More than a biography of Atahualpa, this is a novelized account of the conquest of Peru, based apparently on Prescott and Waldo Frank. The title may be a concession to those who like to refer to the Inca quiteño as the “founder of Ecuadorian nationality.” But Carrión knows better, as he states that “Atahualpa era, fundamentalmente, un inca” (p. 140).
This is the fourth edition of this book, a good proof of its popularity. But, since the first edition appeared almost thirty years ago, the author should have corrected the all too numerous errors of fact. I shall mention only a few of them. Francisco Pizarro could not have heard in his childhood stories of the war in the Netherlands which broke out about eighty years later (pp. 147-148). Francisco Pizarro was not an officer of tercios in Italy, nor could many of his comrades have left that country before he did, with the intention of joining Cortés in New Spain (p. 150). It is strange to describe Pedrárias Dávila as “un viejo, roñoso y brutal judío” (p. 165), or “judío intrigante y mal visto” (p. 184). Almagro, before the conquest of Peru, was not an “hidalgo castellano” (p. 170), nor was Pizarro a Marqués when he reached Cajamarca (p. 304). Andagoya did not die just after his first expedition to Peru (p. 172). Pedro Pizarro was not a brother of Francisco (p. 321), and there is no indication of his keeping a diary (p. 257): his chronicle was written forty years after the conquest. “Cabo Pasado” was not named for the crossing of the Equator by Bartolomé Ruiz (p. 197), but for an Indian village called Pasao (the d was inserted by some recent etymologists). To speak of the river “Guayas-Kil” (p 219), or of Atacámez as belonging to “the powerful kingdom of the Caras, an ally and tributary to the ruler of Cuzco” (p. 207), is to prefer 18th century legends to 16th century documents. The same way, the natives of the island of Puná, and not Atahualpa, burned the city of Túmbez (pp. 245, 289); and the same Indians, rather than the tumbecinos, supposedly wounded Atahualpa (p. 288). Finally, from page 191 to page 204 Benjamín Carrión has Juan de Sámanos accompanying the pilot Bartolomé Ruiz and telling him about Roland and Amadís, the Odyssey and Sinbad. But the Royal Secretary Sámanos, who signed the famous Relación, never came to America. And this very same Relación does not mention Tumpis as the port of origin of the balsa Ruiz captured (p. 196), but the Ecuadorian port of Salango (Çalango).
