CHAPTER XXIX

    How the men of Chile plotted to murder the Marquis, and how one of them named Francisco de Herencia gave notice of it at confession. Of the great heedlessness of the Marquis, and of what further happened until those of Chile went out to kill him.

HAPPY should I be if I could get through some part of my story without having to relate mournful things and cruel deaths, but we cannot make the pen shun or turn back from the work we have commenced; for my writing is not to please the living, but to be a faithful witness of what happened, for future ages. Now I have to tell the story of the death of the Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro, a fate in no way fitted for a man of such great merits—and who had served his royal master so long in those Indies, and who in his own person had discovered so great, rich, and prosperous a country as Peru is; where such great riches of gold and silver, unequalled in any other part of the world, have been found. But there was the death of the Adelantado Don Diego de Almagro, which he could have prevented if he had so willed.[55]

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The festival of St. John being past, Juan de Herrada conversed in secret with Don Diego. He spoke of the arrival of Vaca de Castro, and declared that he came out from Spain suborned with money sent by the Marquis. Even if that were not so, he suspected that the Marquis wanted to kill them; so that, to deliver himself from the one and the other, he resolved to anticipate and murder the Marquis first, and thus avenge the death of the Adelantado Don Diego de Almagro. Don Diego was very young—a virtuous youth and one of great pretensions and ambition, considering that he came of such humble parentage. He had a heart capable of undertaking any great deed, but he was so boyish that he was not adapted for personally ruling over people, nor to command a troop. He replied to Herrada that before deciding upon anything he should consider well what there was to be done. On the same day many of those belonging to his party consulted together, and the upshot was that they would murder the Marquis in any way they could. The captain Cristóbal de Sotelo was opposed to this decision, saying that nothing should be done until the arrival of the Judge. He argued that although it was publicly announced that he was coming with nothing beyond his commission, he might secretly have other more extensive powers. Should he not do rightful justice, but lean to the side of the Marquis, they might both be killed. Owing to what Sotelo said, they put off, for the time being, doing that on which they had resolved.

After the consultation one of those who were present named Francisco de Herencia, told it all, at confession, to a priest named Henao. This priest saw that it would be a great evil to the kingdom and its inhabitants if the Marquis should die in that manner, that God and his Majesty would be ill served, that terrible disorder would ensue among the Spaniards, and that a still worse civil war would be the consequence. He determined to avert these evils by appris[98]ing the Marquis, who was going that evening to sup at the house of his brother Francisco Martín de Alcántara, with his children. Before he went there he, with Antonio Picado, his secretary, called at the house of Doctor Juan Blázquez, his lieutenant. Pizarro desired him to be watchful, as there was a report that the men of Chile were intending to rise, and even talked of killing him. He added that those persons must be brought to book, and that occasion should be taken for administering justice. The doctor replied that while the wand of justice was in his hands the Marquis might sleep in peace, and not imagine that any one would move to do him a disservice. After this the Marquis went to the house of his brother. Soon afterwards the secretary, Antonio Picado, came to the room with blanched features, bringing a man who would not come forward, as he did not wish to be recognized. Stepping up to the Marquis, Picado asked him to get up, as that man was the priest Henao, and came to warn him that the men of Chile intended to murder him. The Marquis got up, and went across to Henao and heard from him all that he had to tell. He replied that someone, in the hope that his warning would obtain for him a present of a horse or other reward, had related the story, but that it was all Indian gossip. The priest protested, saying that he stood by what he had done, and declared that he could not be so remiss as to be mistaken in so momentous a matter. The Marquis returned to the table very pensive, and did not eat any more. After a short time he returned to his house, and Antonio Picado went to his, to dance with a girl friend he had there. This was wrong, for if he had given notice of what had passed, and of the suspicion there was, to the friends of the Marquis, it might have been that the murder would have been prevented. Yet if it was a Divine judgment, as we must believe, no human effort could have averted it.

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The Marquis lay down on his bed, thinking over what Henao had told him. On that night the Licentiate Caravajal got word of the plots of the men of Chile, and sent for Juan de Herrada, telling him that he must be on his guard not to do anything which would cause more trouble. Herrada answered, with dissimulation, that nothing was contemplated that would be injurious to the Marquis, for they awaited the arrival of the Judge, believing that he would administer justice. The Licentiate, though Juan de Herrada had justified himself, sent to advise the Marquis that he had better go out well accompanied, and cherish that distrust of the men of Chile that their doings merited.