History of the Indians, of North and South America

by Samuel G. Goodrich

Early on the morning of the 16th of November, Atahualpa made preparations for visiting the new comers. Desirous to impress on his visitors the strongest sense of his greatness and splendor, the day was far advanced before the procession began its march, and so slow was its progress, that Pizarro finally became apprehensive lest the monarch had penetrated his treacherous designs, and determined not to place himself within his reach. To quiet such fears, if any existed, the Spaniard sent him still another embassy to assure him of his friendship and kind intentions. Finally the Inca made his appearance with the pomp of a mighty monarch. He was preceded by 400 men in a uniform dress, to prepare his way, and sitting on a throne adorned with beautiful plumes, almost covered with plates of gold and silver, and enriched with precious stones, he was borne on the shoulders of a number of his principal attendants. After him followed his chief officers, carried in a similar manner; bands of singers and dancers also mingling in the procession, and troops to the number, it is said, of 30,000 men.

The Spanish priest, Valverde, met him, on his approach to Pizarro, with a crucifix in his hand, and, discoursing to him on various doctrines of the Catholic faith, demanded of him an acknowledgment of the Pope and the monarch of Castile as his spiritual and temporal liege lords, on penalty of war and vengeance. Atahualpa, even with the aid of interpretation, was unable to comprehend this harangue so entirely unexpected to himself, and when made acquainted with a portion of it, was most indignant at such an attack on his rights as an independent ruler of his realm. He calmly replied, however, that he was possessed of his dominions by hereditary succession; that no pope or priest could grant his realm to another without his consent; that he had no wish to renounce the worship of his country’s god, the sun, to embrace that of the Spaniards. As for what the priest had assured him of, he desired to know where these extraordinary matters were to be found.

“In this book,” replied Valverde, reaching out his breviary. The Inca, opening it, and turning over its leaves, applied it to his ear. “This,” said he, “is silent, it tells me nothing,” and threw it contemptuously to the ground. The monk, roused to the utmost pitch of indignation, ran towards the Spaniards, crying out, “To arms, to arms, Christians, the word of God is insulted; avenge the profanation of these impious heathen dogs.” Pizarro, who had hitherto restrained his soldiery, though inflamed with the desire of plundering the wealth which met their view, now gave the signal of assault. The sound of the martial music, the roar of the cannon and musketry, with the charge of horse, and the impetuosity of the attack, all combined at once, threw the Peruvians into confusion. They fled in dismay, without the slightest attempt at defence, while Pizarro, with his chosen band, at once pressed forward to the royal seat, and piercing the crowd of devoted nobles, who sacrificed themselves to protect him, seized on the Inca, dragged him to the ground, and led him off prisoner to the Spanish quarters. The flying troops were pursued with the most unrelenting fury, and they continued to fall victims to their merciless invaders till the day closed. More than 4,000 Peruvians are said to have perished; not a single Spaniard was killed, and but one was wounded.

The captive Inca was miserably dejected in spirit, though Pizarro affected to treat him with kindness and respect. Gradually becoming acquainted with the ruling passion of the invaders, he offered, on condition of his being liberated, to fill the room in which he was confined, which was twenty-two feet long and sixteen broad, with vessels of gold, as high as he could reach. Pizarro agreed to the proposal, and marked out the requisite height by a line on the walls. The Inca, accordingly, sent out orders for the ransom to be gathered from Quito and Cuzco, where the greatest quantities of gold and silver were amassed in the temples. The commands of the monarch were respected and obeyed, and persons were instantly employed in bringing together the needed treasure. While this was going on, Pizarro received information of the approach of a reinforcement. This was a new source of alarm to the captive sovereign, especially as he also learned that some Spaniards had visited his brother Huascar in his prison, who had promised them, if they would take his part, far greater wealth than Atahualpa had done. To prevent this, he determined to have his brother put to death, and his commands to that effect were executed accordingly.

The promised treasure was now collected, but Pizarro, with unexampled treachery, not only refused to release his prisoner, but determined to put him to death. To this he was instigated not only by the newly arrived Spaniards, but by an Indian, his interpreter, whom he had carried off some years before from beyond Panama, and who had conceived a passion for one of the wives of Atahualpa. He also alarmed the Spaniard with accounts of forces assembling in various parts of the empire, and imputed these preparations for war, to the commands of the captive monarch. Atahualpa himself, by his own imprudence, brought about the fatal result. Attaching himself especially to Ferdinand Pizarro and De Soto, persons superior, both in birth and education, to Pizarro himself, and who treated him with kindness and attention, he began gradually to regard Pizarro with contempt. He appears to have been a prince of no mean talents, and, observing the mode by which the Spaniards communicated their thoughts to each other by writing, he greatly admired the art, but was at a loss to determine whether it was a natural or an acquired one.

To satisfy himself on this point, he requested one of the soldiers to write the name of God on the nail of his thumb. This he showed to numbers of the Spaniards, asking its meaning, and, to his astonishment, they all told him the same thing. At length, when Pizarro came, he put the question to him, and the illiterate adventurer, blushing with shame, was compelled to acknowledge his ignorance. Ever after this, Atahualpa regarded the Spanish commander with a degree of contempt, and the consciousness of this fact, rankling in the breast of Pizarro, fixed his purpose of putting his royal captive to death.

To give some color to his injustice, a species of trial was instituted. The monarch was arraigned on the charges of usurping the throne, of putting his brother and sovereign to death, of having commanded human sacrifices, of maintaining many concubines or wives, and having wasted treasures since his captivity which belonged to the Spaniards. Beside all these charges, he was accused of having excited his subjects to rebellion against his conquerors. On such accusations as these, before the self-constituted tribunal who had already doomed their victim, the wretched Atahualpa was found guilty and condemned to be burned alive. He besought Pizarro to send him to Spain to be tried, and condemned, if he must be so, by a king. But this was not part of Pizarro’s plan, and he gave orders for his immediate execution. To save himself from the cruel death which was prepared for him, the miserable victim of perfidy and cruelty asked to be baptized; in consideration of which he was strangled at the stake, instead of being burned alive.

A son of the murdered Inca was then proclaimed by Pizarro as monarch of Peru, in the hope that he might thus control the empire as he pleased. But the people of Cuzco and the country in that vicinity chose Manco Capac, a brother of Huascar, as the Inca, and rightful successor to the supreme authority. Civil wars at once followed, and the government was rent in pieces. Usurpers and aspirants sprung up in various parts of the realm, claiming independent power; the general of the late sovereign at Quito, seized the brother and children of his master, put them to death, and claimed the throne for himself.

These intestine divisions, as they weakened the Peruvian power, prepared the way for Pizarro to advance to Cuzco. Several battles were fought, but the city was finally reached and taken without resistance. The son of Atahualpa died on the march, and the Peruvians seem generally to have admitted the claim of Manco Capac to the vacant throne. Quito also soon fell into the hands of another band of invaders, who were led on by the officer whom Pizarro had left as governor of St. Michael. The Spaniards, however, found to their disappointment, that the city was stripped of its treasures, the people having carried them away.

Once in possession of Peru, Pizarro devoted himself to the arranging of its districts, to the appointment of officers, the establishing of regulations for the administration of justice, the collection of revenue, and the working of the mines. Here the Peruvians, the former masters, were driven as slaves to toil for their oppressors. Multitudes of adventurers from Spain now flocked to the conquered country, and forming themselves into various small bands, each led by some adventurous officer, they set forth for the invasion of different provinces of the empire, which were yet unsubdued.