524 / 1060
·
Royal
Commentarie.r.
BooK
11.
€HAP.
IV:.
.
Rumminavi
tak§s all the
Selett Virgins
of
a
Convent
and
Buries them alive.
-
~
W 0
Spanifh
Hifiorians treating of the Cruelties of
Ruinminavi,
fpecifie a-
--.L
mongft the refl:, one of the moll: barbarous pieces of inhumanity that
ever
was
committed: They fay, that when
RHmminavi
came to
~itu,
where entertain–
,, ing
fome difcourfe with the Women, he faid
to
them,
Cheer
up, and
be
mer!J.
"
for
the Chriftians
are
now
coming
with whomyou
may
[ofttce
your
felves;
at which
fom~
' ' ef the Women haj)pening innocently to laugh, thinking no hurc,
he
fpoiled
" their jefr, and
cur
their throats, and burnt down the Clofet or With-drawing–
" room of
Atahualpa :
Thefe are the words of one of the
W
rite1 ,
and
the ·other
agrees
with him
in
the fame fenfe.
But
the
truth
of the fiory
is
this :
The
Ty–
rant one day went to vifit the Convene of thofe who are called the Seleet Vir–
gins,
with intention to chufe
out
from thofe Women who were there placed,
<ind
feparated
for
the ufe of
Atahualpa,
fome
of
the moft beautifull and pleafing
to
his
fancy ;
in
regard that
he being declared King,
all
the Women, Efiate, and
Riches
of
liis
Predeceffour devolved to him
with
tne poffeffion of the Kingdom.
DiC–
courfmg one day
with
thefe
Ladies
concerning the prefent
llace
1
and fucceifes of
affairs,
he defcribed
che
behaviour and habit of the
Spaniard.t,
wnofe Bravery
an
Valour he extolled to
a
'high
degree, faying, That
it
was
no 1hame to
fly
fro
their irrefiilible fury ; that they were a firange fort of people with Beards in their
faces,
and were mounted upon creatures called
Horfes,
which '"ere fo !hong
an
fierce, that
a
thoufand
Indians
were not able to withftand the violence of one
of
them,
and
with
the
f
wifme!S
of
his
carriere was fo terrible as to rout, and put them
all to flight.
He
added farther, That the
Spaniards
carried Thunder and Light–
ning
with them, by which. they could
kill
the
l ndian.r
at two or three hundred
Paces
difiant from them, and that they were armed with Iron from head to foot.
In
fine, after he had defcribed them with high admiration, he faid, that they
w
re .,.
certain kind of Codpiece, like a Box wherein to inclofe their Genitals;
it
i
ro
be fuppofed, he meant the Codpiece to the Breeches, ( ufed in the days of
Our
Remy
the Eighth ) which was a fafhion nei'"her modeO: nor ufefull.
Th~
o–
men hearing the latter part of the Story, burO: out heartily into a laughter,
fuppo–
fing that they had rather pleafed than angred
Rummina'lli
therewith
:
but he
on
the
contrary interpreting their laughter to be an efteCl: of unchafi and dilhoneft de–
fires
and that they would joyn and concur with the
Spaniards\
hen
occaiton
of–
fered, he was
rranfported with
fuch
rage,
that
it
broke
forth
into this furious
lan–
guage
:
Ah 1'
Pick.fdwhores
and
T raytoreffes,
if
oneb with
talk.. of
th£
Spaniards
J'OH are
fo
pleafed, what would
.JOU
doe and all with them,
if
they were
prefent ?
But
I
/hall
takt
care to
fpoiJ
your
}port
and
pafh.me·with them.
So foon as the words were out of
h·-
mouth, he immediately commanded his Officers
co
take and carry all
the
W -
men, as well the young as the old, to
a
fiream
of
water which runs by
tbe Cit}
:J
and
to
execute upon them the
fame
punHhment which their Law
infl1Ct ,
\\'lJi
i
is
to bury them alive; according to the Sentence they were carried thither,
and
there intened alive under great heaps of. fiones, which' ere
thrm~
n upon
chem
fr
m
certain Mountains and Rocks, which lye on both fides the
River.
1nm
did this barbarous Tyrant difcover more unhumane cruelty, and relemleG bowel
by this Murther committed on poor
filly
Women, who knew nothing
but
hm
to
Knit
and Weave, than by his bloudy treachery pracHfed on fiom: Souldiers,
and Martial Men ; and ·, hat farther aggravates his crime, wa
>
that he \\.as there
prefent to fee the execution of his detefiable emence being more pleafed "ith
the obje& of his cruelty, and his eyes more delighced with rhe
fad
and dHina
fi~ht
of
fo
many perifh ing Virgins, than with any other profpe
or colom
rnich
could have been prefented before
h1
vie\Y.
Thus ended the[e poor
ir–
gm~''