Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/291

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TITU ATAUCHI AND CHAVES
253

impeding the advance of the Spaniards towards Cuzco. With 8000 men he attacked their rearguard, threw it into confusion at a place called Tocto, in the province of Huayllas, and captured eight prisoners. He took them to Caxamarca, which had been abandoned by the Spaniards. Among these prisoners was Francisco de Chaves of Xeres, one of the most honourable and enlightened of the conquerors, and one of the twelve who protested against the murder of Atahualpa. Among the others were Sancho de Cuellar, Hernando de Haro, and Alonso de Alarcon. Cuellar had been clerk to the court at the mock trial of Atahualpa. He was tried and publicly executed at the same pole against which the Inca was strangled. Alarcon, whose leg was broken, was carefully tended. Chaves and Haro, who had protested against the Inca's execution, were treated with the greatest kindness. The prince Titu Atauchi made a treaty with Chaves to be ratified by Pizarro:

  1. The Spaniards and natives to be friends.
  2. Prince Manco to be acknowledged as Inca.
  3. All the laws of the Incas, in favour of the people, and not opposed to Christianity, to be maintained.

Chaves and his comrades were then set free, with many good wishes, and proceeded to Cuzco.[1]

  1. Francisco de Chaves, the friend of Prince Titu Atauchi, was a close observer and a diligent inquirer. He wrote a copious narrative, which he left in possession of his friend and relative, Don Luis Valera, who gave it to Diego de Oliva. Chaves was murdered at Lima in 1541, in attempting to defend the staircase against