Pizarro
Page 24
With what genius does a chaplain, of the intelligence some say you to possess, involve himself in an enterprise not even the king with all his forces is able to suppress, nor is capable of, if not by your worthless decrees and letters filled with lies? What you may consider is that the inducements which made the traitors surrender to you the fleet, selling their lord for money, as did Judas, was only so that they could themselves become lords, and you, their chaplain … and let us hope that your sins will in time bring you safely into my hands.17
The effect of Gasca’s correspondence soon became evident in risings at Puerto Viejo on the equatorial coast, at Trujillo and Chachapoyas, in the central Andes. In May 1547, Diego de Centeno, who had been in hiding in the Cuntisuyo, also raised the royal standard, and with the support of loyalists from Charcas captured Cuzco. Almost at the same time the city of Arequipa declared for the Crown, imprisoning its rebel governor the conquistadore Lucas Martínez Vegazo who was brought to Cuzco. Another prominent desertion was made by Diego Maldonado, fleeing from Lima and managing to swim out of its harbour to one of the galleons of the Pacific fleet moored out at sea. Lorenzo de Aldana, one of Gonzalo’s principal captains who in the Isthmus had also deserted, and was on board the galleon, recalled the event: ‘I saw a man far out at sea, waving his arms as he hung on to a small canoe, and which he paddled with his legs, and between his teeth I could see he was clutching a sword; and in this manner he approached the galleon … he was an elderly man and was still wearing his chain mail which weighed heavily … and we sent a boat out for him with some sailors and rescued him.’18
Aware by now of what was amounting to a mass desertion, and of the landing at Túmbez of Gasca’s armada of eighteen vessels, carrying 820 men, Gonzalo evacuated Lima. Carbajal was ordered to join him at Arequipa with his squadrons of horse and infantry, which had been securing silver from the Charcas. With his combined force now reduced to under five hundred men, Gonzalo began his retreat towards the Bolivian altiplano with the intention of crossing the southern Andes to the settlement at Santiago, in Chile. It was a decision Carbajal vehemently opposed, believing that only victory on the field would save the rebellion. Gonzalo’s retreat was to lead to the desertion of a further number of encomenderos. Informed of the retreat of the rebel army, Centeno, who had been reinforced by a large contingent of men from the Charcas and the Collasuyo, positioned his troops, of some 460 horse and 540 infantry, near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca, cutting off Gonzalo’s retreat south.
At first light of the morning of 20 October 1547, the two armies faced each other on the plains of Huarina. Amid the bleak and windswept landscape of the Andean plateau, the loyalist infantry slowly advanced towards the rebel positions. At a distance of some hundred paces Carbajal’s harquebusiers opened fire, refiring for a second and third time with the spare muskets he had ordered them to load beforehand. Positioning his outnumbered pikemen in square formations, time and again he resisted the overwhelming superiority of Centeno’s cavalry, and by advancing his harquebusiers he was finally able to break the loyalist positions, horses and men fleeing for their lives. Of Centeno’s men, 350 lay dead. The chronicler Diego Fernández claimed that Carbajal, accompanied by two of his African slaves, toured the battlefield, clubbing to death the loyalist wounded. The news of the defeat of Centeno, who had been suffering from pleurisy and had watched the battle from his litter, and who had managed to make his escape with a small company of horse, was to reach Cuzco with the arrival of the armoured figure of its bishop Juan Solano, whose brother had been killed by Carbajal.
Only some weeks after the battle did Gonzalo make his entry into Cuzco, where he received the rapturous acclaim of the very settlers who had prepared his gallows in expectation of his defeat, and from whose wooden poles now hung the corpses of the city’s mayor and one of its aldermen. For days the rebel soldiers pillaged the mansions of Cuzco’s defectors in an orgy of retribution, raping with abandon the city’s women, Spaniard and Indian alike.
By the end of December, Gasca’s army of invasion reached the city of Jauja, reinforced by many former rebel encomenderos.
More than 1,500 men [Spaniards, and not counting several thousand of their encomendero warriors] were gathered in the valley of Jauja. The president [Gasca] was most assiduous in erecting forges and collecting smiths to make new harquebuses and repair old ones, also to make lances and all types of arms … while he was there news reached him of Diego de Centeno’s defeat, which grieved him deeply. In public, however, he put on a most courageous pretence of taking it lightly. The general expectation of his captains had been completely contradicted by events. He had frequently been advised not to raise an army since Diego de Centeno’s alone would be enough to defeat Gonzalo Pizarro … he then sent the Marshal Alonso de Alvarado to Lima to bring more men and cannon from the fleet, also clothing and money to pay the soldiers … at his encampment the president had with him the Archbishop of Lima and the bishops of Cuzco and Quito, the Provincial of the Dominicans, Fray Tomás de San Martín, and the Provincial of the Mercedarians, also many other friars and priests. In his final review of his troops he was able to count on 700 harquebuses, 500 pikemen and 400 horse.
On their march to [the valley of] Jaquijahuana they were joined by so many more men that their numbers reached 900. The army struck camp at Jauja on 29 December 1547, and advanced in good order along the Cuzco road, looking for the safest place to cross the Abancay River …
When the president had left Jauja he was joined by the Captain Pedro de Valdivia, Governor of Chile. He had come by sea to the harbour of Lima, bringing with him his conquistadores of Chile, together with clothing and supplies … this was most fortunate, for though he had experienced captains and soldiers in his army, none of them was as skilled in war as Pedro de Valdivia. Till then there had been no strategist equal to Francisco de Carbajal who had planned and organised so many victories for Gonzalo Pizarro, especially Diego de Centeno’s defeat at Huarina, which everyone attributed to Carbajal’s military skill alone. Diego de Centeno also arrived at this time with 30 or more horse, who had escaped with him from the defeat at Huarina …
All that time there was such heavy rain, it never ceased, day or night, and all the tents rotted since it was impossible to dry them. The maize the men ate had also rotted with the rain and many of the men fell sick with dysentery … there were more than 400 sick … with the coming of spring and the end of the rains, the army left Andahuaylas and took up its position at the crossing of Abancay, twenty leagues from Cuzco, and it halted there until bridges could be built across the Apurímac River which is 12 leagues from Cuzco.19
Gasca’s army had reached the Apurímac River and the vicinity of Cuzco in the early part of April 1548. At Cuzco, Gonzalo had made preparations to confront the loyalist army, deciding to take his heavy artillery with him, which he believed would win the day in the valley of Jaquijahuana where he had resolved to confront the enemy. Ominously, it was the same valley in which his brother Pizarro had burnt alive Atahualpa’s warrior chief Chalcuchima, who before dying had cursed Pizarro and his brothers, invoking his huaca Huanacauri to avenge him. It was also the site where Gonzalo had pitched his encampment after declaring himself Procurator of Peru, and from where Cuzco’s principal encomenderos had deserted him four years previously.
Carbajal had strongly advised him against seeking battle, pleading with him to evacuate Cuzco and to pick a better time and ground to confront Gasca’s army. Not only did Carbajal see the site Gonzalo had chosen as holding no advantage to their cavalry, which would be outnumbered, but he believed that they would be playing into the hands of Gasca who had made it known he was only too willing to make the valley the battlefield. Carbajal well knew that Gonzalo was prone to bouts of chivalry, and he saw this as just another such childish decision, similar to his dramatic decision before Huarina to abandon Peru and seek exile in Chile. Stubborn, and filled with the sense of his invincibility, Gonzalo ignored Carbajal’s advice and ordered his ar
my to march out of Cuzco.
With the early morning mist and cloud rising above Cuzco’s mountains, more than 1,000 armed Spaniards made their way out of the city, 200 of whom were cavalry. Earlier that morning foxes had been heard howling in the surrounding fields, an omen regarded as malevolent by the several thousand Indian porters and warriors of the Inca Prince Paullu, who acted as handlers of the heavy cannon. Line upon line of men could be seen disappearing over the great Carmenca hill heading west towards the valley. It took Gonzalo’s army two full days to reach Jaquijahuana.
On 9 April, dressed in shoulder armour and accompanied by four of the colony’s bishops, Gasca rode out at the head of his squadrons of cavalry towards the hillock overlooking the valley. Pedro de Valdivia had positioned his artillery to one side of the hillock and began to shell the rebel tents that had been pitched overnight. A small river gully separated the loyalist positions from the main stretch of the valley. It was bitterly cold and fires had been lit by the rebel tents, which Carbajal on hearing the cannonade immediately ordered to be extinguished, and the men prepared for battle. Even Gonzalo, who had been discussing his field tactics with his captains in his own tent, had been taken by surprise and had been forced to arm himself and mount his horse, galloping towards his squadrons of pikemen that were forming up in their squares, as Carbajal had instructed them. As always, Gonzalo’s presence brought cheer to his men, who saluted him with their cries of ‘Gonzalo the Magnificent!’ Some even called him their king.
An eyewitness recalls that he wore a breastplate and chain mail, and that his plumed helmet, on which he wore a large emerald, and visor were decorated in gold.
It was quite soon that the first defections took place from the rebel ranks of harquebusiers, the very same men whose courage and skill had defeated Centeno at Huarina. One by one, they began to run across the huge expanse of potato fields towards the loyalist columns, throwing their weapons aside. The rebel captain Pedro Martín de Cecilia galloped after them and lanced to death several men. Outriders from the loyalist army also broke into a gallop passing the rebel lines and shouting at them to surrender, but by then Gonzalo had given the order to advance his cavalry and pikemen. To the sound of beating drums the squadrons of the rebel army began their advance. It was eleven o’clock in the morning. Cannonballs began to fall on the rebel flank, and a number of men fell, wounded. Gonzalo signalled to his artillery to open fire but the cannon could be seen falling well off their targets.
The judge Cepeda, Gonzalo’s general who had surrendered the city of Lima to him four years previously, was the first of the rebel captains to dig his spurs into his horse and break out across the plain, fleeing towards the loyalist ranks. He was followed by several other captains, among them the historian Garcilaso de la Vega’s father. In less than ten minutes the entire front line of infantry broke into a run, throwing down their weapons, some of them shouting ‘Death to the rebels!’ as they joined the loyalist ranks. Gonzalo, turning to one of his captains, Juan de Acosta, said: ‘I believe they are all deserting me.’ To which Acosta replied: ‘Now, my Lord, you shall see who truly loves you.’ ‘So I see,’ said Gonzalo, and riding slowly forward he made his way across the plain, a lonely and resplendent figure, his yellow velvet cape pulled across his shoulders, and his gilded coat armour and plumed helmet reflecting the rays of the morning sun.20 He was met in mid-field by Diego de Villavicencio, a native of Jerez de la Frontera, to whom he handed his sword with the words: ‘I am the sad and unfortunate Gonzalo Pizarro, who has come to surrender to His Majesty.’21
Francisco de Carbajal, who had been indignant at the manner in which the battle had been conducted by Gonzalo and Cepeda, had watched with mounting anger the gradual desertion of his harquebusiers and pikemen, remarking, ‘one by one the hairs from my head are leaving me …’.22 Turning his mule he made his escape towards the plain’s gully, but as he pushed the animal to climb its steep embankment it lost its footing and fell on top of him, trapping him. Within minutes he too was a prisoner.
When Gonzalo was brought before Gasca he attempted to justify his rebellion by reminding him that it was he and his brothers who had won the Inca empire for the Spanish Crown. Gasca answered that although His Majesty had granted his brother the marqués all he had given him, which was sufficient to raise him and his brothers from a life of poverty to that of great wealth, Gonzalo had shown no gratitude, especially as he himself had done nothing towards the discovery of Peru, and his brother, who had done everything, had always demonstrated his gratitude, loyalty and respect. He did not wait for a reply but ordered his marshal to take him away.23
Most chroniclers record that Gonzalo Pizarro met his death with resolve and dignity. His sentence was proclaimed before the entire army by the Judge Andrés de Cianca:
… it be declared that the said Gonzalo Pizarro has committed the crime of laesae majestatis against the Crown … and for which we condemn him as traitor and his descendants in the male line for two generations and in the female line for one generation … that he be taken from his imprisonment on a mule with his feet and hands manacled and that he be brought before this royal assembly of His Majesty … and that his crimes be proclaimed … and that he be brought to this place of execution and that his head be struck off … and that after his death it be taken to the city of Lima … and that under it be inscribed in large lettering: This is the head of the traitor Gonzalo Pizarro who was brought to justice in the valley of Jaquijahuana where he gave battle against the royal standard in defence of his treason and tyranny … and we further order that his houses in Cuzco be razed to the ground and that their foundations be scattered with salt.24
In compliance with his sentence, the following morning Gonzalo, bare chested and wrapped in a black cloak, his hands and feet manacled, was taken on a mule to the scaffold that had been erected on the battlefield. In his hands he held a crucifix and an image of the Madonna. Through the silent ranks of men, many of whom had in the past knelt to him in obeisance as his courtiers, he was led by Gasca’s marshal, Alonso de Alvarado, who owed all his rank and honours to Gonzalo’s brother, the marqués, and a crier who read out his crimes, until the small procession, which was also accompanied by several friars and priests, reached the small wooden gallows. There, Gonzalo himself made a short speech, once more repeating what he had told Gasca, and then he knelt on the block and addressed the executioner, the mulatto Juan Enríquez, whom he knew: ‘Do your work well, brother Juan,’ were his last words.25 And with one stroke of the axe, his head was struck off. His body was taken to the convent of La Merced at Cuzco, where the decapitated corpses of the Adelantado Almagro and his mestizo son also lay buried. His head was fried in oil and sent to Lima, and placed there on display in a cage in the main square, where it would remain for almost a decade.
Francisco de Carbajal would share his caudillo’s fate. His former adversary Centeno, who had ordered he be unharmed by the throng of soldiers who clamoured to attack him, was said to have been visibly irritated by the fact that Carbajal did not appear to recognise him, and asked him whether in fact he did recall him. ‘My God, Sir!’ Carbajal is recorded to have exclaimed, ‘having only ever seen your buttocks in retreat, I can say I do not.’26 Stripped of his armour he was dragged naked in a basket by several mules to the scaffold, where, before being hung, he was asked by his confessor to say the Our Father and the Hail Mary. Defiant to the end, and to the amusement of the onlookers who crowded his gallows, he repeated only: ‘Our Father, hail Mary.’27
Each and every one of the encomenderos and conquistadores of Peru had at one time or another supported Gonzalo’s rebellion, including Centeno. Some of them, like the father of Garcilaso de la Vega, were pardoned. Others, like the conquistadore Mansio Serra de Leguizamón, who had refused to join Gonzalo at Huarina and who joined Gasca at Jauja, were also pardoned but were exiled from Cuzco for a brief period of time and heavily fined. Most, however, were less fortunate, and little mercy was shown the rank and file of the rebel pr
isoners who were sentenced to be brought to Cuzco on the backs of llamas and publicly flogged, before being taken to the Pacific ports for deportation as slaves in the royal galleys. All the principal rebel captains taken prisoner were hanged and quartered, their heads ordered to be placed on poles in each of the settlements of the colony. A certain Extremaduran called Sierra was condemned to be flogged and to have his tongue cut out, a sentence Gasca himself recorded to the Council of the Indies: ‘so disgraceful was his rebellion that a day before the Battle of Jaquijahuana, being one of the enemy outriders, he had been spotted by our men and urged to join them and serve the king but shouted that they could kiss his backside, and that had they meant the king of France he might well have joined them, even though he had a fine king in Gonzalo Pizarro.’28
Gasca’s pardon of the more prominent encomenderos was publicly criticised by many of the landless loyalists, among them the Friar Alonso de Medina, who wrote a theatrical protestation to him denouncing the treachery of each of the colony’s cities and conquistadores: ‘Tell me Cuzco, why is it that you do not speak? Being as you are a traitor to the Crown? See here, a certain Mansio Serra de Leguizamón, traitor in death in your service to Gonzalo Pizarro, and who, when he was dead, neither wished to serve the king; traitor in life, without ever repenting, and allowed to keep his Indians, his mansion and a life of repose … see here, Diego Maldonado, the rich, traitor in your youth, and traitor in your old age.’29
To commemorate his victory, which had left only sixteen dead, Gasca ordered Alonso de Mendoza, another deserter who had served Carbajal in his campaign in the Charcas, to found at Chuquiabo, a valley south of Lake Titicaca, the city of Our Lady of Peace, La Paz, the administrative capital of Bolivia, where the rebel and loyalist dead from the Battle of Huarina were buried many years later. Though Gasca had been able to reward some of his captains with a number of encomiendas, there were not enough within the colony to appease his followers, fomenting a dissent which would soon manifest itself in open rebellion. Taking with him the blood-stained banners of the rebel army which had marked his victory, on his arrival in Spain he was rewarded with the bishopric of Palencia, from where some ten years later, after the abdication of the emperor, he would travel from his diocese to greet his sovereign during his final journey to his retreat in the Extremaduran monastery of Yuste.30