A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 05: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the; Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea; and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 05: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the; Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea; and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
As the army was much fatigued by the operations of that day; besides
being under arms all night, the president allowed the men to rest one
day, yet thought it necessary to dispatch the two Captains Mexia and De
Robles with their companies to Cuzco, to prevent those soldiers who had
pursued the fugitives towards that place from entering and plundering
the city and killing a number of the inhabitants; more especially as
many might now feel inclined to act from particular enmity towards such
as had given them offence during the late troubles, under pretence of
following up the victory. Those captains were likewise directed to
secure such of the officers and soldiers of the defeated army as had
fled in that direction. Next day, the president gave orders to the
licentiate Cianca, one of the new oydors, and Alfonzo de Alvarado, his
major-general, to bring the prisoners to trial. No other proof was
requisite against Gonzalo Pizarro than his own acknowledgment and the
notoriety of his having been in open rebellion against the sovereign. He
was condemned to be beheaded, and that his head should be fixed in a
niche or recess on the gibbet at Lima, secured by a trellis or net-work
of iron through which it might be visible, with this inscription above.
"The head of Gonzalo Pizarro, a traitor and rebel, who revolted against
the royal authority in Peru, and presumed to give battle to the army
under the royal standard in the valley of Xaquixaguana." His whole
estates and property of every kind were confiscated; and his house in
Cuzco was ordered to be rased, and salt sown upon its scite, on which a
pillar or monument was to be erected with a suitable inscription to
perpetuate the remembrance of his crime and condign punishment. Gonzalo
was executed on the day of his trial, dying like a good Christian.
While in prison and till his death, Centeno, to whose custody he had
been committed, treated him with much civility, and would not allow any
one to insult his fallen greatness. When about to be put to death,
Gonzalo made a gift of the magnificent dress which he then wore to the
executioner; but Centeno paid its full value to the executioner, that
the body might not be stripped and exposed till carried away for
interment; and next day he had it carried to Cuzco and respectfully
buried. But the head, pursuant to the sentence, was carried to Lima.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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