The Golden Empire: Spain, Charles V, and the Creation of America

by Hugh Thomas

  The Spaniards reached Cuzco after a journey of two months.8 They were lodged in a round-towered palace known as that of Huayna Capac (it was later replaced by the Jesuit building). They found a great deal of treasure. The Peruvian general Quizquiz had thirty thousand men in the capital. Another general, Chalcuchima, was at Jauja with thirty-five thousand men. Atahualpa had asked these soldiers to guarantee the safety of the Spaniards on their journey. He had also ordered that the gold was to be taken from the temple of the sun in the capital, though nothing that had anything to do with Huayna Capac was to be touched. The Spaniards who were there removed seven hundred gold plates from the temple with crossbars which they had brought with them. Each plate was about three or four handsbreadths long; each weighed four and a half pounds.9 The Spaniards also seized a sacrificial gold altar weighing 19,000 pesos and a gold fountain weighing 12,000 pesos.10 Of course, they did not neglect to take possession formally of Cuzco—“the navel of the world,” as it was known in Quechua—in the great name of the emperor Charles.

  Yet one more expedition was that of Hernando Pizarro to Pachacamac, passing near what would become the city of Lima. He arrived on February 5, 1533. There was a large temple there on top of a stepped pyramid of adobe. He was accompanied by two of Atahualpa’s captains, who told the conquistadors of the whereabouts of this temple.11 Miguel de Estete recalled the shrine in the heart of the temple being a small room of cane wattle characterized by posts decorated with gold and silver leaf. But on top of the pyramid was a rough, small, dirty cavern such as the conquistadors in New Spain had encountered on the summit of the pyramids in Mexico-Tenochtitlan. There was a post in the center of the cavern, on top of which there had been placed the uncouth head of a man. Hernando Pizarro seized a quantity of gold from there, then destroyed the shrine. But he also spent some time looking for further treasure that he believed had been hidden in the vicinity. He apparently had the support of Atahualpa for these actions, since the Inca was angry with the priests and gods of Pachacamac because they had falsely predicted that Huayna Capac would recover from his last illness, that Huascar would defeat Atahualpa, and that Atahualpa himself would be well advised to fight, not to welcome, the Christians.12

  This journey was of considerable importance, for in the course of it, Hernando Pizarro found sweet potatoes for the first time, saw holes in the ground being made by foot-powered plows, and observed thatched huts and terraces in the valley. Returning, he encountered the Peruvian general Chalcuchima at Jauja. They had several hours of conversation. Hernando explained that Atahualpa himself wanted Chalcuchima to return with him. The general said that if he were to leave Jauja, the place would declare for Huascar. But the next day, Chalcuchima unwisely changed his mind and agreed to go to Cajamarca with Hernando.13

  These Spaniards also traveled in hammocks carried by Atahualpa’s Indians. These Indians at first gave the horses gold to eat, insisting that that was better for them than the iron bits to which they seemed accustomed. They also sometimes shod the horses with silver.14

  On their way back to Cajamarca with gold, Hernando Pizarro met Huascar Inca, now a prisoner of Atahualpa. Huascar greeted the Spaniards with enthusiasm and told them that if he had been the victor in the civil war, not Atahualpa, he would have filled the room in Cajamarca to its top, not just up to the line that his brother could reach. Soon after that, Atahualpa had his brother Huascar killed, perhaps because, contrary to what he said to Soto, that prince claimed that some of the gold offered to the Spaniards was his. Pizarro by that time believed that Atahualpa was a bastard younger brother of Huascar.15

  The Spaniards who remained in Cajamarca became impatient. They passed the time gambling, seducing the virgins of the temple, and studying the Inca’s personality. They observed his grand habits.16 Some came to think the Inca “the most educated and capable Indian who had yet been seen in the Indies.” He “seemed very anxious to learn our ways,” wrote Licenciado Gaspar de Espinosa from Panama. Espinosa continued, “[He] even plays chess rather well [xuega al ajedrez harto bien]. By having him in our power, the whole land is calm.” But he was also cruel and intolerant.17

  The Spaniards saw that Atahualpa seemed to be convinced that he was a divine monarch, for he was “in constant touch with the sun, his father. He was guarded by women, he was surrounded by beautiful objects and he and everyone around him wore very fine, soft clothing.”18 Once Atahualpa challenged Pizarro to put up a powerful Spaniard who could wrestle and defeat one of his own giants: Alonso Díaz, a Spanish blacksmith, did so and “strangled the giant [only] with a great effort.”19 Who could say that the chivalrous novels were not being relived? One Spaniard gave Atahualpa a beautiful Venetian glass. Atahualpa admired it and said that surely nobody but kings would use such a thing in Spain. The donor said that not only kings but common people and lords also would use one. Atahualpa deliberately dropped the glass, which, of course, broke.20

  Though he was a captive, provincial leaders continued to call on Atahualpa. The nobility, the orejones (ear men), so called since they wore golden plugs in their ears, maintained their privileges: the right to chew coca; the use of special bridges and roads; fine cloths, good ornaments, and the company of beautiful ladies; and even permission for incest.21

  The gold for Atahualpa’s ransom from Cuzco and Pachacamac began to arrive, usually in large jars capable of carrying two arrobas worth, on some days 20,000 pesos, on others 30,000, occasionally even 60,000. Completion depended on the collection of sheets of gold from the temple of the sun at Cuzco. Sometimes the gold came shaped as exquisite or realistic stalks of maize, hibiscus blossoms, palm leaves, trees ripe with fruit, and even life-size deer.

  These shipments occurred at a fortunate moment for the expedition, since on April 15, Almagro, the lost ally, at last reached Cajamarca from Panama. He had 150 to 200 men with him, as well as fifty horses. He came angry, impatient, and restless. For he appeared at a time when it was too late for him to share in the spoils. Almagro’s new force settled down alongside the Pizarros’ experienced one, but they remained two separate undertakings with long-term difficulties between them. These were to fester.

  Ten days later, on April 25, Hernando Pizarro returned from Pachacamac, with a large caravan of treasure, bringing with him the tragic figure of the general Chalcuchima, who remained yet another prisoner of Pizarro. He was constantly asked for the whereabouts of his secret supply of gold; he denied that he had any such thing. The general was tortured by Soto, Riquelme, and Almagro, to no avail.22

  In early May, the melting down and assaying of the gold in Pizarro’s hands began. The total value counted in May 1532 was apparently more than one and a half million pesos’ worth, far more gold than had ever before been found in the Indies. Francisco Pizarro had decided that all but the King’s fifth would go to the 165 or so men of Cajamarca. The cavalry at Cajamarca would be allocated 8,000 pesos each, the infantry 4,000. Furious, Almagro argued that he and Francisco Pizarro should each take half of the whole and that then they should give to each of their followers 1,000 or 2,000 pesos.23 He got nowhere with these reasonable demands. Hernando Pizarro meantime busied himself with the organization of encomiendas, the details of which he arranged on May 8 with his majordomo.24 Hernando was always busy with his finances.

  In June, Pizarro’s division of the treasure followed. First, the hoard was divided into shares of 4,440 gold pesos and 181 silver marks, worth altogether 5,345 golden pesos (at that time a peso of gold was reckoned as being worth 450 maravedís). Indian smiths did the melting down of the priceless gold and silver objects in nine large forges under the direction of a notary from Córdoba, Gonzalo de Pineda, now a close adviser to Francisco Pizarro.

  More than eleven tons of precious metals were fed into the forges to produce eventually 13,420 pounds of twenty-two-and-a-half-karat gold and 26,000 pounds of silver. Much of this had been in the form of jewelry whose details are now lost. Two hundred and seventeen shares were carefully divided according to Pizarro’s j
udgment of the contributions of the individuals concerned. The rough idea was that an infantryman would receive one share, a cavalryman two, and captains more still. But, in the end, all was decided by a committee of repartidores headed by Francisco and Hernando Pizarro. This committee would include Pineda, the master of the forges; Pedro Díaz, a silversmith who weighed the silver, though he had not been himself in the fighting at Cajamarca; and two other captains, Hernando de Soto and Miguel de Estete, whom we have met as a chronicler. These men ensured that there would be no treasure for Almagro nor for any of his followers.

  The apportionment was nothing if not biased. Thus Francisco Pizarro received 13 shares, as well as “the governor’s jewel,” Atahualpa’s golden seat, worth 2 shares. Hernando Pizarro received 7 shares, Juan Pizarro 2½ shares, and his brother Gonzalo the same. All these allocations were enough to make the people concerned very rich. In round terms, a little more than 135 shares went to the 62 horsemen, 81 shares to 103 infantrymen. The Pizarro brothers received 24 shares out of the 217. Almost certainly some of the gold and silver allocations were left out of the calculations.25 Benalcázar had a small share, but no doubt he received more than was officially registered. Pizarro also divided the Indian chiefs’ and their vassals’ among his followers who were encamped at Cajamarca and whose lands would soon become encomiendas.

  Soon after the division of the treasure, Hernando Pizarro left Peru for Spain to tell of the great conquest that had been carried out. He took with him a substantial quantity of gold and silver and 100,000 castellanos for the King, which, his enemies were quick to point out, was less than half the royal fifth. He carried, too, thirty-eight beautiful vessels of gold and forty-eight of silver. He took also fifteen or twenty men with him: Francisco Pizarro prevented more from leaving on the ground that he could not afford their loss. Of those who were left, seven were older men and could not be expected to last long in Peru—though none was as old as Francisco Pizarro. One or two were sent home as possible critics or even enemies.26 Some who went back with Hernando did so for precisely opposite reasons: They were friends of the Pizarros and could help to propagate their cause.

  When Atahualpa heard that Hernando was returning to Spain, his heart sank. The Inca had just seen a large green-and-black comet, which he believed meant that his death was certain. He had been on easy terms with Hernando and believed that nothing would go wrong for him if he were still second-in-command. He had no such confidence in Almagro, nor in the royal treasurer, Alonso Riquelme. But though those men were unhelpful to Atahualpa’s cause, his downfall may have been due to the Peruvian interpreter Felipe. By that time, Atahualpa believed that he should be set free because, of course, the great “ransom” had been paid. At the very least, he said, he should be allowed to go to eat and drink with his subjects. But Felipe had apparently fallen in love with one of the Inca’s favorite ladies and wanted him out of the way for that reason. She was a certain Cuxirimay, whose name meant “very fair skinned and beautiful.” The interpreter now is said to have falsely alleged that the Inca was planning to escape and, with his surviving general in Quito, Rumiñavi, was organizing a new campaign against the Spaniards.

  Pizarro is believed to have taken this tale seriously. Sentries were doubled. Pizarro planned to go to Cuzco. But how would the Inca be guarded while the Spanish army was on its way? Could he be left with a guard in Cajamarca? Surely, that would be difficult to arrange. But to take Atahualpa to Cuzco would also have risks. Felipe was incompetent as an interpreter. He did not understand Christianity, and there were few direct translations of the holy words used in connection with it. Yet he was supposed to explain the Gospel to the Inca.

  Pizarro sent a small detachment of his followers toward Quito under the command of Soto, with the chronicler Estete and three other conquistadors. The aim of this little expedition was to see if Rumiñavi was really on his way with an army toward Cajamarca.27

  These adventurers would soon return with the news that there were no signs whatever of Rumiñavi being on the move. But in their absence, the rumors of Atahualpa’s “rebellion” grew in intensity. Almagro made no bones about being in favor of killing Atahualpa. Would this not be the easiest way out of the dilemma? But the Inca argued that the Spaniards were behaving foolishly, for there was not an Indian in the country whom they could hope to manage without his assistance. Since he, the Inca, was their prisoner, what did they fear? If the Spaniards were motivated by a desire for more gold (and Almagro, having been left out of the division of April, certainly was), he would give them twice what they had already received. Pedro Pizarro says that Atahualpa saw the governor (that is how Francisco Pizarro was now always designated) weep: He could not give Atahualpa his life, because he could neither be guarded indefinitely nor released.28

  The Inca submitted to a trial of a sort. Pizarro and Almagro were the judges. Sancho de Cuéllar, presumably a member of that astonishing family of conquistadors from the city of Diego Velázquez, was the notary. Atahualpa was then condemned to death by Pizarro, who, allegedly against his will, commanded that he should be killed by the garrote. After his death, his body was to be burned.29

  The Spaniards were divided about the wisdom of the sentence. At least fifty expeditionaries were hostile. Some of them had wanted the clever young lawyer Juan de Herrera as Atahualpa’s advocate.

  Atahualpa heard his sentence with resignation. He was told by the priest Valverde of the inestimable benefits he would encounter in Heaven, and how he would save his soul for eternity if he was to ask to be received as a Christian.

  On July 26, 1533, Atahualpa was brought into the center of the same main square of Cajamarca where he had been captured the previous year. Trumpets greeted him, and he was tied to a stake. Valverde briefly instructed him in the articles of the Christian faith. The Inca then formally requested baptism, which was administered to him by Valverde, who named him Francisco.30 Then he was garroted. Pedro Pizarro explained that Atahualpa had told his wives and other Peruvians that if he was not burned, he would eventually return to them. He left his small sons to be looked after by Pizarro. Afterwards, two of Atahualpa’s sisters “went about giving utterance to lamentations accompanied by the beating of drums and by singing and by accounts of their royal husband-brother.” They explained to Pedro Pizarro that since the Inca had not been burned, he would return to them. Pedro Pizarro told them that the dead do not return: “They wailed till all the chicha was drunk.”31 Almagro’s priest, Fray Morales, presided and took off Atahualpa’s headband indicating royalty.

  Pizarro organized a solemn funeral. The Inca was buried in the newly built church of Cajamarca. But the manner of his death excited an immediate argument. Soto, for example, when he returned from his journey to Quito, was furious that such an important decision should have been carried out in his absence. He said that he thought the dead emperor should have been sent alive to the emperor Charles. Espinosa, the clever governor in Panama, later wrote that the Inca’s guilt should have been established clearly before he was killed. He thought that it would have been better if he had been exiled to another Spanish territory: Panama, for example, where he could have been treated as if he had been a great noble of Castile.32 Others thought that it would have been easier to convert Peru to Christianity if the Inca had not been killed—if, indeed, his baptism had not been accompanied by the execution. Later, too, the emperor Charles wrote to Pizarro: “We note what you say about the execution of the cacique Atahualpa.” Charles accepted that Atahualpa had probably ordered a hostile mobilization. Nevertheless, he wrote: “We have been displeased by the death of Atahualpa since he was a monarch and particularly since it was done in the name of justice.”33

  22

  News of Peru

  I reached this port of Sanlúcar today, Wednesday, January 14, from New Castile which is the land which Francisco Pizarro conquered on behalf of Your Majesty. I have to inform Your Majesty of what has been done in that country to serve you. I bring for Your Majesty your share, some
100,000 castellanos [of gold] and five million of silver.

  HERNANDO PIZARRO

  In the winter of 1533 to 1534, the standing of the Spanish empire in the New World had at first seemed low in comparison with Naples, the Netherlands, and Milan. Charles the Emperor and King was, however, in Monzón in December with the cortes of Aragon, which always met in that remote valley. The meeting lasted so long that neither King nor court could leave till the last day of the year.

  The Council of the Indies told the Emperor that, in La Española, the reinvigorated Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, now an active Dominican, was refusing absolution to encomenderos on grounds of their heretical status. He was emerging from several years of retreat in his monastery.

  They also informed Charles that Las Casas had persuaded a colonist on his deathbed to leave his goods to the Indians as restitution for past wrongs. In Cuba, there was a rising of black slaves in the region of Bayamo. In New Spain, the supreme court was in control, for a viceroy had not been named. The condition of the new realm was much superior to what it had been under Guzmán, and there was a large Spanish population, but it was difficult to imagine the place’s future.

  Some aggressive expeditions were still proceeding. For example, in October 1533, Jerónimo Dortal, veteran of Ordaz’s journey on the Orinoco, who had up till then been responsible for a small stretch of the coast of Venezuela, filled three ships with men in Spain, and with horses and weapons bought in the Canaries, and set out, aiming to pass by the Gulf of Paria and, first sailing up the Orinoco, reach the extraordinary river Meta. Dortal was convinced that this was the route to the world of gold that he thought of as El Dorado.1