An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru (15 page)

The Death of Pascac, the Inca's brother

After all these festivities and other things related above had passed, my father, while he was peacefully resting in his house, learned of the progress of a bold conspiracy. One of his brothers, the somewhat arrogant Pascac, had the idea—I don't know who may have instigated him to it—to murder my father so that he could himself be king. Somebody—I am not sure whether it was the same person or persons who impressed him with this idea or somebody else—gave him a dagger with which he armed himself and went to see my father under the pretense that he had come to kiss him as a sign of his reverence to his lord. His real intention, however, was to stab him with this dagger and then, after my father's death, to become king and give much silver to the Spaniards; for it was them who had given him the dagger to this end. But, as there are no secrets that won't be revealed sooner or later, a certain Spaniard, whose name is not known but who was in my father's service and always stayed at his house, warned my father, “Beware, Señor Manco Inca, for your brother Pascac is coming to murder you. For this purpose he has hidden beneath his cape a dagger with which he is supposed to stab you while paying his respects to you with a kiss. Therefore, when you see him coming take heed and command me to kill him, and I will do so.” Thus warned by his Spanish servant, my father thanked him very much and braced himself for seeing his brother come to visit and pay his kiss of reverence, as on previous occasions. When he saw him, he let him approach to pay his kiss and then stabbed him several times with a dagger that he had himself obtained for that purpose. The Spaniard who
had warned my father gave him the coup de grace. All those who were present, upon seeing all of these events, were very much astonished to witness such strange and unexpected things, but nobody dared to say a word.

All these things happened and many more, but since an extended account of all of them would lead us too far astray and in order to avoid prolixity, I will stay on track by moving on to relate the things that happened to my father and the things that the Spaniards went about after all of this. When Gonzalo Pizarro (who was acting as the corregidor of Cuzco in the absence of the governor Francisco Pizarro), as well as Hernando Pizarro, Juan Pizarro, and many others were staying in the city, it happened that Juan Pizarro, the brother of Hernando Pizarro, found out about how much silver my father had given to his brothers and called out in a fit of envy, “So, only my brothers get silver, but not I? By the devil, that is about to change! They'll have to give me gold and silver as well, the same as they gave to my brothers. If they don't, I'll teach them a lesson that they won't forget.” With these threats, he gathered all the people and said, “Let's arrest him, let's arrest Manco Inca.” When my father learned that in the city there was a conspiracy being planned against him, he ordered that all the chiefs of the land come together. Actually, many of them were already in Cuzco for the protection of his person. When he had them all gathered before him, he, after having consulted with the above-mentioned chief Vila Oma, gave them the following speech.

The Inca's Speech to his Chiefs about the Siege of Cuzco

“My much beloved sons and brothers, I never thought that I would find myself compelled to require of you what I am about to; for I thought and always took for granted that these bearded people whom you call Viracochas would never deceive or harm
me, for I used to think and say that they had indeed come on orders of Viracocha. Now, however, I look back on my experiences with them and discover—as you have seen—how badly they have treated me and how poorly they have thanked me for all that I have done for them. They have disrespected me a thousand times; they have taken me prisoner and chained my hands and feet like you would a dog; and, not enough, after they have promised me that they would from now on respect our compact of mutual love and friendship, they are now engaged in a plot to capture and kill me. So now I will ask you, like one asks one's sons, to remember what you have so often urged me to do, which is precisely what I want to do now: you said that I should rise up against them and you asked why I tolerated them in my country. So far, I have been reluctant to do so because I deemed it impossible that the things would happen that I now see happening. But because this is the way it is and because they insist on vexing me, I find myself compelled to do them likewise. I will not tolerate any more of their chicaneries. On your lives, you have always shown me much love; and you did your best in fulfilling my wishes. Now, fulfill only this one and gather all that are here. Get ready to send your messengers all over the land, so that in twenty days' time all are united here in this city but without the knowledge of those bearded ones. Meanwhile, I will send messengers to Lima, to Quiso Yupanqui, my captain who governs that region, in order to inform him that on the day that we attack these Spaniards who are here, he is also to attack those Spaniards who are there. Thus, if he acts there at the same time as we act here, we will finish them off without any of them staying alive; and we will rid ourselves of this nightmare and will be happy thereafter.” After he had finished explaining his plan to his captains about how to get their men ready for the impending battle with the Spaniards, they all replied in unison and with one voice that they were very glad, willing, and ready to carry out what my father had ordered them to do. Thus, without further
delay, they went to work as each sent envoys to the region that he controlled. From the Chinchaysuyo, Vila Oma sent Coyllas, Osca, Coriatao, and Taipi, so that they would mobilize the men from that region. From the Collasuyo, Llicllic went with many others in order to mobilize the men from that region. Surandaman, Quicana, Suri Uallpa, and many other captains went to the Cuntisuyu and Ronpa Yupanqui and many other captains into the Antisuyu. They all went to their respective regions in order to recruit the men necessary for the task at hand. (Remember that these four suyos that I have mentioned are, as I have explained in more detail above, the four parts into which this whole land is ordered and divided.) After these men had been sent out to the aforementioned regions and while the said Juan Pizarro roamed the land in a dangerous manner and with bad intentions, an Indian by the name of Antonico, who spoke the Spaniards' language, came to see my father and informed him that Juan Pizarro and the others wanted to arrest him the next day and even to kill him, unless he gave them much gold and silver. When my father heard what the said Indian [Antonico] told him, he believed him and made a pretext of going out to Callca to hunt. The Spaniards, who were clueless as to what my father was planning to do, had no objections and thought that they could carry out their evil design after his return, which they thought would be soon.

After my father had stayed in Callca for a few days and while the men whom he had sent for were gathering, he sent a dispatch from there via a courier
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to Quiso Yupanqui in Lima in order to inform him of the day and hour in which he was planning to attack the Spaniards, so that he, too, would attack them and that, thus, both attacks—Quiso Yupanqui's in Lima and my father's in Cuzco—would be carried out at the same time. As my father was busy with these things, the Spaniards sent him many letters in which they asked him to return home soon for, they said, they missed him very much. My father replied by saying
that he was not finished hunting but that he would return as soon as he could. As the Spaniards realized that whenever they sent for him he did not want to return and that day after day he procrastinated more and sent ever less credible replies, they decided to go after him in order to bring him back by force or to kill him. They appointed some captains in Cuzco and while some of them went out to effect the said objective, the others stayed back in Cuzco ready to reinforce the first group if necessary. They arrived at the bridge over the Callca River, where they were engaged by some guards who were blocking their passage. The Spaniards began to fight my father's men but then returned to Cuzco, followed by many of my father's men, who were uttering many shrieks and loud shouts. On their retreat to Cuzco, the Spaniards were a bit shaken by the battle that had passed and the people who were pursuing them. When the Spaniards reached Carmenga, which oversees all of Cuzco, they called upon the help of their comrades, whose vigilance had not relented and who rushed to the support of those in distress. At the said town of Carmenga, they engaged in battle with the pursuers and many others who had come there in answer to my father's call. The outcome of the battle was that the Indians cornered the Spaniards in Cuzco without killing many of them. During the night, they kept them locked in and on edge with loud cries. However, they did not attack them because they were awaiting the many men who were supposed to arrive the next day and also because my father had ordered them not to attack. He had given that order not only because he wanted to take them more easily once the reinforcements had arrived but also because he wanted to negotiate with them.

The Siege of Cuzco

The following day, after they had withdrawn to Cuzco in this manner, they put up many well-equipped guards overnight at all
the entrances. In the evening, a tumultuous crowd arrived near Cuzco. However, they did not attack the city because they thought that the night had advanced too far and that the great darkness would not permit them to overwhelm their enemies. Thus, they erected camps on all the elevated points and mountains that allowed them to overlook the city and placed a great number of guards and sentries all around the camps. In the morning of the following day,
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at nine o'clock, all the Spaniards were gathered in formation on Cuzco's central plaza (their precise number is unknown but it is said that they were numerous and that they had many blacks with them). Suddenly, a huge number of men appeared everywhere around Cuzco and closed in on the city with much noise and music from their whistles, horns, and trumpets, as well as loud war cries. Their number was so great that the whole world appeared to darken; there must have been more than four hundred thousand advancing in the following order.

The Indians' Advance in the Siege

From Carmenga, which lies in the direction of the Chinchaysuyu, came Coriatao, Cuillas, and Taipi, with many others in order to close the city's exit in that direction with their hordes. From the Cuntisuyu, which is the direction of Cachicachi, came Huaman Quilcana, Curi Huallpa, both superbly equipped and in battle formation, closing a huge gap of more than half a league wide. From the Collasuyu came Llicllic and many other generals with a huge number of men, which was in fact the largest contingent that formed the besieging army. From the Antisuyu came Antallca and Ronpa Yupanqui and many others in order to close the ring around the Spaniards. The impermeability of the completed ring was remarkable. They wanted to attack the Spaniards on that very day but did not dare to proceed as long as my father had not given the orders. For, as I have already explained, he had forbidden anyone, under penalty of death, to make a move. When
Vila Oma, the commanding general of the forces, saw all of them completely ready, he sent word to my father, who was staying at Callca at that time, to let him know that the Spaniards were surrounded and in great distress and to inquire whether they should kill them or do something else with them. My father replied that they should be left in their predicament; after all they, too, had caused him much grief, so they should suffer like he suffered. He would get there the next day and finish them off. When Vila Oma heard the message that my father sent him, he was very unhappy about it, for he would have preferred to destroy the Spaniards right away, as he could very easily have done. But he did not dare to disobey the will of my father and announced all around the place that, under penalty of death, nobody was to make a move until he had given the appropriate orders. Moreover, he had all the canals of the city opened in order to flood the fields and roads inside and outside the populated area in case that the Spaniards were to attempt a getaway. This way, they would find the entire land flooded and, once their horses got stuck in the mud, they would easily be overcome by their enemies on foot, for people dressed like the Spaniards have a difficult time in dealing with swamps. All of Vila Oma's orders were carried out exactly as he had commanded. When the Spaniards saw themselves thus surrounded and in such distress, they became convinced that their doom was imminent and, as they could not find a way out, they did not know what to do. While they found themselves so dangerously surrounded, they had to endure the Indians showering them with scorn and mockery, throwing stones on the roofs of their tents and mocking them by lifting a leg at them.
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Moreover, the Indians began setting the Spaniards' shelters on fire and almost succeeded in setting ablaze the church during one of the raids, if it hadn't been for some blacks who were hiding on the roof. Although they had to endure a hail of arrows shot by the Sati and Anti Indians, they remained unharmed, being protected by God and
their shields. As the Spaniards thought themselves lost in such a miserable situation, they entrusted their fate to God. They spent the entire night in the church calling upon God for help, kneeling on the floor and raising their hands folded before their mouths. This is the posture in which they were observed by many Indians. Even those who were waking in the middle of the plaza, as well as many Indians who had been allied with the Spaniards since the events of Cajamarca, did the same thing.

The Spaniards' Attack on the Indians in the Fortress of Cuzco

In the early morning of the next day, all the Spaniards left the church and mounted their horses, poised for battle. They looked around and suddenly put their spurs to their horses and, despite their enemies, broke at full speed through the gate, which was sealed like a wall, and made for the hill in the life-and-death flight. When the Indians who were surrounding Cuzco saw them running like this, they cried, “They are fleeing to Castile, they are fleeing to Castile, cut them off. Thus, the entire ring around the city dissolved because some of them were going after them and others tried to cut off the Spaniards' escape route; yet others went to warn those who were guarding the bridge, so that none of them would be able to escape in any direction. When the Spaniards saw themselves pursued by many men, they turned their horses around and went across a mountain called Queancalla in order to attack them from the rear where Vila Oma had taken position. Meanwhile, the latter had climbed up to the fortress of Cuzco, which was called Saczahuaman, in order to take shelter there. The Spaniards fought desperately and took the four gates of the fortress. The Indians hurled many rocks from the mighty walls, shot arrows, and threw lances and spears, which harassed the Spaniards greatly. They killed Juan Pizarro and two blacks as well as many Indians who were allied with the Spaniards. But
when Vila Oma's men ran out of ammunition of rocks and other projectiles, the Spaniards, thanks to divine favor,
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succeeded in penetrating and taking the fortress. Thereby, they killed and crushed many Indians who were inside. Others threw themselves from the walls. The first ones to jump died because the walls were very high; some of those who jumped later survived because they landed on a pile of dead bodies. The battle was very bloody on both sides, because many Indians were fighting for the Spaniards. Among these were two of my father's brothers, Ynguill and Vaipai, as well as many men from his band and Chachapoya and Cañari Indians.