The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-10-02

"has lschuoi CALLS q reWarkaDle letter
from Iupao Amaru, setting forth his
claims. The victorious insurgents were
close to Cuzco. the Indian leader. and his
FAMILY. were oamped on the hill Piohaco,
only live miles distant from the city.
Areohe, nothing dnunted, answered calmly
to lupac Amaru's conditions: II was not
not sent here to treat with rebels. but to
put down rebellion. You must lay down
your arms before We can talk of oondi-
tions.''
Tupac Amaru refused to yield; and ON
the 10th Of April, 1871, be and his family
were surp ised and captured In their camp
by Areche's Dragons. The leader of the
insurgents was tried and found guilty of
high treason, and in May was executed
with hla family-in one of the dreadful
fashions which all the civilized govern
ments Of that day thought necessary. His
military career was q short but startling
one, aud he died like the Indian stole he
WAS.
The death of Tupae Amaru did NOS long
leave the Indians without a leader. His
son, Andres Tue AmRru, and his brother,
Casimiro, sprang to the head OF the rebsls;
and with them was associated that obscure
but remarkable Indian genius variously
known rs Tupac Catari or Mica Catari.
Andres and Casimiro shared his victories;
but the startling Inspiration which led to
the bloodiest Indian massacre in history
seems to have been born in the brain of
this really great aboriaine.
Pushing on with merciless vigor, leaving
q broad trail of blood and devastation, the
rebels a. last laid siege TO the large and
important oitv of Sorata. There the Span
ish troops and colonists made a desperate
stand; and. as the city was very we'll forth
fed for those days. they seemed safe.
Sorata was surrounded by q strong, high
adobe wall, itself utterly impregnable
to Indians or to light firearms. and de-
Tended by artillery, OF which the besiegers
had none. But Catari was equal to the
emergency-Rpd as brilliantly SO as Cyrus
the Great, whose ruse at Babylon is famous
for pll time.
How break down that strong wall, with
neither cannon nor battering rams at his
command? The Spaniards could not see
how, and felt secure. But Catari knew.
Adobe walls are hardly preRnable to can
non. AS worst they merely stumble to an
earthwork which no missile can break, and
which ia as easily defended as the former
wall itself. So il CataFi had had annon-
even modern cannon they would have
done him little good. But he had invented
the strangest bombardment that ever
wrecked a oity-bombardment by water.
Sorata stood in the level of q pretty,
bowl-like valley, with mountains all
about. Catsri quietly set his follower to
digging trenches and throwing up bars of
earth. Then he had a huge wall built all
around the outer wall Of Sorata. and at q
safe distance from 1t. And then he turned
all the streams from the mountains into
his bitches and began TO food She space
between the walls.
Slowly but surely the water rose, and
surely it did its work. An adobe wall that
will resist cannon must yield to the slow,
treaoherous soaking of a puddle that can
reach it. The bottom of the wall drank
and drank the water like n great sponge,
until it was too soft and wet longer to sup
port the weight above 1t, and the under
mined structure collapsed and fell head
t~rxy hn. - - tr rpo nnyn~ N n-l Ihz L.
dian rebels, rushing over the fallen fortif-
cations, made massacre of the whole city.
In that awful day $4,000 citizens of Sorata
were wiped out by their savage foes. So
many Saxons have never been killed by In
dams in the whole United States. That
may give you an idea of the greater dan
gers of the Spanish pioneers and Sorata,
though the worsb of their losses, wal only
one of hundreds.
Catari had a brilliant career, in which
Sorata was not the only remarkable achieve
ment. He even blockaded the city of La
Paz, and had he succeeded in capturing it.
that would have been the end of Spanish
dominion. But such a setback to civiliza-
ton was prevented by the timely arrival of
Colonel Flores from Tucuman (now the
Argentine Kepublio) with a force of 1000
men. He raised the siege of La Paz and
conquered the rebels. 1t is said that an In
dian named Ha-cla-wa-si betrayed the
place where the Indian chiefs met in couu-
Gil. AL all events they were surprised, cap
tured, convicted of treason and executed,
and with that the backbone of the rebel
1 lion was broken and the outbreak ended.
1t was a needless and a frightful war;
| but is of double interest as Il comparative
study. 1t shows. by its one example among
30 very many, how much greater were the
Indian wars in Spanish America than in
Saxon America, both in numbers and in
military Importance. Things never got to
such n pass anywhere in our part OF the
continent that Indians could even besieue a
city, much less take 1T. 1t was one dear
price that Spain paid for her humanity-a
price which exacted bloody interest for
centuries. Her sons spread over an area 30
enormous that they were few at any one
rlaos. Instead of discriminating the In
dians she iabored to make-and did make
! Christians and citizens OF them. it was a
noble philanthropy and onethat must make
! every manly man prouder of humanity, but
the few teachers among their swHrining and
savage pupils had often to cement the great
work with their own blood.
And here | NAV properly add a word
about n much misunderstood subject. Early
Spanish American history was never
b%lackened by any such dishonor as our long
national disgrace of human slavery. Ii ia
true the encomisnda and the original re-
partimiento have given rise to many foolish
myths about how the Sraniards made serfs
of the Indians, but the myths have sprung
from entire ignorance OF those two Spanish
institutions. Simply seeing that the In
dians were divided among the conquerors
the roader has Mt once jumped to the con
, clusion that 1t WAS a division of slaves.
| But the repartimiento allotted not slaves,
but pupils. The division tells, in its other
name of enoomtienda, what it really was-a
giving in trust"
The encomienda has been o knotty ques-
ton itself, and 1t was one of tho solutions
of u knottier and greater one. Probably
no other nation had ever 40 vast and
serious q question on its hands. Spain
was not n populous country, nos n rich one.
II had just emerged from more than 700
years OF war, and was still far from safe.
The Moors were still Il menace-the danger
to Spain from thai wAriike race by no
means ended by the fall of Granada. All
Europe, too, WAS uncomfortable. The tan
gle of wars. above all the religious bitter
ness reused by the reformation, made every
country doubly fearful OF it's neighbors and
anxious about itself. No other nation felt
nble to afford any blood to the new world
then, and even Spain must draw Il limit to
emigration. she gave to Amsi ioa with I'M
paralleled generosity. but she could not alb
~solutely depopulate herself. With her few
thousands Of explorers she sprend over a
bewildering area-her little pat buttered "A
continent and u half. But in such a spread
ing the butter must be very thin. She had
not only too much religion to extstminate
the nboriginea, but too much sta"tesmanship.
Sho realized that not only had the Indians
n rinht 10 Iva ~ thnv ,p,,lJ ,nI, l.. ~.