by Ralph Bauer
How I, Don Diego de Castro Titu Cusi Yupanqui, made peace with the Spaniards and subsequently became a Christian, thanks to God, whom we used to call Viracocha
Above I have explained briefly and succinctly why my father Manco Inca Yupanqui was the natural ruler of these kingdoms of Peru, the manner in which the Spaniards intruded into his country, and how and why he resisted them—the reason being their many abuses—as well as the course and end of his life. Here I want to relate how I’ve fared since his days and of the manner in which I’ve converted to Christianity and made peace with the Spaniards. It was a blessing of God that the governor licentiate Don Lope García de Castro then ruled and administered these kingdoms of Peru. This is how it happened.
At the time when the Marquis de Cañete was the viceroy of these kingdoms of Peru,83 he sent me a padre from the Dominican order in this land where I live in order to negotiate with me about my removal to Cuzco. The padre announced that the viceroy had orders from the emperor Don Carlos that obligated him to treat me according to my rank if I were to leave my land and convert to Christianity. But then I remembered the treatment that the Spaniards had accorded to my father when they were in Cuzco with him, as well as the orders that he had given us upon his death and I thought that the same could happen to me. For this reason, I did not want to consent to the proposal that the padre, a certain brother Melchor de los Reyes, who had been sent in this matter, and his companion, a certain Juan Sierra, conveyed on behalf of the viceroy. But in order to see whether what the padre and his companion said was true, I sent a few of my captains along with the said padre to the marquis, so that they could clarify this matter. I conveyed my intention that I would send one of my brothers in my place if what they were saying was true. He would be able to test the Spaniards’ way of life and report to me how they were conducting themselves toward him. If their conduct was good, I would follow later.
A year later, the said padre and my captains returned and confirmed everything. When I saw that such a person [as important as the marquis] was begging me so insistently and gave me such credible confirmation that my needs would be taken care of, I sent my brother Saire Topa, after having instructed him on how to conduct himself. As soon as this was done, he went with the said padre to the viceroy, who assigned to him the valley of Yucay and other tracts [repartimientos] for his sustenance, where he died a Christian.84 When I learned of his death, I was very upset, for I thought that the Spaniards had murdered him as they had already murdered my father. I spent several days worrying about this until they sent me the licentiate Polo with Martín de Pando, who has stood by my side as my notary to this day, and Juan de Betanzos from Cuzco with the news that my brother Saire Topa had died a natural death. After I had acknowledged this news, I kept Martín de Pando in my land and let Juan de Betanzos return with my answer.85 I stayed there for several days until I had another visit from several messengers who had been sent on behalf of the Count of Nieva, who had succeeded the Marquis de Cañete as viceroy, with a proposal for peace. This proposal was the same as the one the marquis had sent, and I answered that I was ready to make peace if they returned some of the lands of my father that the king had appropriated. Thus, the messengers went off with this answer.
I think that the Spaniards’ efforts for peace had one of three possible causes: because they knew that I continuously made raiding expeditions into their lands and abducted a great number of the inhabitants; or because the king had ordered what his conscience told him to do, considering what he had obtained from my father; or perhaps because they wanted to have me close by them in their land in order to make sure that I wouldn’t cause them any more harm. As I was not indoctrinated with regard to matters concerning the faith, it did not occur to me then as it does to me now that the most important reason may have been their desire to convert me to Christianity. Only now, after the fathers have explained it to me, do I understand that this was one of the reasons and the most important one.
After the said messengers who had come on behalf of the Count of Nieva had left, the treasurer García de Melo came with the same request. He asked me to discontinue hostilities and to refrain from raiding expeditions so that the Spaniards may have peace, saying that the king would compensate me if I allowed missionaries to come to my land in order to preach the word of God. I answered his request—which was to discontinue hostilities, not to harm the Indians, and not to harass the Spaniards—by promising to keep the peace unless they gave me reason to do otherwise and that the proof of it would be in the facts. With regard to his request to allow priests into my land, I answered that I knew nothing of that business, that the first thing was to make peace and that thereafter one could still do what seemed right. This was the answer with which the treasurer Melo left the first time.86
At the time when this back and forth between Cuzco and my land was going on, a certain doctor by the name of Cuenca, His Majesty’s auditor [oidor], was the royally appointed judge [corregidor] of Cuzco. One day a group of Indians, who had been assigned to Nuño de Mendoza and who lived on the banks of a river called Acobamba, ran away because of the abuses to which the Spanish overseer had subjected them. They crossed the border into my land in order to pay tribute to me as their master. When the doctor Cuenca heard of this, he thought that I had forcefully abducted the Indians and wrote me a very rude letter in which he demanded that I return the Indians to their master or else he would wage a war on me more savage than any that had ever been seen. When I saw this letter, I was very upset and responded that I was innocent of the things of which I was accused but that I was always ready for war any time they might come, if that’s what they wanted. In my anger, I prepared my people for this possibility and ordered that scouts be positioned all over the place, so that those who wished me evil would not be able to approach unnoticed. The said doctor Cuenca never responded to me in this matter, so I went to the road that he would have to take in order to find out whether he was intent on going through with the campaign he had announced. I brought more than five hundred Indians from various places back from this expedition and returned calmly home. Having arrived there, I received a letter from the said doctor Cuenca. It had been written in Lima but I don’t know how it reached me. In it, he offered his services and asked me to let bygones be bygones.
Thereafter, the treasurer García de Melo appeared once again with a dispatch from Your Excellency.87 He counseled me to go ahead with what I had already proposed to him, which was to marry my son Don Felipe Quispe Titu with his cousin Doña Beatriz. Thus, we came to an agreement on how to make peace, and later he and I sealed it in Acobamba with Your Majesty’s mandate.88 As witnesses of this event, we brought His Majestry’s appointees Diego Rodríguez as judge [corregidor] and Martín de Pando as secretary. As Your Excellency is in possession of an extensive account of this and can present it to His Majesty, I will not mention here any details about the manner in which this agreement and treaty came about or about anything else.
After all, Your Excellency is Yourself the author of this arrangement—beginning with the meeting at Chuquichaca and the arrival of Hernando Matienzo up to my conversion and baptism. But I wanted to make sure that His Majesty will learn from me personally that Your Excellency has been the principal cause of this.
When Your Excellency sent me Diego Rodríguez in order to serve as the corregidor in my land, I accepted him, as you know, because he had been sent by Your Excellency and because I realized that this was necessary in order to accomplish peace. After all, I had committed myself to this peace with the king, our lord, and his vassals. I have kept the peace in every respect. First, I have received the auditor [oidor] and licentiate Matienzo at the Chuquichaca bridge and gave him information about certain things that were happening in my country; second, I permitted priests to come into my country so that they could instruct me and my people in things relating to God, as for example in the case of the padre Vera,89 who had been sent by Your Excellency. He baptized my son Don Felipe Quispe Titu and sta
yed in my land for almost a year and a half before leaving it upon the arrival of the Augustinian monks, who came to baptize me.
He can also give testimony with regard to this peace and confirm everything relating to the renunciation that I made to Your Excellency in the name of His Majesty about all of my kingdoms and possessions, not more or less than my father used to own. So much was concluded by the treasurer Melo in Acobamba but all of which I omit here since Your Excellency is a witness and main actor in these affairs. Moreover, this is the manner in which I have hitherto kept—and am still keeping—the Christian faith. As Your Excellency has asked me in so many letters to become a Christian because it would be beneficial for maintaining the peace, I attempted to get information from Diego Rodríguez and Martín de Pando about who among the monks in Cuzco was the most outstanding personality and which religion enjoyed the widest approbation and power. They explained to me that the mightiest, most respected, and most flourishing religion was that of the Lord St. Augustine and his prior. In other words, the prior of the monks of this particular order residing in Cuzco had the most outstanding personality among all the monks of Cuzco. As I heard and understood this to be so, I became more attached to this order and religion than to any other and decided to write a number of letters to this prior asking him to come personally in order to baptize me, for I preferred him to any other for my baptism, given that he was such an outstanding personality. He, being a very honorable monk, did me the favor of coming into my country in order to baptize me. He also brought another monk, as well as Gonzalo Pérez de Vivero and Tilano de Anaya.90 They arrived in the town of Rayangalla on 12 August 1568. I came there from Vilcabamba in order to be baptized, for I assumed that this was the reason why they had come. The said prior, fray Juan de Vivero,91 his companion, and the others remained in that town of Rayangalla for fourteen days in order to instruct me in the matters of faith. Thereafter, on the day of the glorious doctor St. Augustine, the said prior baptized me. Gonzalo Pérez de Vivero was my godfather and Doña Angelina Sisa Ocllo my godmother. After the baptism, the said prior remained there for eight more days in order to strengthen my knowledge in all the things relating to our Holy Catholic faith and to teach me about its things and mysteries. After all of this had been done, the said prior departed with Gonzalo Pérez de Vivero and left me in the care of one of his companions by the name of fray Marcos García, who was supposed to give me further guidance on the things that the prior had taught me and to preach and teach the word of God also to my people.92 Before they left, however, I explained to my Indians the reasons why I had let myself be baptized and why I had called these people into my country, as well as the benefits that people derived from baptism and why the said padre had remained in our land. They all responded that they were glad that I had been baptized and that the padre would remain in our land, saying that they would soon follow to do the same, since that was the reason for which the padre was in our land.
Two months after the prior had departed, the said padre in Rayangalla had begun to teach the faith and had already baptized a few infants with the permission of their parents. Then he decided to visit the land beyond the mountain passages of Huamanga with Martín de Pando. He remained there for a period of four months, performing the same services and putting up crosses and churches. He passed through eight towns, building churches in three of them and erecting crosses in the rest. All together, he baptized ninety infants. After he had finished with that and had left boys there who were to teach the Word, he returned to the said town of Rayangalla, where he remained alone for seven months in order to baptize and instruct the Indians. In the month of September,93 he was joined by another padre. They both lived in that part of the country until I had them come to Vilcabamba, which is where we currently are. Here they haven’t baptized anyone yet, for the people here are still too inexperienced in the things that they have to learn about God’s law and commandments. I will see to it that they will learn those things in due time. I have tried to convey to Your Excellency in the manner mentioned above—that is, summarily and without further details—the course and manner of my father’s life, as well as the outcome of my negotiations up to the present point in time, so that Your Excellency can convey everything to His Majesty. Your Excellency can let me know if there is a need for more detail here or there about things as they have happened and are happening now, and your wish will be my command. In the meantime, I trust that this will suffice, although more things could certainly be noted and said according to our ways of expression, especially with regard to our origins and beginnings, about our dress, and the manner of our people. However, in order to avoid prolixity, I will omit these things here, for they add nothing to the subject matter with which we are concerned here. This leaves me with only one more request, after Your Excellency has already favored me in so many things: that you may explain everything that is written here to His Majesty truthfully and enthusiastically. Hereby, you would do me a great favor, for I hope that His Majesty will, as my master, always favor me. With this I end, for I think that I have gone on enough.
The foregoing account was based on the testimony given by the illustrious Don Titu Cusi Yupanqui, son of Manco Inca, formerly the legitimate ruler of these kingdoms of Peru. It was redacted94 and arranged by the reverend padre fray Marcos García, monk and priest of the Order of St. Augustine, who was stationed in this province of Vilcabamba with the assignment to minister to the souls that live there for the honor and glory of the Almighty—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three entities in one single, true God—and of the glorious Queen of Angels, the Mother of God, Holy Mary, our mistress, now and forever. Amen.
I, Martín de Pando, notary in the service of the illustrious licentiate Don Lope García de Castro, formerly governor of these kingdoms, confirm that all of the foregoing account was dictated and arranged by the said padre upon the insistence of the said Don Diego de Castro. I wrote it down with my own hand, exactly as the padre dictated it to me. The reverend fray Diego Ortiz, priest of the said order who lived together with the author of this account, as well as three captains of the said Don Diego de Castro, namely Suya Yupanqui, Rimache Yupanqui, and Sullca Varac, were eyewitnesses to the transcription and dictation of the account. I notarize the foregoing with my signature. Finished in San Salvador de Vilcabamba, this sixth day of the month of February, in the year 1570. Further notarization is given by the signatures of the said padre, fray Marcos García and fray Diego Ortiz, as well as myself, said Martín de Pando. I, fray Marcos García, confirm having been present during the dictation, as witnessed by fray Diego Ortiz and verified by Martín de Pando, notary.
I, Don Diego de Castro Titu Cusi Yupanqui, son of Manco Inca Yupanqui, formerly legitimate ruler of this kingdom of Peru, affirm that I—because it was necessary for me to give an account to our lord, King Don Philip, about the things that concern me and my descendants but since I am unfamiliar with the phrases and modes of expression used by the Spaniards in such writings—have asked the reverend fray Don Marcos García and the secretary Martín de Pando to arrange and compose the said account in their customary ways of expression so that it be sent to the illustrious licentiate Don Lope García de Castro in the kingdoms of Spain and with my explicit authorization be presented and related to His Majesty, our lord and king Don Philip. May His Majesty honor me, my sons, and descendants with royal favors commensurate with my rights to compensation. I composed this note for the purpose of verifying the foregoing words and signed it with my name. Finished on the above-mentioned day, month, and year. Don Diego de Castro Titu Cusi Yupanqui.
Power of Attorney for the Governor, licentiate Don Lope García de Castro
Whoever may see this authorization may be informed that I, Sapai Inca Don Diego de Castro Titu Cusi Yupanqui, legitimate son and heir and grandson of Manco Inca Yupanqui and Huayna Capac, formerly the legitimate rulers of these kingdoms and provinces of Peru, declare the following. As I necessarily have many dealings in the kingdoms of Spain with our lord,
King Don Philip, with other authorities of various rank and nature, both secular and ecclesiastic, as well as with certain other persons who have removed from these kingdoms to those of Spain and have perhaps even settled there; and as it would be impossible to find anyone who would attend to my affairs with greater diligence and sympathy than the lord governor, the licenciado Castro, who is in the process of departing for the kingdom of Spain, or anyone who would take them more to his heart than he has always done and is still doing; and as I therefore trust him entirely, I hereby give him sufficient, absolute, and appropriately legitimate power of attorney as I myself possess and as it is required by law in such cases. I empower him to appear on my behalf and in my name before His Majesty and to present to His Majesty any petition or any petitions and to testify and bear witness on anything he may be asked about relating to my affairs; to appear before any judge, court [audiencias], mayor, and office and before any of His Majesty’s authorities, ecclesiastical and secular; to petition for every- and anything that in his judgment may or should be due to me; to demand and claim; to protect and defend; to possess, manage, and dispose of these things, as I would possess, manage, and dispose of them personally; and to send everything that is to be had in this manner in the way of gold or silver pesos, goods, interest, herds, or other things to me in this kingdom at my expense. I further empower him to acquire in my name and on my behalf, and with an unspecified amount of my gold pesos, things, estates, or goods that, in his best judgment, seem appropriate for me, whether it be moveable or fixed assets. He also has the power to file any petitions or requests; to take oaths of libel or procedure; to say the truth; to take counteraction to the actions of an opposing party; to make comparisons; to present and withdraw witnesses, scriptural evidence, diplomas, permissions, royal edicts and any other sort of evidence; to contradict an opposing party; to declare any rejection, suspicion, and objection; to swear upon it and to renounce it; to claim and secure in my name any possessions on any of the estates or properties belonging to me and to act on my behalf in confiscations in the appropriate manner; to consider favorable sentences and to make agreements with the opposing party; to make appeals and suits, wherever it is possible by law; to see the trial through its conclusion; to charge and to recognize legal fees; in effect, to do everything that I could otherwise do, even if it is not explicitly listed or addressed and even though it concerns things of importance that would seem to require my presence. Insofar as my power must be given and transferred without limitation and legally, I give and transfer it to him with all of its consequences, attachments, and implications and with free and general administration. I further empower him to transfer the said power of attorney to other person or persons according to his best judgment and to revoke this transferal. I free him and them from all responsibility and liquidate as a guarantee all goods, tributes, interests, and estates that are appropriate for that purpose, in the present or the future, and mobile or fixed.