Hello and Welcome to Western Sieve Episode two hundred and fifty Rooms Full of Gold.
Last time, Atahualpa made the colossal strategic error of underestimating Pissaro and his
Native Spaniards. With only one hundred and sixty eight men, Pizzaro managed to
take the Incan emperor captive. The Inca Empire was an absolute monarchy is absolute
as it comes, quite frankly. With Attahualpa gone, there was simply no
way for the empire to continue to function, and Atahualpa himself was now in
a possible situation. He could not realistically hope to be rescued. His Spanish
captors would surely murder him long before any rescue party actually reached him. As
Atahualpa saw it, he only had one choice. He had to continue to
try and meet his captor's demands, which was not going to be easy.
To do this, he would have to save their lust for silver and gold.
What Atahualpa does not yet realize is that the Europeans of the sixteenth century
had a never ending lust for gold. He would find out too late that
giving them enough gold to get Pizzaro and his compatriots to go away was simply
something he could never hope to do. On that faithful day, as the
trumpets sounded calling the Spaniards to return to the square and the last Inca warriors
were breathing their last breath, Pizzaro was already busy attending to his prisoner Atahualpa,
who, after his capture, had been taken to the Temple of the
Sun at the edge of town and placed under a guard. Because the emperor's
clothes had been ripped during his capture, Pisaro ordered that new ones be brought
and waited while the emperor changed into them. He then ordered that a meal
be prepared and had Atahualpa sit down beside him as they were served. It's
interesting to think about, but until they sat down next to each other,
Atahuelpa had never before met Pisaro. He had only first laid eyes on him
from the height of his litter, as the veteran cunquistador fought and slashed his
way toward the emperor and then reached out and simply grabbed him. That faithful
grass, I suppose was emblematic of their future relationship, because it was through
that grasp, that clenched grip, that this illiterate poor man from Spain,
from the lower classes at least, had pulled the very top of the Inca
nobility abruptly from his throne. But it's important to note that Pisarto hoped to
control the Inca state through Atahualpa. If he could get the emperor to cooperate,
then Pisarto believed he could paralyze the movement of the Inca armies, prevent
counter attacks, and ultimately take control. But to be able to do so,
he first needed to establish a relationship with his imperial hostage. The Inca
emperor needed to clearly understand that Pisarto wanted absolute control and that he had absolute
control. Until he got that, Pisarto would never be satisfied. Sure,
he wanted gold, but he also wanted a kingdom to rule. Pisardo and
the other Europeans had come to the New World hoping to create a new feudal
Europe, only now with themselves at the top of the pyramid and the indigenous
laborers at the bottom. Their goal, to put it quite bluntly, was
to live off the Inca state like parasites in Peru, as in elsewhere in
the New world. The Spaniards were not looking for land that they could farm.
This is a very different system from the one that we're going to see
take hold in North America. They wanted land someone else could work immediately.
They did not ever want to work. Again, Stripped down to its barest
bones, the conquest of Peru was Pisarto and his one hundred and sixty eight
men's retirement plan. Pissaro was sought to introduce Attaquel, but to what he
and his companions had in mind, saying, quote, don't take it as
an insult that you have been defeated and taken prisoner with Christians that I have
brought with me, though so few in number, I have conquered greater lands
than yours, That's not true. And I also have defeated more powerful lords
than you, also not true, placing them under the dominion of the Emperor,
whose vassal I am, that is true, and who is the king
of Spain and the universal world, and under whose command we have come to
conquer this land. That last parts debatable. End quote. Now, Zaro's
message was clear. The disaster that had befallen Atahuelpa was as inevitable as were
the movements of the stars and the sun, any future resistance would be futile.
He continued, quote, you should consider it to be your good fortune
that you've not been defeated by a cruel people such as yourselves. We treat
our prisoners and conquered enemies with mercy, and only make war on those who
make war on us. I don't recall the Inca Empire declaring war on but
we'll let that one go, and being able to destroy them, we refrained
from doing so, but rather pardon them. End quote, and as Atahuapa
continued to listen in silence. Of course, all this is being interpreted,
Bizarrow began the driving main point quote. When I had a chief, the
lord of an island, my prisoner, I said him free, so that
from then on he might be loyal. And I did the same with the
chiefs who were the lords of Tumbez, of Kulimasa, and others who,
being in my power and deserving death, I pardoned. Pissaro then paused for
a moment, letting the interpreter catch up. If you were seized and your
people attacked and killed, it was because you came with so great an army
against us. Despite having me begged you to come peacefully, and because you
threw the book on the ground in which were written the words of God.
For this reason, our Lord allowed that your arrogance should be destroyed, and
that no Indian should be able to offend a Christian quote. Now, no
one has ever claimed that Atahuallapa was a stupid man. He had, after
all, just been the winner of a critical civil war, and he understood
exactly what Pissaro was getting at. Eyewitnesses record the following quote. Otta Wallapa
responded that he had been deceived by his captains, that they had told him
not to take the Spaniards seriously, that he personally had desired to come in
peace, but that they had prevented him, and all that those who advised
him were now dead. The inc emperor, who only a few hours before
had been the absolute ruler of the greatest empire the Americas had ever known,
now asked Pissarro for permission to confer with some of his men. Another eyewitness
records quote. The governor immediately ordered them to bring two important Indians who had
been taken in the battle. The Emperor Atahualpa asked them how many men were
dead they told them that the entire countryside was covered with them. He then
sent word to the native troops who had remained not to flee, but to
come serve him, since he was not dead, but was being held by
the Christians. End quote. After these two men departed bearing the message,
Bizarro quietly made the sign of the cross. Military leader, strategist, diplomat,
terrorist, kind of an hostage taker. Bizarro was also a devout Christian.
The fifty four year old conquistador completely believed in divine providence. He believed
that God had intervened today on the side of the slashing, blood splattered Christians
on the square. The proof was in the pudding. Atahualpa had been captured,
and so many had been killed by so few. The Inca Emperor and
his subjects were after all nonbelievers, and unless they converted, they were destined
for hell. Though blood had been spilled, true Pissarrow remained convinced that in
the end it would be he and his conquistadors and their bloody swords who would
enter the Kingdom of Heaven after bringing the great mass of nonbelievers into the sacred
fold of Christianity. Now the Spaniards could finally sleep, the first sleep that
some of them had in more than forty eight hours. Pissarrow pointed a few
to patrol the town that night, and soon the town's inhabitants, who had
hidden in their houses all day, heard the metallic footsteps of the strange giant
animals the bearded invaders wore, the horse hooves clacking on the deserted streets.
Inside the Temple of the Sun, Pissarro ordered that a bed prepared for Attaquapa
in the same room where he would sleep. Amazingly, for the moment,
two leaders from very different worlds lay down in beds next to each other Inca
style. Each had no doubt about different thoughts as they drifted off to sleep.
Here within a stone chamber that Inca masons had assembled long before any Inca
had ever heard of a Spaniard, two men drifted off to sleep, upon
whom the fate of the entire empire now rested. The conquistador and the native
king. The next morning, Pisaro sent to Soto with thirty men to investigate
Atahuallapa's old camp, the same camp wherein to Soto met the emperor two days
prior. The first thing Soto noticed was that seemingly nothing had changed. The
tents were still spread out across the hillside. Didn't seem that the peans that
even made a dent in the numbers, arrayed against them. The mood was
tense, but none of the warriors de Soto saw and made any move against
them. For the moment. They were all obeying their commanders, who were
in turn following the orders of their captive emperor. The system was in fact
paralyzed, just as Pisato had hoped. De Soto looked around, shrugged,
and proceeded to plunder the royal tent. No one stopped him. Before the
sun had risen fully in the sky, De Soto and his men returned to
the camp with a large quantity of native men, women, sheep, which
are yamas, gold, silver, and cloth. Among these spoils were eighty
thousand pacos of gold, seven thousand marks of silver, and fourteen emeralds.
The gold and silver were in monstrous pieces, large and small dishes, pictures,
jugs, basins, and large drinking vessels in various other pieces. Atahualpa
said that all this came from his table service, and that his Indians who
had fled had taken a great quantity more. En Pisaro met with his captain
and realized, for the time being, at least they were safe. So
he assembled all the remaining natives who had been captured on the square, picked
the ones he wanted his servants, and told the balance to go home.
Then he ordered at Hualpa to disband his army. Up to this point,
the behavior of Pizarro and his entourage had followed the standard conquistador procedure conquistadoring one
O one conquistadoring for dummies. First, evidence of a native empire had to
be discovered, one civilized enough to include a mass of native peasants who were
paying taxes. It really wasn't of any use Europeans had discovered to find quote
un wild Indians who didn't farm, or it didn't have any experience with civilization.
The Spaniards, after all, had come to create a feudal society over
which to rule. In the feudal society, by definition, requires a tax
paying peasantry. Second, a few legalities had to be taken care of,
which really just required obtaining a royal license from Spain. Third came the legal
pretext for conquest, which in the case of Atahualpa and the Inca consisted of
reading them the orqueremiento and thus legal rights conveying to him in probably a terrible
translation, the quemiento informed Atahualpa that he had the right to accept the new
power structure, and that if he or anyone else resisted, they would be
put to death according to the logic of sixteenth century Spanish jurisprudence. By refusing
to submit to the Spaniards, and then by throwing to the ground a little
black object with fine squiggly marks on it that he had no way of understanding,
Matahualpa had immediately forfeited his rights to the Inca Empire. The fourth step
was, of course, the conquest itself was almost always a sort of shock
and awe campaign. Savage attacks were purposely unleashed in order to crush native resistance.
Had to simply terrorize the local inhabitants into obeying their new masters. One
of the final Spanish go to plans for New World conquest was to capture the
indigenous leader. In most cases, they could then leverage the bonds of loyalty
the subjects had for said leader. Thus, in terms of standard operating procedures.
The conquest of Peru was proceeding exceedingly well. The final steps in the
process included consolidating power, completing the plundering process, and finally diverting the vast
stream of tax where away from the Inca and into the arms of Peru's new
European leaders. Remember, Cortes got this far as well without a hitch,
But this is where he ran into problems. His Arto was going to hit
similar problems at almost the same time. But for the moment, things continued
going according to plan. Not long after Pizarro had ordered Attahualla but to disband
his army, the vast Inca camp began to disperse. Remember, there was
no such thing as a standing Incan army. Of these soldiers were peasant conscripts,
so most of them probably just watched all this, shrugged, and turned
to go home. Evidently their services were no longer required. I guess we
would not be marching through Cusco after all. Oh well, but when they
got home, the story they told their friends and family must have been beyond
shocking. Atahuallpa taken prisoner foreigners now ruling the land? Who were they?
How long were they planning on staying. What did they want? Of course,
the common peasant soldier could not answer any of these questions. Neither,
it turned out, could Anahuappa. As Atahuallpa watched Bizarro's men marveling and shouting
about the golden plates and goblets, he probably came to the inexcapable conclusion that
anyone in his position would have come to these bearded foreigners were here to maraud
and steal. They were barbarians. In other words, there were a few
of them, and they were clearly not a conquering army. Their interest was
probably just in plundering all that they could. Once the foreigners had gathered all
they could carry outa Hualpa, no doubt reasoned, then they surely would just
take their booty and leave. In fact, these foreigners, these barbarians,
didn't even seem to hide what they were trying to do. They were excited
about the mere idea of gold. Atahualpa probably frowned a little at their lack
of sophistication, and then assumed he knew what he had to do. In
fact, the spaniards behavior probably reminded Ataqualpa of the behavior of the barbarians the
Incas had conquered in the eastern quarter of the empire. Those who inhabited the
dark, dense, claustrophobic jungle and seemed to have a fascination for almost any
sort of manufactured good the Incas could show them. So the biggest question in
Atahualpa's mind was almost certainly how could he hasten these savage's departure and how could
he, in the meantime, stay alive and regain his own freedom. Having
spent the last five years ruling as the de facto empire of the northern half
of the Inca Empire, making decisions on a daily basis and deciding which problems
had to be addressed and how they might be overcome, Atahualpa, not surprisingly
quickly and decisively came up with a solution to the predicament. Motioning to one
of the interpreters into Pizarro, the emperor walked into one of the rooms of
the Temple of the Sun. He took a piece of chalk from the ground,
and he drew a white line on the wall, reaching up well over
his head to do so. Turning to Pissaro, Atahualpa told the old conquistador
a quarter of a century older than himself, that he knew why the Spaniards
had come, and that he Atahualpa would present them with all the gold and
silver obs they wished if Pissaro would spare his life. According to one eyewitness
quote, the governor that's Pizarro asked him how much he would give him in
what span of time. Antahwappa said he would give him a room full of
gold that measured twenty two feet long by seventeen feet y, filled to a
white line, the one that he had just drewn halfway up its height,
which from what he said, be over eight feet high. He also said
that he would fill the room to this height with various pieces of gold,
jars, pots, plates, and other objects that would fill the entire hut
twice with silver, and that he would do all this within twelve months end
quote. Most of the gold and silver objects were in Cusco, Antihuappa explained,
and it would take him about a year to collect them. Pissaro was
amazed by Antahwappa's sudden offer. In all of his third years in the West
Indies, he'd never heard of a native chief who had made such a proposition.
Clearly a room full of gold would make this latest expedition an instant and
dramatic financial success. And if such a quantity of gold were so easy to
produce, then clearly Pizzaro had found a veritable gold mine. But was Atahualpa
telling the truth or was he simply stalling for time? You know, he
had disbanded his army, but he still commanded technically army's numbering perhaps one hundred
thousand men spread out across the empire. Perhaps if Attahualpa played for time,
perhaps if he could just stay alive, and he might be able to get
himself into a better position when he could use that military force. And it's
worth noting Pizzaro really didn't understand the vast dimensions of the empire. He had
invaded, one that enclosed probably about three times the land mass of modern Spain
and was twice its population. If wata Huelpa's offer, however, provided strong
evidence that the empire must be vast, the emperor's next answer confirmed it.
Pissaro asked him, well, how long will it take your messengers to get
to the city of Cusco, Pissaro asked, and then he watched Adahuolpa's expression
intently as the translator converted Spanish into the Inco language. Quote. Atahualpa replied
that when he needed a message delivered in a hurry, that the messengers run
in relays from village to village, that the message arrives in Cusco in five
days. But if the men who start with a message go the whole way,
they'll they be swift men. They will take fifteen days end quote.
Upon further questioning, Atahualpa explained that Cusco lay at the midpoint of his empire,
couriers running in relays from sun up to sundown would still take twenty to
forty days to cover the length of his kingdom. For the first time,
Pizzaro might have begun to wrap his mind around just what a massive empire this
was. To put it into perspective, Spain from east to west is about
six hundred and seventy miles from north to south, the Inca empire was over
two thousand, five hundred miles long, about four times the length of Spain,
Shelving the sheer size of the empire. For a moment, Pizzaro ordered
some of the notaries with the expedition to draw up the terms of Atahualpa's offer.
Of course, there is a certain irony in this, given that neither
man Pissaro or Atahualpa could read Spanish. For the illiterate Pisaro, it might
as well have been written in Chinese characters. But early modern Spain was becoming
increasingly de litigious, so it seemed like the smart move. None of that
Pisaro ever intended to carry through with his end of the bargain. Atahualpa was
never going to be a free man again. Look, if the emperor could
provide these rooms full of gold and silver, well, great, we'll get
that in writing. He might be worth keeping alive a bit longer then.
But Pissaro would waste no time murdering the Incan emperor as soon as he was
no longer of use. For his part, the great tragedy of Atahualpa's story
is that he never grasped until it was too late the Spaniard's real intentions.
They didn't want his golden goblets or statues because they were shiny. They did
not want them because of some level of prestige the mere possession of them might
bring in a tribal society. No, they wanted them because in one of
those too good to be true coincidences, it turned out that the precious metals
coveted by one society in this case the Inca, were also by another,
in this case the Europeans. Back in Europe, a pound of gold could
be exchanged for one hundred and twenty ducats, no questions asked. Moreover,
Atahulpa badly misinterpreted, a Spanish desire for gold is something temporary, something that
could be sated. To get an eye idea of what one hundred and twenty
ducats was worth. The average salary of a Spanish sailor in the fifteen thirties,
who I should not risk his life at sea was fifty or sixty ducats
per year, about half a pound of gold. With four pounds of gold
one could buy an entire caravel ship in Spain. Ten pounds of gold could
be converted into twelve hundred ducats, the equivalent of twenty backbreaking years of labor
at see if you live that long. It was no wonder then the Spaniard's
eyes widened so much when De Soto and his men returned with their loot of
gold and silver, goblets, plates and statues, After all, if this
is what Attahualpa possessed in his camp, can you imagine what else must pay
out there now. On the other hand, if we're talking in terms of
value, the Inca Empire never adopted a monetary system. Gold was the color
of the sun. That is why the Inca valued it. It was never
an item of exchange. Silver was the color of the moon and likewise venerated.
These metals were religious in nature. Using them to buy something would have
been utterly absurd for the Inca. Making another blunder, Attahuallpa issued an order
send all available gold and silver objects to him and Kajamarca Joski Runners, the
messengers of the Inca court, dutifully took the royal decree as fast as they
could through the empire. Simultaneously, Pizarro sent his own order back to the
eighty or some men that he had left at San Miguel, the town he
intended to establish on the coast. He told them to send word of their
victory to Panama to request reinforcements. A sap Zara was quickly realizing that he
needed a significantly larger force to conquer such a large and populous empire. He
also realized the force he had was woefully inadequate for the job. He needed
more men, and he needed them now. Weeks passed, but eventually a
slow trickle of gold and silver objects began showing up in Kajamarca. One Spanish
notary wrote quote, and thus on some days twenty thousand and others thirty thousand,
fifty or sixty thousand pace soste auro gold would arrive in the form of
large pictures and jars of from two or three robas fifty to seventy five in
size, and large silver pitchers and jars, and many other vessels. The
governor ordered all of it to be placed in a building where Atahualpa had his
guards to keep it more safely. The Governor Pesaro placed Christians to guard it
day and night, and as it was being placed in the building, all
of it was counted so that there would be no fraud end quote. The
Spaniards carefully weighed each object. Remember, King Charles is entitled to his royal
fifth, so getting the weight right was a matter of huge importance. Each
object was weighed and had that weight converted into pasos, one of Spain's standard
units of measurement. One paso weighed one fifth of an ounce of gold,
So if we returned the notary's letter for a moment, thirty to sixty thousand
pasos of gold per day meant that three hundred to six hundred thousand pounds of
gold were pouring into Kaja Marka every single day. Pissaro did not have to
be literates to know that he and his comrades were about to be very rich
men. Indeed, now Ta Hualpa gave the green light to all of this
in the forlorn hope that Pissaro might one day let him go. He hoped
his kindness and generosity would be repaid. The emperor, however, was not
nearly magnanimous with his own brother, Uscar, he was still around at this
point. No Ta Hualpa considered his captured brother to be his only competitor for
the throne. Thus, even though Uscar was now his prisoner, as long
as he was alive, Uscar remained a threat. The Spaniards Atahualpa no doubt
believed we're going to leave, and hopefully would do so very soon. When
they did, Atahualpa wanted to make sure that his position as emperor remained unchallenged.
Shortly after Atahualpa was captured by the Spaniards, messengers had informed him that
his brother was only a few days march away, having been brought there as
a prisoner under an armed escort. By this time, almost all of Uscar's
family line had been thoroughly exterminated. Having been witnessed to the brutal murders of
his wife, children, and all his relatives, Uscar must have realized that
he was now being led to what could only be a grizzly execution. According
to one account, quote, Uscar, after being taken prisoner, was abominably
treated. Rotten maize, bitter herbs, and yama dung were given to him
to eat. His cap was filled with Yama's piss, and his natural desire
was mocked by putting him to bed with a long stone dressed up as a
woman end quote. Through his interpreters, Pizzarro also learned of the impending arrival
of the rival Inca emperor and looked forward to having him too in captivity.
The only other real claimant to the Inca throne. Usgar in captivity would mean
that he has two Inca emperors under his control, thus increasing his power over
the central and southern portions of the empire. Aunt Huappa had begun his struggle
while initially controlling only about ten percent of the Inca Empire in what is now
northern Ecuador, while Hugh Scar had begun controlling the other ninety percent. During
those five years of the civil war, the percentages had changed until by the
end Usgar's control was zero. Unbeknownst to Pizarro, Aunta Huappa had sent secret
messengers to intercept his brother's escort about two hundred miles south of Kaja Marca.
Inca soldiers murdered Huascar and tossed his body into a river. Rather than release
his brother and ask him to help organize a national resistance against the bearded invaders,
Atahualpa instead allowed traditional dynastic politics to take precedence. Ironically, a captive
Inca emperor had decided it was more important to protect his throne from his brother
than it was to protect that same throne from this group of foreign invaders.
Confident that the Spaniards would soon leave, Atahualpa apparently believed that now that his
brother was dead, his own control of the empire was finally complete. Misguided
though that belief was bizarro I guess surprisingly accepted Atahualpa's explanation for Huascar's sudden death
that his brother's guards had murdered him without his orders. With only one inca
emperor left, and with that one as securely in his possession as was ever
increasing amount of gold. The important thing was that Pizzato was still able to
control the empire through Odahuapa, and for now that was still working. The
different lords were responding to the orders perfectly in kind, and so I ain
no doubt. Pizzato shrugged and thought, well, oh well, one less
emperor to worry about. Toward the Spaniards, Attahuapa continued to behave socially.
In fact, he behaved like he was just a run of the mill captive,
trying to get on as best he could in his situation. There were
no imperial pretenses here. Among the Spaniards, Attahuapa was good, vivial,
I mean, even cheerful. Frankly, the Spaniards might have been the only
people to ever meet the real da Waalpa. As sad as that might sound,
the man stripped away from all the pretenses of power. For their part,
Pizzaro and his men were happy to let their captive emperor live a life
of luxury. He had his usual servants, etc. Etc. And only
difference was that Pizaro made all the major state decisions. Howdahualpa had become a
figurehead emperor for a moment. Everyone was happy with the status. Quod Wualapa,
in fact, amazed the Spaniards, who often marveled over this supposed barbarian's
display of reason and logic. One notary road quote after he was a prisoner,
the Spaniards who listened to him were astounded defines so much wisdom in a
barbarian. The emperor is the wisest and most capable native who had ever been
seen. He likes to learn about things we possess to such an extent that
he plays chess very well. But having this man in our power entire land
is calm end quote. And the Spaniards couldn't help but be dazzled by Atahualpa's
royal treatment, by the fact that he was weighted on hand and foot by
numerous beautiful women, most of whom were his concubines. Pedro Pizzaro, who
is only eighteen years old at the time reports quote. The ladies brought him
his meal and placed it before him on delicate green rushes. They placed all
the dishes of gold, silver, and earthenware, and he Atahualpa, pointed
at whatever appealed to him, who was brought over one of the ladies,
taking it and holding it in her hand while he ate. One day,
while I was present and he was eating in this manner, a slice of
food was being lifted to his mouth when a drop fell on to the clothing
he was wearing. Giving his hand to the Indian lady, he rose and
went into his chamber to change his clothes, then returned wearing a tunic and
a dark brown cloak. I approached him and felt the cloak, which was
softer than silk, and said to him, inca, what is this robe
made of that it is so soft. He replied that it was from the
skins of vampire bats that fly by night, and put at the viejo in
Tumbez that these bite the natives end quote. The bats were actually something of
I guess fascination to Pedro, because he continued to Pepper the Emperor about questioning
them over and over again. The next day, Pizzaro's young cousin accompanied him
to a royal storehouse filled with trunks made of dark leather quote I Pedro Pizzaro
asked him what the trunks contained, and he showed me in some of them
which they kept everything that Atahualpa had touched with his hands, and that the
clothes he had even thrown away. Some contained the rushes that they had placed
before his feet when he ate, and others were the bones of the meat
or the birds he had eat In others the cores of the ears of corn
he had been helding in his hands. In short, within those trunks was
everything that he had ever touched. I asked him why they kept all this
there. They told me that it was in order to burn it, because
every year what had been touched by the Inca emperor, who was the son
of the Sun had to be burned, reduced to ashes, and thrown into
the air, and then no one was ever allowed to touch it. And
quote November turned to December and the end of fifteen thirty two, a year
to forget if you were out to Hualpa. True near Yet the gold and
silver objects, though piling up, had not reached the line The Incan emperor
had drawn on the wall out Tohuallpa, impatient for his release, suggested to
Bizarro that he said some of his troops to Cusco in order to supervise the
collecting of the ransom. Pizzaro, though knowing that Ottahuallpa had two armies in
the south and another in the north, was reluctant to divide up his forces
for fear of an attack. Pizzaro agreed to send the three men, but
also reminded Atahuallpa about the nature of their relationship. If anything should happen to
the three Spaniards, he warned the emperor, and he would have to have
him killed. Atahualpa reassured Pisaro, offering to provide an Inca noble, a
number of native soldiers and also porters who could carry the three Spaniards on royal
letters. Pizarro then met with the men, ordering them to take possession of
the city of Cusco in the name of the king, and to do so
in the presence of the notary, who was to draw up a legal document
to that effect. He then gave the three orders to carefully behave themselves,
to do nothing other than what the incas accompanying them did not wish so that
they would not be killed. Their mission was to reconnoiter the conditions and the
terrain to the south, to help with the collection of the treasure in Cuscope,
and to bring back a full and detailed report of everything that they saw.
Nothing less, nothing more. What these men saw, I'm sure amazed
them. These were the first Europeans to witness an untouched Andean world, one
with the thriving civilization in all its color and scarcely understood complexity. Everything would
have been new to them, new plants, new animals, people's villages,
mountains, languages, so on and so forth. According to one notary quote,
all the steep mountains have stairways of stone. One of the greatest works
of the Conquista doors witnessed in this land were the roads. Most of the
people on these mountain slopes live on hill in high mountains. Their houses are
of stone and earth, and there are many houses in each village. Along
the road. Every four to seven miles are found the houses built for the
purpose of allowing the lords to rest while they were out visiting and inspecting their
realm. In every seventy miles there are important cities, capitals of the provinces
to which the smaller cities brought the tribute, which they paid with corn,
clothes, and other things. All these large cities have storehouses full of things
that are harvested from the land. Because it is very cold, little corn
is harvested except in specially designated places. There are plenty of vegetables and roots
with which the people sustain themselves. There are also wild turnips, potatoes.
Actually, there are many herds of sheep yamas in alpacas. There's a certain
part of each province set aside for these herds to winter in. The people,
as I've said, are very light and intelligent, and always go about
dressed with footwear. They eat cooked and raw corn, and drink a lot
of chica, which is a beverage made from corn that is very much like
beer. The people are very friendly and very obedient, yet warlike. They
have many weapons of diverse sorts. As has been told end like Cortez's men
who saw the first glimpse of Tenushchiklan, these three travelers who finally arrived in
Cusco would have been stunned by what they beheld. Whose goal was nestled on
a hillside that opened into a broad valley. At approximately eleven thousand, three
hundred feet above sea level, the Inca's mountain capital appeared like some sort of
medieval town in the Swiss Alps. According to one quote, the city is
the greatest and finest that has ever been seen in this realm, or even
in the Indies. And we can assure your Majesty Charles the fifth, that
it is so beautiful, unless such fine buildings, that it would even be
remarkable in Spain. Writing about the different houses, here's one account quote.
It is full of the palaces of lords. The plaza is a square,
and the greater part of it is flat and paved with small stones. Around
it are the four palaces of lords, which are the main ones in the
city. They are painted and carved and are made of stone, and the
best of them is the house of Juanna Kabak, a former chief. The
gateway there is of red, white and multi colored marble. On the heights.
About the city, the Spaniards saw a fortress with three towers which resemble
a European castle. The visitors used sign language to point and kind of ask
what it was. Eventually they found out that it meant a fortress of the
satisfied falcon. According to one description, quote upon the hill, which is
rounded and very steep, there's a beautiful fortress of earth and stone. It's
large windows which look over the city make it even more beautiful. And many
Spaniards who have been in Lombardy and another kingdoms say they've never seen another building
like this fortress, nor more powerful castle. Due one side of this fortress
was protected by a huge stone wall composed of rocks of gargantuan sides thirty tons
more or less. Somehow, the Inca, again without beasts of burden,
cut and moved them into place elsewhere in the city. As the Spaniards wandered
about, they stared get the curious inhabitants, whose cotton and alpaca wool,
tunics and headbands, as well as hairstyles indicated their rank and what part of
the empire they came from. Everywhere they looked, the Spaniards saw finally constructed
stone walls lining the streets, walls that exhibited the most remarkable craftsmanship that the
Spanish had ever seen. Examining the stones of one bridge, Pedro Piscaro later
recounted, quote, they are so close together and so well fitted that the
point of a pain could not have been inserted in any of the joints end
quote. Some of the Spaniards actually said, not even the Romans would have
been able to make roads and bridges this strong, this perfect. Cusco is
the royal hub of the Incan Empire. It was a city designed to portray
state power in the most ostentatious way possible. The three men instructed to take
possession of Cusco, and in the name of King Charles, did so with
the usual flourish drafting an extensive legal document explaining to everyone present what was going
on. Unfortunately, no one but the notary who draft of the document could
read it. What really caught the trio's attention, however, from the moment
that they looked down on the capitol after crossing the final crest of the hills,
was that certain buildings seemed to burn as brightly as the sun, as
if the buildings themselves had been dipped into a golden fire. After some investigation,
they discovered that, sure enough, quote, these buildings were sheathed on
the side where the sun rises with large plates of gold. They said,
there was so much gold in all the buildings of the city that it was
a marvelous thing that they would have brought much more of it if it had
not detained them longer, because they were alone and two hundred and fifty leagues
from other Christians. End quote. One of Atahualpa's captains and commanders, General
Kiskis, presently occupied the capital with thirty thousand troops. Now it's worth noting
at this point that these troops are not native to Cuscu. These troops are
actually from the north and region that is today Aquado. Our general Kiskis was
more or less an occupying army, and so the locals of Cusco didn't necessarily
look well on him. He was a victorious Incan general in a civil war,
but he gave the Spaniards a decidedly cool reception. Would you blame him?
Still, without a direct order from Attahuallpa, there was little to nothing
the veteran general Kiskis could do. The Spaniards were, to a large extent,
to the natives of Cusco, and to the general himself, rather unimpressive.
Consider this Souris quote. To our Indian eyes, the Spaniards looked as
if they were shrouded like corpses. Their faces were covered with wool, leaving
only the eyes visible, and the camps that they wore resembled little red pots
on top of their heads. Sometimes they also decorated their heads with plumes.
Their swords appeared very long, since they had to be carried with the points
turned in a backward direction. They were all dressed alike and talked together like
brothers and ate at the same table. End quote. Now if very appearance
was disturbing to some of the Inca, how they behaved, especially when they
got to the Temple of the Sun, Well, that left a lot wanting.
Two sailors, two of the three who were along, oblivious to Inca
culture and concern only with immediate plunder, entered the Temple of the Sun in
their shabby leather boots and pushed right past the stunned temple priests. They soon
discovered that the temple was lined inside and out with abandoned sheets of gold.
The notary who was along described what happened next quote. The Christians went to
the buildings and with no aid from the Indians, who refused to help,
saying that it was the temple of the Sun, and they would die.
The Christians decided to strip the ornaments away with some copper crowbars, and so
they did. End quote. The Spaniards then began crying off the golden sheets,
piling them up outside like scrap metal before a group of horrified onlookers and
furious priests. Eventually, on May the thirteenth, fifteen thirty three, after
an absence of nearly three months and a journey of about twelve hundred miles,
the first of these three Spaniards arrived back in Kashamarka, still being carried on
a royal litter. The two Spanish left behind evidently were shepherding a vast procession
of one hundred and seventy eight loads of gold and silver, each load carried
on a type of stretcher borne by four native porters. In all, more
than a thousand porters labored northward, plus Yama's carrying provisions. Once they had
arrived back in Kashamarca, the three travelers found Pizarro's camp much changed. Diago
de Almagro, Pizzarro's one time ally, had arrived a month earlier. Al
Magro had marched up into the Andes and had joined Pizardo with a force of
one hundred and fifty three men, including fifty new horses, leaving six ships
behind. Almargo's sudden arrival had apparently the effect of crushing Attahuallpa psychologically, as
ever since his captured five months earlier, the Emperor had been waiting for the
Spaniards to leave. With a sudden ear doubling of Pisardo's forces and the arrival
of so many fresh horses and men, the message was now as clear to
him as was the information spread across the colored knots of the Inca keepie the
message system. Watching the newly arrived Spaniards greedily looking at the room full of
gold, and excitedly tatting amongst themselves, Atahualpa, no doubt realized that he
had been played for a fool. Far from being a small party of marauders
preparing to leave with their plunder, these Spaniards now appeared to be readying themselves
for a full scale invasion of his empire. Trying to confirm Pizzaro's true intentions,
Atahualpa, and one of his chiefs asked Pizzaro at one point of leaning
question, how are the peasants in the Inca empire are going to be divided
among the Spaniards, they asked, when Pizzaro said, without thinking that every
Spaniard was going to be granted a native chief, which meant that every Spaniard
was going to control an entire native community. Atahualpa's plans for assuming the Inca
throne were dashed upon the rocks. I think it's fitting to end today of
the final quote from Pedro Pisaro, who was present and watching all this,
He wrote as follows, when Almagro and these men arrived at Hualpa, became
anxious and feared that he was going to die. Upon hearing Francisco Pisaro's reply
that the leader of the foreign invaders intended to divide up the empire amongst his
followers Atahualpa, simply uttered, then I shall die as always. If you've
enjoyed the show, you can check out more content in teaching resources at the
website Western CIP podcast dot com. If you are interested in supporting the show
for one dollar a month, check out the link Patreon dot com, forward
slash Western SIP Podcast, and you can give Western Civ two point zero a
free seven day trial with the final link glow dot FM, forward slash Western