The virgin of the sun : $b A tale of the conquest of PeruGriffith, George Chetwynd
History
The virgin of the sun : $b A tale of the conquest of Peru
Griffith, George Chetwynd
Incas -- First contact with other peoples -- Fiction; Peru -- History -- Conquest, 1522-1548 -- Fiction
Everywhere, too, throughout the valleys and towns they saw the wealth
of field and mine and the triumphs won by patient labour spread about
them with lavish hand. The fields were green and golden with bounteous
crops. In the groves of fruit-trees the branches bent beneath the
weight of their luscious harvest. Gold and silver seemed to be in as
common use as brass and iron were in Spain, and the people, clad in
their bright-coloured stuffs of many hues and decked with jewels such
as only princes wore in Europe, seemed to be living lives as calm and
cloudless as the endless summer which smiled down from the changeless
skies above them.
Many another hand than old Carvahal’s closed ever and anon itchingly
on sword-hilt or pike-handle at the sight of all this; and often
passions less holy than the ardour of conquest, to say nothing of the
service of the Church, stirred in many a grim warrior’s breast, for
the daughters of this strange and childlike people were very fair and
dainty to look upon with eyes which, like theirs, had starved so long
for the sight of woman’s beauty.
But the orders of the Captain were very strict, and, what was more, he
obeyed them himself, for the greatest honour that can be accounted to
Francisco Pizarro is accorded to him by those who truthfully say that
he never asked a follower of his to dare or do that which he would not
do himself, or forego delights which he himself would not go without.
Only once on that long march did any man seek to break the bonds of
this iron discipline, and this was done by one Pedro Navarro, a
man-at-arms who, on the morning that the army left Huamacucho, was
accused by one of the headmen of the town of having offered violence
and insult to his daughter.
Pizarro instantly put off the march until the accusation was made good
in due form. Then in the presence of the army and the townspeople he
called the offender before him and said--
“Pedro Navarro, hast thou come hither to serve God and His Saints or
to pander to thine own evil lusts? What need hadst thou to leave
Panama if thy desire was to bear thyself as a lecher and a doer of
base violence rather than as a soldier of the Cross? Till thou hast
repented, thou art not worthy to bear the arms or wear the garb of a
soldier of Spain.”
Then, looking round among the cavaliers, his eyes lighted on Carvahal,
and some thought that the shadow of a grim smile was visible under his
beard as he beckoned to him and said--
“Come hither, Carvahal. I know of no hands fitter than thine to punish
one who hath demeaned himself as this man hath. Let two of his fellows
strip him of his arms and clothes, ay, even to his shoes, and do thou
tie him to thy stirrup till thy mercy shall see fit to let him loose,
and should he give signs of lagging on the march doubtless thou wilt
find means at hand to bring him back to good marching order.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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