"The Indians of Cuzco prognosticated this rebellion openly and loudly in the streets, as I heard and saw myself: For the eve before the festival of the most holy sacrament, I being then a youth, went out to see how the two marketplaces of the city were adorned; for at that time the procession passed through no other streets but those, though since that time, as I am told, the perambulation is double as far as before. Being then at the corner of the great chapel of our lady of the Merceds, about an hour or two before day, I saw a comet dart from the east side of the city towards the mountains of the Antis, so great and clear that it enlightened all places round with more splendor than a full moon at midnight. Its motion was directly downwards, its form was globular, and its dimensions as big as a large tower; and coming near the ground, it divided into several sparks and streams of fire; and was accompanied with a thunder so loud and near as struck many deaf with the clap, and ran from east to west; which when the Indians heard and saw, they all cried out with one voice, Auca, Auca, Auca, which signifies in their language, tyrant, traitor, rebel44, and every thing that may be attributed to a violent and bloody traitor. This happened on the nineteenth of June 1553, when the feast of our Lord was celebrated; and this prognostication which the Indians made, was accomplished on the 13th of November in the same year, when Francisco Hernandez Giron began a rebellion, which we shall now relate45."
On the 13th of November 1553, a splendid wedding was celebrated at Cuzco, between Alonzo de Loyasa, one of the richest inhabitants of the city, and Donna Maria de Castilla, at which all the citizens and their wives attended in their best apparel. After dinner an entertainment was made in the street, in which horsemen threw balls of clay at each other, which I saw from the top of a wall opposite the house of Alonzo de Loyasa; and I remember to have seen Francisco Hernandez Giron sitting on a chair in the hall, with his arms folded on his breast and his eyes cast down, the very picture of melancholy, being then probably contemplating the transactions in which he was to engage that night. In the evening, when the sports were over, the company sat down to supper in a lower hall, where at the least sixty gentlemen were at table, the ladies being by themselves in an inner room, and from a small court-yard between these apartments, the dishes were served to both tables. Don Balthazar de Castillo, uncle to the bride, acted as usher of the hall at this entertainment. I came to the house towards the end of supper, to attend my father and stepmother home at night. I went to the upper end of the hall, where the governor sat, who was pleased to make me sit down on the chair beside him, and reached me some comfits and sweet drink, with which boys are best pleased, I being then fourteen years of age.
At this instant some once knocked at the door, saying that Francisco Hernandez Giron was there; on which Don Balthazar de Castillo, who was near the door ordered the door to be opened. Giron immediately rushed in, having a drawn sword in his right hand, and a buckler on his left arm; accompanied by a companion on each side armed with partizans. The guests rose in great terror at this unexpected interruption, and Giron addressed them in these words: "Gentlemen be not afraid, nor stir from your places, as we are all engaged in the present enterprize." The governor, Gil Ramirez, immediately retired into the apartment of the ladies, by a door on the left hand. Another door led from the hall to the kitchen and other offices; and by these two doors a considerable number of the guests made their escape. Juan Alonzo Palomino, who was obnoxious to Giron for having opposed him in a late mutiny, was slain by Diego de Alvarado the lawyer. Juan de Morales, a rich merchant and very honest man, was slain while endeavouring to put out the candles. My father and a number of others, to the number in all of thirty-six, made their escape by means of a ladder from the court-yard of Loyasa into that of the adjoining house, in which I accompanied them, but the governor could not be persuaded to follow them, and was made prisoner by the rebels. My father and all the companions of his flight agreed to leave the town that night, and endeavour to escape to Lima.
Having assembled about an hundred and fifty soldiers, Giron assumed the office of commander-in-chief of the army of liberty, appointing Diego de Alvarado the lawyer his lieutenant-general; Thomas Vasquez, Francisco Nunnez, and Rodrigo de Pineda captains of horse; the two last of whom accepted more from fear than affection. Juan de Pedrahita, Nuno Mendiola, and Diego Gavilan were made captains of foot; Albertos de Ordunna standard-bearer, and Antonio Carillo serjeant-major; all of whom were ordered to raise soldiers to complete their companies with every possible expedition. It being reported through the country that the whole citizens of Cuzco had concurred in this rebellion, the cities of Guamanga and Arequipa sent deputies to Cuzco, desiring to be admitted into the league, that they might jointly represent to his majesty the burdensome and oppressive nature of the ordinances imposed by the judges in relation to the services of the Indians. But when the citizens of Guamanga and Arequipa became rightly informed that this rebellion, instead of being the act of the Cabildo and all the inhabitants, had been brought about by the contrivance of a single individual, they changed their resolutions, and prepared to serve his majesty. About this time, the arch rebel Giron caused the deposed governor, Gil Ramirez, to betaken from prison and escorted forty leagues on his way towards Arequipa, and then set free.
Fifteen days after the commencement of the rebellion, finding himself at the head of a considerable force, he summoned a meeting of all the citizens remaining in Cuzco, at which there appeared twenty-five citizens who were lords of Indians, only three of whom were intitled from office to sit in that assembly. By this meeting, Giron caused himself to be elected procurator, captain-general, and chief-justice of Peru, with full power to govern and protect the whole kingdom both in war and peace. When news of this rebellion was brought to Lima by Hernando Chacon, who was foster-brother to Giron, the judges would not credit the intelligence, believing it only a false report, to try how the people stood affected to the cause, and therefore ordered Chacon to be imprisoned; but learning the truth soon afterwards, he was set at liberty, and the judges began seriously to provide for suppressing the rebellion, appointing officers and commanders to raise forces for that purpose. They accordingly sent a commission to Alonzo de Alvarado, then at La Plata, constituting him captain-general of the royal army against Giron, with unlimited power to use the public treasure, and to borrow money for the service of the war in case the exchequer should fail to supply sufficient for the purpose. Alvarado accordingly appointed such officers as he thought proper to serve under him, and gave orders to raise men, and to provide arms and ammunition for the war.
44
In the language of Chili at least,
45
This paragraph, within inverted commas, is given as a short specimen of the taste of Garcilasso, and the respectable talents of his translator, Sir Paul Rycant, in 1688. It gives an account of one of these singular meteors or fire balls, improperly termed a comet in the text, which some modern philosophers are pleased to derive from the moon, and to suppose that they are composed of ignited masses of iron alloyed with nickel. It were an affront to our readers to comment on the ridiculous pretended prognostication so gravely believed by Garcilasso Inca.-E.