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They did not enter the Peruvian camp with flourish of trumpets and bugle blasts, but as peaceful ambassadors, with a showy retinue, who had been permitted to traverse the country unharmed. The sun was just sinking behind the rugged peaks of the mountains on the fifteenth of November, 1532, when Pizarro's band rode into the streets of Caxamarca.
Near Caxamarca, a tunnel is still visible, which they excavated in the mountains, to give an outlet to the waters of a lake, when these rose to a height in the rainy season that threatened the country with inundation.19 Most of these beneficent works of the Incas were suffered to go to decay by their Spanish conquerors.
While these things were going on in the south of Peru, the president marched by the mountain road for the valley of Jauja, accompanied by the troops which he had brought from the Tierra Firma, and those of the captains Diego de Mora, Gomez de Alvarado, Juan de Saavedra, Porcel, and the others that had assembled in Caxamarca.
Gold was gathered by the Incas from the deposits of the streams. They extracted the ore also in considerable quantities from the valley of Curimayo, northeast of Caxamarca, as well as from other places; and the silver mines of Porco, in particular, yielded them considerable returns.
All his soldiers agreed to follow his example, except three or four who fled and informed Gonzalo of the defection of their governor. Saavedra retired immediately to Caxamarca, with forty horsemen, where he joined Diego de Mora and those who had withdrawn along with him from Truxillo, where both declared themselves for the royalist party.
Melchior Verdugo, an inhabitant of the city of Truxillo, was one of the richest men in Peru, being proprietor of the entire province of Caxamarca.
As these presents and this embassy would probably convince Pizarro of the friendly feeling of the Peruvian monarch, De Soto judged it wise to comply with his request. Thus he turned back, and the united party soon reached Pizarro's encampment. The Atrocities of Pizarro. Fears of Pizarro. Honorable Conduct of the Inca. The March to Caxamarca. Hospitable Reception. Perfidious Attack upon the Inca.
The following is what I learnt with certainty respecting the emigration of the family of the Inca, some sad vestiges of which I saw on passing by Caxamarca. Manco-Inca, acknowledged as the legitimate successor of Atahualpa, made war without success against the Spaniards.
The bloody tragedy of Caxamarca, it will be remembered, was only massacre; the contrivance and execution of which required no military skill and no soldier-like courage. Pizarro acquired the mastery of Peru by the act of a malefactor. And he was, in fact, a thief and not a conqueror. The heroic element of this conquest is represented by the actions of De Soto." De Soto Returns to Spain.
"Think of the wrong you have already done me," said the Inca, "and do not forget how much you are indebted to my kindness and forbearance. I could easily have intercepted you in the mountain passes, and made you all prisoners, or sacrificed you all justly to the offended laws of my country. I could have overpowered you with my armed warriors at Caxamarca.
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