CHAPTER VI.

GUASCAR INCA'S FATE. ATAHUALLPA'S TRIAL. ATAHUALLPA'S EXECUTION.

WE

HILE this wholesale spoliation of Peru was going on, it had fared ill with Guascar Inca, the legitimate sovereign of that kingdom. There is a story, unsupported by much evidence, but which appears not improbable, that Pizarro's messengers* to Cusco met those persons who had charge of the fallen Inca, and that he implored the Spaniards to take him. under their protection, and to convey him to Pizarro's camp, offering, as might be expected, great largesses. But they, not a whit more politic in this respect than their master, took no heed of his request, and passed on to Cusco. It is added, that the fact of this interview, being communicated to Atahuallpa, hastened Guascar Inca's death.

It is also said that Atahuallpa, wishing to issue the order for his brother's execution, yet fearing what Pi

* The names given by ZÁRATE and GOMARA are Fernando de Soto and Pedro de Barca. The way in which I would reconcile the conflicting accounts about the embassage to Cusco is, that there were two missions from the camp: one in which Fernando de Soto and Pedro de Barca were concerned, and which, perhaps, had no definite orders to go to Cusco; and the other consisting of Pedro Moguer, Zárate, and Martin Bueno, which went direct to Cusco. There is a passage in Xerez which favors this view. Immediately after speaking of Fernando Pizarro's departure, he says, "Fifteen days after, there arrived at Cassamarca certain Christians with a great quantity of gold and silver." Who could these Christians have been? The embassage to Cusco, according to the same authority, had not yet been sent out. These Christians, therefore, were probably Fernando de Soto and Pe dro de Barca, or messengers from them.

518

Death of Guasear Inca.

zarro would say and do if such a step were taken, made a trial of the governor in the following manner. On Pizarro's coming to visit him one day, the Inca assumed a very sorrowful appearance; and, being pressed to declare the cause of his grief, said that Guascar Inca had been put to death by the captains who had charge of him, without his (Atahuallpa's) orders. Upon this, the governor is said to have soothed him with some commonplace remarks about death being the ordinary lot of mortals, whereupon the Inca, freed from the fear of Pizarro's wrath, hesitated no longer to give orders for his brother's execution.

The truth is, however, that the Scotch form of verdict, "not proven," is all that can be said against Atahuallpa as regards his brother's death. There is no doubt that it was deeply for the interest of Atahuallpa that Guascar should die, as it was of Pizarro to secure his person. In such a despotism, still apparently so blindly obeyed, it is difficult to conceive that Atahuallpå's captains would venture to put their prisoner to death without receiving orders from their master.

On the other hand, it must be remembered that it concerned the interest of these captains as much as that of their master that Guascar Inca should die. If, out of all these troubled events, Guascar should rise again to power, what might they not apprehend from his vengeance? Then, again, it must be recollected that Atahuallpa has no friends among the chroniclers of those times, for Garcilaso de la Vega, in general the defender of his countrymen, was a descendant of the legitimate branch of the Incarial family, and the cruelties exercised by Atahuallpa's captains toward this branch of the royal house were no doubt a fertile subject of discourse with the old Indian chiefs who were

may

Parting of Fernando Pizarro and Atahuallpa. 519 wont to talk to Garcilaso in his boyhood of the events of by-gone days. Pizarro's secretary simply states that messengers arrived to say that Guascar was dead. It also be noticed that in a document, drawn up by a notary, narrating the principal circumstances which took place after Fernando Pizarro left for Spain until the governor entered Cusco, which was meant for Charles the Fifth's perusal, and which is signed by the governor, there is no mention of the death of Guascar Inca as part of the charge against Atahuallpa. Leaving Atahuallpa what benefit these considerations. may afford him, we must proceed to give an account of his own fate.

Atahuallpa seems to have been well aware that the newly-arrived Spaniards were any thing but favorable to him. On taking leave of Fernando Pizarro, the Inca said, "I am sorry that you are going; for when you are gone, I know that that fat man and that one-eyed man will contrive to kill me." The fat man was Alonzo Riquelme, the king's treasurer; the one-eyed man was Almagro.

-was

Then, too, it has been stated that the interpreter Felipillo, being in love with one of Atahuallpa's wives or concubines-an affront which it is said the Inca felt more than any thing which had occurred to himdesirous of compassing Atahuallpa's death. It has been believed by some that Pizarro had from the first intended to put his prisoner to death; but this is probably one of those numerous instances of a practice indulged in by historians of attributing a long-conceived and deliberate policy to their heroes in reference to some event, because the event was all along familiar to the historian's mind, though not at all so to the mind of the hero of the story.

520

Anecdote of Pizarro.

If I read Pizarro's character rightly, he may have been a suspicious man, but he was not a man of deep plans and projects. That he was likely to conceal his plans when formed, is true; and there is a pleasing little anecdote indicative of his character in that respect which may be mentioned here. Hearing that one of his soldiers had lost his horse, and was unable, from poverty, to purchase another, Pizarro concealed under his robe a large plate of gold, and going down to play in the tennis-court, where he expected to meet this soldier, but where he did not find him, the governor played on for hours, with this great weight about him, until he espied the soldier, and was able to draw him aside and give him the gold in secret, not without complaining of what he had had to endure in playing tennis with such a burden about him. In addition, moreover, to his natural cautiousness, it appears that Pizarro, in the course of his long warfare with the Indians, had become particularly wary in dealing with them. In short, he was a prudent soldier, but not a dissembling statesman. He may be acquitted of any deep-laid design against Atahuallpa's life. Far from being the first to plot, it is probable that his hostility was quickened or evoked by his fear of being outwitted by the address of the Inca.

The truth is, that Cassamarca, the present scene of action, was in a country where the natives were not friendly to Atahuallpa; many of them, therefore, would be glad to spread injurious reports of the Inca's designs. Moreover, in the present condition of the Peruvian royal family, the Indians throughout the empire must have been in a very disturbed and uncertain state; and their movements, directed perhaps by private impulses, might present an appearance of warlike

Different Views as to Atahuallpa's Death. 521

levies sanctioned by the Inca. Besides, it might naturally be expected that Atahuallpa's adherents, with or without his orders, would assemble together, and march toward the place of their master's imprisonment. Atahuallpa was, therefore, likely to suffer in the estimation of his captors by what was done by his friends, by his enemies, and by any bands of lawless men who were the enemies of the state.

The natural fears of men so isolated as were Pizarro and his Spaniards at Cassamarca would aid in bewildering their judgment as to the nature of any movements observed among the surrounding Indians.

Notwithstanding the immense superiority of the Spaniards in arms and accoutrements, it must not be forgotten that they were but a handful of men among the millions whom they had insulted, bereaved, and plundered, and that a dexterous surprise on the part of the Peruvians might easily restore the advantage to the side of numbers. There was, then, good reason for discussing what should be done with Atahuallpa; and the main body of Almagro's men were likely to take the side of the question unfavorable to the captive Inca, from a fear that whatever gold came in might be set down as a part of the ransom, on which Pizarro's men had the first claim, and also from a wish for some new adventure in which they, too, might distinguish and enrich themselves. The arrival, therefore, of Almagro and his men at this particular juncture must be accounted one of those inopportune contingencies with which the history of the conquest of America abounds. It gave occasion for a great difference of feeling upon the pending question of Atahuallpa's death: that question, once discussed, would be sure to become a subject for faction in the small commu