Soon after the viceroy was settled in his government, he sent Altamirano, judge in the court of chancery at Lima, to supersede Martin de Robles in the government of the city of La Plata. De Robles was then so old and bowed down with infirmities, that he was unable to have his sword girt to his side, and had it carried after him by an Indian page; yet Altamirano, almost immediately after taking possession of his government, hanged Martin de Robles in the market-place, on some pretended charge of having used certain words respecting the viceroy that had a rebellious tendency. About the same time the viceroy apprehended and deported to Spain about thirty-seven of those who had most eminently distinguished their loyalty in suppressing the late rebellion, chiefly because they solicited rewards for their services and remuneration for the great expences they had been at during the war, and refused to marry certain women who had been brought from Spain by the viceroy as wives to the colonists, many of whom were known to be common strumpets.
The next object which occupied the attention of the viceroy was to endeavour to prevail upon Sayri Tupac, the nominal Inca or king of the Peruvians, to quit the mountains in which he had taken refuge, and to live among the Spaniards, under promise of a sufficient allowance to maintain his family and equipage. Sayri Tupac was the son and heir of Manco Capac, otherwise called Menco Saca, who had been killed by the Spaniards after delivering them out of the hands of their enemies. After a long negociation, the Inca Sayri Tupac came to Lima where he was honourably received and entertained by the viceroy, who settled an insignificant pension upon him according to promise. After remaining a short time in Lima, the Inca was permitted by the viceroy to return to Cuzco, where he took up his residence in the house of his aunt Donna Beatrix Coya, which was directly behind my fathers dwelling, and where he was visited by all the men and women of the royal blood of the Incas who resided in Cuzco. The Inca was soon afterwards baptized along with his wife, Cusi Huarcay, the niece of the former Inca Huascar. This took place in the year 1558; and about three years afterwards he died, leaving a daughter who was afterwards married to a Spaniard named Martin Garcia de Loyola.
Having settled all things in the kingdom to his satisfaction, by the punishment of those who had been concerned in the rebellion under Giron, and the settlement of the Inca under the protection and superintendence of the Spanish government; the viceroy raised a permanent force of seventy lancers or cavalry, and two hundred musqueteers, to secure the peace of the kingdom, and to guard his own person and the courts of justice. The horsemen of this guard were allowed each a thousand, and the foot soldiers five hundred, dollars yearly. Much about the same time, Alonzo de Alvarado, Juan Julio de Hojeda, my lord and father Garcilasso de la Vega, and Lorenzo de Aldana died. These four gentlemen were all of the ancient conquerors of Peru who died by natural deaths, and were all greatly lamented by the people for their virtuous honourable and good characters. All the other conquerors either died in battle, or were cut off by other violent deaths, in the various civil wars and rebellions by which the kingdom was so long distracted.
On the arrival of those persons in Spain who had been sent out of Peru by the viceroy for demanding rewards for their services, they petitioned the king, Don Philip II, for redress; who was graciously pleased to give pensions to as many of them as chose to return to Peru, to be paid from the royal exchequer in that kingdom, that they might not need to address themselves to the viceroy. Such as chose to remain in Spain, he gratified with pensions upon the custom-house in Seville; the smallest being 80 ducats yearly, to some 600, to some 800, 1000, and 1200 ducats, according to their merits and services. About the same time likewise, his majesty was pleased to nominate Don Diego de Azevedo as viceroy of Peru, to supersede the Marquis of Cannete; but, while preparing for his voyage, he died, to the great grief of all the colonists of the kingdom. The Marquis of Cannete was much astonished when those men whom he had banished from Peru for demanding rewards for their past services, came back with royal warrants for pensions on the exchequer of that kingdom, and still more so when he learnt that another person was appointed to succeed him in the office of viceroy. On this occasion he laid aside his former haughtiness and severity, and became gentle and lenient in his disposition and conduct for the rest of his days; so that, if he had begun as he ended his administration, he would have proved the best governor that ever commanded in the New World. On seeing this change of conduct, the heirs of those citizens who had been executed for having engaged in the rebellion of Giron, laid the pardons obtained by their fathers before the judges of the royal audience, and made reclamation of the estates which had been confiscated, and even succeeded in having their lands and Indians restored, together with all other confiscations which had been ordered at the first coming over of the viceroy.
At this time likewise, the viceroy gave a commission to Pedro de Orsua, to make a conquest of the country of the Amazons on the river Marannon, being the same country in which Orellana deserted Gonzalo Pizarro, as formerly related. Orsua went to Quito to raise soldiers, and to provide arms and provisions, in which he was greatly assisted by contributions from the citizens of Cuzco, Quito and other cities of Peru. Orsua set out accordingly on his expedition, with a well appointed force of five hundred men, a considerable proportion of which was cavalry. But he was slain by his own men, at the instigation of Don Fernando de Guzman and some others, who set up Don Fernando as their king, yet put him to death shortly afterwards. Lope de Aguira then assumed the command, but the whole plan of conquest fell to the ground, and Aguira and far the greater part of the men engaged in this expedition were slain.
On the death of Don Diego de Azevedo, Don Diego de Zuniga by Velasco, Conde de Nieva, was appointed to supersede the Marquis of Cannete as viceroy of Peru, and departing from Spain to assume his new office in January 1560, he arrived at Payta in Peru in the month of April following. He immediately dispatched a letter to the marquis informing him of his arrival in the kingdom as viceroy, and requiring the marquis to desist from any farther exercise of authority. On the arrival of the messenger at Lima, the marquis ordered him to be honourably entertained, and to receive a handsome gratification, to the value of 7000 dollars; but he forfeited all these advantages, by refusing to address the ex-viceroy by the title of excellency. This slight, which had been directed by the new viceroy, so pressed on the spirits of the marquis, already much reduced by the infirmities of age and the ravages of a mortal distemper, that he fell into a deep melancholy, and ended his days before the arrival of his successor at Lima.
The Conde de Nieva did not long enjoy the happiness he expected in his government, and he came by his death not many months afterwards by means of a strange accident, of which he was himself the cause; but as it was of a scandalous nature I do not chuse to relate the particulars. On receiving notice of his death, King Philip II. was pleased to appoint the lawyer Lope Garcia de Castro, who was then president of the royal council of the Indies, to succeed to the government of Peru, with the title only of president of the court of royal audience and governor-general of the kingdom. He governed the kingdom with much wisdom and moderation, and lived to return into Spain, where he was replaced in his former situation of president of the council of the Indies.
Don Francisco de Toledo, second son of the Conde de Oropeta, succeeded Lope Garcia de Castro in the government of Peru, with the tide of viceroy. He had scarcely been two years established in the government, when he resolved to entice from the mountains of Villcapampa49 where he resided, the Inca Tupac Amaru, the legitimate heir of the Peruvian empire, being the son of Manco Inca, and next brother to the late Don Diego Sayri Tupac, who left no son. The viceroy was induced to attempt this measure, on purpose to put a stop to the frequent robberies which were committed by the Indians dependent on the Inca, in the roads between Cuzco and Guamanga, and in hope of procuring information respecting the treasures which had belonged to former Incas and the great chain of gold belonging to Huayna Capac, formerly mentioned, all of which it was alleged was concealed by the Indians. Being unable to prevail upon the Inca to put himself in the power of the Spaniards, a force of two hundred and fifty men was detached into the Villcapampa, under the command of Martin Garcia Loyola, to whom the Inca surrendered himself, with his wife, two sons, and a daughter, who were all carried prisoners to Cuzco.
49
The river Quiliabamba, otherwise called Urabamba and Vilcamayo is to the north of Cuzco, and to the north of that river one of the chains of the Andes is named the chain of Cuzco or of the rebel Indians. This is probably the mountainous region mentioned in the text.-E.