Thursday, August 16, 2012

Cuzco Fruit Seller



PHOTOGRAPHER'S JOURNAL - "Cuzco," Part 3:  It was to Cuzco in 1532 that Pizarro and a small band of Conquistadors, the only Europeans in South America at the time, took the captured Emperor Atahualpa, Pachacuti's great grandson, after they lured him and 30,000 of his best troops to a meeting in the plaza of Cajamarca, then incited a panic by discharging three hidden canons (devices unknown to Atahaulpa's people) while unleashing a cavalry (horses and riders were similarly unknown) of 100 armored lancers and men firing harquebuses (ditto) into the crowd, filling the plaza with smoke and capturing Atahualpa while slaughtering vast numbers of Incas and paralyzing the empire.