SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

BISToRY,

History of the Conquest of Peru; with a Preliminary View of the Civilization of the Incas. By William H. Prescott, Corresponding Member of the French Institute, of the Royal Academy of Berlin, of History at Madrid, Sc. In two volumes. •Behtley. BIOGRAPHY,

Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey, By Joseph Cottle.

FICTION, Houlston and Stoneman.

Ranthorpe Chapman and Halt

PRESCOTT'S HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF PERU.

IN some respects Pizarro's discovery of Peru and subversion of the em- pire of the Incas has not the interest that attaches to the conquest of Mexico by Cortes. It wants, as Mr. Prescott observes, the unity of the latter ; where the conquest is as much an "action" as the subject of an epic. Pizarro's history is also deficient in that variety of historical incident which was produced by the more warlike character of the Mexi- cans, and the consequent resistance they offered to Cortes ; as well as in the larger views and the more profound and skilful policy of that leader. A greater disadvantage is found in the character of the two men. Cortes was by birth a gentleman, and a scholar by education. In Cuba he had been extensively engaged as a planter, and employed in public affairs both civil and military. A comprehensive genius, assisted by learning and experience of life, seems to have carried his views beyond those of his own age, and led him to divine the true value of gold and silver, which it took the world at large upwards of two hundred years more to learn : at least, on the conquest of Cuba, he sat himself down on his lands as an agricul• turist, while the other Spaniards were hunting after gold ; and on the con- quest of Mexico, the encouragement of production was his first object, though defeated by Spanish cupidity and the opinion of the age that wealth consisted only in the precious metals. Pizarro was of a coarser, perhaps of a more brutal nature, than Cortes ; and almost every obstacle of nature and fortune conspired against him. The date of his birth, his early train- ing, the events of his youth and middle age, are obscure and vague. He was a natural son, abandoned, it is said, by both parents; he had no education in childhood, and never afterwards acquired it, being unable to read or write; in childhood and youth he would seem to have lived as he could, his only authenticated occupation being that of a swineherd. From this state of utter poverty and meanness he escaped as an adventurer to the New World ; but the how, when, or whither, are unknown, except • that he embarked at Seville. He first emerges from total obscurity at Hispaniola, in 1510; when he took part in an expedition under Alonzo de Ojeda; at which time, according to Mr. Prescott's opinion, be must have been thirty-nine; but, following Ilerrara's account of the date of his birth, he was only thirty-two; which seems to us the more probable, for many reasons. In point of philosophical genius Cortes had undoubt- edly the advantage: in all other qualities the palm may probably be as- signed to Pizarro. His courage was indomitable, though perhaps rather of the animal than the hero. No difficulty could discourage, no danger could appal him. In physical constitution he resembled Catiline ; "corpus patiens inedite, vigiliu, algoria, supra gams, euique eredibile eat": but the Spaniard had to undergo hardships in the uninhabited wastes of the Tropics, of which no example could be met in a temperate climate. Nor did Pizarro greatly differ from Catiline in some mental characteris- tics, especially in the "animus aralax, sabdolus, varius, cujus rei libet simulator ac dissimulator " : in profound hypocrisy, and the patient veiling of a perfidious nature till it was safe to display it, the Spaniard pro- bably excelled the Roman. All these natural abilities had been sharpened, hardened, as the disposition had doubtless been soured, by a youth of de- gradation and a manhood of struggle, in that worst of schools, a collection of Spanish colonial adventurers such as were Spaniards of the fifteenth century—for to that age they belonged though acting in the sixteenth.

The difference that such different circumstances create is visible in every stage of the two stories. The conquest of Mexico was really a conquest, calling into request every resource of the great captain and the political chief: the acquisition of Peru was accomplished by a piece of successful audacity, which only succeeded from that very audacity, and under any other circumstances must have failed in its results. The seizure of a monarch surrounded by his courtiers and guards, when pay- ing a friendly visit, could always be accomplished, because it was an auda- cious treachery not to be apprehended ; but with any other people than the Peruvians, accustomed to look upon their Inca as a god, and powerless to act without him, the crime would have excited indignation instead of con- fusion, and Pizarro and his followers would have perished. The difference in the subsequent proceedings of the two men is as great. Cortes never wantonly destroyed : Pizarro and his brigands had no idea of the value of anything as works of art or proofs of civilization, and overthrew with-

out a care. Cupidity and petty jealousy thwarted Cortes; but he always ruled ; and when it came to the push, his meanest and bitterest enemies succumbed to his genius and the personal respect entertained for him. Pizarro had to contend with revolted followers, whom his treacheries had alienated or his brutal nature injured; and he perished at last under the swords of conspirators he had provoked beyond endurance. Crimes were committed by both leaders; but, though there was not much difference in their real amount, there was a good deal in the mode and motive: With the cunning of a vulgar mind, Pizarro professed to be forced by h. is troops into the execution of the Inca Atahualpa, when he had himself m. sugated the deed, and he evidently knew the charge of encouraging rebellion to be false ; nor was it in the monarch criminal if true. The death of Guata- motzin, though equally a crime, is of another stamp : the monarch was conquered, and surrendered; his connexion with conspiracies and revolts had more of likelihood ; and Cortes took the responsibility of the execu- tion upon himself. The hardened nature of Pizarro was untouched by re- morse for any crime : the death [of Guatiraotzin haunted Cortes, and la said to have broken his sleep.

Blit though the exploits of Pizarro want the unity and largeness of history, they have an interest of another kind—the interest of personal

adventure in its largest sense. The career of Pizarro from the time he first emerges from obscurity, until he departed on his last expedition to Peru, is one continued scene of determined struggle against privation, hardship, toil, and, yet harder, against the depreciatory views of friends, the dissatisfaction of followers, and even hope itself. Such a spirit of re- solute determination as Pizarro displayed in his first and seoond voyages is almost without equal; and had he failed, he would have been re- corded as a madman, if recorded at all. With the subject of personal adventure is mingled that of discovery and exploration, as interesting as any narrative of the kind that ever was undertaken, excepting the great voyage of Columbus. Nor is the story of the conquest and the subse- quent career of the conquerors unattractive. It may want unity, but it is full of incident, variety of fortune, personal adventure and dis- covery; in fact, historical romance, more strange and interesting than fiction. And it points the moral that "we still have justice here," and by our own vices. The precise character of the Inca Atahualpa is diffi- cult to determine, for it Was the cue of Pizarro's companions to blacken him with atrocious crimes ; but in conduct he shows like a Peruvian Jugurtha. The &your of his father gave him a share of a kingdom, to which, as the son of a concubine, he had no title. He requited this kindness by waging war upon his legitimate brother; massacreing that brother's subjects, in one instance at least ; dethroning and imprisoning the defeated monarch ; and finally, directing his private murder when Atahualpa had fallen into the hands of the Spaniards, lest they should get possession of the fallen monarch and raise him to the throne: so that he deserved his punishment, though Pizarro had no right to inflict it. Cortes lived to experience the neglect of a monarch; but the valiant ruffians who overran Peru perished by their own arts. The Spanish writers observe that all who were implicated in the murder of Atahualpa died a violent death. One prime instigator of the atrocity, Almagro, after having been ever tricked and cheated by Pizarro, revolted, was defeated, and executed, un- doubtedly by his orders. The son and -followers of Almagro revenged themselves by the assassination of Pizarro; to perish in their turn by the executioner or the sword. Hernando Pizarro, the elder and legitimate brother of the conqueror, expiated his complicity in Almagro's death by an imprisonment of twenty years ; and Gonzalo, the youngest brother, suffered as a traitor. The crimes of the conquerors, spread over Europe, raised a settled disgust towards the Spanish name, till Spain became too contemptible to he hated: the possession of Mexico and Peru gave a false colour to her power, that drew upon her attacks she would other- wise have escaped ; and events are now in progress in the New World that seem likely to blot out the Spanish name and supersede the Spanish blood, throughout countries attacked without the shadow of an excuse, and subdued by treachery, cruelty, and crime. The peculiar character attached to what Mr. Prescott designates as "the conquest of Peru," but which also contains the adventures of Pizarro and the discovery of the country, is, we think, well adapted to his genius; which is more fitted to dwell upon picturesque features in nature, and ex- hibit incidents and personal traits in men, than to grasp and condense the great events of history. At least, this is the work of his which we like the most and incline to consider the best. As regards the main outlines of the history, little perhaps is added to Robertson's account, as we had occasion to observe in noticing the Conquest of Mexico; but the filling up is done with the same or greater ability, and, for the reasons already mentioned, produces a greater effect. As in the case of Mexico, Mr. Prescott has had access to original materials, not available to former his- torians; some of them published by the laudable industry of modern Spaniards, others still in manuscript. This advantage is visible in the introductory view of the civilization of the Incas ; which in Mr. Pres- cott's hands assumes a definite shape, and becomes a complete system,— much more complete, perhaps, than such a highly artificial scheme of go- vernment, religion, and social condition, could ever assume; especially after so recent a conquest, the dominion of the Incas being of humble origin and late date. This error, however, is more readily pointed out than remedied, from the character of the writers whence Mr. Prescott draws his views. The first visiters to Peru had none of the discriminating acumen of Cortes. Garcillasso, one great authority on the subject, was biassed by his Inca descent, and over credulous to boot. Other observers were men of more sense and skill in evidence, especially Mr. Prescott's new authorities Sarmiento and Ondergardo, both jurists, and painstaking inquirers. They, however, went with some bias on their minds in favour of the civilization, &c. of the Incas; while they could themselves observe nothing but ruins, though they could and did communicate with the native nobles. To mark in an authority a gross exaggeration or an evident impos- sibility, is easy ; but when the incorrectness is rather in the general mat- ter and colouring, the task becomes one of great difficulty. Mr. Prescott has accomplished the first; and seems to be aware of the necessity of the other, which he has sometimes attempted in notes. But the text throughout strikes us as presenting the system of the Children of the Sun too much in rose colour. To this the taste of the literary artist may have contri- buted somewhat. To have marked the unlikelihood of such a perfect scheme of unnatural though paternal government being established any- where, but especially in a uniform manner among successive tribes of conquered savages, would have encumbered his discussion and impeded its march. We suspect the disquisition does not represent the Inca prac- tice, but its theory, with some exaggerations even there. The "Pre- liminary View," however, is very able in a literary sense; well arranged, clear, comprehensive, picturesque, and interesting. There may likewise be a little of the artist in the treatment of Pizarro's adventures and exploits, as well as in those of his followers during the conquest. But this is excusable. The object of history, as of poetry, is to present the essences of things, divested of the gross, the subordi- nate, and the encumbering parts. Unless this be done, a reader might as well peruse the authorities himself; and if-a little rhetorical colouring is thrown over the picture—if the mind of4he artist imbues his subjects with some of his own romance, instead of merely refl. '4z the original —it could nowhere be more excusable than in a subject iii... the con- quest of Peru. The gorgeous pictures of Tropical scenery, with their human contrasts of sickness, hunger, fatigue, and death—the hard- ships and long-baffled hopes of discovery, ending at last in triumph— the scepticism of the colonists, the faltering or mutiny of followers, the stern resolution of Pizarro, under circumstances dark enough to appal the stoutest heart and discourage hope itself—admit of a colouring rather warmer than nature. With this failing, if it be one, Mr. Prescott is perhaps chargeable ; but the History of the Conquest of Peru, from the first appearance of Pizarro on the stage of historical adventure, till his younger brother Gonzalo, revolting with some excuse against the Imperial power, fell before it, may take a foremost place among the his- tories of the present day, aud will not shrink from a comparison with many in past ages.

Description in some form is Mr. Prescotes first excellence; but he does

not fail in philosophy ; marking with a free and judicious spirit the crimes of his heroes and their excuses, though perhaps, like Robertson, he allows the courage and capacity of the Spaniards to shade his vision as to their evil deeds. It is possible that he echoes a common error in grounding too much of their defence upon the spirit of the age. The age was no doubt fiercer and more cruel than ours, and the Spaniards are a bloody people ; but still these do not seem to us the true explanation. The rest of Europe, and even all respectable Spaniards removed from the excite- ment and temptation of the scene, united in condemning the crimes. The caste and characters of the men must be added to their country and their age to explain their conduct. The majority of the Spanish adventurers in the New World were the refuse of the Old : many devoid of common education, most of them without the restraints of position or of early social influences; some had been hardened to cruelty and crime in the Italian wars of the period ; all of them embarked in a desperate attempt to better their fortunes in a speculation where hardship was certain, death likely, and rapid wealth, their first and almost only object, attainable in no other way than by robbery. Irregular or inditris dual colonization will never be undertaken by any other classes of men. And the truth of this axiom implies a shocking charge against our own Government. If many of the individuals who have gone out of late years on Lord Grey's 4; spontaneous" principle had been exposed to the temptations of Pizarro and his followers, it may be doubted whether they would have acted any better. It is quite certain, that if the adventurers of all ranks and nations who infest the South Seas, demoralizing the natives, fomenting their quarrels, and encouraging murder for the sake of a preserved head, were exposed to one half the temptations that beset the conquerors of Peru, their behaviour would have been worse, and their crimes greater.

To complete this notice by illustrative extracts that should give ex- amples of each class of subject and each style of writing, would re- quire greater space than we can spare. We will limit. ourselves to one...,

topic, the closing scenes of the last of the conquerors. After Francis Pizarro's death, as the reader may remember, the country was distracted by rival claimants and a rash Governor, till at last the representative of the Emperor was defeated ; and Gonzalo Pizarro became Lord of Peru, to have his power melt away before the honest policy of the celebrated Pedro de la Gasca, sent out from Spain as Dictator, with nothing to support him but moral force. At the valley of Xaquixaguana, Gon- zalo's confidants betrayed him, his army left him, his lieutenant was taken, and Pizarro surrendered. The narratives of their closing scenes are not the least striking incidents in the work. Carbajal was a wit in his cruelty ; and followed his bent like some of the heroes of the French Reign of Terror, with death staring him in the face.

"The convoy [which captured him] was soon swelled by a.purnber of the common file from the royal army, some of whom had long arreatiff-14.i ttle with

the prisoner; and not content with heaping reproaches and imp , on his head, they now threatened to proceed to acts of personal viol Car-

enztsh Uajal, far from deprecating, seemed rather to court, as the speediest4iy of rid- ding himself of life. When he approached the President'squarters, Centeno, who was near, rebuked the disorderly rabble, and compelled them to give way. Car- bajal, on seeing this, with a respectful air demanded to whom he was indebted for this courteous protection. To which his ancient comrade replied, 'Dorm not know me—Diego Centeno!" I crave your pardon,' said the veteran, sarcastically

alluding to his long flight. in the Charms, and his recent defeat at Huarina; 'it

face!' sie)Ilong since I have seen anything but ,T, tour back, that I had forgotten your

* *

"When his doom was communicated to Carbajal, be heard it with his usual indifference. 'They can but kill me,' he said, as if he had already settled the matter in his own mend. During the day, many came to see him in his confine- ment; some to upbraid him with his cruelties, but most from curiosity to see the fierce warrior who had made his name so terrible through the land. He showed no unwillingness to talk with them, though it was in those sallies of caustic humour in which he usually indulged at the expense of his hearer. Among these visiters was a cavalier of no .note, whose life, it appears, Carbajal had for- merly spared when in his power. This person expressed to the prisoner his strong desire to serve him; and as he reiterated his professions, Carbajal eat them short by exclaiming= And what service can you do me? Can you set me free ? If you cannot do that, you can do nothing. If I spared your life, as you say, it WM . probably because I did not think it worth while to take it.' Some piously disposed persons urged him to see a priest, if it were only to un- burden his conscience before leaving the world. 'But of what use would that be?. asked Carbajal. 'I have nothing that lies heavy on my conscience, unless it be indeed, the debt of half a real to a shopkeeper in Seville, which I forgot to pay before leaving the country.' "He was carried to execution on a hurdle, or rather in a basket, drawn by two mules. His arms were pinioned; and, as they forced his bulky body into this miserable conveyance, he exclaimed, 'Cradles for infants, and a cradle for the old man too, it seems ! ' Notwithstanding the disinclination be had manifested to a confessor, he was attended by several ecclesiastics on his way to the gallows; and one of them repeatedly urged him to give some token of penitence at this solemn hour' if it were only by repeating the Pater Nester and Ave Maria. Car- bajal, to rid himself of the ghostly father's importunity, replied by coolly repeat- in 4 the words 'Pater Noster " Ave Maria.' He then remAined obstinately silent. He died, as he had lived, with aje$4, or rather a scoff upon his lips." The younger P'o's end exhibited a graver and sadder character, more in keeping -Cth the former greatness of his position and the his- toric glory of his name. "Very different were the circumstances attending the closing scene of Gonzalo Pizarro. At his request, no one had been allowed to visit him in his confinement. He was heard pacing his tent during the greater part of the day; and when night came, having ascertained from Centeno that his execution was to take place on the following noon, he laid himself down to rest. He did not sleep long, however, but soon rose, and continued to traverse his apartment, as if buried in meditation, till dawn. He then sent for a confessor, and remained with him till after the hour of noon, taking little or no refreshment. The officers of justice became [inpatient; but their eagerness was sternly rebuked by the soldiery, many of "hem; having served under Gonzalo's banner, were touched with pity for his misfortunes.

"When the chieftain came forth to execution he showed in his dreis:the.same

love of magnificence and display as in happier days. Over his depb* he_wore a superb cloak of yellow velvet, stiff with gold embro:dery; while his head was pro- tected by a cap of the same materials, richly decorated, in like manner, with or- naments of gold. In this gaudy attire he mounted his mule; and the sentence was so far relaxed that his arms were suffered to remain unshackled. He was es- corted by a goodly number of priests and friars, who held up the crucifix before his ey s, while he carried in his own hand an image of the Virgin. Shelled ever been the peculiar object of Pizarro's devotion; so much so, that those whokoesv him best in the hour of his prosperity were careful, when they had a petitieo prefer it in the name of the blessed Mary.

" Pizsrro's lips were frequently pressed to the emblem of his divinity, while his eyes were bent on the crucifix in apparent devotion, heedless of the ohjects around him. On reaching the scaffold, he ascended it with a firm step, and asked Isaac to address a few words to the soldiery gathered round it. There are many among you,' said he, 'who have grown rich on my brother's bounty and my own. Yet, of all my riches, nothing remains to me but the garments I have on; and even these are not mine, but the property of the executioner. I am without means, therefore, to purchase a mass for the welfare of my soul; and I implore you, by the remembrance of past benefits, to extend this charity to me when I am gone, that it may be well with you in the hour of death.' A profound silence reigned throughout the martial multitude, broken only by sighs and groans, as they listened to Pizarro's request; and it was faithfully responded to, since, after his death, masses were said in many of the towns for the welfare of the departed chieftain.

"Then, kneeling down before a crucifix placed on a table, Pizarro remained for some minutes absorbed in prayer; after which, addressing the soldier who was to act as the minister of .justice, he calmly bade him 'do his duty with a steady hand.' He refused to have his eyes bandaged; and, bending forward his neck, submitted it to the sword of the executioner; who struck off the head with a sin- gle blow, so true that the body remained for some moments in the same erect tare as in life. The head was taken to Lima, where it was set in a cage or

• e, and then fixed on a gibbet by the side of Carbajars. On it was placed a label, bearing—' This is the head of the traitor Gonzalo Pizarro, who rebelled in Peru against his sovereign, and battled in the cause of tyranny and treason against the royal standard in the valley of Miquixaguana: His large estates' in- chiding the rich mines in Potosi, were confiscated; his mansion in Lima was rased to the ground, the place strewed with salt, and a stone pillar set up, with an in- scription interdicting any one from building on a spot which had been profaned by the residence of a traitor."