South America -- Description and travel; South America -- History
“Thus perished by the sword this great man of blood. The measure
he had meted out to Atahualpa and Almagro was measured to him
again. He who had shamelessly broken his oath times without
number to gain his own high ends was slain by treacherous,
cowardly assault. But his great vices should not blind us to his
greater virtues. Courageous, indomitable, far-sighted,
patriotic, large-minded, public-spirited, possessing a God-given
instinct to see straight into the center of a problem and the
energy to strike at the psychological moment, he was equally
great as an explorer, a soldier, a general, a diplomatist, and
an administrator. Even his shocking moral delinquencies lose
something of their turpitude when we consider the greatness of
his aims and the baseness of his origin.... But that his real
nature was magnanimous, generous, and truthful is proven by the
many instances in which he forgave his enemies and kept his word
to his serious loss, and that his ambition was not too sordid is
shown by his self-sacrificing devotion to the public good during
the later years of his life. Formed in nature’s grandest mold,
circumstances and environment had much deformed his character,
but the original lineaments are plain.”
Pizarro thus disposed of, young Almagro assumed the governorship and
transferred his headquarters to Cuzco, where his father’s party was
stronger than at Lima, and the Royal Commissioner, appointed Governor by
the King, sailed from Panama, got together an army with the help of
Pizarro’s friends, and proceeded to Guamanga, to which point the usurper
was advancing with his forces from Cuzco. The battle that ensued was
more hotly contested than any that had theretofore been fought. Of the
twelve hundred Spaniards engaged, less than five hundred escaped death
or wounds. Almagro’s troops were practically annihilated. Two days
afterward those of the Adelantado’s murderers who had survived were
executed in the public square and young Almagro himself, who had
succeeded in making his escape, was recaptured and put to death. Then
for the time being Vaca de Castro administered the office without
further opposition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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