An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru (14 page)

“From where, do you think, is he supposed to get the gold and silver that you now demand, after he already handed over to you everything that was to be had in this country, including our jewelry? What is he supposed to give now in order to redeem himself from this current captivity? Where and how is he supposed to get what you demand? He has nothing left, nothing left to give. Your conduct has left all inhabitants of this country so outraged and disturbed that they don't know what to say and where to flee; for they find themselves deprived not only of their king but also of their wives, children, houses, things, lands—in short, all their possessions. Indeed, their misery is so great that they are often driven to hang themselves or to bash everything to pieces, as has often been reported to me. Therefore, gentlemen, it seems right to me that you should finally leave my Sapai Inca alone, for you are the cause of his distress and torment, and that you should free him from his present imprisonment, so that these Indians may be redeemed from their great distress.”

The Spaniards' Reply to Vila Oma

“Who has commanded you to speak with such authority to the corregidor of the king? Do you have any idea what sort of people we Spaniards are? You had better be quiet! Otherwise, I'll swear by the life of His Majesty that if I get ahold of you, I will teach you and your companions a lesson that you'll remember for the rest of your life. If you won't shut up, I swear that I'll burn you alive and hack you to pieces. Who has ordered him, I ask, to speak with such air before me?” Gonzalo Pizarro said this in order to intimidate Vila Oma and the others who were present. Then he turned to retort what had been said, beginning: “You had better stop this and hurry up to gather the silver and gold, as I have ordered you. Otherwise, I swear to you that your king will not leave this prison until everything has been gathered, even if it takes a year. So stop arguing with me and don't tell me any stories about heroic deeds: from here he went, and from over there he came.” After these things had passed between the Spaniards and the chief Vila Oma, the Spaniards left him and went to their houses, while he approached my father in order to report to him in detail what he had told them and what they had answered. When my father learned of the condition of his people and how much they shared in his torment, he said the following: “My sons and brothers, I know that I am paying the price for having permitted these people to come into this land; and I can understand why you have complaints about me. But since there is now no other remedy, on your life, gather something very quickly that will redeem me from these heavy torments. Of course, it is painful for you to see your king a prisoner, like a dog with a chain around his neck and like a slave or fugitive with fetters on his feet.” The chiefs and the others, overcome by great compassion in the face of the maltreatments to which my father was subjected, did not know what to say but one after another went out the door, silently and with downcast eyes, in order to
gather to the best of their ability what my father had commanded, so that he might soon be liberated. But despite their efforts, it took more than two months until they had gathered everything they could find. They even took one another's jewelry and the clothes that they wore. The number of people who gave things turned out to be so great that a large house was filled to the top with things. It included also some dishes that had been left in my father's house for his use. Finally, everything had been gathered under the great harassment perpetrated by those men, who continuously annoyed my father with words such as: “Is that all? That's not enough silver! How much longer will you make us wait? It is about time you finish!” Eventually, he called his people and told them to go and get the Spaniards, for he wanted to turn over to them what had been gathered, so that they would stop tormenting him. Thus they came, and as soon as they arrived where my father was, they greeted him and said, “May God preserve you, Señor Sapai Inca, what do you want? Why have you called for us?” Thereupon my father, who knew that he would soon be released, spoke to the Spaniards.

Manco Inca's Speech to the Spaniards

“Apocona”
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(which means “sirs”), “when you recently imprisoned me for the second time, I said that you were not Viracochas; for if you were, you would not treat me so poorly after I only meant, and continue to mean, to do good things for you (and I gave you the reasons for this). Now, after you have aggravated my torment in such a grave and impious manner—for more than two months now, I have been chained here like a dog—I can't help but say this: not only have you not acted like Christians and sons of Viracocha, from whom you claim descent; rather, you have acted like servants of supai. You walk in his footsteps by doing evil to those who have done you well. You are even worse than he, for he covets neither silver nor gold because he needs
them not. But you seek it; and where it is not to be had, you try to get it by force. You are worse than the Yuncas, who for a little precious metal would murder father and mother and deny the entire world. Likewise, you, too, failed to remember all the good things you have received from me. While I have loved you with so much fondness and have desired your friendship, you have let me down for a little silver and treated me worse than a dog for its sake, which leads me to believe that you care more about silver than the friendship of all the people in the world. In any case, because of your love of silver you have failed me and all of the people of my country; and because of your impunity and boundless greed, we—they as well as I—have been deprived of our jewelry and wealth, which you have taken from us by way of violence, torments, and harassments. But I tell you that it is my sense that you will not reap glory from the fact that you took, without right and reason, what those poor Indians have gathered with great toil. But be that as it may, take these things and finally set me free to leave this prison.” My father said all of this with great anguish and even with tears in his eyes, considering the poor treatment to which he had been subjected.

How the Spaniards wanted to release Manco Inca from his second Imprisonment

Having heard what my father had said, the Spaniards, being very joyful and delighted about the accumulated silver, told him that they were very pleased with him. But when they seemed to be about to release him, which was only a trick, Gonzalo Pizarro suddenly appeared and said, “Not so fast! Don't set him free! First he has to give us the lady coya, his sister, whom we saw the other day. Why do you rush to set him free without ordering him to do so? Let's go, Señor Inca, let's have the lady coya! As far as the silver is concerned, you're fine, because that's what we primarily wanted.”

How the Coya was turned over

When my father saw the importunity with which they demanded the coya and realized that he would not be able to get around this matter, he had a very beautifully dressed and adorned Indian woman presented to be turned over in place of the coya whom they were demanding. When the Spaniards saw her but did not recognize her as the coya, they said that this woman did not seem to them to be the coya but some other Indian woman, that he had better turn over the coya and stop this sort of trickery. My father, in order to lure them, had more than twenty others brought in a similar fashion, each one more beautiful than the next, but none satisfied them. Then, when the time seemed right to my father, he had a woman brought, the highest-ranking one in his house, the companion of his sister the coya, who looked very much like her, especially when she dressed like her, and who was called Ynguill—which means “flower”—and he gave her to them.
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She appeared in the presence of all, robed and made up just like a coya—which means “queen.”
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And when the Spaniards saw her appear this way in all her pomp and beauty, they said with much enthusiasm and satisfaction, “That's her! That's her! That's the coya and none of the others.” Gonzalo Pizarro, who desired her more than the others and had pursued her with particular persistence, said the following words to my father: “Sir Inca, if she is for me, let me have her now because I cannot wait any longer.” And my father, who had initiated her well, said, “Very well then, do what you desire.” And so, before everyone's eyes and without seeing anything else, he went up to her in order to kiss and embrace her as though she were his legitimate wife. This made my father laugh and the others wonder, while it greatly terrified and appalled Ynguill. As she saw herself being grabbed by a man whom she did not even know, she began screaming like a mad person, saying that she did not want to give herself to such people, that she would rather run away, and that on no account would she have them. Although
my father saw how recalcitrant she was and how much she resisted going with the Spaniards, he knew that his redemption depended on her; so he furiously ordered her that she should go with them. And when she saw my father so upset, she did what she was ordered to do and went with them, more out of fear than anything else.

How Gonzalo Pizarro received the treasure and the coya from the hands of Manco Inca and how he went to eat with him as a sign of friendship

After Gonzalo Pizarro received her, he ordered the fetters to be taken off my father. When he [my father] was freed, they took the treasure and distributed it among themselves. Once that was done, Gonzalo Pizarro said to my father that, since he had given so many things—in gold as well as silver, and above all the lady coya, whom he had so desired—he would be honored to host him and his noblemen at his house. There, he said, he would now always be welcome, as a sign of the friendship that would last for a long time between the two as a result of their now being brothers-in-law. My father, because he wanted to go outside and see the land, as well as to make him happy, did what Gonzalo Pizarro asked of him and went with him and his companions in order to eat at his house, where they had a great celebration and merriment. He thought that this way the friendship with the Spaniards would be durable. After they had dined together, my father said that he wanted to return to his house because it was already late, and the Spaniards accompanied him there and left him there very happy before they returned to their own houses. (It should be pointed out to the reader that while these things regarding the coya and the imprisonment with chains and fetters were happening, the Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro was in Lima and thus away from Cuzco at the time. Therefore, nobody should think that he had any part in this.)

A few days after all these things had passed regarding the second imprisonment and the giving up of Ynguill instead of the coya to Gonzalo Pizarro, the latter—or I should rather say my father—held a very major festival. This festival, during which the ears are pierced, is the most important one that we Incas observe during the entire year, because it is the occasion of the Great Naming, when we receive a new name in place of the old one. It is a ceremony not unlike that of the Christians' confirmation.
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In accordance with our customs, my father appeared at this celebration with all the regalia of royal authority and went in the lead of the procession carrying the royal scepters, one of which—the main one—was made of solid gold and ornamented with tassels made of the same material. Each of the others who accompanied him carried his own scepter, each of which was half silver and half copper. There were more than a thousand in total,
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between these and those who came to be rebaptized, who are called
vacazoc,
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according to our tradition. Thus, all our Indians and the Spaniards were gathered on the plain before the hill called Anauarque, where this ceremony used to be celebrated. At the end of the ceremony—its course will be described in more detail later—when those who had been rebaptized went to wash
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after they had been shaved and their ears pierced, the Spaniards, either because of their greed for the silver that was laid into the scepters or because of some suspicion caused by the appearance of so many people, drew their weapons and began to agitate all the people. They drew their swords with the following cry: “Oh, you villains! You want to make an uprising? But it won't come to that! Just wait, just wait!” And thus, they rushed for the scepters in order to take them away from those who were carrying them. They also desired to get to the one carried by my father, but because he had surrounded himself with a strong guard whose armor prevented them from getting to him, they just took what they could from the others, which was a lot. When my father heard all that noise and commotion among the people he tried to
see what was happening. When he found out how impudently the Spaniards had conducted themselves, he raised his voice and said, “What is this?” And the Indians, almost weeping, complained with these words: “Sapai Inca, what sort of people are these whom you are hosting in your land? All the gold and silver that you have given them was not enough for them, so now they have violently taken away our silver
yauris
” (which means “scepters”).
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“They took them from us with threats, and we are very upset by this. Tell them to return them to us and to content themselves with the silver and gold that we have given them.” And my father, who saw all the anguish with which those Indians complained, felt their pain and addressed the Spaniards in the following manner:

The Inca's Attempt to Reason with the Spaniards when they were about to take him Prisoner for the third time

“Gentlemen, it seems that you are still set on giving me and my people grief, although I have not wished to give you any and still do not wish you any. Did you not the other day promise me and my people that you would not give me any more pain? You have no right, for I have done nothing to you that would give you any reason. Don't you have enough silver yet, so that now you must take from me the little I have left for use in my ceremonies? Just tell me now if you are doing this in order to provoke me or the people to rise up against you. If so, I will be prepared, and so will my people; only this time, I will not be as carefree and unsuspecting as I have been before. If not, let's keep our promise—for we did give each other our word in the house of Apo the other day that we would live in peace and love with one another, so that you will not have any suspicions, nor we fear.” When the Spaniards had heard what my father had said, they replied, “Señor Manco Inca, we do not want to give Your Majesty any pain. Some soldiers created a bit of a fuss in order to
pass time. That's all. You are not suffering any pain.” When my father saw that the people had calmed down and relaxed, he was quiet and finished his ceremony while the Spaniards went home, for it was already late and time to go to sleep.