What favor, or even mercy, can you expect from the
Crown? You have gone too far either to halt, or to recede. You
must go boldly on, proclaim yourself king; the troops, the
people, will support you." And he concluded, it is said, by
advising him to marry the Coya, the female representative of the
Incas, that the two races might henceforth repose in quiet under
a common sceptre! *42
[Footnote 42: Ibid., Parte 2, lib. 4, cap. 40. - Gomara, Hist. de
las Ind., cap. 172 - Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 1. lib. 2,
cap. 13.
The poet Molina has worked up this scene between Carbajal and his
commander with good effect, in his Amazonas en las Indias, where
he uses something of a poet's license in the homage he pays to
the modest merits of Gonzalo. Julius Caesar himself was not more
magnanimous.
"Sepa mi Rey, sepa Espana,
Que muero por no ofenderla,
Tan facil de conservarla,
Que pierdo por no agraviarla,
Quanto infame en poseerla,
Una Corona ofrecida."
Among the biographical notices of the writers on Spanish colonial
affairs, the name of Herrera, who has done more for this vast
subject than any other author, should certainly not be omitted.
His account of Peru takes its proper place in his great work, the
Historia General de las Indias, according to the chronological
plan on which that history is arranged. But as it suggests
reflections not different in character from those suggested by
other portions of the work, I shall take the liberty to refer the
reader to the Postscript to Book Third of the Conquest of Mexico,
for a full account of these volumes and their learned author.
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