SARMIENTO DE GAMBOA, PEDROOne of the most adventurous of the Spanish chroniclers of Peru, Sarmiento
was born in Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and traveled to Peru in the early 1560s,
after spending several years in Mexico and Guatemala. He headed one
expedition to search for the biblical land of Ophir, in the south Pacific, in the
late 1560s, and a second expedition aimed at establishing Spanish settlements
in the Straits of Magellan, in 1579. Between the two expeditions, Sarmiento
lived in Peru and served in the administration of the fifth Viceroy of Peru,
Francisco de Toledo (1569–1581). Toledo commissioned Sarmiento to write
the first official Crown-sponsored history of the Inca Empire, the Historia
Indica (1572).
In preparation for writing the Historia Indica, Sarmiento assembled some
100 highly knowledgeable members of the Inca nobility in Cuzco, most of
whom were recognized as quipucamayocs (keepers of the knotted cords; see
Quipu). Sarmiento and his scribe, Alvaro Ruíz de Navamuel, took
depositions from the 100 witnesses about the lives of the Inca kings, as well
as the basic institutions, policies, and procedures of Inca governance, and
accounts of Inca rites, ceremonies, and myths. The information was
synthesized into a history of the Inca Empire, which Sarmiento then read,
apparently word for word (in Spanish), to 42 descendants of the noble
lineages (panacas) of Cuzco, many of whom had served as witnesses. The
names, ages, and panaca affiliations of the 42 witnesses are listed at the end
of the Historia Indica. In reading his account to the descendants of the Inca
nobility, Sarmiento sought to obtain their conformity as to the truth and
accuracy of his history of the Incas.
It is important to note that Viceroy Toledo had a larger objective in
commissioning Sarmiento to write his history: the justification of the Spanish
conquest of the Incas, the killing of the last Inca king (Atahualpa), and the
subsequent establishment of Colonial rule over the former territories of
Tahuantinsuyu. The Historia Indica realized this objective by claiming that
the Incas had gained power over their Andean subjects by illegitimate means
and that, therefore, they ruled as tyrants, rather than as legitimate and just
rulers. With the construction of this narrative line, which is repeated
throughout the document, the Spanish justified (in their own eyes) the
conquest of Peru and the legitimacy of their rule over the former Inca Empire.