An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru (13 page)

The Answer of Hernando Pizarro, Gonzalo Pizarro, and Juan Pizarro, as well as the rest of the soldiers, to the governor

“Truly, Your Highness is entirely justified in reprimanding us and in decrying our conduct in this matter. Had there been a
glimpse of consideration in us, we wouldn't have behaved in this manner but shown our gratitude to the person who had done us good. From now on, everything will be done the way that Your Highness commands.” After all these declarations had been made by this, that, and the other Spaniard, they all went about dividing up the treasure amongst themselves, allotting to each what was due according to his rank. Hernando Pizarro was in charge of dividing up the treasure, for he was the one who had imprisoned my father. Because of the great quantity it would have taken too long to divide up the treasure by weight, so they divided it up in bags. When they had divided up the treasure amongst themselves, my father turned to the governor with the following words in order to express his gratitude.

“Apo, I believe that it was in part thanks to your influence that these soldiers have released me from an imprisonment that has turned out to be unjustified. I ask that you not rush off right away but that you dine with me as a sign of our pact of friendship. Let's have a collation together for I hope that what I have been promised will not be broken.” In order to please my father and because this request was fair enough and not dangerous, the governor accepted. Thus, they all sat down in the hall where my father was and received the collation. When the pact had been sealed by this meal, everybody went home with the part of the divided treasure that had been allotted to him. It is believed that they accompanied the governor home and that each was very happy about his portion. However, as it turned out very soon, this happiness was not to last, for the Devil [demonio]—always evil and a friend of discord and disharmony—never rests.

The Rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro against the Inca

According to what my father told me, less than three months later Gonzalo Pizarro was overcome by envy, which is the enemy
of all goodness. On the one hand, it had occurred to him that the reason why his brother [Hernando] had received so much gold and silver was simply that he had taken my father prisoner to satisfy his greed while he was a corregidor [a royally appointed administrator]. On the other hand, he now found himself in possession of the power and command during the absence of the Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro, who had taken off for Lima with great protestations of his love and friendship for my father as well as on the best of terms with him. Gonzalo Pizarro, eager to demonstrate his power and authority at my father's expense, accused him of conspiring to rise up and kill them in their sleep at night. Under this pretext, he supplied himself with weapons and instigated Juan Pizarro and some others to take my father prisoner. Thus, they all went to the building where my father and his people were enjoying themselves during a celebration that was going on at the time. Upon their arrival, they were welcomed very benevolently and sincerely by my father, who was entirely ignorant of the impending conspiracy. But they, who were entirely possessed by their insidious intentions, waited until he had to go home for some reason and then followed him. Just as he was about to leave his house again, they seized him, whereupon Gonzalo Pizarro spoke the following words.

Manco's Inca's Second Imprisonment by Gonzalo Pizarro

“Señor Manco Inca, A few days ago, you and my brother Hernando Pizarro made an agreement that you would neither plot nor have any dealings in any more conspiracies. But it seems to me that you have not kept your promise, for we have received intelligence that you have gathered many people with the intention of attacking us by night. In the king's name, give yourself up as a prisoner; and don't think that this time you'll get off as easy as last time, when you proclaimed that you didn't mind the chains.
Now you can see for yourself whether they can be broken or not.” Gonzalo Pizarro swiftly ordered that some fetters and a chain be brought and put upon my father. When my father saw that they wanted to put him in fetters and chains and realized the fate to which he was condemned, he tried to defend himself with the following words.

Manco Inca's Answer

“What sort of game are you playing with me? Are you mocking me at every turn? Do you not know that I am a son of the sun and a son of Viracocha, as you claimed to be? Do you think that I am just any person or some Indian of the common sort? Do you want to scandalize the entire country and be hacked to pieces? Do not mistreat me, for I have not given you any reason. Do you think I care about your fetters? I couldn't care less about them than I do about the ground I step on with my feet.”

When Gonzalo Pizarro and his lieutenants saw my father so furious, they all threw themselves upon him in order to put the chain around his neck. They said, “Don't try to resist us, Manco Inca. Rest assured that we will tie your hands and feet so well that all the people of the world will not be able to free you. We are arresting you in the name and on behalf of the emperor, not on our own behalf. But were it on our own behalf, now you will hand us over much more gold and silver than last time; also, you will give me the señora coya Cura Oclo, who is your sister, as my wife.” Thus, all who were present immediately put the chain around my father's neck and feet.

Manco Inca's Speech during his second Captivity

When my father found himself arrested and chained in such a shameful and degrading manner, he spoke following words. “Am I a dog, sheep, or some sort of
oyua
[beasts of burden], so that you
have to put chains on me in order to prevent me from escaping? Am I a thief or have I committed treason against Viracocha or your king? Far from it! Why then, if I am neither a dog nor some other such creature, do you treat me like this? Truly, I say to you and insist upon it: you are more like the sons of supai than servants, let alone sons of Viracocha. For if you were not even the sons but at least the servants of Viracocha, you would not treat me the way you do but be mindful of who I am and whose son I am, as well as of how great my power has been and still is, even though I have given it up out of consideration for you. Moreover, you would do well to remember that since your arrival nothing in this country—great or small, high or low—has been refused you. On the contrary, whereas I used to have riches, now you own them; whereas I used to command the people, now you are served by them, men and women, old and young, even children; whereas I used to have land, now the best that there is in this country is in your possession. Is there anything in this world that I didn't provide for you when you needed it? You certainly are ungrateful and deserving of being humiliated.”
⁴¹

Gonzalo Pizarro and Juan Pizarro, as well as the others who had accompanied them, did not pay any attention to the words my father had spoken to them and only remarked somewhat contemptuously, “Just calm down, calm down, Señor Sapai Inca, and relax a bit, for you are very agitated. Tomorrow we'll have plenty of time to talk about it. Just make sure that you give all the necessary orders so that much gold and silver will be accumulated.” “And don't forget to hand over the coya,” Gonzalo Pizarro said, “for I desire very much to have her.” After the Spaniards had given my father such good consolations, they went to their houses to eat, for this capture had happened in the morning. However, before they disappeared in their houses they left a good guard to watch my father. Meanwhile, all the people who had been gathered in the plaza, called Puma Qurco, from where my father had left that morning during the communal meal in
order to take care of something at home before being seized by the Spaniards, rushed by in great dismay to the building where my father was in order to see why he had not returned to the plaza in all the time that had passed. When they arrived at the door, they met one of my father's servants, all of whom were very upset by the arrest of their master and almost in tears. The leaders and other persons who had rushed by in order to learn what was happening were dumbfounded, making great lamentations and asking one another in bewilderment, “What is this? What is this?” In great alarm, the principal leaders of the entire country made their way to the interior of the house in order to ascertain what was happening and to see about my father. Having advanced to the inside of the house, for which they were given permission (otherwise nobody was allowed to enter), they reached the place where my father was imprisoned in the manner described above. When they saw him like this, they all broke into loud lamentations, which must have been quite a scene. One of them by the name of Vila Oma, who governed the entire land as the supreme commander on behalf of my father,
⁴²
spoke in a loud voice to all who were present and then, trying to control himself,
⁴³
turned to my father.

“Sapai Inca, what are these Viracochas designing to do? Today they take you prisoner, tomorrow they release you. They seem to be playing a silly game with you. However, I am not surprised that they treat you in this manner. You have brought it upon yourself by allowing such insidious people into the country without first asking our opinion. I tell you, if you had left me to deal with them when they first arrived at Cajamarca, they would have never made it to where you are now, for I and Challcochima, with the help of our faithful troops, would have prevented them from entering the country, regardless of what they wanted to do. I don't think that we would have fared as poorly as we did as a result of you being good. If you only hadn't told us that they were Viracochas and emissaries of Atun
⁴⁴
Viracochan” (which
means “the great God” [
gran dios
]), “and if you hadn't ordered us to obey and respect them as such, as you did yourself, we wouldn't have to endure the torments and molestations that are now happening to us. We are losing our possessions, our women, our sons and daughters, our fields; we are becoming the subjects of people we don't even know. We are being so oppressed and tormented that we are even forced to clean the dirt of their horses with our capes. Look, my lord, how deeply we have sunken into humiliation because this is the way you wanted it. So don't marvel at being treated this way, for this is what you wanted. You know very well how I tried to hold you back when you wanted to meet them at Vilcacunga and how often I warned you not to allow them to enter into your country. Moreover, if you would remember, as soon as we had news that they had arrived in our lands, I offered to catch up with them in a quick march with ten or twelve thousand Indians and to hack them to pieces. But you never permitted me to act: ‘Quiet! Quiet! They are Viracochas, or sons of Viracocha.' As though we hadn't guessed that people of their kind, who came from distant lands, had more likely come to rule than to obey. We all, I and your people, are very upset about what has happened and feel great sympathy for you when seeing you like this. Give me your permission, so you can see that I haven't changed, and I will free you and destroy these beard-faces in no time at all. You still command enough people who will help me with this. As you know very well, in the entire land—upper, lower, and across—nobody save yourself commands greater respect than I, who am the supreme commander over all.” After the captain Vila Oma had related the above to my father, he, along with another chief by the name of Ticoc, his companion, turned to the Spaniards who were present at the time, saying the following words to them with changed and severe expressions on their faces.

How the Inca's chiefs reprimanded the Spaniards for their poor treatment of their king and lord

“What sort of game are you playing here every day with our Inca? Today you arrest him; tomorrow you torment him; and the day after that you shower him with contempt. What has this man done to you? Is this how you requite the benevolence he has shown you by allowing you into the country against our will? What do you want from him? What else can he still do for you after everything he has already done? Did he not permit you to enter into this country in peace [with] great calm? Did he not greatly honor you by sending emissaries to call on you at Cajamarca? Did he not send off your emissaries with great honors, giving them great amounts of gold and silver and a large entourage? Did the Spaniards not travel in hammocks carried by his men? Did you not appropriate two of his houses full of silver and gold in Cajamarca, not even to mention Atahuallpa's presents—which also originally belonged to my Inca—and the great amount of silver and gold that he sent to Cajamarca from here? Were you not treated well in all during the 130-league journey from Cajamarca to this city and supplied with plenty of porters? Did he not himself come six leagues to meet you at Jaquijaguana? Did he not shortly after your arrival burn the most elevated personage in the entire country, Challcochima, out of consideration for you? Did he not give you houses and resting places, servants and women, as well as sown land? Did he not call upon the entire population to pay you tribute? Did they not deliver the tribute? Yes, yes, and yes! And the other day when you seized him, did he not finally give you a house full of gold and silver in order to redeem himself from his pains? Did you not take the wives, sons, and daughters from our dignitaries and common people? And we kept quiet about it all, because he thought it was the right thing to do and because we didn't want to hurt him. Do our people not continue to serve you by cleaning the dirt of your
horses and houses with their own capes? What more do you want? Did he not acquiesce every time you said, ‘Give us more gold, give us more silver? Gather this, gather that?' And did he not even give you his own servants in order to wait on you? What more do you desire from this man? Did you not betray him when you claimed that you had come with the wind on behalf of Viracocha and that you were his sons, that you wanted to serve and love the Inca and to treat him and all of his people just like you would your own? You know all too well—and if you care enough to look, you will see for yourself—that you have failed to live up to your word in all respects and that, instead of treating him the way you promised that you would, you harass him without any reason and continue to violate every credo, without having been given the slightest reason in the world.