Domingo,
and Luque's pretensions were explicitly transferred to him. Yet
it is unsafe to pronounce, at this distance of time, on the
authority of mere negative testimony; and it must be admitted to
form a strong presumption in favor of Pizarro's general equity in
the distribution, that no complaint of it has reached us from any
of the parties present, nor from contemporary chroniclers. *10
[Footnote 9: Montesinos, Annales, Ms. ano 1533.]
[Footnote 10: The "Spanish Captain," several times cited, who
tells us he was one of the men appointed to guard the treasure,
does indeed complain that a large quantity of gold vases and
other articles remained undivided, a palpable injustice, he
thinks, to the honest Conquerors, who had earned all by their
hardships. (Rel. d'un Capitano Spagn., ap. Ramusio, tom. III.
fol. 378, 379.) The writer, throughout his Relation, shows a full
measure of the coarse and covetous spirit which marked the
adventurers of Peru.]
The division of the ransom being completed by the Spaniards,
there seemed to be no further obstacle to their resuming active
operations, and commencing the march to Cuzco. But what was to
be done with Atahuallpa? In the determination of this question,
whatever was expedient was just. *11 To liberate him would be to
set at large the very man who might prove their most dangerous
enemy; one whose birth and royal station would rally round him
the whole nation, place all the machinery of government at his
control, and all its resources, - one, in short, whose bare word
might concentrate all the energies of his people against the
Spaniards, and thus delay for a long period, if not wholly
defeat, the conquest of the country.
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