Reports on the Discovery of Peru

1872

Journals G161 H2 Ser. 1 no. 47

London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society

This Hakluyt volume contains first-hand accounts of, what are described as, ‘the most stirring episode in the wonderful history of Spanish conquests’. No doubt, the Peruvian people did not view it as such. The translated words of Francisco de Xeres, Miguel de Astete, Hernando Pizarro, and Pedro Sancho, tell the tale of how Spanish conquistador, Francisco Pizarro (born c. 1471), initiated, what would ultimately become, the decimation of the native peoples of South America. Pizarro and his troops marched down the Peruvian coast at the end of 1532 to Caxamalca (about half way down on this map). There they took Incan King, Atahualpa (d. 1533), hostage and killed thousands of Peruvians, all without losing a single soldier.