The South American Republics, Part 2 of 2Dawson, Thomas Cleland
History
The South American Republics, Part 2 of 2
Dawson, Thomas Cleland
South America -- History
The new emperor gathered an army, and, assisted by some Spaniards, set
off in pursuit of Quizquiz, whom he defeated a short distance north of
Cuzco. The old northern general, still indefatigable, made a rapid march
on Jauja to surprise the Spanish garrison, but was repulsed in this
well-considered effort to cut Pizarro's communications with the coast,
and had to make his way, the best he could, back towards Quito. The
central portion of the empire would now have been content to settle back
into quiet allegiance to Manco. But the latter soon found that his
allies regarded the country as their own. Under the pressure of
necessity for help against Quizquiz he had acknowledged, as a matter of
form, the titular supremacy of the Spanish king, and he was now required
to carry out his obligation to the letter. A municipal council, framed
on the Spanish model, was installed as the governing body of the ancient
capital; the great temples were turned into churches and monasteries;
other public edifices were seized to be used as residences or barracks
for the Spaniards; tombs, temples, and private residences were searched
for gold; and the authorities were required to furnish troops and
carriers for the expeditions which their oppressors planned against the
remoter parts of the empire. With the resignation characteristic of the
race, the Indians submitted to these exactions, and Manco hesitated long
before deciding to put himself at the head of a revolt.
The transcendant military and diplomatic qualities Pizarro had displayed
were equalled by the energy and foresight which he now showed as an
administrator. Realising that his capital should be on the coast in
order to secure direct communication with Panama, he made a careful
examination of routes and possible sites and selected the valley of the
Rimac, just below Jauja, where he founded Lima. From this point the
military road by which the Incas had kept up communication from Cuzco
with the coast and the northern provinces ascended to the plateau. Lima
and Jauja were the strategical keys to central and southern Peru; San
Miguel gave easy access to Quito, and Pizarro insured the region
extending from Cerro de Pasco to the Ecuador border by establishing the
city of Trujillo half-way up the coast.
Their original agreement provided that Pizarro should have the northern
half of the countries they might conquer, and Almagro the southern.
Accordingly, about two years after Cuzco was occupied, Almagro started
for Bolivia and Chile, accompanied by five hundred Spaniards and two
brothers of the Inca emperor, leading a large native army. In Bolivia,
where the Inca power had been established for centuries, he encountered
no opposition, and crossed the bleak plateaux of the Puna, descended the
Andes, and finally reached the fertile valleys of northern Chile. But so
little gold was found that Almagro determined to return and set up a
claim to Cuzco.
[Illustration: STONE BRIDGE OVER THE RIMAC RIVER, LIMA, PERU.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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