Sarmiento de Gamboa and the Incas

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa's 1572 chronicle of the Inca Empire, The History of the Incas, is one of the more fascinating early Spanish colonial histories of the Incas. While undoubtedly a product of Francisco de Toledo's vision for the colony and Sarmiento de Gamboa's pro-colonial outlook that sought to delegitimize the Incas as tyrannical despots, the chronicle was also based on oral testimony and traditions from members of all the royal ayllu of Cuzco. In addition, Sarmiento de Gamboa had planned the chronicle to be the second of a three-part work covering the viceroyalty, based on extensive travels around the colony. Indeed, Sarmiento de Gamboa's chronicle even included the names of various Cuzco Indian witnesses who were present for a reading of the work and whose commentary on it was incorporated into the text. That said, Francisco de Toledo and the colonial officials likely exerted pressure on the Cuzco indigenous informants. And since the actual testimonies collected by Sarmiento de Gamboa appear to have been lost, it is possible that the author changed or modified things or perhaps misunderstood some of the oral traditions he heard. In addition, the overriding goal of Sarmiento de Gamboa, to portray the Incas as tyrants and to legitimize Spanish possession of Peru, undoubtedly contradicted the perspective of the descendants of the Incas.

Despite these aforementioned problems with Sarmiento de Gamboa's work, and its problematic chronology that places Manco Capac's death in 665, thereby distorting the chronology of the Incas, he reports a number of interesting traditions and accounts of the 12 Inca rulers. For instance, a detailed version of the Inca origin myth from Pacaritambo and the days of Manco Capac that led to the conquest of Cuzco from its native inhabitants is presented in a way that points to internal conflict among the Inca and their alleged tyranny and despotism. Surely this way of presenting the Incas, similar to that of the later work of Cobo, may not have been the most faithful retelling of the myth.  Sarmiento de Gamboa's work also mentions historical details and an earlier tradition of Inca history from the times of Pachacuti. Indeed, it is possible that Sarmiento de Gamboa, and the painted cloth that similarly reproduced the history of the Incas, was based to a great extent on the painted boards and the collected historical narratives produced after Pachacuti gathered elder historians from across the provinces to Cuzco. Pachacuti, as such a prominent ruler and pivotal figure in the Inca state's expansion, probably helped consolidate and organize an "official" history of the Incas that drew from oral traditions and quipu. While the oral traditions maintained by members of the royal ayllu were naturally major sources to Sarmiento de Gamboa, the Cuzco royal ayllus would not have escaped the influence of Pachacuti's historical investigations. Unfortunately, since none of the painted boards Pachacuti had designed have survived, one cannot ascertain further details of this.

Besides reporting a number of traditions and sometimes conflicting accounts of the reigns, rebellions, achievements, and conflicts of the Incas, Sarmiento de Gamboa recorded a fascinating tradition of an Inca's travels in the Pacific Ocean after the conquest of Quito. In short, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa's account of Topa Inca's Pacific expedition to the islands of Avachumbi and Ninachumbi was based on an account given to him by Urco Guaranga, an important Inca who was one of the Inca elite informants of Sarmiento's chronicle. Apparently Urco Guaranga also owned the skin and jawbone of the horse brought back from the Pacific island by Topa Inca. In addition, Urco Guaranga also named several of the prominent Inca who accompanied Topa Inca on their expedition into the Pacific. Sarmiento is sure that the islands visited by Topa Inca must have been the ones he "discovered" in 1567, about 200 leagues west of Lima (the Solomon Islands). But something doesn't add up. If Topa Inca had really visited the Solomon Islands after his conquest of Quito, how could he have brought back the skin and jawbone of a horse? There were no horses in the Solomon Islands or Polynesia during the 1400s, right? 

But the account does seem to describe something that actually occurred before Topa Inca became emperor. During the conquest of Quito or Ecuador, merchants who traveled across the Pacific with sailboats described their island homeland as possessing gold and Topa Inca, after using the supernatural abilities of Antarqui, confirmed the story of the merchants. Then he traveled with 20,000 soldiers on rafts into the Pacific, disappearing for at least 9 months. However, when Topa Inca returned, he brought "black" men, a brass chair, and the previously mentioned skin and bone of a horse. If all this did indeed occur, as seems likely, the coast of Ecuador was in contact with traders from the Pacific (somewhere in Oceania) and these islanders included "black" people (Melanesians?) with access to brass and a "horse." If the horse parts were those of some other type of animal, which seems likely, and the Polynesian sailors were from a part of Polynesia which engaged in a trade of gold, metals (brass?) and other goods with the coast of Ecuador, this is probably evidence of transoceanic trade contacts between South America and Polynesia in pre-Columbian times. Contacts between coastal Ecuador and/or Colombia with Polynesian people has been proposed based on genetic evidence, so it is certainly plausible that an Inca prince could have journeyed to Polynesia after meeting said merchants.

Ultimately, however, Sarmiento de Gamboa sought to portray the Incas as illegitimate rulers and oppressors of the Indians of Peru. The tale that began with Manco Capac having a brother killed and the Incas usurping Cuzco ends with the fratricidal war and massacres of Huascar and Atahualpa. As admitted by Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pizarro and the Spaniards were only able to defeat the Incas because of the war between Atahualpa and Huascar that had decimated the empire and led to divisions within the ruling elite. Moreover, Inca expansion from Pachacuti to Huayna Capac relied on, to his eyes, oppressive and extreme exploitation, overtaxation, and control of the conquered Indians. They didn't even respect or observe their own customs when dealing with their kin and fellow Incas. Thus, such a tyrannical dynasty that was only able to control its subjects through extreme brutality, was wholly illegitimate and the Spanish were morally justified to replace them. Despite Sarmiento de Gamboa's obvious bias here, one can read between the lines and detect how imperial overexpansion and an unstable system of succession perhaps led to the Inca Empire's rapid dissolution.