Next Morning, The Governor Caused Every Attention To Be Given To
The Wounded, Who Exceeded Four Hundred In Number[14], And Had The Dead
Buried, Ordering The Bodies Of Holguin And Tordoya To Be Carried To The
City Of Guamanga, Where They Were Magnificently Interred.
On the day
succeeding the battle, the governor ordered the heads of several prisoners
to be cut off, who had been concerned in the murder of the marquis.
Next
day he went to Guamanga, where Captain Diego de Royas had already beheaded
Juan Tello and some other captains of the rebels. The governor now gave
orders to the licentiate de la Gama to try the rest of the prisoners, and
to punish them according to their deserts. De la Gama accordingly hanged
several and beheaded others, to the number of forty of the most culpable,
insomuch that in all about sixty were executed. Some others were banished,
and the rest were pardoned, such of them as had settlements being allowed
to return to their houses.
The governor went afterwards to Cuzco, where he brought Don Diego to trial,
and ordered him to be beheaded. Diego de Mendez, Gomez Perez, and another,
made their escape from prison into the mountains of the Andes, where they
were kindly received by Manco Capac the fugitive Inca, who had taken
refuge in an inaccessible country. The Inca was much grieved on learning
the death of Don Diego, whom he was greatly attached to, and to whom he
had sent several coats of mail, corselets, cuirasses, and other arms,
which he had taken from the Spaniards whom he defeated and slew, at the
time when he went by order of the marquis to relieve Gonzalo and Juan
Pizarro, then besieged in Cuzco.
After the death of Don Diego and the entire dispersion of his adherents,
by which peace was restored through the whole country, the governor did
not consider it proper to disband his army, as he had not sufficient funds
to reward them according to their services; for which reason he resolved
to send them in different detachments to make discoveries and conquests.
Captain Vergara and his troops were accordingly sent back to complete the
conquest of the Bracamoras. The Captains Diego de Royas and Philip
Gutierez were sent with above three hundred men to the eastwards, where
they afterwards made some establishments on the Rio de la Plata. Captain
Monroy was sent to Chili with reinforcements to Pedro de Valdivia, who was
engaged in reducing that country. Captain Juan Perez de Guevara was sent
to reduce the country of Mullobamba which he had discovered. This is an
exceedingly mountainous country, in which the two great rivers Marannon
and La Plata have their sources, both of which run into the Atlantic. Its
inhabitants are Caribs, or canibals, and their country so hot that they go
entirely naked, or at least have only a few rags round their loins. While
in this country, Juan Perez got notice of an extensive province beyond the
mountains towards the north, in which there are rich gold mines, and which
has camels and fowls like those of New Spain, and a species of sheep
considerably smaller than those of Peru. In that country it is necessary
to water all kinds of seeds regularly, as it seldom rains. In it there is
a lake, the environs of which are exceedingly populous. In all its rivers
there are certain _fishes_ as large as dogs, which they likewise very much
resemble, which kill and eat the Indians when they go into the water or
even pass near it, as they often come out of the water and walk on the dry
land[15]. This great country is bounded on the north by the Marannon, on
the east by Brasil, and on the south by the Rio de la Plata; and it is
said that the Amazons dwell in this country, of whom Orellana received
intelligence while descending the Marannon.
Vaca de Castro remained above eighteen months in Cuzco after the departure
of these various expeditions, employing himself in making a distribution
of the unoccupied lands and Indians, and settling the whole country in
good order, issuing likewise many useful regulations for the protection
and preservation of the Indians. In that period the richest gold mine ever
heard of in our days was discovered near Cuzco in a river named _Carabaya_,
where a single Indian is able to gather to the extent of a mark in one
day[16]. The whole country being now perfectly tranquil, and the Indians
protected from those excessive toils to which they had been subjected
during the civil war, Gonzalo Pizarro was permitted to come to Cuzco, and
after a few days went thence to Las Charcas, where he employed himself in
taking care of the extensive estate which he possessed in that country. He
there remained in quiet, till the arrival of the viceroy, Blasco Nunnez
Vela in Peru, as shall be related in the sequel.
[1] This chapter is merely a continuation of the history of the discovery
and conquest of Peru, by Zarate: but we have thought proper to divide
it in this manner, separating the transactions which took place during
the life of Francisco Pizarro, from those which occurred after his
death. - E.
[2] _Il les fit prenare_, are the words of the French translator:
_prendre_ may possibly be an error of the press on this occasion for
_pendre_; in which case those officers of the late marquis were
ordered to be _hanged_; and indeed they do not appear in the
sequel. - E.
[3] There must have been two persons in Peru of this name and surname, as
we have already seen _one_ Francisco de Chaves killed on the same day
with the marquis. - E.
[4] This officer was father to the historian of the same name. - E.
[5] It was now the year 1542. - E.
[6] As Zarate introduces Vaca de Castro into the history of Peru without
any previous notice of his appointment, it has been deemed proper to
give a short account of his commission from Robertsons History of
America, II.
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