*32
Such severe reprisals have been too common with the Spaniards in
their civil feuds. Strange that they should so blindly plunge
into these, with this dreadful doom for the vanquished!
[Footnote 32: Declaracion de Uscategui, Ms. - Carta de Ventura
Beltran, Ms. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 21.
The loyal burghers of Arequipa seem to have been well contented
with these executions. "If night had not overtaken us," they
say, alluding to the action, in their letter to the emperor,
"your Majesty would have had no reason to complain; but what was
omitted then is made up now, since the governor goes on
quartering every day some one or other of the traitors who
escaped from the field." See the original in Appendix, No. 13.]
From the scene of this bloody tragedy, the governor proceeded to
Cuzco, which he entered at the head of his victorious battalions,
with all the pomp and military display of a conqueror. He
maintained a corresponding state in his way of living, at the
expense of a sneer from some, who sarcastically contrasted this
ostentatious profusion with the economical reforms he
subsequently introduced into the finances. *33 But Vaca de Castro
was sensible of the effect of this outward show on the people
generally, and disdained no means of giving authority to his
office. His first act was to determine the fate of his prisoner,
Almagro. A council of war was held. Some were for sparing the
unfortunate chief, in consideration of his youth, and the strong
cause of provocation he had received.
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