And as we were to dispossess them of their authority in order to subjugate them in the service of God, Our Lord, and take from them their lands and place them under the protection of Your Crown, it was necessary to deprive them entirely of any command over their goods and lands which we seized by force of arms. And as God, Our Lord, had permitted this, it was possible to subjugate this kingdom of so great a multitude of peoples and riches, even though we Spaniards were so few in number, and to make their lords our servants and subjects, as is known.
I wish Your Catholic Majesty to understand the motive that moves me to make this statement is the peace of my conscience and because of the guilt I share. For we have destroyed by our evil behaviour such a government as was enjoyed by these natives. They were so free from the committal of crimes and exorbitance, both men and women, that the Indian who possessed one hundred thousand pesos worth of gold or silver in his house left it open by merely placing a small stick across the door, as a sign he was out. And according to their custom no one could enter nor take anything that was there. And when they saw we put locks and keys on our doors they imagined it was from fear of them that they might not kill us, but not because they believed anyone would steal the property of another. So that when they discovered we had thieves among us, and men who sought to force their wives and daughters to commit sin with them, they despised us.
But now they have come to such a pass in offence of God, owing to the bad example we have set them in all things, that these natives from doing no evil have changed into people who now do no good, or very little; something which must touch Your Majesty’s conscience as it does mine, as one of the first conquistadores and discoverers, and something that requires to be remedied.
For now those who were once obeyed as kings and lords of these realms, as Incas with power and riches, have fallen to such poverty and necessity that they are the poorest of this kingdom and forced to perform the lowest and most menial of tasks, as porters of our goods and servants of our houses and as sweepers of our streets. And in accordance with the Viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo’s order, exempting them from such service if they acquired a trade, some of them are now shoemakers and work in similar such lowly occupations. And because many such things are permitted it is necessary for Your Majesty to be made aware of this for the sake of his conscience, and of the conscience of those who are guilty of such offences.
I inform Your Majesty that there is no more I can do to alleviate these injustices other than by my words, in which I beg God to pardon me, for I am moved to say this, seeing that I am the last to die of the conquistadores and discoverers, as is well known, and that there is no one left but myself, in this kingdom or out of it.19
The Pizarro Family
Children of the Emperor Huayna Cápac
Concubines of the Emperor Huayna Cápac
Glossary and Place-names
adelantado
military title, denoting the command of a frontier region
alcalde
mayor
amauta
Inca bards and elders
Andes
mountain range; quéchua name derived from the name Antisuyo
Antisuyo
eastern region of the Inca empire
Apurímac
river on the western approach to Cuzco
Arequipa
city founded in 1540 because of its proximity to the Pacific Ocean
Audiencia de Lima
Royal Chancery Court of the Viceroyalty of Peru; governed by a judiciary and president
ayllu
Inca or Indian family clan
Aimára
language of ethnic tribes of the Cuntisuyo and Collasuyo
cabildo
municipal council of a city
cacique
word of Caribbean Amerindian origin, denoting a tribal chief, introduced by the conquistadores to Peru
Cajamarca
Inca town, central Andes, north of Cuzco
Ca ari
equatorial tribe from the region and city of Tumibamba; auxiliaries of the Spaniards from the earliest days of the Conquest; the Cañari cacique Don Francisco Chilche was awarded by the Crown an encomienda in Cuzco’s Yucay valley and the rank of hidalgo
cápac
Inca title; powerful sovereign
captain
commander of a squadron of horse or infantry
Chachapoya
tribe, north Andean region
chicha
maize wine
Chile
southernmost region of Inca empire; its settlement of Santiago was founded in 1541 by Pedro de Valdivia
Chinchasuyo
northern region of Inca empire
Chuquinga
Battle of, in Cuntisuyo, 30 March 1554; defeat of royalist army of the Mariscal Alonso de Alvarado by Francisco Hernández Girón
Coca
narcotic plant sacred to the Inca nobility; from which cocaine is derived; grown in abundance by encomenderos in sub-tropical valleys for the mining markets of Potosí
Collasuyo
southern region of Inca empire
converso
convert to Christianity, of Jewish ancestry
Copacabana
religious colonial shrine on a promontory of Lake Titicaca; Aimára name signifies ‘stone from where all can be seen’, and refers to the view from its former Inca temple; early chapel replaced by a sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin, built between 1610 and 1619. A wooden sculpture of the Madonna was donated to the sanctuary by the Indian sculptor Tito Yupanqui in 1592, which adorns its main altar. The Augustinian chronicler Antonio de la Calancha y Benavides in the mid-seventeenth century published a history of the sanctuary, Historia del Santuario de Copacabana y del Prado
cordillera
corregidor
governor of a city or province
Council of the Indies
governing body of the Indies
Coya
title of the sister-queen of the Inca emperor and of their daughters; used indiscriminately after the Conquest by various illegitimate daughters of Emperor Huayna Cápac
Creole
children of Spaniards born in the Indies
Cristiano viejo
Old Christian lineage
Curaca
quéchua name for a tribal leader
Cuzco
capital of the Inca empire of Tahuantinsuyo, established as a Spanish municipality in 1534
Don/Do a
courtesy title of royalty, nobles and principal governors and military commanders, among them Pizarro and Almagro, some of whom were hidalgos. Though in later years its use would become more common, in sixteenth-century Peru only the wives and daughters of hidalgos and conquistadores were addressed as Doña. Though the conquistadore Mansio Serra de Leguizamón’s courtly relatives were accorded the title of Don, neither he nor his father, though hidalgos, were ever addressed as such. A few of the Inca princes who had become Christians were, however, awarded the title, among them the conquistadore’s son Don Juan Serra de Leguizamón, as recorded in his father’s will
encomienda/
land grant of Indian vassals awarded by the Crown in lieu of feudal
encomendero
service and prerequisite for the evangelisation of their domains. The award could only be inherited by one generation, either by the encomendero’s son or grandchild as heir, or by his childless widow and any future husband of hers. No mestizos or illegitimate children were allowed to inherit, unless authorised by the Crown
Guayaquil
equatorial coastal city, founded as Santiago de Guayaquil in 1535
hidalgo
term of ancient Spanish nobility; hijo de algo, son of a man of rank
huaca
Inca nature shrine
Huanacauri
huaca mountain shrine, south-west of Cuzco
Huarina
Battle of, on south-eastern s
hore of Lake Titicaca, 20 October 1547; defeat of Diego de Centeno’s loyalist army by Gonzalo Pizarro
I aquito
Battle of, near Quito, 18 January 1546; defeat of Viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela’s army by Gonzalo Pizarro
Inca
name of ruling ayllu of Quéchua tribe; title of emperor
Indian/Indies
name given by the Spaniards to the natives of the Americas and Caribbean islands because of their belief that the continent formed part of India
Inti
Inca sun deity
Isthmus of Panama
known formerly as Castilla del Oro because of its purported abundance of gold, and later as Tierra Firme; port city of Panama was founded on its western coast as a result of the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1533
Jaquijahuana
Battle of, in the valley and plain of that name, north of Cuzco, 9 April 1548; defeat of the rebel army of encomenderos by President La Gasca
Jauja
Inca town in central Andes; founded by Pizarro as the first Spanish municipality in 1533
La Paz
city in the Collasuyo; Nuestra Señora de la Paz, Our Lady of the Peace, founded in 1548 to commemorate the defeat of Gonzalo Pizarro’s rebellion; administrative capital of Bolivia
La Plata
city in the southern Collasuyo founded in 1538; deriving its name from its abundance of silver mines; known also by its indigenous name of Chuquisaca and Las Charcas, the name of its region; renamed Sucre in 1825, in honour of Mariscal Antonio de Sucre; capital of Bolivia
league
3½ miles
León
capital of the early settlement of Nicaragua
Licentiate
lawyer
Lima
city, capital of Viceroyalty of Peru; name of lands of the Curaca Taulichusco, where Pizarro in 1535 founded the capital of his governorship, and which he named Los Reyes, the City of the Kings, in honour of the Feast of the Epiphany
Lupaca
Aimára tribe of the Cuntisuyo and Collasuyo, though principally of the north and western region of Lake Titicaca
mamacona
virgins of the sun
Manco Cápac
mythical founder of the Inca dynasty; son of the sun and moon; founder of Cuzco
mariscal/marshal
commander of cavalry or army; empowered to act as a legal authority during a campaign
mestizo
of Indian and Spanish parentage
mitimae
labourers of the subject tribes; transported to various regions of the empire for a period of time – mita – by Incas and then Spaniards
Morisco
of Moorish parentage
morrión
curved steel helmet used by conquistadores
Mudéjar
Moors allowed to live in Christian lands; also a term to describe Moorish influence in architecture
mulatto
of Negro and Spanish parentage
Nazca
western region of the Cuntisuyo; pre-Colombian civilisation; site of giant earth carvings
New Castile
Pizarro’s governorship of Peru
New Spain
Mexico
New Toledo
governorship awarded Almagro of the region of the Collasuyo
usta
niece or daughter of emperor by a concubine
orejón
name given by the Spaniards to Inca lords because of the gold and silver ear ornaments they wore
Pachacamac
quéchua name for the creator
Pachamama
earth deity
palla
daughter of a cacique
panaca
name for the Inca lineages and their custodians; the spiritual and secular heirs of the emperors, numbering eleven in all at the time of the Conquest
Parinacochas
north-western region of the Cuntisuyo
Pastu
northern Ecuador; northernmost region of Inca empire
Peru/Birú
name mistakenly given to the Inca empire of Tahuantinsuyo by the early Spanish explorer of the Pacific coast Pascual de Andagoya
peso
name of coinage, originally meaning weight. Estimated present-day value of gold and silver – Peso de Oro: £25; peso or mark of silver: £17; peso of stamped silver (plata ensayada): £25; unmarked silver: £20. The value in Spain during the early colonial period would quite possibly have been threefold
piece of eight
coinage; approximately equivalent to ½ peso of gold
Písac
encomienda, situated in valley of that name in the Yucay
Piura
equatorial township
Potosí
city in Bolivia, founded in 1545 because of the great wealth of its silver mine, the Cerro Rico
procurator
title of a governorship
Pucará
Battle of, north of Lake Titicaca, 8 October 1554; defeat of Francisco Hernández Girón by the royalist army of the judges of Lima
Puerto Viejo
the old port, north of Guayaquil
Quéchua
language and ruling tribe of the Inca empire
Quipucamayoc
guardians of the quipu, coloured strings used for numeration, and keeping historical and astrological records
Quito
northern capital of Inca empire; founded in 1534 as San Francisco de Quito; capital of Ecuador
regidor
alderman
Sacred Valley of the Incas
the valley of the Yucay, just north of Cuzco
San Mateo
equatorial bay
Sapa Inca
emperor
Sucre
see La Plata
Surampalli
country retreat of Emperor Huayna Cápac, to the south of the equatorial city of Tumibamba
Tahuantinsuyo
name of the Inca empire of the four suyos, regions – Antisuyo, Chinchasuyo, Collasuyo and Cuntisuyo
tambo
Inca fortress or storehouse
Titicaca
lake in the Collasuyo, sacred to the Incas; 12,500 feet above sea level and covering 3,500 square miles; bordering Peru and Bolivia
Tucumán
southern province of the Collasuyo in northern Argentina
Túmbez
early Spanish settlement on the equatorial coast
Tumibamba
equatorial Andean capital of the Cañari tribe; birthplace of Emperor Huayna Cápac who gave it the name of his panaca; site of present-day city of Cuenca, the Spanish municipality of which was founded in 1557
Veragua
north-westerly province of Nicaragua
Vilcabamba
Inca fortress settlement, north-west of Cuzco; built by the Inca Manco; known as the Lost City of the Incas; probable site is Espíritu Pampa
Villaoma
itle of the Inca High Priest of the Sun
Viracocha
cosmic Andean deity
Vitcos
Inca township, near Vilcabamba, north-west of Cuzco
Yanacona
nomadic servant caste
Yucay
valley north of Cuzco; personal fiefdom of Emperor Huayna Cápac and of his panaca; renowned for its climate and beauty
yupanqui
quéchua title, denoting royalty
Notes
The transcription of manuscripts is by Josefa García Tovar and their translation from Spanish into English is by the author, as are all other translations.
Preface
1. Porras Barrenechea, Pizarro, pp. 665–7.
Chapter One
1. Testimony of Mansio Serra de Leguizamón, in MS Información de Francisco Pizarro, Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Patronato 145, N.2, R.2.
2. Zárate, Descubrimiento y Conquista,
p. 214.
3. Testimony of Mansio Serra de Leguizamón, in MS Información de Francisco Pizarro.
4. Fernández de Oviedo, Historia General, Tomo 121.
5. Lockhart, The Men of Cajamarca, pp. 380–4.
6. MS Ordenes Militares – Santiago No. 6324 – Pruebas de Nobleza de Don Francisco Pizarro, Trujillo, 1529, Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid.
7. Pizarro’s uncle Juan, as in the case of his father, however made no mention of him in his will. Luisa Cuesta, ‘Testamento del Capitán Gonzalo Pizarro’, in ‘Una documentación interesante sobre la familia del conquistadore del Perú,’ in Revista de Indias 8 (1947), pp. 866–71.