Excerpt from "An Account of the Conquest of Peru," written by Pedro Sancho, Secretary to Pizarro :
"The Captain Hernando Pizarro had departed with the hundred thousand pesos of gold and five thousand marks of silver which were sent to His Majesty as his royal fifth; after that event, some ten or twelve days, the two Spaniards, who were bringing gold from Cuzco arrived, and part of the gold was melted at once because it was in very small pieces; it equaled the sum of...five hundred odd plates of gold torn from some house-walls in Cuzco; and even the smallest plates weighed four or five pounds apiece; other, larger ones, weighed ten or twelve pounds...
And beacuse there were among those soldiers some who were old and more fit for rest than fatigues, and who in that war had fought and served much, he gave them leave to return to Spain. He procured that their good will so that, on returning, these men would give fairer accounts of the greatness and wealth of that land so that a sufficient number of people would come thither...
The Ruins of Cuzco
He (Atabalipa) was finally taken from the prison in which he was, and, to the sound of a trumpet, his treason and perfidy were published, and he was borne to the middle of the plaza of the city and tied to a stake, while the religious was consoling him and teaching him, by means of interpreter, the things of our Christian faith, telling him that God wished him to die for the sins which he committed in the world, and that he must repent of them, and that God would pardon him if he did so and was baptised at once....
He was given a twist of rope around his neck, by means of which he was throttled instead but when he saw that they were preparing for his death, he said that he recommended to the governor his little sons, so that he might take them with him, and with these last words and while the Spaniards stood around him said the creed for his soul, he was quickly throttled."
