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VI.

1537.

other. He proposed, that every point in con- BOOK troversy between Almagro and himself fhould be fubmitted to the decifion of their fovereign; that until his award was known, each should retain undisturbed poffeffion of whatever part of the country he now occupied; that Ferdinand Pizarro fhould be fet at liberty, and return inftantly to Spain, together with the officers, whom Almagro purposed to fend thither to represent the justice of his claims. Obvious as the design of Pizarro was in those propofitions, and familiar as his artifices might now have been to his opponent, Almagro, with a credulity approaching to infa tuation, relied on his fincerity, and concluded an agreement on these terms m

rations for

THE moment that Ferdinand Pizarro recovered His prepa his liberty, the governor, no longer fettered in war. his operations by anxiety about his brother's life, threw off every difguife which his concern for it had obliged him to affume. The treaty was forgotten; pacific and conciliating measures were no more mentioned; it was in the field he openly declared, and not in the cabinet; by arms, and not by negociation; that it must now be determined who fhould be master of Peru.

Herrera, dec. 6. lib. iii. c. 9. Zarate, lib. iii. c. 9. Gomara Hift. c. 140. Vega, p. 11. lib. ii. c. 35.

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1538.

BOOK The rapidity of his preparations fuited fuch a decifive refolution. Seven hundred men were foon ready to march towards Cuzco. The command of these was given to his two brothers, in whom he could perfectly confide for the execution of his most violent fchemes, as they were urged on, not only by the enmity flowing from the rivalship between their family and Almagro, but animated with the defire of vengeance, excited by recollection of their own recent difgrace and fufferings. After an unsuccessful attempt to cross the mountains in the direct road between Lima and Cuzco, they marched towards the fouth along the coaft as far as Nafca, and then turning to the left, penetrated through the defiles in that branch of the Andes which lay between them and the capital. Almagro, in ftead of hearkening to fome of his officers, who advised him to attempt the defence of those difficult paffes, waited the approach of the enemy in the plain of Cuzco. Two reafons seem to have induced him to take this refolution. His followers amounted hardly to five hundred, and he was afraid of weakening fuch a feeble body by fending any detachment towards the mountains. His cavalry far exceeded that of the adverse party, both in number and discipline, and it was only in an open country that he could avail himself of that advantage.

THE

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marches to

THE Pizarros advanced without any ob- BOOK ftruction, but what arofe from the nature of the defert and horrid regions through which they His army marched. As foon as they reached the plain, Cuzco. both factions were equally impatient to bring this long-protracted contest to an iffue. Though countrymen and friends, the fubjects of the fame fovereign, and each with the royal standard displayed; and though they beheld the mountains. that furrounded the plain in which they were drawn up, covered with a vast multitude of Indians, affembled to enjoy the spectacle of their mutual carnage, and prepared to attack whatever party remained master of the field; fo fell and implacable was the rancour which had taken poffeffion of every breaft, that not one pacific counsel, not a single overture towards accommodation proceeded from either fide. Unfortunately for Almagro, he was fo worn out with the fatigues of fervice, to which his advanced age was unequal, that, at this crifis of his fate, he could not exert his wonted activity; and he was obliged to commit the leading of his troops to Orgognez, who, though an officer of great merit, did not poffefs the fame afcendant either over the spirit or affections of the foldiers, as the chief whom they had long been accustomed to follow and revere.

THE

BOOK

VI.

1538

Almagro defeated,

*

THE Conflict was fierce and maintained by each party with equal courage. On the fide of April 26. Almagro, were more veteran foldiers, and a larger proportion of cavalry; but these were counterbalanced by Pizarro's fuperiority in numbers, and by two companies of well-difciplined musketeers, which, on receiving an account of the infurrection of the Indians, the' emperor had fent from Spain". As the ufe of fire-arms was not frequent among the adventurers in America, haftily equipped for fervice, at their own expence, this small band of foldiers, regularly trained and armed, was a novelty in Peru, and decided the fate of the day. Wherever it advanced, the weight of a heavy and well-fuftained fire bore down horfe and foot before it; and Orgognez, while he endeavoured to rally and animate his troops, having received a dangerous wound, the rout became general. The barbarity of the conquerors ftained the glory which they acquired by this complete victory. The violence of civil rage hurried on fome to flaughter their countrymen with indifcriminate cruelty; the meannefs of private revenge inftigated others to fingle out individuals as the objects of their

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$538

vengeance. Orgognez and feveral officers of BOOK distinction were maffacred in cold blood; above a hundred and forty foldiers fell in the field; a large proportion, where the number of combatants were few, and the heat of the contest foon over. Almagro, though fo feeble that he could not bear the motion of a horse, had infifted in being carried in a litter to an eminence which overlooked the field of battle. From thence, in the utmost agitation of mind, he viewed the various movements of both parties, and at laft beheld the total defeat of his own troops, with all the paffionate indignation of a veteran leader long accustomed to victory. He endeavoured to fave himself by flight, but, and taken. was taken prisoner, and guarded with the ftricteft vigilance".

THE Indians, inftead of executing the refolution which they had formed, retired quietly after the battle was over; and in the history of the New World, there is not a more striking inftance of the wonderful afcendant which the. Spaniards had acquired over its inhabitants, than that after seeing one of the contending parties ruined and dispersed, and the other weakened

P Zarate, lib. iii. c. 11, 12. Vega, p. 11. lib. ii. c. 36— 38. Herrera, dec. 6. lib. iii, c. IC-12. lib. iv. c. 1-6, and

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