Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 1

This catastrophe has been quoted with unlimited admiration, and the martyrs have received all due posthumous honour; but if we look at the circumstances from any point of view save that of a fanatic, our admiration must be considerably qualified. Azevedo and his companions were doubtless brave men; but they had been educated and sent out from their country with the express purpose of converting the heathen; and it was surely not their duty in any sense wantonly and recklessly to go out of their way to seek premature death. If the crown of martyrdom was so dear to them—if, in the language of certain writers, they were swallowed up by other-worldliness—the prize might surely have been gained more honourably amongst the savages of Brazil than at the hands of French corsairs. Of the eight-and-thirty foolhardy men whose blood so uselessly stained the waters of Palma, one might have proved a second Nobrega. To an unprejudiced person it seems that, so far from acting for “the greater glory of God” by provoking wholesale massacre, they were deliberately doing the contrary, since they were thus cutting themselves off from a sphere of vast usefulness. Nor can we greatly blame the commander of the French squadron for his conduct on the occasion. It was but one scene in a fierce religious war, in which the priests, not the Huguenots, were the aggressors.

Vasconcellos set sail with the remainder of his fleet. When, after a long and miserable voyage, he sighted the coast of Brazil, his vessels were driven far to the north and were dispersed. At length his followers were so reduced in numbers that one vessel might contain them all; yet not even this one vessel was destined to reach its destination in safety. It was attacked by a French squadron, and, after a hopeless resistance, the governor fell; whilst fourteen remaining Jesuits shared the fate of the martyrs of Palma. Of sixty-nine Jesuit missionaries who had set out with Azevedo, one alone reached Brazil.

CHAPTER X.

PERU; SUPREMACY OF GONZALO PIZARRO

1542-1545

1541.

The conspirators who had assassinated Pizarro succeeded in securing possession of Lima, and their next step was at once to send to the different cities proclaiming the revolution and claiming the recognition of the son of Almagro as governor of Peru. At Truxillo and Arequipa, where it was emphasized by the presence of a military force, the summons was obeyed; but in other cities it was received with merely nominal assent, whilst in some it was disregarded. At Cuzco, where the Almagro faction prevailed, the dissenting magistrates were summarily ejected from office; but they were soon after reinstated by means of a neighbouring military force commanded by one of Pizarro’s captains. The conspirators had most to dread from the Licentiate Vaca de Castro, whose commission to assume the post of governor in case of the death of Pizarro had now come into force. De Castro was still in the north, but on being advised of Pizarro’s death he quickened his steps southwards. He was in a difficult position, having a very imperfect acquaintance with the political state of the country, and he was neither a soldier himself nor supported by a military force. He was, however, a man of courage, and had confidence in his own resources, besides relying on the habitual loyalty of Spaniards to the crown.

Without delay, therefore, he pursued his march towards Quito, where he was well received by the officer who had charge of that place during the absence of Gonzalo Pizarro on the Amazons. At Quito he displayed the royal commission empowering him to assume the government, and thence he sent emissaries to the principal places requiring obedience to himself as the representative of the crown. But meanwhile the faction of the young Almagro was gaining strength at Lima. His forces were commanded by Rada, who obtained the necessary funds for preparing his soldiers for service. Such of Pizarro’s followers as declined to be reconciled to the ruling faction were permitted to depart from Lima, amongst these being the Bishop Valverde, who, however, almost immediately afterwards fell into the hands of the hostile natives of Puná, from whom he received the violent death which was in harmony with the lawless scenes in which he had taken part. As the young Almagro’s power was founded solely on usurpation, it was of course a mere trial of strength between his rebel bands and such loyal forces as might rally round the governor. His policy was to defeat these in detail before they had time to effect a junction under De Castro. He, however, sustained a severe loss in the death from fever of his Lieutenant, Rada, which occasioned an ill-timed jealousy between his next principal officers, and which thwarted his well-conceived plans. The result was that the two chief bodies of the opposite faction succeeded in effecting a junction, and he was compelled to fall back on Cuzco, in which city he found no opposition.

At Cuzco, however, the rivalry of his two chief officers again broke out, with the result that they were each in turn assassinated. Almagro then lost no time in providing for his men against the inevitable approaching campaign; in which effort he was aided by the Inca Manco, whose friendship was probably heightened by the circumstance that Almagro’s mother was a Peruvian princess. The Inca likewise promised to support him with a detachment of native troops. Before the final appeal to arms, however, each side was willing to try the effect of negotiation, each being aware that the result of the struggle was doubtful. The governor was prepared to grant Almagro pardon, in consideration of his youth and inexperience, provided that he should give up the leaders of the conspiracy who had taken part in the death of Pizarro. To this proposition Almagro could not with honour assent, and nothing was left but to await the ordeal of battle. Meanwhile De Castro continued to advance southwards, and was well received at S. Miguel and Truxillo. It was not till the early part of 1542 that he reached the scene where the contest was to be decided, and where he showed remarkable skill in asserting his own supreme authority, notwithstanding the pretensions of the two ambitious officers who commanded the royal troops, and each of whom aspired to the chief military authority. Having entered Lima, he was received with demonstrations of joy, and obtained the necessary funds for the prosecution of his enterprise.

The contest was decided on the plains of Xauxa, where the governor’s forces amounted to no more than seven hundred men, being more or less equally matched by those of the enemy. It was late in the afternoon of the 16th September when the hostile forces met. The combat was terrible, for quarter was neither asked for nor given. Night had fallen on the combatants long before the struggle was decided; but the victory at length declared itself in favour of the royalists. From three to five hundred—an enormous proportion—are said to have fallen on either side, and at least one-half of the survivors of Almagro’s party were made prisoners. Their young commander, who had performed prodigies of valour, escaped unhurt to Cuzco, where, however, he was at once arrested, and where, having been tried by a council of war, he soon shared the fate which had befallen his father, meeting his death with the utmost courage.

The governor’s next care was called for by the proceedings of Gonzalo Pizarro, who had arrived at Lima, where he loudly complained that the government of the country had not been placed in his hands on his brother’s death. It was reported that he now meditated seizing the capital; but against this De Castro took the prudent precaution of detaching a force in that direction, whilst at the same time he required Pizarro’s presence at Cuzco. Such was his tact and conciliatory demeanour that the aggrieved chief found no opportunity for quarrelling, and he thought it prudent to comply with the governor’s advice that he should retire to his possessions in La Plata, where he occupied himself to some purpose in working its mines of silver.

The authority of the crown being thus fully re-established, there was no lack of subjects to occupy the governor’s attention. As was natural, many of the cavaliers who had assisted him in the struggle now demanded their reward. He was happy to rid himself of their importunities by sending them on distant expeditions, some being in the direction of the Rio de la Plata. But his chief concern was to establish laws for the better government of the colony. He did not neglect the Indian population, and established schools for Christian education. He invited the natives to reside within the Spanish communities, and required the caciques to provide supplies for the wayside houses for travellers, thus facilitating intercourse and removing pretexts for plundering. He braved considerable odium by reducing the proportions of the repartimientos of Indians amongst the conquerors; but as his measures were manifestly dictated by motives of justice, he was supported by the general opinion of the community. Indeed, Vaca de Castro stands out in most pleasing contrast to the military adventurers by whom he had been preceded in Peru. With the disadvantage of being a civilian, unused to arms or to military command, and being, further, on his arrival without funds or troops, with the country before him in a state of anarchy, he yet never quailed or shrank from his duty. He displayed not only the tact and conciliatory disposition which might have been expected from the circumstances of his selection, but further, high moral and personal courage; and whilst he spared no pains to secure the interests of his government and of his countrymen beneath his rule, it was his especial honour to make the professions of his superiors in favour of the natives not merely a declaration in words, but a reality in deed.

The spoils of the Peruvian empire, which had been so easily won by a mere handful of Spaniards, were as easily dissipated in riotous living. The provident arrangements of the Incas on behalf of their subjects were suffered to fall into decay. The granaries were emptied; the flocks of llamas were wantonly slaughtered; whilst the lives of the Indians themselves were held so cheap that they were not only systematically worked beyond their strength until they died, but were even occasionally hunted by blood-hounds for the mere amusement of their conquerors. It is almost unnecessary to add that for the young women of the country, from the Virgins of the Sun downwards, there was no protection whatsoever. The poor natives, destitute of food, and no longer warmed by the produce of the fleece of the llama, wandered naked over the plains.

Yet fortunately there were not wanting in the colonies men who from time to time raised their voices against the abuses and enormities of which their countrymen were guilty, and made themselves heard even at the foot of the throne. Nor must it be supposed that the enormities which have been alluded to were in any way sanctioned by the emperor. It must be remembered that the Spanish possessions in the New World were at an immense distance from home, and that in those days the means of communication were slow and irregular. It would therefore no more be fair to charge upon the Spanish crown the responsibility for encouraging or approving the caprices or pastimes of a set probably of the greatest ruffians in the emperor’s dominions, than it would have been, in the days before communication by steam and telegraph, to hold Her Majesty’s Government responsible for the deeds of certain of Her subjects who were early settlers in South Africa or Australia. The Government of Spain was ever desirous to obtain information respecting the state of their transatlantic dominions, and for this end relied not only on the regular colonial officers of the crown, but from time to time deputed special commissioners for the purpose of making inquiries. Yet even when impartial inquiries were made and full reports written, all was not done; for the Spanish Government was essentially a personal one, and the emperor was very frequently absent from that kingdom.

1542.

Fortunately, however, for the credit of his reign and for the existence of his transatlantic subjects, he visited his ancestral dominions in the Peninsula in the year 1542, when the condition of the colonies was strongly pressed upon his conscience. In the same year a council of jurists and theologians was convened at Valladolid to devise a system of laws for the American colonies. Las Casas, who had emerged from his cell, appeared before it, when he powerfully pleaded the cause of the oppressed. He showed that, putting aside natural rights, unless the Government should interfere, the native races must be gradually exterminated by the systematic oppression of the Spaniards, and he maintained that it was against the will of God to inflict evil on the plea that good might come of it. His arguments, as might be expected, were met by much opposition, some even of those who sympathized with him deeming that his views were Utopian and impracticable. His eloquence, however, dictated by the best of motives and based upon the foundation of facts, in the end prevailed, and the result was a code of ordinances for all the American colonies, some provisions of which had immediate reference to Peru.

The natives of Peru were declared vassals of the crown, and their freedom as such was recognised; yet those of the conquerors who might have become lawfully possessed of slaves might still retain them, though at the death of their present proprietors they were to revert to the crown. All slaves, however, should be forfeited by those who had shown themselves, by neglect or ill-usage, unworthy to hold them. Those likewise were to be free who were held by public functionaries, present or past, by ecclesiastics and religious corporations, and by all who had taken a criminal part in the feuds of Almagro and Pizarro. It was further ordered that the Indians should be moderately taxed; that they should not be compelled to labour where they did not choose to, or that, if this were necessary, they should receive fair compensation. The repartimientos of land which were excessive should be reduced; and where proprietors had notoriously been guilty of abuse of their slaves, their estates were to be forfeited.

Taking into consideration the past troubles in Peru, and the necessity for the crown being adequately represented there, it was resolved to send a Viceroy to rule over that province. He was to be accompanied by a royal audience, consisting of four judges, who should constitute a council to the Viceroy, whose residence was to be at Lima. But it was not foreseen that this sweeping legislation, which struck at the very foundations of colonial society and property, might not be quietly acquiesced in by the colonists. It raised, in point of fact, one of those sudden storms which we have in our own time seen more than once break over our Indian Empire on the announcement of some legislative measure affecting the relations between Anglo-Indians and Asiatics which was not to the taste of the former, and its results were such as fortunately we have been so far spared in our own experience. When the tidings reached the New World men were astounded, and saw before them only the prospect of uncertainty or ruin. In Peru in particular scarcely one single person could escape being involved in the provisions of some clauses of the new laws, if for no other reason than that the whole Spanish population had on the one side or on the other taken part in the struggle for mastery between the factions of Pizarro and Almagro. The whole country was thrown into confusion; and loud were the denunciations against the Government which had thus deprived at one stroke the freebooters of so much of their ill-gotten spoil.

Nor did they stop at reproaches. There was but one step to menace. The colonists had won their possessions with their swords, and they now declared that by the same means they knew how to retain them. The governor, Vaca de Castro, who had so admirably acquitted himself of his duties hitherto, was now indeed placed in a trying situation. He was at Cuzco, in the midst of a mixed population, and separated from Lima and from the sea. He was appealed to by the colonists to protect them against the tyranny of the court; but he did his best to dissuade them from violent measures, prudently suggesting that they should send deputies to lay their pleas respectfully before the crown. In his present trying position, as in his previous conduct, he proved himself an able and judicious man; but it was beyond his power to allay the storm that had been raised, even although he suggested that the Viceroy on his arrival might take it upon himself to postpone the execution of the ordinances until after the receipt of further advices from Castile.

Such being the state of things, the discontented Peruvian colonists not unnaturally turned their attention to Gonzalo Pizarro, the representative of the conqueror under whose banner the country had been won. Gonzalo was at this time at Charcas, the modern Chuquisaca, and was busily engaged in exploring the silver mines of Potosí. He was not discontented at the turn which things had taken, but was sufficiently prudent to provide the means of warfare before rushing into action; and while he did not discourage the malcontents, he was careful not to commit himself. In the latter course he was confirmed by letters from Vaca de Castro, whose prudent measures served at least to lull for a time the troubled waters.

The new Viceroy at length arrived. Blasco Nuñez Vela was a handsome cavalier of the years of discretion; but unfortunately he proved wholly unequal to cope with the difficult situation before him. It was not owing to any disapproval of the measures or proceedings of Vaca de Castro that that officer now found himself superseded; but intelligence of events travelled so slowly that the full success of his policy was not at once apparent, and the Government of Spain thought they were acting for the best in sending out as Viceroy a person unconnected with the events that had passed. The Emperor at the same time wrote an autograph letter to the ex-governor, in which he thanked him for his services, and directed him, after having given his successor the benefit of his experience, to return homewards to sit in the royal council.

1544.

In January 1544 the Viceroy reached the Isthmus. Finding at Nombre de Dios a vessel laden with silver from Peru, and which was about to depart for Spain, he lost no time in putting his new edict into execution by laying an embargo on the ship as containing the product of slave labour. He then crossed to Panamá, where he caused some three hundred Peruvians to be liberated and sent back to their own country. This proceeding, dictated though it was by a desire to put the new laws into execution without a moment’s delay, was obviously calculated to unsettle the colonial society to the last degree; nor would the Viceroy listen to remonstrances on the subject even from the most experienced persons. All this augured badly for the prospect of peace, and the Viceroy’s progress to the seat of his government only brought matters from worse to worse. On the 4th of March he arrived at Tumbez, where his authority was proclaimed, the inhabitants being overawed by the magnificence of his surroundings. Still continuing to exhibit the policy which he had been sent out to initiate, and which with Castilian pride he disdained to veil, he here liberated a number of Peruvian slaves. From Tumbez he proceeded by land towards the south, causing his baggage to be carried by mules when practicable, or, if the services of Peruvians were necessary for this purpose, he took care that they should be duly paid.

It is not surprising that the whole country should have been thrown into a state of consternation by the proceedings of the Viceroy. “Indignation” meetings were called in the cities; and it was even urged that the gates of Lima should be closed against him, a course of proceeding which was obviated by the remonstrances of Vaca de Castro. The colonists now more than ever turned towards Gonzalo Pizarro, who was, as time passed, ever in a better position to assume a leading part. That chief had indeed much to render him discontented. His brother, the first governor, had been assassinated at his post, and two others of the five brethren had met a violent death in Peru. The fourth brother, Hernando, was now a prisoner in Spain; whilst the new ordinances sacrificed Gonzalo’s own position, since he had taken a leading part against Almagro. From the previous proceeding of the Viceroy, since the moment of his arrival on American soil, it was evident that he was a man who marched straight towards the end he had in view, and that he would no more spare Pizarro than he would any other of the offending conquerors.

The unfortunate Gonzalo, who had so much to lose, and who had so relentless a judge, was thus almost forced into rebellion. With a small number of cavaliers, and well provided with silver, he repaired to Cuzco, where he was saluted as the spokesman of Peru. The title of Procurator-General was confirmed to him by the municipality, and he was invited to proceed at the head of a deputation to Lima to lay the colonial grievances before the Viceroy. Pizarro, however, aimed at playing more than a subordinate part. He demanded permission to raise an armed force, in order that he might thus be in a position to urge his views with greater weight. The municipality of Cuzco at first hesitated, but at length consented, and Gonzalo had conferred upon him the title of Captain-General.

The Viceroy, as was to be anticipated, met with but a cold reception at Lima, as he had along the route thither from the coast. At the capital his first act was again to proclaim his determination to carry out the new royal ordinances. He had no warrant to suspend their execution, but he would join the colonists in a memorial to the Emperor asking the repeal of a code in the advisability of which he no longer believed. At this juncture Blasco Nuñez, however high may have been his intentions and however good his principles, showed himself to be a man unfitted for holding the extremely responsible position in which he was placed. All right-minded persons will agree with him in the abstract justice of the ordinances which he had been commanded to enforce; and we may still further allow him time to arrive at the conclusion that the state of things being such as it was, it was not expedient to carry the new ordinances forthwith into application. Under these circumstances, a great man, placed in the position of Viceroy, would certainly have taken it upon himself to suspend the execution of the ordinances pending a reference to the imperial authority: to act as did the Viceroy was to give the moral weight of his judgment to the colonists, and to withdraw it from the crown, whose representative he was.

As might have been expected, there was much murmuring at Lima, and much communication was held between the different towns. Yet the Viceroy never dreamed of flinching from his course, and even when informed of the preparations of Gonzalo Pizarro, calmly relying on his authority, sent him orders to disband his forces. The latter, however, continued busily engaged in gathering together his army. He spared no efforts to procure men and materials, employing natives both for forced labour and for tributary levies. He not only expended his own resources, but acting, as he said, in the public interest, did not scruple to appropriate the funds in the royal treasury of Cuzco. By these means he found himself at the head of a well-equipped force; but he was at the same time disheartened by the desertion of some cavaliers of Cuzco, who at the eleventh hour seemed to realize that they were on the path of rebellion. At the same time he received intelligence of the assassination of the Inca Manco, who, in the coming struggle, might have played the part of umpire.