Chapter X
Escape Of The Inca. - Return Of Hernando Pizarro. - Rising Of The
Peruvians. - Siege And Burning Of Cuzco. - Distresses Of The
Spaniards. - Storming Of The Fortress. - Pizarro's Dismay. - The
Inca Raises The Siege.
1535-1536.
While the absence of his rival Almagro relieved Pizarro from all
immediate disquietude from that quarter, his authority was
menaced in another, where he had least expected it. This was
from the native population of the country. Hitherto the
Peruvians had shown only a tame and submissive temper, that
inspired their conquerors with too much contempt to leave room
for apprehension. They had passively acquiesced in the
usurpation of the invaders; had seen one monarch butchered,
another placed on the vacant throne, their temples despoiled of
their treasures, their capital and country appropriated and
parcelled out among the Spaniards, but, with the exception of an
occasional skirmish in the mountain passes, not a blow had been
struck in defence of their rights. Yet this was the warlike
nation which had spread its conquests over so large a part of the
continent!
In his career, Pizarro, though he scrupled at nothing to effect
his object, had not usually countenanced such superfluous acts of
cruelty as had too often stained the arms of his countrymen in
other parts of the continent, and which, in the course of a few
years, had exterminated nearly a whole population in Hispaniola.
He had struck one astounding blow, by the seizure of Atahuallpa;
and he seemed willing to rely on this to strike terror into the
natives.
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