Atahualpa, the last Inca (II): his execution

By Roberto Aspiazu Estrada *

At the stroke of midnight, Pizarro and Atahualpa’s dinner took place in the central pavilion of Cajamarca that would serve as a prison for the Inca for the next eight months. The massacre was complete, the corpses of the indigenous host piled up in the square, while a monotonous rain drew the curtain to the dramatic event.

While the host was exultant, the hostage could not hide his anger and embarrassment. To make the defeat more bearable, she tried to comfort him: “Do not take as an affront to have been thus imprisoned and disrupted, because the Christians that I bring, although they are few in number, with them I have subdued more lands than yours and disrupted other lords greater than you”. Looking at him serenely, the Inca replied with a smile: “Uses are of war to win and be defeated.”

The next day, November 17, 1532, a large booty of gold and silver was collected from the Quito camp of Pultumarca, which was deserted. “Monstrous pieces, large and small plates, pitchers, pots and braziers, large ciboria and various other pieces”, which were part of the emperor’s tableware.

Observing the greed of the Spanish, Atahualpa offered his governor to fill a room in the tambo, which served as a barracks, with precious metal objects. that he would bring from all the confines of Tahuantinsuyo, in exchange for his freedom. The room was 22 feet long, 17 feet wide, and the fill height would be your height at arm’s length where a line was drawn. Asked by Pizarro how long it would take to collect the treasure, he replied two months.

As a sign of harmony, the Inca was allowed to continue administering his empire, receiving the visit of their noble orejones, governors, service personnel and company ladies. Knowing that the Spaniards might have the intention of arbitrating the conflict of dynastic succession between his brother Huáscar, whom he had imprisoned, and him, he decided to act promptly.

Pretending to be sad and disconsolate, wearing brown/ash mourning clothes, according to Inca usage, Pizarro approached to ask the reason for his anguish. He replied that he feared for his life if he told him the unfortunate news. Receiving the guarantees of the case, he confessed that he was sorry because his captains had executed his brother without his consent. Falling into deception, the Spanish caudillo ratified that he would not punish him. Impunity assured, he sent the order to execute Huáscar, who was thrown from a rock into the mighty Angasmayo River.

greed for gold

The first pieces of the treasure began to arrive a week, but given the delay in filling, in January 1534, he convinced his captor of the need to speed up the collection, allowing his brother Hernando Pizarro went to the Pachacámac sanctuary (currently in the metropolitan area of ​​Lima) to seize the gold and silver laminate that covered the walls of the temple. The offer hid a resentment towards that oracle of the Yunga Indians (coastal), who before the consultation on the outcome of the war with the conquerors had assured him that victory would be his.

A month later, for the same purpose, it was agreed to send a party of three Spaniards to Cusco, who were comfortably led in hammocks by Indian porters. They would be received by General Quito Quisquís, who kept in the capital a 30,000-strong occupation army, who would have the order to give all the facilities for such a task. From the Coricancha or cathedral of the sun they would extract 700 plates of gold and silver, to more than the rich jewels that adorned a dozen mummies of the previous Incas. The loot of the golden metal would be 130 quintals, while that corresponding to the argentiferous pieces was so abundant that, in part, it had to be kept in a warehouse.

During the daily life of his captivity, Atahualpa attended sitting on his tiana, a red wooden bench that acted as a throne (the Inca culture did not know furniture), without being allowed to look him in the eye, except with his permission. “He was well personed and disposed: the big, beautiful and ferocious face, the bloodshot eyes; he spoke very gravely, like a great lord; he reasoned very vividly, and understood by the Spaniards they recognized him as a wise man ”, according to the description of the chronicler Francisco de Jerez, who estimated his age between 33 and 35 years.

Together with the Spaniards he was cheerful, he came to learn the rudiments of their language, becoming fond of the game of dice and chess for the lessons he gave him on martial art. He paid a fortune for a blue Murano glass vase and at the same time for a cat, a domesticated feline unknown to his people.

The arrival in Cajamarca of Diego de Almagro, partner of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, at the end of March 1534, with a host of 150 men, recruited in Nicaragua and Panama, It was a turning point. The reason for disagreement was that they had notice that they would not have a share in the distribution of the treasure because they had not intervened in the capture of the Inca. As long as he lived there would be no wealth to reward his efforts.

Atahualpa warned that Almagro and the treasurer Alonso de Riquelme, in charge of collecting the Royal Fifth that corresponded to the crown, they were hostile to him and that they wanted him dead. This is how he commented with concern to Hernando Pizarro and Hernando de Soto, the governor’s main captains, with whom he had made friends during his captivity. At the time, a comet similar to the one that preceded the death of his father Huayna Cápac would appear in the sky, taking it as a disastrous event.

The millionaire ransom

The atmosphere was disrupted when learning of the cohabitation of a cousin of the emperor who was in his service with the translator Felipillo, a common Indian (the practice of inbreeding was common in the royal family). The injured Inca demanded the immediate intervention of Francisco Pizarro. Forced to get rid of his girl, the interpreter, an intriguing and evil character, dedicated himself to spreading the false rumor that a Quito army was nearby whose mission was to annihilate the Spanish and free the hostage.

The treasure, which was melted down during long hours, was ready for distribution in mid-June. According to the chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega, in weight of gold and silver, it amounted to 4.8 million Venetian ducats, equivalent to 850 million dollars today.

Pizarro, who was reluctant to sacrifice Atahualpa (whom he esteemed), Considering his shipment as a prisoner to Spain, he yielded to pressure from most of his militia to prosecute him on a series of fabricated charges: rebellion, heresy, fratricide, and promiscuity.

Disconcerted and fearful, he appealed to the governor’s word, but it was useless. He was sentenced to the stake, sorrow that he managed to exchange for the vile garrote (suffocation by tourniquet) with his last-minute conversion to Christianity. On the evening of July 25, he was executed in the Plaza de Cajamarca. His body would be rescued by his loyalists and taken to Quito to fulfill his last wish. His burial place remains a mystery. According to an old Quitu / Caranqui legend, he looks at the Cayambe volcano, near the place where he was born. (I)

* Member of the National Academy of History.