the true God. And here it will not be from our purpose to relate the strange manner of the death of Captain Baltasar Velazquez so that Hernandez Giron may not go to his Grave alone and without some Company It happened some months after the former passages that Baltasar Velazquez residing in the City of Los Reyes and behaving himself like a brave young Captain he had two Imposthumes which broke out near his Groin which he out of bravery neglecting to Cure apply'd things to repel and drive them in not suffering them to operate and break outwardly which had been the only safe remedy but the Corruption festering within caused a Cancer in his Bowels with so much heat that he was almost roasted alive The Physitians not knowing what to apply gave him Vinegar to refresh him which served only to encrease his flame and to burn so violently that no Man was able to hold his Hand within a half yard distance from his Body And thus died this poor Captain leaving many Stories to the World of his brave Actions and Exploits to which a stop was put by a death so violent and miserable as this The Captains and Souldiers who pretended to places and rewards for their past services residing at that time at Cozco no sooner received intelligence of the imprisonment and death of Hernandez Giron than they immediately went to the Justices to demand Rewards for their past Services And being in the City of Los Reyes they with much importunity made their pretensions alledging that by reason of their expences during all the late War they had consumed all their substance and were become so poor that they had not wherewith to support their necessary charges and therefore it was but reason and equity to perform the Promise given them which was that so soon as the Rebbel was subdued they should be gratified in such manner as was equal That now the Rebbel was dead they expected a compliance for they had nothing more remaining than their pay which was little and the arrear as they accounted was very
other Processes of Justice made against the Rebels in punishment for the late War. Howsoe're the Governour Munnoz prosecuted his Predecessour in that Office and laid four Articles to his charge The first was That he sported after the Spanish manner and custome with Darts on horse-back which did not become the Justice of that Town That he went often abroad to make private Visits without the Rod of Justice in his hand which gave an occasion to many persons to despise and expose the honour of the Government to Contempt The third was that in Christmas ' time he gave leave to the Citizens and others to play at Cards and Dice in his House and that he himself plaid with them which did not become the gravity of a Governour And lastly that he had taken a Clerk who was not a Free-man of the City nor had observed the formality which the Law required in that case For answer unto which he replyed That as to the sport of throwing Darts it was a pastime which he had used all the days of his Life nor would he leave it off so long as he lived tho' he were placed in an Office of far higher Dignity and Honour than that in which he was constituted and invested To the second he said that sometimes he went without his Rod to the next Neighbour or house near at hand where he was familiarly acquainted and where he was sufficiently assured to receive no affront for want of the Badge or Ensign of his Authority That as to the Play and Gaming at Christmas it was very true that he did allow thereof in his own house and did himself play which prevented many differences and quarrels which might otherwise have arisen in other places amongst proud and angry persons As to the Clerk he said that he being no Lawyer himself did not so much regard the ability or the manner how he was qualified for that Office as his Fidelity and Truth and faithful administration of which all the City was ready to give Testimony Some other Articles were drawn up against Monjaraz but he being only Deputy-Governour could not be so highly charged as was the Governour himself And the truth is the faults of neither were fit to be mentioned only the new Judge was willing to have something to say but there neither being Crimes to punish nor Debts to pay all Actions were smoothed and no Processes further made CHAP. VI. The imprisonment and death of Martin de Robles and the reason for which he was executed WE have mentioned before how that Altamirano Judge of the Court of Chancery in the City of Los Reyes was sent Chief Justice to the City of Plate where so soon as he was possessed of his Government he apprehended Martin de Robles a Citizen of that Town and without any Indictment or Process made against him he hanged him up publickly in the open Market-place At which the people much lamented and were greatly offended because he was one of the most principal men of Quality in the whole Empire and so aged and bowed down with Years that he could not bear his own Sword girt to his side but was carried after him by an Indian Page who attended him But when the Reasons of his death were more fully known the offence thereat was much increased as Palentino mentions in these words following The Vice-King sent a Warrant to Judge Altamirano to put Martin de Robles to Death The Reasons for which he gave that sufficient proofs had been made before him the Vice-King how that this Martin de Robles having been in company with several persons should say these words Let us go to Lima and teach the Vice-King better manners than to write in such a rude Stile and with so little respect and formality as he uses These are the words of which he was accused tho' it is generally believed that he never said them nor ever gave any colour or ground for such an Accusation Some say that this rash Speech was not that which provoked the Vice-King against Martin de Robles but some other suggestions of having been accessary to the Imprisonment and death of Blasco Nunnez Vela Vice King of Peru. Thus far this Author in an obscure manner expresses this Passage which we shall endeavour to clear and explain more at large It is true that Martin de Robles did say some such words which were to be taken in another Sense For as we have said before when the Vice-King wrote Letters from Payta to the several Governours and Justices of the Empire giving them to understand the news of his arrival in that Country the Superscription of his Letters were in this manner To the Noble Lord of such a place And in the Letter he treated them with Thou which was the common Stile to what person of Quality soever the which manner of writing gave great offence over all Peru For in those days and a long time afterwards persons of Quality and such as were rich in that Country always used in Writing to their Servants the Title of Noble saying To the Noble and within the Letter they wrote sometimes in the second and sometimes in the third person according to his Condition and Office wherein he served and this Custom prevailed until such time as a Pragmatica came forth to regulate the Terms of Honour which were given But in regard the Letters from the Vice-King were in another Form and Stile they gave offence to such evil Men who were desirous of Change and disturbances and caused them with reflection on the present Vice-King to commend and praise the Civility of those who were formerly in the same power who in all their Letters used Terms of Respect according to the Quality and Merit of the person My Father Garçilasso being then Governour of Cozco received a Letter from the Vice-King with the same Title and Superscription which some asked him how he could brook or how he could endure such a neglect To which my Father made answer that he could bear it very well since that the Vice-King wrote to him not barely by the Name of Garçilasso de la Vega but with the addition of Governour of Cozco which shewed him to be his Officer and Minister under him and that very shortly they should see how the Vice-King would change the Form and Stile of the Superscription of his Letters to him Which accordingly happened for about eight days afterwards the Vice-King being at Rimac he wrote a Letter to my Father directed in this manner To the Right Worshipful Senior Garçilasso de la Vega c. and within he treated him with such Terms as might become an Elder Brother towards his younger at which those who saw it did much admire I have had both these Letters in my custody for at that time I served my Father in quality of his Clark and wrote all the Letters which he dispatched to several parts of the Empire and in like manner I gave the
with relation to Indians who were in vassallage to them Eight days after he had taken the Chair of his Office he again renewed his Possession of the Empire in the Name of King Philip the Second to whom the Emperour Charles the Fifth had resigned the Kingdoms and Signories which appertained to him what Motives he had to make this resignation is not known but it is believed that his want of Health and indisposition of Body were the cause and that the weight of Affairs of State were too burdensome in that feeble condition This exchange of Government under the names of two different Kings was attended with all the State and solemn attendance that was required the persons present were the Vice-King the Judges of the Bench all the Officers Ecclesiastical and Civil Don Jeronimo de Loaysa Arch-Bishop of Los Reyes all the Friers of the several Convents then in that City which were four namely that of our Lady of the Merceds St. Francis St. Dominick and St. Augustine The Ceremony in the Parade and Streets being over they went to the Cathedral Church where the Arch-bishop in his Pontifical Habit celebrated High Mass. The same passed in all the other Cities of that Empire every one shewing the great satisfaction and contentment he received on occasion of that Solemnity which was celebrated with the Feast of Bulls and throwing darts and endeavouring to out-vie each other in Gallantry and richness of their Liveries which is still the common vanity of that Country The Vice-King Don Andres Hurtado de Mendoça having taken possession of the Government dispatched new Officers and Governours to the several Jurisdictions of Peru Amongst which a certain Lawyer a Native of Cuenca called Baptisto Munnoz whom the Vice-King brought with him was sent to Cozco Altamirano one of his Majesties Justices who had refused to follow his Majesties Army and Standard into the Field was made Governour of the City of Plate others were dispeeded with Commissions to the Cities of Huamanca Arequepa and de la Paz where many things passed of great importance We shall give an account of some of them in the following Chapter CHAP. V. The Orders which the Vice-King issued forth to prevent Mutlnies and Insurrections Thomas Vazquez Piedrahita and Alonso Diaz are put to death for having been engaged in the Rebellion of Hernandez Giron PAlentino in the second Chapter of his third part saith that so soon as the Vice-King entered into the City of Los Reyes that he set Guards and Centinels on all the ways leading to the several Cities of the Empire with orders to examine carefully all passengers as well Indians and Spaniards and to take from them what Papers and Letters they carried with them so as to discover what Plots and Conspiracies were then contriving against the Government All which are the words of this Author as is that also which follows the truth of which I can my self avouch having been an eye witness of many passages thereof The Vice-King gave Order that no Spaniard whatsoever should travel without a particular License or Pass under the hand of some Justice of the Peace belonging to the parts where he lived in which Pass or License the reasons were to be specifyed and the Business or Occasions which caused the Party to travel And particularly care was taken that no Spaniard upon pretence of coming to the City to any Festival should be permitted to pass Tho' for the present this Order had little effect in regard that before it could be published multitudes of People had crouded to the City to partake in the common joy which was evidenced at the reception of this Vice-King He commanded that all the Cannon and Arms found in the City should be taken up and conserved in a common Magazine all which was ordered to prevent Conspiracies and disturbances which had been caused by former Rebellions but the Country had been so lately wearied and harassed by Civil Wars that there was no thoughts amongst the people tending to a ruine from whence they had so newly escaped And now let us leave the Vice-King for a time to discourse of the Governours which he had sent to Cozco and to the Charcas The Lawyer Munnoz approaching to the City of Cozco with Commission of Governour was met and received by my Father Garçilasso who so soon as he was entered within the Priviledges and Jurisdiction of the City delivered the White Rod of Justice into his hand which when he had received the first question he made him was how much the Fee was for setting his Hand or Firm to any Writing To which he made answer that he knew not having never demanded such a Fee or Duty No said the Lawyer that is strange for Justices ought not to lose their right of what nature so ever tho' never so inconsiderable The standers by wondred much at this Dialogue to which some made answer that 't was not strange for men who came from Spain with no other intent than to gain what they could with a good Conscence to know the utmost value of their Office above the Income of their Salary So soon as the Governour had received the Rod of his Authority and made his Pursuivants he employed two of them upon a Service without the City one he sent to apprehend Thomas Vazquez and the other Piedrahita both which in 5 or 6 days being brought Prisoners to Cozco were committed to the publick Prison Their Friends and Relations offered to give bayl for them and to bind themselves in considerable Bonds for their good behaviour and that they should not go forth beyond the Precincts of the City supposing that the seizure made of their Persons was to the end that they might be consined within the Walls of the City and not permitted to ramble abroad in the Countries amongst their Indians and other People My Father offered to become Bayl for one of them but he was answered that the Commission and instructions which this Governour brought was much different to what they imagined for had their consinement to the City been only designed there would not have needed all the formality used in sending for them by Officers and committing them to Prison The truth is the issue was according to what Francisco Hernandez had formerly presaged and as we have before intimated for the next morning they were found dead in the Prison having been there strangled notwithstanding their Pardons which they had sued forth from the Royal Court of Chancery Their Plantations and Lordships over Indians were all confiscated That belonging to Thomas Vazquez which was one of the best Mannors or Lordships near the City was conferred by the Vice-King on Rodrigo d' Esqueval a Native of Seville who had some small Estate but with this addition he was made great and considerable In like manner the Estate of Piedrahita was disposed and forfeited as was that of Alonso Diaz whom they likewise put to death besides which Executions there were no