The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie

servant and slave to the Spaniards, and he spoke what he knew very corruptly as newly captured Negroes do. Though baptized, he had received no instruction in the Christian religion and knew nothing about Christ our Lord, and was totally ignorant of the Apostles’ creed. Such were the merits of the first interpreter in Peru.
    Whatever Felipillo’s ability may have been, and whatever Atahualpa may or may not have understood of Soto’s speech, the Inca emperor continued to gaze at the ground, completely ignoring the Spaniards. Atahualpa had been receiving regular reports about the mysterious group of strangers as soon as they had first arrived on the coast. And he had heard many remarkable things. According to the native chronicler Felipe Huamán Poma de Ayala:
    Atahualpa and his nobles were amazed at what they heard of the Spaniards’ way of life. Instead of sleeping, these strangers mounted guard at night. They and their horses were supposed to nourish themselves on gold and silver. They apparently wore silver on their feet and their weapons and their horses’ bits and shoes were also reputed to be of silver, instead of the iron, which they were really made of. Above all, it was said that all day and all night the Spaniards talked to their books and papers.
    After a long silence, one of the native chiefs in attendance finally informed Soto that Atahualpa was finishing the last day of a ceremonial fast and was indisposed; he was not receiving visitors. At precisely this moment, however, Hernando Pizarro came riding into camp, along with two of his men, having been sent by his brother Francisco,who was fearful that Soto’s small party might be attacked. Hernando later wrote:
    When I arrived … I found the other horsemen near the camp of Atahualpa, and that Captain [Soto] had gone to speak with him. I left my men there and went ahead with two horsemen … and Captain [Soto] announced my approach and explained to him who I was. I then told Atahualpa that Governor [Francisco Pizarro] had sent me to invite him to come visit with him … and that he [the Governor] considered him a friend.
    When Atahualpa understood that Hernando was the brother of the foreign leader, he finally looked up. And then, according to the notary Francisco de Xerez, he spoke—the first words ever recorded of an Inca emperor to a citizen of the Old World:
    “Maizabilica [a coastal chief], a Captain that I have on the river of Zuricara, sent to tell me that you mistreated the chiefs and put them in chains, and he sent me an iron collar [as proof] and he says that he killed three Christians and a horse.”
    Atahualpa appeared to be about thirty years old, Xerez said, and was “of good appearance … and somewhat thickset. He had a large face, handsome and fierce, and bloodshot eyes. He spoke with much gravity, as a great lord.” Like most Incas, he had copper-brown skin, high cheekbones, dark eyes, and a prominent, aquiline nose. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the Inca lord’s opening comment had been one about the Spaniards’ behavior: there were rules and laws in the Inca Empire—and the various reports that the emperor had received indicated that the Spaniards had broken them. The visiting Spaniards, however, continued to ignore Inca protocol by their very behavior in camp. Normally, Inca lords and local chiefs—no matter how powerful—were not allowed to look directly at the emperor, had to arrive carrying a symbolic burden on their shoulders, and by their every move and gesture show great deference and obeisance. The Spaniards, by contrast, showed no humility whatsoever; they remained seated on their strange animals and spoke brashly and with insolence. In short, they ignored the Inca court’s every rule, behaving in Atahualpa’s eyes no differently than uncivilized barbarians.
    Hernando Pizarro, meanwhile, knew very well thatAtahualpa had spoken the truth. Three Spaniards
had
been killed by natives while crossing from the small island of Puna