Gonzalo Pizarro

“ Gonzalo Pizarro sent the news of his victory to all the cities in Peru, and Captain Alarcon brought the glad tidings to Hinojosa at Panama in a ship. Pizarro trusted Hinojosa fully, as he owed everything to his benefactor. Hinojosa’s treason was the cause of Pizarro’s fall. Alarcon brought back Gonzalo Pizarro’s son, and Vela Nuñez, the Viceroy’s brother: who received full pardon and went with Pizarro to Lima. Gonzalo Pizarro was now at the height of his power. Always just and inclined to mercy, he never put anyone to death without trial. ”

“ Gonzalo Pizarro himself became sensible of these symptoms of disaffection, though almost too faint and feeble, as yet, for the most experienced eye to descry in them the coming tempest.
Several of the president's proclamations had been forwarded to Gonzalo by his faithful partisans; and Carbajal, who had been summoned from Potosi, declared they were "more to be dreaded than the lances of Castile." *3 Yet Pizarro did not, for a moment, lose his confidence in his own strength; and with a navy like that now in Panama at his command, he felt he might bid defiance to any enemy on his coasts. ”

“ Gonzalo Pizarro chose to go by sea; and on leaving Lima, he appointed Lorenzo de Aldana as lieutenant-governor of that city, with a garrison of eighty soldiers, to preserve tranquillity during his absence. This small number was considered sufficient to prevent any attempt towards a revolutionary movement, as most of the inhabitants of Lima accompanied the expedition. Gonzalo embarked in March 1545, and landed at the port of Santa, fifteen leagues south from Truxillo, at which city he arrived on Palm Sunday. ”

“ To this Gonzalo Pizarro answered that he desired no disservice to the King, but to procure the liberty of the kingdom, for which object he would use all his power without swerving until that object was attained.
The Bishop then departed to Curamba on his return, and thence to Andahuaylas where Juan Alonso Palomino, with some soldiers, were stationed by Pizarro. ”

“ For this reason, Gonzalo Pizarro sent back all his prisoners to Truxillo, Lima, or such other places as they thought proper, having in the first place put to death such of their chiefs as he considered most strongly attached to the viceroy. As these soldiers were dispersed over several parts of the country, they began to declaim in favour of the viceroy and against the tyrannical conduct of Gonzalo, and found many persons abundantly disposed to listen to their harangues ”

“ On the junction of Bachicao, Gonzalo found himself at the head of more than eight hundred men, among whom were many of the principal people in South America, both townsmen or burgesses, planters, and soldiers. Owing to this large reinforcement, Gonzalo Pizarro found himself in such a state of tranquil security at Quito as hardly any usurper or tyrant had ever before enjoyed; as besides that this province abounded in provisions of every kind, several rich mines of gold had been recently discovered ”

“ Out of three hundred well armed and excellently equipped men, with whom he had set out from Lima, only one hundred remained with him on his arrival at Arequipa. He found Gonzalo Pizarro at that place, with only about three hundred and fifty men, who a very short while before had a fine army of fifteen hundred, besides all those who were dispersed in different parts of Peru under various captains, all of whom were then under his orders. Gonzalo was now exceedingly irresolute as to his future proceedings ”

“ When Gonzalo Pizarro reached Quito, he received tidings of an event which showed that his expedition to the Amazon had been even more fatal to his interests than he had imagined. A revolution had taken place during his absence, which had changed the whole condition of things in Peru. In a preceding chapter we have seen, that, when Hernando Pizarro returned to Spain, his brother the marquess repaired to Lima, where he continued to occupy himself with building up his infant capital, and watching over the general interests of the country. ”

“ At this time, just when the enterprise of Gonzalo Pizarro became known on the coast of Peru, there arrived one Francisco de Orellana, a native of the city of Truxillo, with thirty Spaniards, and he set out to follow Gonzalo Pizarro, who had already left Quito. Gonzalo crossed a range of mountains, where there were snowy alps, and here over a hundred Indian men and women were frozen to death. Though the Spaniards suffered much from the cold, none of them died. From thence they traversed a very rugged country full of rivers, and with forest lands well peopled. ”

“ I am also informed that the Judges, by a royal decree, have ordered Gonzalo Pizarro to march north and drive{142} the Viceroy out of the country, that he may not continue devastating and destroying, but go to give an account to your Majesty. All the troops are got ready to march with him and all are starting. Gonzalo Pizarro has a great power, and I fear that all are hostile to the Viceroy, while Pizarro has not taken upon himself to defend the Viceroy that he may not be killed. By these feuds the country is lost and destroyed, and the natives perish. ”

“ But it was not easy to still the tempest; and the people now eagerly looked for some one whose interests and sympathies might lie with theirs, and whose position in the community might afford them protection. The person to whom they naturally turned in this crisis was Gonzalo Pizarro, the last in the land of that family who had led the armies of the Conquest,—a cavalier whose gallantry and popular manners had made him always a favorite with the people. He was now beset with applications to interpose in their behalf with the government, and shield them from the oppressive ordinances. ”

“ Shortly after George of Speyer, and entirely unconnected with him, Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror [Pg 191] of Peru, had given an impulse to the exploration of the Amazon from the Pacific side of the continent. In 1538, distrusting Belalcazar, he sent his brother, Gonzalo Pizarro, to Quito to supersede his suspected lieutenant. The following year Gonzalo heard that the cinnamon-tree abounded in the forests on the eastern slope of the Andes, and that farther east dwelt powerful Indian tribes rich in gold. ”

“ Almagro's Expedition
1524-1525
Francisco Pizarro was born at Truxillo, a city of Estremadura, in Spain. The period of his birth is uncertain; but probably it was not far from 1471.1 He was an illegitimate child, and that his parents should not have taken pains to perpetuate the date of his birth is not surprising. Few care to make a particular record of their transgressions. His father, Gonzalo Pizarro, was a colonel of infantry, and served with some distinction in the Italian campaigns under the Great Captain, and afterwards in the wars of Navarre. ”

“ He was at the siege of Cuzco, escaped from Almagro, and was Standard Bearer for the Pizarros at the battle of Salinas, April 20, 1538. He was also at the battle of Chupas. He joined Gonzalo Pizarro and went to Arequipa to secure the services of Carbajal. Gonzalo Pizarro gave him command of his fleet and he took Panama. But he was talked over by Gasca and gave up the ships to him. Gasca made him Captain-General of his army, and he was at Sacsahuana. He received Gonzalo Pizarro’s estates and mines in Charcas, where he was murdered by the rebels under Sebastian de Castilla in 1553. ”

“ Diego Centeno and Gaspar Rodriguez went to Xaquixaguana and informed Pizarro of the flight of Graviel de Rojas, Garcilasso and the others. He was much incensed, swearing that if he caught them he would put them to death. The news also caused much excitement in the camp, and it is even said that many who were there would rather have gone with Graviel de Rojas and Garcilasso de la Vega than remain with Pizarro.
CHAPTER XLIX
How Gonzalo Pizarro appointed Francisco de Carbajal to be Master of the Camp, how it was notified to him that Gaspar Rodriguez wanted to kill him and what else happened. ”

“ But, from the wandering tribes of savages whom they had occasionally met in their path, they learned that at ten days' distance was a rich and fruitful land abounding with gold, and inhabited by populous nations. Gonzalo Pizarro had already reached the limits originally proposed for the expedition. But this intelligence renewed his hopes, and he resolved to push the adventure farther. It would have been well for him and his followers, had they been content to return on their footsteps. ”

“ They also sent him the ordinances. The messengers arrived when Pizarro was hunting eight leagues away, at a place called Palcocon, his servants being quite unprepared for such a thing. When Bustillo arrived at the town, he found Luis de Almao and asked him to go to where Gonzalo Pizarro was. Almao replied that he would go with all speed, for he surmised that they would cut off his head. He reached the place at the second vigil, and Gonzalo Pizarro called for a light, asking who came there in such haste? ”

“ Manco hastily unbarred. It was a postern opening upon a terrace between the wall of the palace and the rivulet Huatenay. Opposite was a flight of steps leading to the bed of the stream, and they descended.
Meanwhile, within the walls of the Convent of the Virgins and in the street without, a hell-carnival was in progress too hideous to dwell upon. At the moment the Inca was passing through the outskirts of the city Juan Pizarro, mounted bareback, unarmored, and bareheaded, was charging into the tumult, followed by his brother Gonzalo and a few other cavaliers, sword in hand. ”

“ He lived in luxury with his family and retainers, and was much associated with the Spaniards. They seem to have been trying their utmost to make him their friend,—which was Pizarro's principle all along. Prejudiced historians can find no answer to one significant fact. The Indians came to regard Pizarro and his brothers Gonzalo and Juan as their friends,—and an Indian, suspicious and observant far beyond us, is one of the last men in the world to be fooled in such things. ”

“ Espanol de quantos han pasado a Indias, ni que ninguno de quantos
Capitanes han sido por el Mundo." Gomara Hist. de las Ind., cap.
144.]
[Footnote 25: Ms. de Caravantes. - Pizarro y Orellana, Discurso Leg. y Pol., ap. Varones Ilust. Gonzalo Pizarro, when taken prisoner by President Gasca, challenged him to point out any quarter of the country in which the royal grant had been carried into effect by a specific assignment of land to his brother. See Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 5, cap. 36.] To a man possessed of the active energies of Pizarro, sloth was the greatest evil. ”

“ Juan Pizarro died a soldier’s death on the citadel of the Sacsahuaman. His brother Gonzalo, taken in revolt against his lawful sovereign, lost his head on the block. Carvahal, after winning himself the title of “the Demon of the Andes,” was dragged to the scaffold in a basket and there hung, drawn, and quartered under the sentence of the victorious Viceroy. Pedro de Candia was murdered on the bloody field of Chupas by Almagro his own commander, and Almagro himself, taken prisoner in Cuzco by Don Hernando, was garroted in prison after abjectly begging his life from his conqueror. ”

“ But he was true to his allegiance, and chose rather, as he tells us, to be false to his name and his lineage than to his loyalty. Gonzalo, in retaliation, seized his estates, and would have proceeded to still further extremities against him, when Pedro Pizarro had fallen into his hands at Lima, but for the interposition of his lieutenant, the famous Francisco de Carbajal, to whom the chronicler had once the good fortune to render an important service. This, Carbajal requited by sparing his life on two occasions, - but on the second coolly remarked, "No man has a right to a brace of lives ”

“ His jurisdiction, independent of the governor of Panama, was to extend over a tract of 600 miles along the coast to the south of the Santiago river; it was to be called New Castille, and he was to be the governor; concessions that cost nothing to Spain, for Pizarro had yet to conquer the country. On his side he undertook to raise a body of 250 men, and to provide himself with the necessary ships, arms, and ammunition. Pizarro then repaired to Truxillo, where he persuaded his three brothers Ferdinand, Juan, and Gonzalo to accompany him, as well as one of his half-brothers Martin d'Alcantara. ”

“ He had orders to release the Peruvians from servitude, which meant that the conquerors and the thousands who had come after, would have been compelled to work. Led by Gonzalo, who had been rewarded for his services in the rebellion against Almagro by a domain in Peru which included the newly discovered mines of Potosi, which provided him with the sinews of war, the people rebelled against the Viceroy. Pizarro and his lieutenant, Carvajal, deposed and defeated the Viceroy in a battle near Quito on the 18th of January, 1546, the latter losing his life. ”

“ But the interest which everywhere centred upon Pizarro did not bring in recruits to his banner as fast as could be desired. Most people would much rather admire the hero than become heroes at the cost of similar suffering. Among those who joined him were his brothers, Hernando, Gonzalo, and Juan, who were to figure prominently in the New World, though until now they had never been heard of. Hernando, the eldest of brothers, was the only legitimate son, and was much better educated. ”