As Pizarro
Noticed That The Pikemen In The Army Of Orgognez Carried Their Pikes High,
He Gave Orders To His Musketeers To Fire A Little High, By Which Means In
Two Vollies They Broke Above Fifty Of The Enemies Pikes[17].
At this time
Orgognez ordered his army to advance to the charge, and observing that
several of his divisions hesitated,
Being held in check by the fire of the
musqueteers, he moved on himself at the head of his main body, directing
his attack to that part of the enemy where Ferdinand Pizarro was seen at
the head of his squadrons. Orgognez apparently despairing of the battle,
called out while advancing, "Follow me who will! I go in the name of God
to do my duty, and to seek an honourable death!" While Orgognez was
advancing, Gonzalo Pizarro and Alonso Alvarado observed that his flank was
uncovered, and accordingly made an immediate charge, by which above fifty
of the Almagrians were overthrown. Orgognez was wounded by a musket-ball
in the head, which broke through his beaver; notwithstanding which he
killed two men with his lance, and wounded one of Pizarros servants in the
mouth whom he mistook for the general, as he was finely dressed. For some
time the engagement was extremely severe and the combatants were mingled
together; but at length the troops of Pizarro forced the Almagrians to
take to flight after they had a considerable number killed and wounded.
Almagro being sick, took no part in the battle, which he observed from a
height at some distance, and on seeing his troops take to flight,
exclaimed, "I thought we had come out to fight like valiant soldiers, not
to run away like cowards." He immediately withdrew to the citadel of Cuzco,
to which place he was pursued by Gonzalo Pizarro and Alonso Alvarado, and
made prisoner. Orgognez was taken prisoner by two of Pizarros horsemen,
who were leading him away when a third came up who bore him a grudge for
some injurious treatment, and cut off his head. Several others who had
surrendered were slain in this manner by personal enemies, in spite of
every endeavour by Ferdinand Pizarro and his officers to protect them. The
soldiers of Alvarado especially, ashamed and irritated by the defeat they
had formerly sustained at the bridge of Abancay, were eager for revenge,
and put many of the Almagrians to death in cold blood. Captain Ruy Dias
had taken up a prisoner behind him on horseback, on purpose to protect him,
when one of his own troopers run him through with his lance.
When the Indian servants of the two armies saw that the battle among the
Christians was ended, they too gave over fighting, and fell to plundering
the dead, whom they stripped of their clothes and valuables, even
pillaging several who were yet alive, but unable to defend themselves
because of their wounds; and as the conquerors were entirely taken up in
pursuing their victory, the Indians had it in their power to do as they
pleased, so that they entirely stripped everyone whom they found on the
field of battle. The Spaniards, both victors and vanquished, were so worn
out and fatigued by their exertions in this battle, that they might have
been easily destroyed by the Indians who were present, if they had dared
to attack them according to their original intention; but they were so
busied in plundering the killed and wounded, that they neglected the
opportunity of avenging themselves on their oppressors. This decisive
battle was fought on the 6th of April 1538, in a plain called _Cachipampa_
or the field of salt by the Indians, about a league to the south of the
citadel of Cuzco, near a salt spring from which the inhabitants make great
quantities of salt; and as these salt works are in the neighbourhood of
the field, this engagement has been always known by the name of the battle
of _Salinas_, or of the salt works[18].
After this decisive victory, Ferdinand Pizarro used every means to
conciliate the officers of Almagros army who had survived the battle, that
he might engage them in the party of the marquis, and being unsuccessful,
he banished several of them from Cuzco. Being unable to satisfy the
demands of all those who had served him on the late occasion, as many of
them thought so highly of their own merits that the government of Peru
would hardly have been a sufficient reward in their own estimation,
Ferdinand Pizarro resolved to separate the army, sending it away in
various detachments to discover and conquer those parts of the country
which had not been hitherto explored and reduced. By this measure, he at
the same time rewarded his friends by giving them opportunities to
distinguish and enrich themselves, and got rid of his enemies by sending
them to a distance. On this occasion Pedro de Candia was sent with three
hundred men, part of whom had belonged to Almagro, to conquer the country
of Collao, a mountainous district which was said to be extremely rich. Not
being able to make any progress in this country on account of the
difficulty of the roads, he had to return; besides which his troops became
mutinous, chiefly at the instigation of one Mesa, who had been commissary
of artillery under Almagro, and was encouraged by the other soldiers of
Almagro who served on this expedition. On this, Candia arrested Mesa and
sent him to Ferdinand Pizarro with the evidences of his guilt. This
circumstance, combined with information of conspiracies in several other
places, which had for their object to free Almagro from prison and to give
him possession of Cuzco, satisfied Ferdinand Pizarro that the country
would never be in quiet while Almagro lived.
Ferdinand accordingly brought Almagro to trial, in which he was convicted
of giving occasion to all the preceding disorders, of which he was the
first and chief cause; having begun the war by several acts of hostilities;
having taken forcible possession of the city of Cuzco by his own private
authority, where he put several persons to death merely for opposing his
unlawful usurpation; and having marched in hostile array into the province
of Chincha, which incontestibly belonged to the province assigned to the
marquis.
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