SOUTH AMERICA
CHAPTER I
DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST
Columbus prosecuted, down to the close of life, the great work of discovery to which, as he never ceased to feel, God had set him apart. He occupied himself almost entirely among those lovely islands to which Providence had guided his uncertain way; seeing almost nothing of the vast continents, on the right hand and on the left, which he had gained for the use of civilized man. Once, near the island of Trinidad, he was suffered to look for the only time upon the glorious mainland, so lavishly endowed with beauty and with wealth. Once again he sailed along the coasts of the isthmus and landed upon its soil. But he scarcely passed, in his researches, beyond the multitudinous islands which lay around him on every side. He sailed among them with a heart full, at the outset, of deep, solemn joy, over the unparalleled victory which had been vouchsafed to him; full, towards the close, with a bitter sense of ingratitude and perfidy. He had made his first landing on the little island of San Salvador. Voyaging thence he quickly found Cuba, “the most beautiful island that eyes ever beheld, full of excellent ports and profound rivers.” Then he discovered Hispaniola and Jamaica, and a multitude of smaller islands. Thirteen years of life were still left to him, and Columbus was content to expend them among the sights and sounds which had caressed his delighted senses at his first coming into this enchanted world.
But there were other adventurers, allured by the success which had crowned the efforts of Columbus, and hastening now to widen the scope of his inquiry. Five years from the first landing of Columbus, John Cabot had explored the northern continent from Labrador to Florida. Many navigators who had sailed with Columbus in his early voyages now fitted out small expeditions, in order to make fresh discoveries on the southern continent. Successive adventurers traversed its entire northern coasts. One discovered the great River of the Amazons; another passed southwards along the coasts of Brazil. Before the century closed, almost the whole of the northern and eastern shores of South America had been visited and explored.
Ten or twelve years after Columbus had discovered the mainland, there was a Spanish settlement at the town of Darien on the isthmus. Prominent among the adventurers who prosecuted, from this centre of operations, the Spaniard’s eager and ruthless search for gold was Vasco Nuñez de Balboa – a man cruel and unscrupulous as the others, but giving evidence of wider views and larger powers of mind than almost any of his fellows. Vasco Nuñez visited one day a friendly chief, from whom he received in gift a large amount of gold. The Spaniards had certain rules which guided them in the distribution of the spoils, but in the application of these rules disputes continually fell out. It so happened on this occasion that a noisy altercation arose. A young Indian prince, regarding with unconcealed contempt the clamour of the greedy strangers, told them that, since they prized gold so highly, he would show them a country where they might have it in abundance. Southward, beyond the mountains, was a great sea; on the coasts of that sea there was a land of vast wealth, where the people ate and drank from vessels of gold. This was the first intimation which Europeans received of the Pacific Ocean and the land of Peru on the western shore of the continent. Vasco Nuñez resolved to be the discoverer of that unknown sea. Among his followers was Francisco Pizarro, who became, a few years later, the discoverer and destroyer of Peru.
1513 A.D. Vasco Nuñez gathered about two hundred well-armed men, and a number of dogs, who were potent allies in his Indian wars. He climbed with much toil the mountain ridge which traverses the isthmus. After twenty-five days of difficult journeying, his Indians told him that he was almost in view of the ocean. He chose that he should look for the first time on that great sight alone. Sept. 25. He made his men remain behind, while he, unattended, looked down upon the Sea of the South, and drank the delight of this memorable success. Upon his knees he gave thanks to God, and joined with his followers in devoutly singing the Te Deum. He made his way down to the coast. Wading into the tranquil waters, he called his men to witness that he took possession for the Kings of Castile of the sea and all that it contained – a large claim, assuredly, for the Pacific covers more than one-half the surface of the globe.
Many of the adventurers realized large gains in gold and pearls, from their trading with the natives. But the hunger of the Spaniards for gold was still utterly unsatisfied. No considerable quantity of gold had been found in the islands; but the constant report of the natives pointed to regions in the interior where the precious metals abounded. On the mainland, beside the Gulf of Paria, the early voyagers were able to obtain more ample supplies. When Columbus explored the Mosquito country and Costa Rica, he found the natives in possession of massive ornaments of gold, on which they did not seem to place very special value. Still the natives spoke of a country far away among the mountains where gold and precious stones were profusely abundant. The Spaniards continued to advance in the direction to which these rumours pointed. As they approached the northern portions of Central America, evidences of higher civilization and greater wealth multiplied around them. The natives lived in houses solidly built of stone and lime, their temples were highly ornamented, the soil was more carefully cultivated here than elsewhere; above all, there was much gold, which could be obtained in exchange for the worthless trinkets offered by the strangers. 1518 A.D. At length the Spaniards arrived on the borders of Mexico, and held intercourse with the chief who ruled over the region to which they had come.
When the Spanish Governor of Cuba heard of the tempting wealth of Mexico, he determined to send out an expedition sufficiently strong to effect the conquest of the country. Hernando Cortes, then a young man of thirty-three, was intrusted with the guidance of this arduous enterprise. Cortes was a man of middle height and slender figure, with pale complexion and large dark eyes; of grave aspect, and with an air of command which secured prompt obedience; of resolution which no danger could shake; inexhaustibly fertile of resource, and eminently fitted, therefore, to lead men who were about to encounter unknown perils. Cortes having placed his fleet under the protection of St. Peter, and having kindled the enthusiasm of his men by assurances of glory and wealth and divine favour, sailed for the coast of Yucatan. Feb 18, 1519 A.D. His forces numbered seven hundred Europeans and two hundred Indians. He had fourteen pieces of artillery. His enemies had not yet seen the horse, and Cortes sought anxiously to have the means of overawing them by the sudden attack of cavalry. But horses were scarce, for they had still to be brought from Europe; and only sixteen mounted men rode in his ranks. These diminutive forces were embarked in eleven little ships, the largest of which did not exceed one hundred tons burden.
Cortes disembarked his army on a wide sandy plain where now stands the city of Vera Cruz, the chief sea-port of Mexico. He was within rather less than two hundred miles of the capital of the country, and he sent to demand access to the presence of the King. Pictures, which represented the ships and the cannon and the horses of the Spaniards, had been forwarded to Montezuma, who pondered with his councillors those symbols of mysterious and terrible power. The council failed to ascertain the true character of the strangers, and remained in doubt whether they were supernatural beings or merely the envoys of some distant sovereign. Montezuma came to the conclusion that in any case they should be persuaded to depart and leave his country in peace. He sent an embassy to point out the dangers of the journey, and request his unwelcome visitors to return to their own land. But, by a fatal indiscretion, the ambassadors supported the King’s request by rich gifts: – a helmet filled to the brim with gold; two circular plates of gold and silver “as large as carriage-wheels;” a multitude of ornamental articles of costly material and beautiful workmanship. The greedy eyes of the Spaniards glistened with delight as the treasures of the simple monarch were spread before them. From that moment the ruin of Montezuma was sealed.
Cortes prepared for his advance upon the Mexican capital by destroying all the ships of his fleet with one solitary exception. There were faint hearts among his men, and fears which counselled early return to Cuba. Cortes had accepted for himself the alternative of success or utter ruin, and he purposed that his men should have no other. When the enfeebling possibility of escape was withdrawn, he roused their courage by appeals to the complex motives which swayed the Spaniards of that day. The desire to plant the cross on the temples of the heathen, the craving for glory and for gain, nerved the hearts of the warriors, who now, trusting to the skill of their leader and the protecting care of Divine Providence, went forth to the conquest of a great empire.
Their way led at first across plains sodden and rendered almost impassable by the summer rain. Aug. 16, 1519 A.D. Soon they left the plain and began to climb the long ascent of the Cordilleras, up towards the great table-land where the city of Mexico stands. They left, too, the warmth of the coast, and traversed a dreary mountain-region, swept by cold winds and tempests of sleet and snow. They passed under the shadow of volcanic mountains whose fires had been long extinguished; they looked down the sheer depths of dizzy precipices, and saw, far below, the luxuriant vegetation which a tropical heat drew forth. At length they came within the fertile and populous territory of the Tlascalans – a bold republican people who maintained with difficulty their independence against the superior strength of Montezuma. Cortes sought the alliance of this people; but they unwisely rejected his overtures and attacked his army. It was not till the close of two days of fighting that Cortes routed his assailants. The bold savages endured the dreaded attack of Spanish horsemen, the murderous discharge of Spanish artillery; they offered their defenceless bodies to the Spanish sword and lance, and were slaughtered in thousands, while their feeble arms scarcely harmed the invaders. The humbled Tlascalans hastened to conclude peace, and a great fear of the irresistible strangers spread far and wide among the population of the plateau. Montezuma once more sent large gifts of the gold which the Spaniards loved, and vainly begged them to forbear from coming to his capital.
Fifteen miles from Tlascala stood the city of Cholula, which Cortes now received an invitation to visit. Cortes found Cholula “a more beautiful city than any in Spain,” lying in a well-tilled plain, with many lofty towers, and with a dense population. Montezuma had enticed the Spaniards hither that he might destroy them; and to that end he had prepared an ambuscade of twenty thousand Mexican troops. But Cortes detected the plot, and having drawn a large assemblage of the chiefs and their followers into the great square, he gave the signal for an indiscriminate and unsparing massacre. The defenceless people fell in thousands; and Cortes, satisfied with the fearful lesson he had taught, erected an altar and cross, addressed the priests and chiefs on the excellences of the Christian religion, and resumed his advance on Mexico.
For a few leagues the way led up the steep side of a great volcanic mountain, then in a state of eruption, although its fires are now extinguished. A dense forest for a time impeded their march; then, as they ascended, vegetation ceased, and they passed within the line of everlasting snow. At length, rounding a shoulder of the mountain, the great valley of Mexico, seen afar in that clear air, spread itself before them, in all its glory of lake and city, of garden and forest and cultivated plain. There were Spaniards who looked with fear upon the evidences of a vast population, and demanded to be led back to the security of the coast; but for the most part the soldiers, trusting to the skill of their leader and the favour of Heaven, thought joyfully of the vast plunder which lay before them, and hastened down the mountain-side.
The city of Mexico contained then a population which the Spaniards estimated at three hundred thousand souls. It was built in a shallow salt-water lake, and was approached by many broad and massive causeways, on some of which eight horsemen could ride abreast. The streets were sometimes wholly of water; sometimes they were of water flanked by solid foot-paths. There were numerous temples; the royal palaces excelled those of Europe in magnificence; the market-place accommodated fifty thousand persons, and the murmur of their bargaining spread far over the city; the dwellings and the aspect of the common people spoke of comfort and contentment.
Nov. 8, 1519 A.D. Montezuma received his unwelcome visitors with munificent although reluctant hospitality, and assigned one of his palaces as their place of residence while it should please them to remain. Cortes, whose desire to convert the heathen was of equal urgency with his desire to plunder them, took an early opportunity to acquaint Montezuma with the leading doctrines of the Christian faith, and to assure him that the gods of the Mexicans were not gods at all, but “evil things which are called devils.” But the unconvinced heathen refused his doctrine, and expressed himself satisfied with his gods such as they were.
For several days Cortes lived peaceably as the guest of Montezuma, pondering deeply the next step which he must take in this marvellous career. He perceived the full danger of his position. A handful of invaders had thrust themselves among a vast population, whose early feelings of wonder and fear were rapidly passing into hatred, and who would probably, ere long, attempt their destruction. Against this danger no guarantee was so immediately available as possession of the King’s person. With the calm decision in which lay much of his strength, Cortes rode down to the palace, attended by a competent escort, and brought the astonished but unresisting Montezuma home to the Spanish quarters. The Mexicans revered their sovereign with honours scarcely less than divine, and Cortes felt that while he possessed the King he was able to command the people. In a few days more Montezuma and his great lords professed themselves vassals of the King of Spain.
For six months Cortes ruled Mexico. He dethroned the Mexican gods, and he suppressed the human sacrifices which the Mexican priests offered profusely to their hideous idols. He built ships for defence; he sowed maize for food: he gave attention to mining, that he might have gold to satisfy the needs of the King of Spain. While he was thus occupied, he learned that eighteen ships had arrived near his little settlement of Vera Cruz. They carried a force of eighty horsemen, fourteen hundred foot soldiers, and twenty pieces of cannon, sent by the Governor of Cuba, who was jealous of his success, with instructions to arrest Cortes and his companions. It was a threatening interruption to a victorious career. Cortes devolved his government upon Alvarado, a rugged soldier in whom he had confidence, and with only seventy men hastened to encounter his new foes. By skill and daring he achieved decisive success, and within a few weeks from the day he quitted Mexico he was ready to return, strengthened by the arms of those whom he had subdued, and whom he now gained over to his cause.
But during those weeks events of grave import had occurred in Mexico. The absence of Cortes resulted in a visible diminution of the meek submission with which the Mexicans had hitherto demeaned themselves towards their conquerors. Rumours arose that a revolt was in contemplation. Alvarado resolved to anticipate the expected treachery. The time of the annual religious festival had come, and the great lords of Mexico were engaged in the sacred dance which formed the closing ceremonial. Suddenly a strong force of armed Spaniards attacked the undefended worshippers, six hundred of whom were slaughtered. The outraged city instantly rose against its murderous tyrants. The Spaniards endured at the hands of their despised assailants a blockade which must have quickly ended in ruin unless Cortes had hastened to their relief.
Cortes returned in time at the head of thirteen hundred soldiers, of whom one hundred were horsemen. He found the city wholly turned against him. June 24, 1520 A.D. The next day, a formidable attack was made. The streets and terraced roofs of the houses could not be seen, so densely were they covered by assailants; stones were thrown in such numbers that it seemed as if it rained stones; the arrows shot by the Mexicans so covered the courts of the fortress that it became difficult to move about. The Indians attempted almost successfully to scale the walls, offering their undefended bosoms, with reckless disregard of life, to the musketry and artillery, whose discharge swept them down by hundreds. Their feeble weapons wounded, but scarcely ever killed; but at the close of each day Cortes found his fighting strength diminished by the loss of sixty or eighty men. Food could scarcely be obtained, for the people withheld supplies. To such a measure of intensity had the cruelty of their oppressors kindled the hatred of the Indians, that they were willing to spend thousands of their own lives, if by the costly sacrifice they might compass the death of one Spaniard. It was necessary for Cortes to be gone. First, however, he would endeavour to conjure his assailants into submission by the voice of their King. The unhappy Montezuma came forth upon a balcony and besought the infuriated people to cease from resistance. But the spell had lost its power, and the fallen monarch was struck down and fatally injured by a shower of arrows and of stones. Cortes left the city that night. July 1, 1520 A.D. His stealthy retreat was discovered, and the vengeful savages caught him at fearful disadvantage. They swarmed in their canoes around the broken bridges where the Spaniards had to pass. In the darkness the retreat speedily became a hopeless and bloody rout. Four hundred and fifty Spaniards perished, with a large number of their Indian allies and one-half of the horses. The artillery was wholly lost. It is said that when Cortes became aware of the ruin which had been wrought, he sat down upon a great stone in a Mexican village and wept bitterly.23
Cortes withdrew to Tlascala, where his allies, unacquainted with the practice of civilized life, adhered with unswerving loyalty to a fallen cause. Many of his soldiers were eager to quit the scene of their crushing defeat. Cortes resolved to maintain his hold upon the country he had won. He united many states in a great league for the overthrow of Mexico. He sent ships to Hispaniola for horses, men, and arms. He ordered brigantines to be built at Tlascala. Six months after his defeat he was again before Mexico with a force of nearly a thousand Spaniards and a hundred thousand native allies – with horsemen, and musketeers, and a fleet of brigantines, to command the lake and the approaches to the city. It was not till May, however, that active operations were commenced.
The siege lasted for almost three months. During many days Cortes forced his way constantly into the city, retiring at nightfall to his camps in the outskirts. Always he inflicted fearful slaughter upon the Indians, sparing neither age nor sex: occasionally the brave savages had their revenge, and the Spaniards, looking up to the summit of the great temple, witnessed in horror comrades offered in sacrifice to the Mexican gods. Unwonted horrors attended this cruel siege. The Indian allies of Cortes frequently banqueted upon the bodies of their slain enemies, and frequently supplied the materials for a like ghastly feast. Famine and disease pressed heavily on the doomed city; but no suffering or danger quelled the heroic resistance of the despairing people. At length Cortes resolved to destroy the beautiful city, step by step as he gained it. The houses were pulled down and their materials thrown into the lake. The Mexicans refused to yield; they desired only to die. Enfeebled by hunger they ceased to fight, and the siege became little more than a ruthless slaughter of unresisting wretches. Aug. 13, 1520 A.D. At length the new King was taken, and all opposition was at an end. The great mass of the population had perished. The lake and the houses and the streets were full of dead bodies. Palaces and temples and private dwellings had fallen. The Spanish historian,24 who was present, and who in his time had witnessed many horrors, “does not know how he may describe” these. He had read the awful story of the destruction of Jerusalem, but he doubts whether its terrors equalled those which attended the fall of Mexico.
The fame of this appalling success spread far and wide in Central America. From great distances southward embassies sought the conqueror, to conciliate his favour, to offer submission to the great monarch whose servants had beaten to the ground the power of the Aztec tyrants. A thousand miles away Cortes had allies and vassals. Still farther to the south was the rich province of Guatemala, with great and well-built cities, the home of a people whose progress in the arts of civilized life was not inconsiderable. Regarding these people reports were carried to Cortes that they had lately manifested to his allies dispositions less cordial than had heretofore existed. Three years had now passed since the conquest of Mexico, and Cortes and his followers were ready for new enterprises. An expedition, composed of two hundred and eighty men, with four cannon, with “much ammunition and powder,” was sent forth under Pedro de Alvarado to ascertain the truth of those statements which had been reported to Cortes. Dec. 1523 A.D. Alvarado, a gallant but ruthless warrior, forced his way into the fertile valleys of Guatemala. He fought many battles against great native armies, and inflicted vast slaughter – himself almost unharmed. He slew the King; he overthrew cities; he gathered together the chiefs of a certain province, “and as it was for the good and pacification of this country he burned them.” The people were given over as slaves to Spaniards who desired them. While busied with these awful arrangements the devout Alvarado did not fail to entreat that Cortes would appoint a solemn procession of Mexican clergy, to the effect that Our Lady might procure for him the succour of Heaven against the urgent perils of his enterprise. Under such auspices Guatemala became a Spanish possession.
Among the followers of Vasco Nuñez there was a middle-aged Spanish warrior, slow, silent, but gifted with a terrible pertinacity in following out his purposes. His name was Francisco Pizarro. He probably heard the young Indian tell of the wealth of Peru.25 He was beside Vasco Nuñez when that eager discoverer waded into the waters of the Pacific. A little later he arrested his chief and led him to a death of violence. He had taken part in an expedition in which the Spaniards, pursued by overwhelming forces, stabbed their prisoners as they retreated, and left them dying on the way, in order to hinder the pursuit. He was wholly without education, and was unable even to sign his own name. At this time he was living near Panama, on certain lands which he had obtained, along with the customary allotment of Indian labourers. Here he applied himself to cattle-farming; and his labours and his gains were shared with two partners – Almagro, the son of a labouring man, and De Luque, a schoolmaster. The associates prospered in their industry, and it seemed probable that they would live in obscurity, and die wealthy country gentlemen. But Pizarro had never ceased to brood over the assurances which he had heard ten years before, that there were in the south regions whose wealth surpassed all that the Spaniards had yet discovered. He wished to find a shorter path to greatness than cattle-farming supplied, and he was able to inspire his associates with the same ambition. The scope of the copartnery was strangely widened. The rearing of cattle was abandoned, and a formal contract was entered into for the discovery and conquest of Peru. Pizarro was to conduct the enterprise; Almagro was to bring to him reinforcements and needful stores; De Luque was to procure funds. The profits resulting from their efforts were to be equally divided. They were ridiculed in Panama as madmen; but the courage and tenacity of Pizarro sufficed to crown with terrible success purposes which in their origin seemed wholly irrational.
Nov. 1524 A.D. The early history of the expedition was disastrous. Pizarro sailed from Panama on his career of conquest, attended by eighty men and four horses. He crept down the coast; landing occasionally to find only a rugged and barren country. Hunger fell on his followers, and many died. The Indians assailed them with poisoned arrows, and slew some. The forests were impenetrably dense; the climate was unwholesome. Almagro brought a small reinforcement; but the employment became intolerable, and the men, losing heart, returned to Panama. Pizarro, with only fourteen followers, sought shelter on an uninhabited island, “which those who have seen it compare to the infernal regions.” Here they spent three wretched months, living on shell-fish and what else the sharpened eye of hunger could discover. 1527 A.D. Strengthened by supplies which Almagro was able to send, they set forth once more and moved southward along the coast. And now they found the region of which they had dreamed so long. They landed in the northern part of Peru. Gold was everywhere. They found a temple whose walls were lined with plates of gold; a palace where every vessel, for use or for ornament, was formed of gold. The people were gentle, and received them hospitably. But Pizarro had no more than fourteen men with him – a force wholly inadequate for purposes of conquest. 1528 A.D. He returned to Panama, and thence to Spain, bearing to the King the thrilling story of his marvellous discovery. The King bestowed large rights of government upon the successful adventurer; and as the conversion of the natives was an end steadily prosecuted by the Spanish Government, a bishopric in the newly-found territory was assigned to his partner De Luque. But Pizarro had omitted to obtain honours or advantages for Almagro – an omission which drew in its train a long series of destructive strifes among the conquerors.
Dec. 1530 A.D. Once more Pizarro set forth to conquer the great kingdom of which he now claimed to be governor. His forces consisted of one hundred and eighty-three men and thirty-seven horses. He found it necessary to wait for additional strength; and he encamped in an unhealthy locality, where his men suffered severely. At length he was joined by a reinforcement of fifty-six men, one-half of whom were mounted. He had incurred a delay of seven months; but the time was well spent. While he waited the Peruvians lightened his task by a civil war, in which multitudes perished. To secure retreat, in event of disaster, Pizarro resolved to found a city. He chose a convenient site, and erected several strong buildings, among which were a church, a court-house, and a fortress. He left fifty men to garrison his settlement, to which he gave the name of San Miguel, in recognition of services rendered to him by that saint in a recent battle. He divided the neighbouring lands among his citizens, and assigned to each a certain number of Indians – an arrangement which, as he was assured, was not merely indispensable to the comfort of the settlers, but “would serve the cause of religion and tend greatly to the spiritual welfare” of the savages thus provided for.
And now his simple preparations were completed. He had learned that at the distance of twelve days’ journey eastward beyond the great mountain barrier of the Cordilleras the Peruvian monarch was encamped with a powerful army, flushed with victory in the civil war which had just closed. It seemed a wild adventure to go forth with a hundred and eighty men against an enemy computed at fifty thousand. But Pizarro knew what Cortes had accomplished with means apparently as inadequate; he trusted in the well-proved courage of his men, the vast superiority of their arms, and the favour of the saints. He had placed himself where hesitation must draw in its train inevitable ruin. But there was no hesitation in the steady purpose of the resolute, tenacious Pizarro. He determined to encounter the victorious Inca. Sept. 24, 1532 A.D. He marched forth from the gates of his little town, eastward towards the mountains and the unknown perils which lay beyond.
For several days the march of the Spaniards led them across the rich plains which lay between the mountains and the sea. Their progress was easy and pleasant, and they passed several well-built and apparently prosperous towns, whose inhabitants hospitably supplied their wants. At length the vast heights of the Andes cast their shadows on the little army, and the toilsome ascent was begun. The path was so steep that the cavalry dismounted and with difficulty led their horses upward; so narrow that there was barely room for a horse to walk; in many places it overhung abysses thousands of feet in depth, into which men and horses looked with fear. As they rose, the opulent vegetation of the tropics was left behind, and they passed through dreary forests of stunted pine-wood. The piercing cold was keenly felt by men and horses long accustomed to the sultry temperature of the plains. But the summit was reached in safety, and the descent of the eastern slope begun. As they followed the downward path, each step disclosed some new scene of grandeur or of beauty.