Note 325 — Chapter LXII

Juan de la Torre was one of the famous thirteen who crossed the line which Pizarro drew on the sandy shore of the isle of Gallo, and resolved to face any hardships rather than abandon the enterprise. He afterwards became a staunch adherent of Pizarro’s younger brother Gonzalo, to whom he deserted, when serving under the ill-fated Blasco Nuñez de Vela, and he carried his ferocious enmity to the viceroy so far as to insult the dead body, and, pulling the hairs out of the beard, to stick them in his hat band. He married the daughter of an Indian chief in the province of Puerto Viejo, and gained so much influence among the followers of his father-in-law that they revealed to him a tomb containing, as Cieza de Leon says, more than fifty thousand dollars worth of gold and emeralds. Thus enriched, he meditated a retreat to Spain, where he might enjoy his wealth, but the fear of punishment for his treason to the viceroy, and other considerations, deterred him. He first proposed to Vela Nuñez, the viceroy’s brother, that they should seize a ship and escape from Peru; and, afterwards, hearing a false report that Gonzalo Pizarro had been appointed governor by the king, he changed his mind in the hope of receiving great favours from his old commander. But Vela Nuñez knew of his earlier project to desert, so, mindful of the adage that “dead men tell no tales,” La Torre invented such a story against the viceroy’s brother as induced Gonzalo to cut off his head. The villain was appointed captain of arquebusiers in the army of Gonzalo Pizarro, and acted a conspicuous and cruel part in the subsequent war down to the final overthrow of Gonzalo by Pedro de la Gasca in 1548. Then at last he received a reward more in accordance with his deserts. After hiding for four months in an Indian’s hut near Cuzco, he was at last accidentally found out by a Spaniard, and met the fate which he so richly deserved. He was hung by order of La Gasca.