167.
- Carta de Gonzalo Pizarro a Valdivia, Ms. - Montesinos, Annales,
Ms., ano 1546. - Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 1, lib. 1, cap.
50-52.
Herrera, in his account of these transactions, has fallen into a
strange confusion of dates, fixing the time of the viceroy's
entry into Quito on the 10th of January, and that of his battle
with Pizarro nine days later (Hist. General, dec. 8, lib. 1, cap
1.) This last event, which, by the testimony of Fernandez, was on
the eighteenth of the month, was by the agreement of such
contemporary authorities as I have consulted, - as stated in the
text, - on the evening of the same day in which the viceroy
entered Quito. Herrera, though his work is arranged on the
chronological system of annals, is by no means immaculate as to
his dates. Quintana has exposed several glaring anachronisms of
the historian in the earlier period of the Peruvian conquest.
See his Espanoles Celebres, tom. II. Appendix, No. 7.]
He found the capital nearly deserted by the men. They had all
joined the standard of Pizarro; for they had now caught the
general spirit of disaffection, and looked upon that chief as
their protector from the oppressive ordinances. Pizarro was the
representative of the people. Greatly moved at this desertion,
the unhappy viceroy, lifting his hands to heaven, exclaimed, -
"Is it thus, Lord, that thou abandonest thy servants?" The women
and children came out, and in vain offered him food, of which he
stood obviously in need, asking him, at the same time, "Why he
had come there to die?" His followers, with more indifference
than their commander, entered the houses of the inhabitants, and
unceremoniously appropriated whatever they could find to appease
the cravings of appetite.
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