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$Title{History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Chapter VII: Part II}
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$Author{Prescott, William H.}
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$Date{1864}
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Title:       History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Book:        Book III: Conquest Of Peru
Author:      Prescott, William H.
Date:        1864

Chapter VII: Part II

     To these dark suggestions Pizarro turned - or seemed to turn - an
unwilling ear, showing visible reluctance to proceed to extreme measures with
his prisoner. ^23 There were some few, and among others Hernando de Soto, who
supported him in these views, and who regarded such measures as not at all
justified by the evidence of Atahuallpa's guilt.  In this state of things, the
Spanish commander determined to send a small detachment to Guamachucho, to
reconnoitre the country and ascertain what ground there was for the rumors of
an insurrection.  De Soto was placed at the head of the expedition, which, as
the distance was not great, would occupy but a few days.

[Footnote 23: "Aunque contra voluntad del dicho Gobernador, que nunca estubo
bien en ello." Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms. - So also Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap Ramusio, ubi supra.]

     After that cavalier's departure, the agitation among the soldiers,
instead of diminishing, increased to such a degree, that Pizarro, unable to
resist their importunities, consented to bring Atahuallpa to instant trial.
It was but decent, and certainly safer, to have the forms of a trial.  A
court was organized, over which the two captains, Pizarro and Almagro, were
to preside as judges.  An attorney-general was named to prosecute for the
Crown, and counsel was assigned to the prisoner.

     The charges preferred against the Inca, drawn up in the form of
interrogatories, were twelve in number.  The most important were, that he had
usurped the crown and assassinated his brother Huascar; that he had squandered
the public revenues since the conquest of the country by the Spaniards, and
lavished them on his kindred and his minions, that he was guilty of idolatry,
and of adulterous practices, indulging openly in a plurality of wives;
finally, that he had attempted to excite an insurrection against the
Spaniards. ^24

[Footnote 24: The specification of the charges against the Inca is given by
Garcilasso de la Vega.  (Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 1, cap. 37.) One could
have wished to find them specified by some of the actors in the tragedy.  But
Garcilasso had access to the best sources of information, and where there was
no motive for falsehood, as in the present instance, his word may probably
be taken. - The fact of a process being formally instituted against the
Indian monarch is explicitly recognized by several contemporary writers, by
Gomara, Oviedo, and Pedro Sancho.  Oviedo characterizes it as "a badly
contrived and worse written document, devised by a factious and unprincipled
priest, a clumsy notary without conscience, and others of the like stamp, who
were all concerned in this villany." (Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib.
8, cap. 22.) Most authorities agree in the two principal charges, - the
assassination of Huascar, and the conspiracy against the Spaniards.]

     These charges, most of which had reference to national usages, or to the
personal relations of the Inca, over which the Spanish conquerors had clearly
no jurisdiction, are so absurd, that they might well provoke a smile, did
they not excite a deeper feeling.  The last of the charges was the only one
of moment in such a trial; and the weakness of this may be inferred from the
care taken to bolster it up with the others.  The mere specification of the
articles must have been sufficient to show that the doom of the Inca was
already sealed.

     A number of Indian witnesses were examined, and their testimony,
filtrated through the interpretation of Felipillo, received, it is said, when
necessary, a very different coloring from that of the original.  The
examination was soon ended, and "a warm discussion," as we are assured by one
of Pizarro's own secretaries, "took place in respect to the probable good or
evil that would result from the death of Atahuallpa." ^25 It was a question
of expediency He was found guilty, - whether of all the crime alleged we are
not informed, - and he was sentenced to be burnt alive in the great square
of Caxamalca.  The sentence was to be carried into execution that very night.
They were not even to wait for the return of De Soto, when the information
he would bring would go far to establish the truth or the falsehood of the
reports respecting the insurrection of the natives.  It was desirable to
obtain the countenance of Father Valverde to these proceedings, and a copy
of the judgment was submitted to the friar for his signature, which he gave
without hesitation, declaring, that, "in his opinion, the Inca, at all
events, deserved death." ^26

[Footnote 25: "Doppo l'essersi molto disputato, et ragionato del danno et
vtile che saria potuto auuenire per il viuere o morire di Atabalipa, fu
risoluto che si facesse giustitia di lui." (Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio,
tom. III. fol. 400.) It is the language of a writer who may be taken as the
mouthpiece of Pizarro himself.  According to him, the conclave, which
agitated this "question of expediency," consisted of the "officers of the
Crown and those of the army, a certain doctor learned in the law, that
chanced to be with them, and the reverend Father Vicente de Valverde."]

[Footnote 26: "Respondio, que firmaria, que era bastante, para que el Inga
fuese condenado a muerte, porque aun en lo exterior quisieron justificar su
intento." Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 5, lib. 3, cap. 4]

     Yet there were some few in that martial conclave who resisted these
high-handed measures.  They considered them as a poor requital of all the
favors bestowed on them by the Inca, who hitherto had received at their hands
nothing but wrong.  They objected to the evidence as wholly insufficient; and
they denied the authority of such a tribunal to sit in judgment on a
sovereign prince in the heart of his own dominions.  If he were to be tried,
he should be sent to Spain, and his cause brought before the Emperor, who
alone had power to determine it.

     But the great majority - and they were ten to one - overruled these
objections, by declaring there was no doubt of Atahuallpa's guilt, and they
were willing to assume the responsibility of his punishment.  A full account
of the proceedings would be sent to Castile, and the Emperor should be
informed who were the loyal servants of the Crown, and who were its enemies.
The dispute ran so high, that for a time it menaced an open and violent
rupture; till, at length, convinced that resistance was fruivless, the weaker
party, silenced, but not satisfied, contented themselves with entering a
written protest against these proceedings, which would leave an indelible
stain on the names of all concerned in them. ^27

[Footnote 27: Garcilasso has preserved the names of some of those who so
courageously, though ineffectually, resisted the popular cry for the Inca s
blood.  (Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 1, cap. 37.) They were doubtless correct
in denying the right of such a tribunal to sit in judgment on an independent
prince, like the Inca of Peru; but not so correct in supposing that their
master, the Emperor, had a better right.  Vattel (Book II. ch. 4.) especially
animadverts on this pretended trial of Atahuallpa, as a manifest outrage on
the law of nations.]

     When the sentence was communicated to the Inca, he was greatly overcome
by it.  He had, indeed, for some time, looked to such an issue as probable,
and had been heard to intimate as much to those about him.  But the
probability of such an event is very different from its certainty, - and
that, too, so sudden and speedy.  For a moment, the overwhelming conviction
of it unmanned him, and he exclaimed, with tears in his eyes, - "What ave I
done, or my children, that I should meet such fate?  And from your hands,
too," said he, addressing Pizarro; "you, who have met with friendship and
kindness from my people, with whom I have shared my treasures, who have
received nothing but benefits from my hands!" In the most piteous tones, he
then implored that his life might be spared, promising any guaranty that
might be required for the safety of every Spaniard in the army, - promising
double the ransom he had already paid, if time were only given him to obtain
it. ^28

[Footnote 28: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Herrera, Hist. General,
dec. 5, lib. 3, cap. 4. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 7.]

     An eyewitness assures us that Pizarro was visibly affected, as he turned
away from the Inca, to whose appeal he had no power to listen, in opposition
to the voice of the army, and to his own sense of what was due to the
security of the country. ^29 Atahuallpa, finding he had no power to turn his
Conqueror from his purpose, recovered his habitual self-possession, and from
that moment submitted himself to his fate with the courage of an Indian
warrior.

[Footnote 29: "I myself," says Pedro Pizarro, "saw the general weep." "Yo
vide llorar al marques de pesar por no podelle dar la vida porque cierto
temio los requirimientos y e rriezgo que avia en la tierra si se soltava."
Descub. y Conq., Ms]

     The doom of the Inca was proclaimed by sound of trumqet in the great
square of Caxamalca; and, two hours after sunset, the Spanish soldiery
assembled by torch-light in the plaza to witness the execution of the
sentence.  It was on the twenty-ninth of August, 1533.  Atahuallpa was led
out chained hand and foot, - for he had been kept in irons ever since the
great excitement had prevailed in the army respecting an assault.  Father
Vicente de Valverde was at his side, striving to administer consolation, and,
if possible, to persuade him at this last hour to abjure his superstition and
embrace the religion of his Conquerors.  He was willing to save the soul of
his victim from the terrible expiation in the next world, to which he had so
cheerfully consigned his mortal part in this.

     During Atahuallpa's confinement, the friar had repeatedly expounded to
him the Christian doctrines, and the Indian monarch discovered much acuteness
in apprehending the discourse of his teacher.  But it had not carried
conviction to his mind, and though he listened with patience, he had shown
no disposition to renounce the faith of his fathers.  The Dominican made a
last appeal to him in this solemn hour; and, when Atahuallpa was bound to the
stake, with the fagots that were to kindle his funeral pile lying around him,
Valverde, holding up the cross, besought him to embrace it and be baptized,
promising that, by so doing, the painful death to which he had been sentenced
should be commuted for the milder form of the garrote, - a mode of punishment
by strangulation, used for criminals in Spain. ^30

[Footnote 30: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 234. - Pedro
Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms. - Ped. Sancho,
Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 400.

     The garrote is a mode of execution by means of a noose drawn round the
criminal's neck, to the back part of which a stick is attached.  By twisting
this stick, the noose is tightened and suffocation is produced.  This was the
mode, probably, of Atahuallpa execution.  In Spain, instead of the cord, an
iron collar is substituted, which, by means of a screw is compressed round
the throat of the sufferer.]

     The unhappy monarch asked if this were really so, and, on its being
confirmed by Pizarro, he consented to abjure his own religion, and receive
baptism.  The ceremony was performed by Father Valverde, and the new convert
received the name of Juan de Atahuallpa, - the name of Juan being conferred
in honor of John the Baptist, on whose day the event took place. ^31

[Footnote 31: Velasco, Hist. de Quito, tom. I. p. 372.]

     Atahuallpa expressed a desire that his remains might be transported to
Quito, the place of his birth, to be preserved with those of his maternal
ancestors.  Then turning to Pizarro, as a last request, he implored him to
take compassion on his young children, and receive them under his protection.
Was there no other one in that dark company who stood grimly around him, to
whom he could look for the protection of his offspring?  Perhaps he thought
there was no other so competent to afford it, and that the wishes so solemnly
expressed in that hour might meet with respect even from his Conqueror.
Then, recovering his stoical bearing, which for a moment had been shaken, he
submitted himself calmly to his fate, - while the Spaniards, gathering
around, muttered their credos for the salvation of his soul! ^32 Thus by the
death of a vile malefactor perished the last of the Incas!

[Footnote 32: "Ma quando se lo vidde appressare per douer esser morto, disse
che raccomandaua al Gouernatore i suoi piccioli figliuoli che volesse
tenersegli appresso, & con queste valme parole, & dicendo per l'anima sua li
Soagnuoli che erano all intorno il Credo, fu subito affogato." Ped. Sancho,
Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 399. Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom.
III. p. 234. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Naharro, Relacion
Sumaria, Ms. - Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms. - Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms -
Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 7.]

     The death of Atahuallpa has many points of resemblance with that of
Caupolican, the great Araucanian chief, as described in the historical epic
of Ercilla.  Both embraced the religion of their conquerors at the stake,
though Caupolican was so far less fortunate than the Peruvian monarch, that
his conversion did not save him from the tortures of a most agonizing death.
He was impaled and shot with arrows.  The spirited verses reflect so
faithfully the character of these early adventurers, in which the fanaticism
of the Crusader was mingled with the cruelty of the conqueror, and they are
so germane to the present subject, that I would willingly quote the passage
were it not too long.  See La Araucana, Parte 2, canto 24.]

     I have already spoken of the person and the qualities of Atahuallpa.
He had a handsome countenance, though with an expression somewhat too fierce
to be pleasing.  His frame was muscular and well-proportioned; his air
commanding; and his deportment in the Spanish quarters had a degree of
refinement, the more interesting that it was touched with melancholy.  He is
accused of having been cruel in his wars, and bloody in his revenge. ^33 It
may be true, but the pencil of an enemy would be likely to overcharge the
shadows of the portrait.  He is allowed to have been bold, high-minded, and
liberal. ^34 All agree that he showed singular penetration and quickness of
perception.  His exploits as a warrior had placed his valor beyond dispute.
The best homage to it is the reluctance shown by the Spaniards to restore him
to freedom.  They dreaded him as an enemy, and they had done him too many
wrongs to think that he could be their friend.  Yet his conduct towards them
from the first had been most friendly; and they repaid it with imprisonment,
robbery, and death.

[Footnote 33: "Thus he paid the penalty of his errors and cruelties," says
Xerez, "for he was the greatest butcher, as all agree, that the world ever
saw; making nothing of razing a whole town to the ground for the most
trifling offence, and massacring a thousand persons for the fault of one!"
(Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 234.) Xerez was the private
secretary of Pizarro.  Sancho, who, on the departure of Xerez for Spain,
succeeded him in the same office, pays a more decent tribute to the memory
of the Inca, who, he trusts, "is received into glory, since he died penitent
for his sins, and in the true faith of a Christian." Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap.
Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 399.]

[Footnote 34: "El hera muy regalado, y muy Senor," says Pedro Pizarro.
(Descub. y Conq., Ms.) "Mui dispuesto, sabio, animoso, franco," says Gomara.
(Hist. de las Ind., cap. 118.)]

     The body of the Inca remained on the place of execution through the
night.  The following morning it was removed to the church of San Francisco,
where his funeral obsequies were performed with great solemnity.  Pizarro and
the principal cavaliers went into mourning, and the troops listened with
devout attention to the service of the dead from the lips of Father
Valverde. ^35 The ceremony was interrupted by the sound of loud cries and
wailing, as of many voices at the doors of the church.  These were suddenly
thrown open, and a number of Indian women, the wives and sisters of the
deceased, rushing up the great aisle, surrounded the corpse.  This was not
the way, they cried, to celebrate the funeral rites of an Inca; and they
declared their intention to sacrifice themselves on his tomb, and bear him
company to the land of spirits.  The audience, outraged by this frantic
behaviour, told the intruders that Atahuallpa had died in the faith of a
Christian, and that the God of the Christians abhorred such sacrifices.  They
then caused the women to be excluded from the church, and several, retiring
to their own quarters, laid violent hands on themselves, in the vain hope of
accompanying their beloved lord to the bright mansions of the Sun. ^36

[Footnote 35: The secretary Sancho seems to think that the Peruvians must
have regarded these funeral honors as an ample compensation to Atahuallpa for
any wrongs he may have sustained, since they at once raised him to a level
with the Spaniards!  Ibid., loc. cit.]

[Footnote 36: Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.

     See Appendix, No. 10, where I have cited in the original several of the
contemporary notices of Atahuallpa's execution, which being in manuscript are
not very accessible, even to Spaniards.]

     Atahuallpa's remains, notwithstanding his request, were laid in the
cemetery of San Francisco. ^37 But from thence, as is reported, after the
Spaniards left Caxamalca, they were secretly removed, and carried, as he had
desired, to Quito.  The colonists of a later time supposed that some treasures
might have been buried with the body.  But, on excavating the ground, neither
treasure nor remains were to be discovered. ^38

[Footnote 37: "Oi dicen los indios que esta su sepulcro junto a una Cruz de
Piedra Blanca que esta en el Cementerio del Convento de Sn Francisco."
Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1533.]

[Footnote 38: Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 22.

     According to Stevenson, "In the chapel belonging to the common gaol,
which was formerly part of the palace, the altar stands on the stone on which
Atahuallpa was placed by the Spaniards and strangled, and under which he was
buried." (Residence in South America, vol. II. p. 163.) Montesinos, who wrote
more than a century after the Conquest, tells us that "spots of blood were
still visible on a broad flagstone, in the prison of Caxamalca, on which
Atahuallpa was beheaded." (Annales, Ms., ano 1533.) - Ignorance and credulity
could scarcely go farther.]

     A day or two after these tragic events, Hernando de Soto returned from
his excursion.  Great was his astonishment and indignation at learning what
had been done in his absence.  He sought out Pizarro at once, and found him,
says the chronicler, "with a great felt hat, by way of mourning, slouched over
his eyes," and in his dress and demeanour exhibiting all the show of sorrow.
^39 "You have acted rashly," said De Soto to him bluntly; "Atahuallpa has been
basely slandered.  There was no enemy as Guamachucho; no rising among the
natives.  I have met with nothing on the road but demonstrations of good-will,
and all is quiet.  If it was necessary to bring the Inca to trial, he should
have been taken to Castile and judged by the Emperor.  I would have pledged
myself to see him safe on board the vessel." ^40 Pizarro confessed that he had
been precipitate, and said that he had been deceived by Riquelme, Valverde,
and the others.  These charges soon reached the ears of the treasurer and the
Dominican, who, in their turn, exculpated themselves, and upbraided Pizarro to
his face, as the only one responsible for the deed.  The dispute ran high; and
the parties were heard by the by-standers to give one another the lie! ^41
This vulgar squabble among the leaders, so soon after the event, is the best
commentary on the iniquity of their own proceedings and the innocence of the
Inca.

[Footnote 39: "Hallaronle monstrando mucho centimiento con un gran sombrero
de fieltro puesto en la cabeza por luto e muy calado sobre los ojos." Oviedo,
Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 22.]

[Footnote 40: Ibid., Ms., ubi supra. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.
- See Appendix, no. 10.]

[Footnote 41: This remarkable account is given by Oviedo, not in the body of
his narrative, but in one of those supplementary chapters, which he makes the
vehicle of the most miscellaneous, yet oftentimes important gossip,
respecting the great transactions of his history.  As he knew familiarly the
leaders in these transactions, the testimony which he collected, somewhat at
random, is of high authority.  The reader will find Oviedo's account of the
Inca's death extracted, in the original, among the other notices of this
catastrophe in Appendix, No. 10]

     The treatment of Atahuallpa, from first to last, forms undoubtedly one
of the darkest chapters in Spanish colonial history.  There may have been
massacres perpetrated on a more extended scale, and executions accompanied
with a greater refinement of cruelty.  But the blood-stained annals of the
Conquest afford no such example of cold-hearted and systematic persecution,
not of an enemy, but of one whose whole deportment had been that of a friend
and a benefactor.

     From the hour that Pizarro and his followers had entered within the
sphere of Atahuallpa's influence, the hand of friendship had been extended
to them by the natives.  Their first act, on crossing the mountains, was to
kidnap the monarch and massacre his people.  The seizure of his person might
be vindicated, by those who considered the end as justifying the means, on
the ground that it was indispensable to secure the triumphs of the Cross.
But no such apology can be urged for the massacre of the unarmed and helpless
population, - as wanton as it was wicked.

     The long confinement of the Inca had been used by the Conquerors to
wring from him his treasures with the hard gripe of avarice.  During the
whole of this dismal period, he had conducted himself with singular
generosity and good faith.  He had opened a free passage to the Spaniards
through every part of his empire; and had furnished every facility for the
execution of their plans.  When these were accomplished, and he remained an
encumbrance on their hands, notwithstanding their engagement, expressed or
implied, to release him, - and Pizarro, as we have seen, by a formal act
acquitted his captive of any further obligation on the score of the ransom,
- he was arraigned before a mock tribunal, and, under pretences equally false
and frivolous, was condemned to an excruciating death.  From first to last,
the policy of the Spanish conquerors towards their unhappy victim is stamped
with barbarity and fraud.

     It is not easy to acquit Pizarro of being in a great degree responsible
for this policy.  His partisans have labored to show, that it was forced on
him by the necessity of the case, and that in the death of the Inca,
especially, he yielded reluctantly to the importunities of others. ^42 But
weak as is this apology, the historian who has the means of comparing the
various testimony of the period will come to a different conclusion.  To him
it will appear, that Pizarro had probably long felt the removal of Atahuallpa
as essential to the success of his enterprise.  He foresaw the odium that
would be incurred by the death of his royal captive without sufficient
grounds; while he labored to establish these, he still shrunk from the
responsibility of the deed, and preferred to perpetrate it in obedience to
the suggestions of others, rather than his own.  Like many an unprincipled
politician, he wished to reap the benefit of a bad act, and let others take
the blame of it.

[Footnote 42: "Contra su voluntad sentencio a muerte a Atabalipa." (Pedro
Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.) "Contra voluntad del dicho Gobernador."
(Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.) "Ancora che molto li dispiacesse di venir
a questo atto." (Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 399.) Even
Oviedo seems willing to admit it possible that Pizarro may have been somewhat
deceived by others.  "Que tambien se puede creer que era enganado." Hist. de
las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 22.]

     Almagro and his followers are reported by Pizarro's secretaries to have
first insisted on the Inca's death.  They were loudly supported by the
treasurer and the royal officers, who considered it as indispensable to the
interests of the Crown; and, finally, the rumors of a conspiracy raised the
same cry among the soldiers, and Pizarro, with all his tenderness for his
prisoner, could not refuse to bring him to trial. - The form of a trial was
necessary to give an appearance of fairness to the proceedings.  That it was
only form is evident from the indecent haste with which it was conducted, -
the examination of evidence, the sentence, and the execution, being all on
the same day.  The multiplication of the charges, designed to place the guilt
of the accused on the strongest ground, had, from their very number, the
opposite effect, proving only the determination to convict him.  If Pizarro
had felt the reluctance to his conviction which he pretended, why did he send
De Soto, Atahuallpa's best friend, away, when the inquiry was to be
instituted?  Why was the sentence so summarily executed, as not to afford
opportunity, by that cavalier's return, of disproving the truth of the
principal charge, - the only one, in fact, with which the Spaniards had any
concern?  The solemn farce of mourning and deep sorrow affected by Pizarro,
who by these honors to the dead would intimate the sincere regard he had
entertained for the living, was too thin a veil to impose on the most
credulous.

     It is not intended by these reflections to exculpate the rest of the
army, and especially its officers, from their share in the infamy of the
transaction.  But Pizarro, as commander of the army, was mainly responsible
for its measures.  For he was not a man to allow his own authority to be
wrested from his grasp, or to yield timidly to the impulses of others.  He
did not even yield to his own.  His whole career shows him, whether for good
or for evil, to have acted with a cool and calculating policy.

     A story has been often repeated, which refers the motives of Pizarro's
conduct, in some degree at least, to personal resentment.  The Inca had
requested one of the Spanish soldiers to write the name of God on his nail.
This the monarch showed to several of his guards successively, and, as they
read it, and each pronounced the same word, the sagacious mind of the
barbarian was delighted with what seemed to him little short of a miracle,
- to which the science of his own nation afforded no analogy.  On showing the
writing to Pizarro, that chief remained silent; and the Inca, finding he
could not read, conceived a contempt for the commander who was even less
informed than his soldiers.  This he did not wholly conceal, and Pizarro,
aware of the cause of it, neither forgot nor forgave it. ^43 The anecdote is
reported not on the highest authority.  It may be true; but it is unnecessary
to look for the motives of Pizarro's conduct in personal pique, when so many
proofs are to be discerned of a dark and deliberate policy.

[Footnote 43: The story is to be found in Garcilasso de la Vega, (Com. Real.,
Parte 2, cap. 38,) and in no other writer of the period, so far as I am
aware.]

     Yet the arts of the Spanish chieftain failed to reconcile his countrymen
to the atrocity of his proceedings.  It is singular to observe the difference
between the tone assumed by the first chroniclers of the transaction, while
it was yet fresh, and that of those who wrote when the lapse of a few years
had shown the tendency of public opinion.  The first boldly avow the deed as
demanded by expediency, if not necessity; while they deal in no measured
terms of reproach with the character of their unfortunate victim. ^44 The
latter, on the other hand, while they extenuate the errors of the Inca, and
do justice to his good faith, are unreserved in their condemnation of the
Conquerors, on whose conduct, they say, Heaven set the seal of its own
reprobation, by bringing them all to an untimely and miserable end. ^45 The
sentence of contemporaries has been fully ratified by that of posterity; ^46
and the persecution of Atahuallpa is regarded with justice as having left a
stain, never to be effaced, on the Spanish arms in the New World.

[Footnote 44: I have already noticed the lavish epithets heaped by Xerez on
the Inca's cruelty.  This account was printed in Spain, in 1534, the year
after the execution.  "The proud tyrant," says the other secretary, Sancho,
"would have repaid the kindness and good treatment he had received from the
governor and every one of us with the same coin with which he usually paid
his own followers, without any fault on their part, - by putting them to
death." (Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 399.) "He deserved
to die," says the old Spanish Conqueror before quoted, "and all the country
was rejoiced that he was put out of the way." Rel. d'un Capitano Spagn., ap.
Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 377.]

[Footnote 45: "Las demostraciones que despues se vieron bien manifiestan lo
mui injusta que fue, . . . . puesto que todos quantos entendieron en ella
tuvieron despues mui desastradas muertes." (Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms.)
Gomara uses nearly the same language. "No ai que reprehender a los que le
mataron, pues el tiempo, i sus pecados los castigaron despues; ca todos ellos
acabaron mal." (Hist. de las Ind., cap. 118.) According to the former writer,
Felipillo paid the forfeit of his crimes sometime afterwards, - being hanged
by Almagro on the expedition to Chili, - when, as "some say, he confessed
having perverted testimony given in favor of Atahuallpa's innocence, directly
against that monarch." Oviedo, usually ready enough to excuse the excesses of
his countrymen, is unqualified in his condemnation of this whole proceeding,
(see Appendix, No. 10,) which, says another contemporary, "fills every one
with pity who has a spark of humanity in his bosom." Conq. i Pob. del Piru,
Ms.]

[Footnote 46: The most eminent example of this is given by Quintana in his
memoir of Pizarro, (Espanoles Celebres, tom. II.,) throughout which the
writer, rising above the mists of national prejudice, which too often blind
the eyes of his countrymen, holds the scale of historic criticism with an
impartial hand, and deals a full measure of reprobation to the actors in these
dismal scenes.]