Bible Disrespect as an Excuse for Massacre
The Spaniards concealed themselves in buildings around Cajamarca’s plaza, with cavalry hidden in nearby alleys. When Atahualpa arrived, Pizarro sent a friar carrying a cross to meet him. At some point, the friar handed Atahualpa a Bible, which the Incan, who had never seen a book, tossed aside. That was all the excuse the Spaniards needed. They attacked the Incans at a signal from Pizarro, and massacred them. The unarmored natives proved no match for the Spaniards’ steel swords, pikes, bullets, or crossbow bolts, while the locals’ ceremonial stone axes proved useless against Spanish plate armor. Thousands of natives were killed, the survivors fled in panic, and not a single Spaniard lost his life. Captured, Atahualpa sought to buy his life with an offer to fill a room with gold, and twice over with silver.
After he was paid, Pizarro again betrayed Atahualpa. He put him through a staged trial that convicted him of rebellion, idolatry, and the murder of his brother, Huascar. Sentenced to death by fire, Atahualpa was spared that fate when he agreed to get baptized, and was strangled instead. Treachery paid off for Pizarro. He amassed considerable wealth and power, until some measure of karmic justice caught up with him in 1541, when a violent dispute erupted between the Spaniards in Peru. On June 26th of that year, a group of heavily armed supporters of a rival stormed Pizarro’s palace, and in the ensuing struggle, stabbed him in the throat. Falling to the ground, Pizarro made a cross with his own blood while gurgling cries for help from Jesus to no avail, and bled to death.