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Prescott, William Hickling, 1796-1859

"History of the Conquest of Peru; with a preliminary view of the civilization of the Incas"

The governor repaired
thither, at the appointed time, well guarded, and, to propitiate
the barbarian monarch, sent him a rich present by the hands of an
African slave. The slave was met on the route by a party of the
Inca's men, who, whether with or without their master's orders,
cruelly murdered him, and bore off the spoil to their quarters.
Pizarro resented this outrage by another yet more atrocious.
[Footnote 25: The Inca declined the interview with the bishop, on
the ground that he had seen him pay obeisance by taking off his
cap to Pizarro. It proved his inferiority to the latter, he
said, and that he could never protect him against the governor.
The passage in which it is related is curious. "Preguntando a
indios del inca que anda alzado que si sabe el inca que yo soi
venido a la tierra en nombre de S. M. para defendellos, dixo que
mui bien lo sabia; y preguntado que porque no se benia a mi de
paz, dixo el indio que dezia el inca que porque yo quando vine
hize la mocha al gobernador, que quiere dezir que le quite el
Bonete; que no queria venir a mi de paz, que el que no havia de
venir de paz sino a uno que viniese de castilla que no hiziese la
mocha al gobernador, porque le paresze a el que este lo podra
defender por lo que ha hecho y no otro." Carta de Valverde al
Emperador, Ms]
Among the Indian prisoners was one of the Inca's wives, a young
and beautiful woman, to whom he was said to be fondly attached.
The governor ordered her to be stripped naked, bound to a tree,
and, in presence of the camp, to be scourged with rods, and then
shot to death with arrows.


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