Hernando Pizarro, who had shown himself a strong friend of the captive,
was absent. De Soto, another of his friends, was sent at the head of an
expedition to Huamachuco, a town a hundred miles away, where it was said
the natives were in arms. Scarcely had he gone when Pizarro, seeming to
yield to the demands of the soldiers, decided to bring Atahualpa to trial
on the charges against him.
A court was held, with Pizarro and his fellow-captain Almagro as the
judges, an attorney-general being appointed for the crown and counsel for
the prisoner. The crimes charged against the Inca were chiefly of a kind
with which the Spaniards had nothing to do, among them the assassination
of Huascar and the guilt of idolatry. These were simply to bolster up the
only real charge, that of exciting an insurrection against the Spaniards.
The whole affair was the merest show of a trial, and was hurried through
without waiting for the return of De Soto, who could have given useful
evidence about the insurrection. The culprit was adjudged guilty, and
sentenced to be burnt alive that very night in the great square of
Caxamalca!
It was a sentence that might well have been expected as the termination of
such a trial by such men. Pizarro, in fact, did not dare to set his
captive at liberty, if he proposed to remain in the country, and the cruel
sentence, which was common enough at that day, was carried out except in
one particular. As the poor Inca stood bound to the stake, with the fagots
of his funeral pile heaped around him, Valverde, the Dominican friar, made
a last appeal to him to accept the cross and be baptized, promising him a
less painful death if he would consent. The Inca, shrinking from the
horror of the flames, consented, and was duly baptized under the name of
Juan de Atahualpa. He was then put to death in the Spanish manner, by the
_garrote_, or strangulation.
Thus died the Inca of Peru, the victim of Pizarro's treachery. Great was
the indignation of De Soto, on his return a day or two later from an
expedition in which he had found no rebels, at what had been done. Pizarro
tried to exculpate himself and blame others for deceiving him, but these
told him to his face that he alone was responsible for the deed. In all
probability they told the truth.