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The Fake Inca of Tucuman: Don Pedro de Bohorques

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Robert Ryal Miller
Robert Ryal Miller*
Affiliation:
California State University, Hayward, California
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Extract

In the middle of the seventeenth century a Spanish adventurer, dressed in a traditional Andean cusma tunic and wearing a silver diadem, convinced tens of thousands of Indians in a remote part of the viceroyalty of Peru that he was a direct descendant of the former Inca emperors. More than a hundred native chiefs accepted him as their overlord, carried him on a litter, furnished maidens for his service, and followed him in battle when he promised to liberate them from Spanish control. Although Indian rebellions occurred frequently in colonial Peru, this particular one is unique because a European led it. Initially this imposter secured approval for his actions from the Spanish provincial governor and Jesuit missionaries, but later.when the Indians rebelled, the fake Inca was apprehended, imprisoned for seven years, then hanged. The story of his “empire” is a ten year episode that has not been printed in English and is not widely known in Spanish.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , October 1975 , pp. 196 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1975

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References

1 Versions of the Bohorques saga appear in two Spanish-language accounts without archival source footnotes. See Rubio, Julián María, Exploración y conquista del Río de la Plata, siglos XVI y XVII, Vol. 8 of História de América y de los pueblos americanos, ed. Ballesteros, Antonio y Beretta, (27 vols.; Barcelona, 1936–56), pp. 748–767 Google Scholar; and Bayle, Constantino S.J., Historia peregrina de un Inga andaluz (Madrid, 1928)Google Scholar. Bayle's work previously appeared in serial form in vols. 78-81 of Razón y Fé (Madrid, 1927).

2 Bohorques’ birthplace was Vizera, Granada, according to the bishop of Tucumán, Fray Melchor Maldonado de Saavedra, in a letter to the King, Sept. 13, 1658, copy in Archivo General de Indias (hereafter cited as AGI). Audiencia de Charcas 121.

3 Paz, Luis, Historia general del alto Perú hoy Bolivia (2 vols., Sucre, Bolivia, 1919), I, 301.Google Scholar

4 Bohorques’ early Peruvian exploits summarized in a royal decree to Gov, Alonso de Mercado, Madrid, Mar. 20, 1659, AGI, Buenos Aires 2; see also Bishop of Tucumán to King, Sept. 13, 1658, AGI, Charcas 121. Some accounts of the search for Paitití attribute it to a Francisco Bohorques, but similarity of dates and events indicate that Pedro and Francisco were the same person.

5 Bishop of Tucumán to King, Sept. 13, 1658, AGI, Charcas 121. Estimate of Calchaquí population in writ of Gov. Mercado, July 31, 1657, cuaderno, 1, fol. 22-24, AGI, Charcas 58.

6 Bohorques to Capt. Hernando de Pedraza, Apr. 21, 1657, in Bayle, , Historia, pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

7 Bohorques to Gov. Mercado, Apr. 21, 1657, in Bayle, , Historia, pp. 32–33.Google Scholar

8 Father Juan de León, S.J., to Capt. Hernando de Pedraza, June 24, 1657, AGI, Charcas 122.

9 Cabildo of San Juan Bautista de la Ribera to Gov. Mercado, May 7, 1657, AGI, Charcas 58.

10 Father Juan de León, S.J., to Capt. Francisco de Nieva y Castilla, June 24, 1657, AGI, Charcas 120.

11 Ibid.

12 Gov. Mercado to Bohorques, and Bohorques to Gov. Mercado, June 24, 1657, AGI, Charcas 58.

13 Father Juan de León, S.J., to Capt. Francisco de Nieva y Castilla, June 24, 1657, AGI, Charcas 120.

14 Bishop of Tucumán to King, Sept. 13, 1658, AGI, Charcas 121.

15 Bayle, , Historia, p. 51.Google Scholar

16 Bohorques’ census report, cuaderno 1, fol. 22 24, AGI, Charcas 58.

17 Primera junta, Aug. 2,1657, AGI, Charcas 58.

18 Orders of Gov. Mercado, Aug. 13, 1657; juntas, Aug. 2, 7, 11, 1657, AGI, Charcas 58.

19 Rubio, , Exploración, p. 757.Google Scholar

20 Departure of Bohorques, Aug. 13, 1657, AGI, Charcas 58; see also Bayle, , Historia, p. 54 Google Scholar; Rubio, , Exploración, pp. 759–760.Google Scholar

21 Gov .’s report of Indian sites, Sept. 17, 1657, AGI, Charcas 58. Meeting at Tafi reported in letter from Viceroy Count of Santisteban to King, Nov. 16, 1664, Biblioteca CSIC, Patronato Menéndez Pelayo, Madrid (hereafter cited as PMP), Jiménez de la Espada Collection, legajo 9.

22 Rubio, , Exploración, p. 762 Google Scholar; Bayle, , Historia, pp. 56, 59.Google Scholar

23 Gov. Mercado to Bishop of Tucumán, in Rubio, , Exploración, p. 759 Google Scholar; Gov. Mercado to Viceroy Count of Alba de Liste, Oct. 1657, AGI, Charcas 58; Gov. Mercado to King, Nov. 17, 1657, AGI, Charcas 122.

24 Viceroy to Gov., Dec. 1, 1657, AGI, Charcas 58; Royal decree to Gov., Mar. 20, 1659, AGI, Buenos Aires 2; Bishop to King, Sept. 13, 1658, AGI, Charcas 121.

25 Gov. Mercado's report of Jordán de Trejo's visit, June 14, 1658, AGI, Charcas 58.

26 Writ of Gov. Mercado, June 17,1658, AGI, Charcas 58.

27 Ibid.

28 Bohorques to Gov. Mercado, July 25, 1658, AGI, Charcas 122; see also writs of Gov. Mercado, July 12, 14,1658, AGI, Charcas 58.

29 Writs of Gov. Mercado, Aug. 16,17,1658, AGI, Chacas 58.

30 Writs of Gov. Mercado, Aug. 17, 22, and resolution of priests, Aug. 2, 1658, AGI, Charcas 58.

31 Writ of Gov. Mercado, Sept. 23, 1658, AGI, Charcas 58.

32 Bohorques’ letter in writ of Gov. Mercado, Oct. 12, 1658, AGI, Charcas 58; Viceroy Count of Alba de Liste to Gov. Mercado, Dec. 9,1658, AGI, Charcas 121.

33 Viceroy Count of Santisteban to King, Nov. 16, 1664, PMP, Jiménez de la Espada Col., legajo 9, fol. 13.

34 Petition of Bohorques and writ of Lic. Retuerta, Apr. 3, 1659, AGI, Charcas 58.

35 Secret reports of Gov. Mercado to Lic. Retuerta, Apr. 4, 7, and Retuerta's order of Apr. 4,1659, AGI, Charcas 58.

36 Lic. Retuerta to King, May 10, 1659; Viceroy Count of Alba de Liste to King, Sept. 10,1659, AGI, Charcas 121.

37 Gov. Mercado to Viceroy, Aug. 12, 1659, AGI, Charcas 122; deportation in Steward, Julian H. (ed.) Handbook of South American Indians (7 vols., Washington, 1946–59), I, 219, note 4.Google Scholar

38 Royal charges detailed in Viceroy Count of Santisteban to King, Nov. 16, 1664, PMP, Jiménez de la Espada Col., legajo 9, fol. 18.

39 Bohorques’ defense in ibid., fol. 19–20.

40 King to Viceroy Count of Santisteban, Oct. 24, 1660; Council of Indies to Viceroy, Oct. 21,1660, AGI, Charcas 121.

41 Viceroy to Lt. Gov. of Tucumán, Oct. 1,1663, AGI, Charcas 122.

42 Decree of Council of Indies, Aug. 29,1665, in Bayle, , Historia, p. 90.Google Scholar

43 Miller, Robert Ryal (ed. and trans.), Chronicle of Colonial Lima: The Diary of Josephe and Francisco Mugaburu, 1640–1691 (Norman, 1975), p. 109.Google Scholar