The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie Read Free Book Online Page B

told him to stay with them and that they would give one of them to him as a wife, whichever one he wanted…. And when he [Alonso] arrived back at the ship, he was so overwhelmed by what he had seen that he did not say anything. He [finally] said that their houses were of stone, and that before he spoke to the lord [the local Inca governor], he passed through three gates where they had gatekeepers … and that they served him in cups of silver and gold.”
    A subsequent landing party, which Pizarro sent to verify what Molina and the black slave had reported, stated that they:
    saw silver vessels and many silversmiths working, and that on some walls of the temple there were gold and silver sheets, and that the women they called of the Sun were very beautiful. The Spaniards were ecstatic to hear so many things, hoping with God’s help to enjoy their share of it.
    With their ship now loaded with fresh food and water, Pizarro and his men continued their exploration of the coast. At a spot near what is now called Cabo Blanco, in northwestern Peru,Pizarro went ashore in a canoe. There, looking up and down the rugged coast and then at his gathering of men, Pizarro is said to have stated, “Be my witnesses as I take possession of this land with all else that has been discovered by us for the emperor, our lord, and for the royal crown of Castile!”
    To the Spaniards who witnessed Pizarro’s speech,
Biru
—which was soon corrupted into
Peru
—now belonged to a Spanish emperor living twelve thousand miles away. Thirty-five years earlier, in 1493, Pope Alexander VI—a Spaniard who had bribed his way into the papacy—had issued a papal bull that had eventually resulted in the Spanish crown being granted all lands 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. All undiscovered lands to the east of this longitudinal line would go to Portugal, the other European maritime power at the time, which gave Portugal Brazil. With one simple pronouncement from this pope, the Spanish crown had received a divine grant that bequeathed to it an enormous region of lands and peoples that had as yet to be discovered. The inhabitants of these new lands, according to the proclamation, were already subjects of the Spanish king—all that remained was that they be located and informed of this fact.
    In 1501, Queen Isabella had ratified this arrangement: the “Indians” of the New World were her “subjects and vassals,” she said. Thus, as soon as they were located, the Indians would have to be informed that they owed the Spanish monarchs their “tributes and rights.” The corollary of this mind-set, of course, was that the inhabitants of the New World had no right to resist the pope’s edict, which was clearly God’s will. Anyone who refused to submit to what God himself had commanded was thus by definition a “rebel” or an “unlawful combatant.” It was a theme and argument that was to crop up over and over again in the conquest of Peru, all of the way down to the last Inca emperor.
    Pizarro’s expedition had been a successful one, as far as he was concerned. On board they now carried never before seen creatures called llamas, which may have reminded some of the Spaniards of scenes of camels they had seen in woodcuts in the Bible. They also carried finely crafted native pottery and metal vessels, intricately woven clothing of cotton and of an unknown material the natives called
alpaca
, and even two native boys, whom they baptized Felipillo and Martinillo. The Spaniards had asked for and had been given the boys, whom they intended to train for later voyages as interpreters. Pizarro now had proof positive of a contactwith what appeared to be the outskirts of a wealthy native empire.
    Pizarro was worried, however, for as his ship drew nearer to Panama, word would soon get out about what they had seen. Other Spaniards might soon get the idea of heading south themselves and of stealing from him a potentially lucrative conquest. There was only one