Ecuador -- History -- To 1809; Peru -- History -- 1548-1820; Peru -- History -- Conquest, 1522-1548; Pizarro, Gonzalo, -1548
The two bodies of cavalry encountered each other but the Viceroy’s men
were worn out by the long night march. It was a desperate battle at
close quarters, both infantry and cavalry. The Viceroy received a blow
from Hernando de Torres of Arequipa, which brought him to the ground.
Puelles would have protected him, but the Licentiate Carbajal, after
searching for him, came up and caused a negro to cut off his head.
Gonzalo Pizarro was enraged at this treatment of the Viceroy, and caused
his body to be honourably buried, he himself being chief mourner.
Pizarro’s victory was complete: 200 of the Viceroy’s men were killed.
The Judge Alvarez died of his wounds a few days afterwards.
Gonzalo Pizarro sent the news of his victory to all the cities in Peru,
and Captain Alarcon brought the glad tidings to Hinojosa at Panama in a
ship. Pizarro trusted Hinojosa fully, as he owed everything to his
benefactor. Hinojosa’s treason was the cause of Pizarro’s fall. Alarcon
brought back Gonzalo Pizarro’s son, and Vela Nuñez, the Viceroy’s
brother: who received full pardon and went with Pizarro to Lima. Gonzalo
Pizarro was now at the height of his power. Always just and inclined to
mercy, he never put anyone to death without trial. On his return to Lima
he enacted some excellent laws for the protection of the Indians. Gasca
confessed that Gonzalo Pizarro was a good governor.
Old Carbajal had been hunting Diego Centeno, who hid himself in a cave
for eight months. Of his accomplices Lope de Mendoza and Nicolas de
Heredia were executed, the rest pardoned, including Luis Pardomo and
Alonso Camargo.
Carbajal wrote a long letter to Gonzalo Pizarro urging him to assume the
kingship of Peru. He said that no pardon could be expected after killing
the Viceroy, nor would it be safe to trust to any promises that might be
sent to him. He should divide all the vacant land among his supporters
as perpetual tenures, instead of two lives, with titles of Dukes,
Marquises, and Counts, and should create military orders. He strongly
advised Pizarro to secure the devotion of the natives by taking an Inca
Princess as his Queen. Puelles and Cepeda concurred. Pizarro had entered
Lima in triumph, accompanied by four Bishops, of Lima, Quito, Cuzco, and
Bogota, by Lorenzo de Aldana and all the municipal officers and
magistrates, and nearly all the citizens.
Vela Nuñez, the Viceroy’s brother, had been brought back to Lima. There
was also at Lima one Juan de la Torre who had married a daughter of a
Curaca near Puerto Viejo. He got with her a large treasure, and he
wanted to return to Spain to enjoy it. He proposed to Vela Nuñez to join
him and seize a ship to which Vela Nuñez agreed. The ruffian then
thought he might gain more by betraying his victim to Pizarro. Vela
Nuñez was beheaded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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