SAE Magazine

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In November of 1532, 168 Spaniards, led by the 54-year-old conquistador, Francisco Pizarro, hid within a number of buildings surrounding a walled square in the Inca city of Cajamarca, lying at 9,000 feet in what is now northern Peru. The Inca emperor Atahualpa, with roughly 5,000 warriors, had entered the square while some 75,000 more warriors waited outside. Pizarro—having spent a lifetime waiting for this moment–hoped to capture Atahualpa and thus gain control of the massive Inca Empire. The following is an excerpt from Chapter 4 of THE LAST DAYS OF THE INCAS by Kim MacQuarrie, (c) 2007, reprinted here with permission by Simon & Schuster

“For ourselves, we shall not trouble you with specious pretenses-

either of how we have a right to our empire because we overthrew

the Mede, or are now attacking you because of wrong that you

have done us-and make a long speech that would not be be-

lieved. . . . You know as well as we do that right, as the world

goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the

strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”

 

Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War,

5^th Century B.C.

…As Atahualpa waited, wearing a soft vicuña-wool tunic and mantle and seated upon a small stool on his litter, the Spaniards pressed against the cold stone walls of the buildings, fingering their weapons and staying out of sight. Others sat on their horses, leaning forward and trying to keep their animals from whinnying or making other noise. At last, Atahualpa called out to them, ordering the Spaniards to emerge from their hiding places and show themselves. The square, however, remained completely silent, with only the sound of the royal standard flapping in the breeze….

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…At stake for Atahualpa and the Inca elite were their own vast fertile lands, their ten million tax-paying peasants with their inexhaustible labor and crops, their own elite positions, and an empire that had taken three generations and countless military campaigns to create. At stake for the Spanish monarchy was a ragtag group of 168 expendable conquistadors, a handful of merchants, a few black slaves, a couple of morisca [Islamic] women, and, much more importantly, the opportunity for the Spanish monarchs to seize an empire with twice the population and size of the Iberian peninsula itself. Whether any of the individual protagonists in the present tableau understood the basic historical processes involved at this particular moment is doubtful. The Spaniards, wearing armor and chain mail and preparing themselves for attack, were certainly aware that their own lives and fortunes lay in the balance, however, and, if in the moment to come any of them were surrounded and overwhelmed by the native hordes, that their personal destinies would certainly come to a violent and sudden end….

….According to some eyewitnesses, Atahualpa now stood up on his litter and began shouting to his troops to prepare themselves for battle. As the interpreter Felipillo scrambled to retrieve the breviary from the ground, Friar Valverde rushed back to Pizarro’s quarters, very agitated, and began shouting, “Come out! Come out, Christians! Come at these enemy dogs who reject the things of God!” Clutching his crucifix in one hand he shouted,

“That chief has thrown the book of holy law to the ground!” Another eye-

witness heard the apoplectic friar, the instrument of God’s will, shout to

Pizarro, “Didn’t you see what happened? Why remain polite and servile to-

ward this arrogant dog when the plains are full of Indians? Go and attack

him, for I absolve you!”

With Atahualpa standing on his litter and the priest shouting for the Spaniards to attack, a decision had to be made. Pizarro hesitated for only a moment and then signaled to Pedro de Candia, waiting in the building on the far side of the square, who now ordered that the wicks of the assembled cannons be lit. With loud roars the cannons soon fired directly into the mass of warriors, spewing out smoke and metal shrapnel; simultaneously the nine

harquebusiers also fired their guns, having carefully aimed them on tripods.

The sudden explosions no doubt stunned the native warriors, as did the sight of bodies suddenly falling down among them and spurting blood. With plumes of smoke rising from one of the buildings they now heard coming from all directions the stark sounds of trumpets and multiple choruses of men shouting “Santiago!” as the Spaniards kicked their feet into their horses’ sides and charged and ran out from their hiding places. From every direction Atahualpa’s warriors saw the metal-covered foreigners suddenly rushing toward them, together with groups of seemingly ferocious, thousand-pound animals in padded armor, their hooves pounding the ground and each topped by a lance- or sword-wielding Spaniard, screaming hoarsely and with a crazed look in his eyes.

The Spaniards quickly began slashing, stabbing, impaling, hacking, and even beheading as many natives as they could, using their razor-sharp swords, knives, and lances. The native warriors, having confidently marched onto the square only moments earlier and thinking that they had trapped the cowering foreigners in a few buildings, now suddenly realized that they were in a trap, not the Spaniards….

….

…Pizarro, meanwhile, with his twenty foot soldiers carrying swords and shields, had immediately begun slicing his way through the crowd in the direction of Atahualpa, who remained on his litter, attempting to rally his panic-stricken troops. Xerez recounted:

The Governor [Pizarro] armed himself with a thick cotton coat of armor,

took his sword and dagger and entered into the midst of the Indians

with the Spaniards who were with him. With great bravery and with

only four who could follow him, he reached Atahualpa’s litter and fear-

lessly grabbed [the emperor's] left arm, shouting “Santiago.” . . . But he

could not pull him out of his litter, which was [still] held high. . . . All

those who were carrying Atahualpa’s litter appeared to be important

men and they all died, as did those who were traveling in the litters and

hammocks.

Another eyewitness recounted: “Many Indians had their hands cut off [yet] continued to support their ruler’s litter with their shoulders. But their efforts were of little benefit for they were all killed.”

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…Finally, as the desperate struggle to seize the emperor continued, seven or eight Spanish horsemen now turned and spurred their horses, slashing their way through the crowd toward Atahualpa’s litter. Pushing against the bloodied nobles trying to steady it, the Spaniards then heaved up on one side, turning the litter over. Other Spaniards now pulled the emperor from his seat. Wielding his sword in one hand and fastening upon Atahualpa with the other, Pizarro and a group of Spaniards now rushed Atahualpa back to Pizarro’s lodgings, thus imprisoning the Inca emperor.

Pandemonium coupled with slaughter, meanwhile, continued to reign on the square outside….The Spaniards on horseback–like sixty deranged and screaming Horsemen of the Apocalypse–raced after them, spearing, lancing, cutting, and stabbing. Those eyewitnesses who recorded the event remembered the horsemen chasing the warriors out onto the plain, at first singling out the litters of the Inca nobles who were still being borne away by loyal retainers. “All of them were shouting, `After those in the uniforms! Don’t let any escape! Spear them!’ “

And so the slaughter continued, the Spaniards chasing after the fleeing natives, inflicting as much carnage as possible, and in the light and long shadows that photographers call the golden hour countless warriors now lay on the ground, many without limbs or with deep gashes and with pools of dark, maroon-colored blood growing quietly beneath them. Elsewhere hundreds lay trampled to death on the square, some crawling, others moaning, many dying and dead, and those who were gradually losing consciousness on this, their last day on earth, trying to understand the nightmare that had so quickly befallen them….

…Miraculously, in the space of just a few hours, the Spaniards had killed or wounded perhaps six or seven thousand natives, while they themselves hadn’t lost a single man. Taking advantage of surprise, their artillery, and of their meat-cutting weapons, the Spaniards’ Battle of Cajamarca had resulted in a complete rout and slaughter. As darkness deepened around the city, the native emperor descended from the sun god–who had wielded total military, religious, and political control over an empire of ten million–suddenly found himself captive. In less than two hours, the Inca Empire had been beheaded, as neatly as one would sever the head of a llama or guinea pig. And now the emperor, no longer borne on a golden litter, his tunic stained with his nobles’ blood, turned to face his exultant captors, one of whom was a tall, helmeted man, still wearing his bloodied and padded armor, and whom the others deferentially referred to as El Gobernador.

Kim MacQuarrie is a writer, anthropologist, and a 4-time, Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker. You can learn more about his new book and read his blog on Peru and South America at www.lastdaysoftheincas.com.

The Last Days of the Incas by Kim Macquarrie is among the most powerful and important accounts of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, of the modern search for the Incas’ lost Amazonian capital of Vilcabamba, and of the discovery of Machu Picchu.
For a chance to win a copy of this beautifully presented and illustrated book, write in to us at magazine@saexplorers.org and answer the question: How many other books has Kim MacQuarrie written on Peru? (HINT: check out www.lastdaysoftheincas.com)
The first correct answer will win a copy of the book, sent to them by post anywhere in the world. Competition closes 15 December.