Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
springs encampment. The Spaniards spent an anxious night, fully aware that they were
severely outnumbered by the nearby Inca troops, who were estimated to be between
40,000 and 80,000. The Spaniards plotted to entice Atahualpa into the plaza and, at a pre-
arranged signal, capture the Inca should the opportunity present itself.
Upon Atahualpa's arrival, he ordered most of his troops to stay outside while he entered
the plaza with a retinue of nobles and about 6000 men armed with slings and hand axes.
He was met by the Spanish friar Vicente de Valverde, who attempted to explain his posi-
tion as a man of God and presented the Inca with a Bible. Reputedly, Atahualpa angrily
threw the topic to the ground and Valverde needed little more justification to sound the at-
tack.
Cannons were fired and the Spanish cavalry attacked Atahualpa and his troops. The in-
digenous people were terrified and bewildered by the fearsome onslaught of never-before-
seen cannons and horses. Their small hand axes and slings were no match for the well-ar-
mored Spaniards, who swung razor-sharp swords from the advantageous height of horse-
back to slaughter 7000 indigenous people and capture Atahualpa. The small band of Span-
iards was now literally conquistadors (conquerors).
Atahualpa soon became aware of the Spaniards' lust for gold and offered to fill a large
room in the town once with gold and twice with silver in return for his freedom. The
Spanish agreed and slowly the gold and silver began pouring into Cajamarca. Nearly a
year later the ransom was complete - about 6000kg of gold and 12,000kg of silver had
been melted down into gold and silver bullion. At today's prices, this ransom would be
worth almost S180 million, but the artistic value of the ornaments and implements that
were melted down to create the bullion is impossible to estimate.
Atahualpa, suspecting he was not going to be released, sent desperate messages to his
followers in Quito to come to Cajamarca and rescue him. The Spaniards, panic- stricken
by these messages, sentenced Atahualpa to death. On July 26, 1533, Atahualpa was led
out to the center of the Cajamarca plaza to be burned at the stake. At the last hour, Atahu-
alpa 'accepted' baptism and, as a reward, his sentence was changed to a quicker death by
strangulation.
Most of the great stone Inca buildings in Cajamarca were torn down and the stones used
in the construction of Spanish homes and churches. The great plaza where Atahualpa was
captured and later killed was in roughly the same location as today's Plaza de Armas. The
Ransom Chamber, or El Cuarto del Rescate, where Atahualpa was imprisoned, is the only
Inca building still standing.
