After fasting for three days, and attended by his sister-wife Azarpay and Chalcuchima, the young Inca prince was invested with the symbols of Inca sovereignty and received the homage of the Inca lords and caciques gathered there, each of them offering him a white feather in token of their allegiance. Then, kneeling before Pizarro, he swore fealty to him and to his unknown king. Among his relatives who took part in the celebrations was one of Atahualpa’s sister-wives Tocto Chimbo, who was renowned for her beauty, and whom Pizarro awarded to Soto – possibly to temper his discontent. It marked the beginning of a love affair that would end in tragedy for the young woman, who at her baptism several years later was given the name of Doña Leonor, and who would eventually be abandoned by Soto and die a pauper’s death.1
Sixteen days after Atahualpa’s killing, Pizarro’s small army broke camp and abandoned the valley. It was a scene reminiscent of a medieval army: the steel-helmeted conquistadores carrying their pikes and lances, the horsemen in double file, and behind them the Inca and tribal warriors, spearmen from the Andes and archers from the Amazon, the Indian scouts running ahead with the small vanguard of cavalry led by Soto. At the rear of the column were the pack mules and llamas, carrying part of the Cajamarca treasure and guarded by a separate squadron of horse. Behind them were the camp women and the Indian and African slave porters, including the handful of Spanish women who had come with Almagro’s men, among them the Morisca slave Beatriz de Salcedo, who claimed to have been the first Spanish woman at Cajamarca, and who was owned by the Crown official García de Salcedo. And in between the columns of warriors could be seen the canopied litters of the young Inca emperor and of his women. It took almost a day for the valley to empty. And by nightfall those of Atahualpa’s few servants who had remained in the town had disinterred his body and conveyed it to Quito where, in accordance with the custom of his people and his imperial status, he would be buried as a god.
For almost two months the great flow of warriors and those who accompanied them followed the stone roads and trails along which their Indian scouts led them, dwarfed by the vast cordillera of the Andes, until eventually they entered the valley and town of Jauja which lay on the banks of the Mantaro River. The horseman Lucas Martínez Vegazo recalled: ‘… in the same valley of Jauja Mayta Yupanqui, Atahualpa’s warrior chief, in command of a great number of warriors, attacked us Spaniards and we fought the Indians until we broke and dispersed their squadrons, pursuing them and killing them for some twelve leagues.’2 The warriors had been massed on the far bank of the town’s bridges, which they had burned, and Almagro’s cavalry, fording the river, had charged them several times before dispersing them. It was the first engagement the Spaniards had fought against Atahualpa’s army, the success of which had depended on their cavalry and the Indian auxiliaries that had followed them.
For two weeks they remained encamped in the town awaiting the arrival of the treasurer Alonso de Riquelme’s baggage train; it was here that Pizarro founded the first Spanish municipality of the conquered territory. Pedro de Cieza de León describes Jauja as possessing at the time some thirty thousand inhabitants, with fine stone Inca buildings, workshops for silver and gold, a large temple dedicated to the sun, and a house for its mamacona. He records that many of its religious monuments were destroyed at the instigation of the Dominican Valverde. However, within days of Riquelme’s arrival Túpac Huallpa died. Many believed he had been poisoned at the instigation of Chalcuchima. Conscious of the effect his death might have on his Indian auxiliaries, Pizarro once more ordered the advance on Cuzco and sent Hernando de Soto and a squadron of horse to scout the road ahead. It would take Soto’s squadron several days to reach the township of Vilcas and the Apurímac, the great river canyon of the Andes, and to climb its great mountain ridge of Vilcaconga, some 12,000 feet high and 28 miles west of Cuzco. An account of Soto’s reconnaissance of some 250 miles of route was left by several of his horsemen.
After we had defeated the natives of the valley of Jauja the Governor sent up to a hundred and twenty men, footmen and cavalry, to march with him for the seizure of Cuzco, and ordered that the rest of the people remain in the valley with the Treasurer Riquelme in guard of the treasure of His Majesty, which was some million pesos of gold, more or less, and also in guard of the treasure of those who were with the Governor …
And on the road the Governor ordered the Captain Hernando de Soto to go ahead, taking with him sixty or seventy footmen and horsemen and we went in advance, scouting out the land till at dawn we reached the township of Vilcas …
At Vilcas we saw that the warriors had gone foraging and had left their tents with a few women and some Indians. And we sacked everything that was there. And being alerted to our presence, their warriors returned and attacked us in very rough terrain, at first getting the better of us. At ten o’clock, more or less, that morning the warrior chief Mayta Yupanqui regrouped his warriors who came upon us in their squadrons, comprising lancers, archers and sling throwers. And again we repulsed them, though some of our men were wounded and a white horse was killed, belonging to a soldier called Tabuyo, and which at the time was worth some three thousand pesos of gold, if not more; and the natives captured him, and at the very moment they were about to kill him, beating him and thrusting him with their lances, the Captain Hernando de Soto saved him, proving himself a gentleman and person of much honour …
After we had defeated them the Captain led us on our march through canyons of great height, crossing the native bridges, some of which had been burnt and destroyed, and which were of great difficulty to pass; fording also rivers, unaware of the danger of their rapids, being as it was winter, and the waters at a high level …
And when we reached the Apurímac River, and being unable to get to its bridge before the Indians, who with the straw and sand they carried set fire to it, we were forced to take our horses and walk below on the banks of the river which was rising and flowing at great speed. And not knowing where to ford, Bernabé Picón led his horse into the swirling waters and found a way of crossing at much risk to his life, and thus we were all able to cross over. And in this manner we reached a point at some six leagues in distance from Cuzco, where we were forced to climb a very high mountain ridge called Vilcaconga, and near the top of which we were attacked by a vast number of warriors who were on a slope and on the edges of its ravine; and they lunged themselves at us with much shouting, killing five of our horsemen and other horses …
And as I [Lucas Martínez Vegazo] fought beside the Captain Soto I witnessed his bravery, and how his horse had got stuck in the ridge, and how he took hold and mounted another horse that belonged to one of our dead, and how he continued in the fighting. But we were unable to capture the top of the mountain because of the great number of Indians, who as night fell retreated to its highest pinnacle, where they lit many fires; and the captain and us men also retired to a distance of two crossbow shots, where we held vigil all night in our armour and with our arms …
That night, I [Mansio Serra de Leguizamón] alone was chosen to return along the route we had taken to show the governors where to ford the river, and bring them to where we were. And in great danger I returned through the lines of the Indians who surrounded us, and I was able to inform Don Diego de Almagro of what had taken place, and to show him and those who were with him the way to where the captain was besieged, and urge them there at all speed. And having informed Don Diego and those who were with him, within hours they relieved the captain and his men after marching a full day, and in great danger because of the multitude of Indians. And on the orders of Don Diego I remained by the river in guard of it, and so as to show the Governor Don Francisco Pizarro and the rearguard where to ford, and the route to take; and this I showed him, and with all speed we marched to relieve Don Diego and His Majesty’s servitors, where I helped bury our dead and cure our wounded of the royal encampment, and also bury our horses so the Indians would not discover our losses.3
In his memoir Diego de Trujill
o recorded:
… that night we were in great peril, for it was snowing and many of the wounded were suffering from the cold and we were surrounded and could see the fires lit on all sides … and at midnight from the direction of Limatambo we heard Alconchel’s trumpet call which gave us great courage and inspired us to continue fighting the Indians, who had also heard his trumpet sound, and realising that our men were coming to our aid they extinguished the fires and moved towards Cuzco … and it was so dark that one could not even see the glint of a coin, nothing but their sound.4
‘After the killing of five Spaniards,’ Lucas Martínez Vegazo stated, ‘and with less than a shot left of our crossbows, and being positioned high up the crest and encircled by the natives, the rescue arrived in the middle of the night, in groups of ten and twenty’.5 ‘If that same night,’ observed Pedro de Alconchel, ‘the Adelantado Don Diego de Almagro and this witness and other horsemen had not come to their aid, some thirty men, more or less, not one of them would have escaped.’6
The relief of Vilcaconga and Alconchel’s solitary clarion call announcing to the beleaguered conquistadores the arrival of Almagro’s column was recalled for posterity by the historian William Prescott in his History of the Conquest of Peru; it was the most important battle fought since their departure from Cajamarca, and in effect secured the Conquest. For had Soto’s cavalry been annihilated, as could so easily have been the case, Pizarro’s inability to confront Quisquis’s warriors without his horsemen would have led to the massacre of his entire army. But Soto’s decision to ride ahead without waiting for Almagro at Vilcas was viewed by Pizarro not only as an act of insubordination and reckless bravura, but as a blatant attempt to take possession of Cuzco ahead of his forces, and by so doing lay claim to the governorship he had been promised for his participation in the Conquest. Nothing is known about any exchange of words between the two, but never again would Pizarro allow Soto to lead an expedition without the presence of his two brothers, Juan and Gonzalo Pizarro.
On reaching Vilcaconga Pizarro ordered his men to regroup in the neighbouring village of Jaquijahuana, where they were joined by the Inca Prince Manco, a sixteen-year-old half-brother of the Emperor Huáscar. ‘I saw him meet us between Jaquijahuana and the mountain of Vilcaconga,’ recalled Mansio Serra de Leguizamón many years later, ‘and greet the Marqués Pizarro and all those who were with him in the conquest of this land, and to whom he swore fealty, and from that time he was acknowledged [by Pizarro] as lord of this realm.’7 The horseman Juan de Pancorbo recorded:
He [Manco Inca] gave the marqués an account of the treachery of Chalcuchima, whom we had brought with us as our prisoner, and of the instructions he had given against us to his messengers he had sent Quisquis, another of Atahualpa’s chiefs, who was in command of Cuzco and of its outlying regions; for he [Manco Inca] had brought with him these messengers whom he had ordered captured on the road and whom he handed over to the marqués. And this witness heard them tell how they had been sent by Chalcuchima to inform Quisquis that we were mortal and had difficulty climbing mountain passes, and that we gave our lances to our yanaconas who came behind us, and that our horses tired easily, and how we could be attacked in certain passes … this information they had recorded in their coloured string cords [quipu] …
And the marqués, seeing the truth of what he was told said to Chalcuchima: ‘Dog! Is this what you have kept from me? How could you deceive me?’
And that same day the marqués ordered he be burnt in the square of Jaquijahuana, and I saw him being burnt and shout aloud, and the little I could understand of what he said, it appeared to me he was invoking Pachacamac and Huanacuari, his principal huacas, and calling for Quisquis to avenge his death.8
Pizarro’s brutal killing of Atahualpa’s warrior chief was intended as a stark warning to his Indian auxiliaries that he would not tolerate betrayal. It would also make the young Inca prince, who had survived Quisquis’s retribution against the imperial panacas, only too conscious of the precarious role accorded him by Pizarro as his puppet ruler. The conquistadores had witnessed the evidence of the retribution Quisquis and Chalcuchima had exacted on Huáscar’s immediate family, for they came upon their decomposed remains – men, women and children – strapped to poles by the road leading to the city. ‘We had seen for ourselves more than 150 corpses hung on the road,’ recalled Juan de Pancorbo, ‘whom we were told were Inca lords who had been killed by Chalcuchima and who had been placed there to remind their people of their tyranny for which they had met such cruel deaths.’9
Within the hour of their advance on Cuzco the conquistadores were to sight the massed squadrons of Quisquis’s warriors, who had positioned themselves in front of the approach to the city. Though in their evidence the conquistadores varied in their estimates of the number of warriors – from 50,000 to 100,000 – their gross exaggeration was possibly more out of ignorance, for they had never before seen such multitudes, whose numbers probably amounted to about 30,000 men. ‘The governors began their advance on the city,’ stated Juan Pantiel de Salinas, ‘half a league away Quisquis with a great number of men, which as far as I could tell were some eighty thousand in number, came out in its defence’.10 Lucas Martínez Vegazo recalled that ‘Almost half a league before reaching the city we were once more surrounded by a multitude of the Natives, so many were they, they seemed to cover the entire hills. And we advanced to a plain in between the hills, together with the Adelantado Don Diego and the Captain Soto … and so as not to break our ranks the Captain Soto ordered us not to fight back until we were to hear him cry “Santiago!” and shortly after, as we seemed to be engulfed by the Natives, he shouted: “Santiago! Santiago!” and our squadron charged and we fought them till nightfall’.11
With the retreat of Quisquis’s squadrons the conquistadores advanced to a position above the city, out of which some two hundred Inca lords came to offer their allegiance to Pizarro.12 As dawn broke across the mountains the Spaniards beheld the city for the first time. It lay below them in a vast valley that stretched as far as the eye could see: a small river flowed through its centre; stone and thatch-roofed palaces surrounded its gigantic central square, its outer buildings lined by a perimeter wall broken at intervals by various towers. It was as large as any city they had ever seen in Europe. On a nearby hill was the massive and deserted temple fortress of Sacsahuaman. At approximately midday in battle order they entered the city: ‘in all we were no more than one hundred and twenty men,’ Bernabé Picón recalled.13
On the morning Pizarro would record in a letter to the Cabildo of Panama as Saturday 15 November 1533, Hernando de Soto’s vanguard of horsemen descended over the brow of the Carmenca hill and galloped two abreast into the city’s narrow cobbled streets that led to its great square of Aucaypata and, in the words of Serra de Leguizamón, ‘took possession of its strongholds’.14 Although most of the city’s palaces and public buildings had been set on fire by Quisquis’s retreating army, Pedro Pizarro recorded that ‘there were so many people who came to see us that they covered the entire countryside and mountains’.15 Amid the smoke of Cuzco’s smouldering buildings, Soto’s bearded and weary horsemen positioned themselves at either end of the square, their lances raised in salute, and to their cries of ‘Santiago y Castilla!’ echoing across the vast quadrangle Pizarro led his infantry in battle order.
Pizarro made little overt demonstration of his joy and sense of achievement at having marched his small army across the cordillera of the Andes to capture one of the greatest cities of the New World. His secretary Pedro Sancho de la Hoz, who accompanied him that day and who understood his master’s reserve, described the city as
being the principal seat of these lords, it is so grand and beautiful it would be worthy of being seen even in Spain, filled as it is with the palaces of its lords; for no poor people live there, and each lord possesses his own house, as do the caciques, even though they do not live there permanently. The majority of these houses are made of stone, and the others
are part stone; many are of brick, and are constructed with great symmetry, as are their streets, in the form of a cross, all of them straight and paved, and through which run drains, also of stone. Their only detriment is that they are narrow, allowing only a single horseman to ride on one side of the drainage. This city is situated at the height of a mountain, and there are many buildings on its side and embankments, and in the plain below.
Its square is a quadrangle and in the most part flat and paved with pebbles; alongside the square there are four mansions of their lords, which are the principal palaces of the city, painted and constructed in stone; the finest of which is the palace [Amarucancha] of the emperor, the old cacique [Huayna Cápac], the gate of which is of white marble and decorated with various other colours, and which has also other buildings, with flat roofs, that are also worthy of note. There are in the city many more buildings of much grandeur: two rivers run on either side, the source of which is a league above Cuzco, and which flow for a further two leagues below to the valley; the waters of which are both clear and clean running, and each has a bridge crossing into the city.
Above, on the mountain, which on the side facing the city is circular and very arid, there is a great stone fortress of great beauty, which has large watchtowers that overlook the city, and which gives its appearance even greater splendour. Inside of which there are many buildings and a main tower, of cylindrical shape, with four or five smaller towers, one above the other: the chambers and halls within are small, though their walls are of fine workmanship, and so well assembled, their stone joinery in perfect order, like that which can be seen in Spain, one against the other, though without any evidence of sand, and so smooth they appear polished. It possesses so many adjacent towers and courtyards that a person would be unable to inspect them all in a day: and many Spaniards who have travelled in Lombardy and other foreign realms say that they have never seen the like of such a fortress or castle. It could garrison five thousand Spaniards: neither can it be besieged by battering ram, nor can it be mined from underground, because of its mountainous position.16
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