- The form of a trial was
necessary to give an appearance of fairness to the proceedings.
That it was only form is evident from the indecent haste with
which it was conducted, - the examination of evidence, the
sentence, and the execution, being all on the same day. The
multiplication of the charges, designed to place the guilt of the
accused on the strongest ground, had, from their very number, the
opposite effect, proving only the determination to convict him.
If Pizarro had felt the reluctance to his conviction which he
pretended, why did he send De Soto, Atahuallpa's best friend,
away, when the inquiry was to be instituted? Why was the
sentence so summarily executed, as not to afford opportunity, by
that cavalier's return, of disproving the truth of the principal
charge, - the only one, in fact, with which the Spaniards had any
concern? The solemn farce of mourning and deep sorrow affected
by Pizarro, who by these honors to the dead would intimate the
sincere regard he had entertained for the living, was too thin a
veil to impose on the most credulous.
It is not intended by these reflections to exculpate the rest of
the army, and especially its officers, from their share in the
infamy of the transaction. But Pizarro, as commander of the
army, was mainly responsible for its measures. For he was not a
man to allow his own authority to be wrested from his grasp, or
to yield timidly to the impulses of others. He did not even
yield to his own.
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