Addison Cooke and the Treasure of the Incas by Stokes Jonathan W (z-lib.org).epub

Author’s Note



The history of the Incan treasure is stranger than fiction.
The story begins when Francisco Pizarro conquered Peru in 1532. Pizarro

lured Atahualpa to the main plaza in Cajamarca, Peru, by promising a safe
parley. When Atahualpa arrived, Pizarro simply ambushed him. Atahualpa’s
Incan guards were terrified by the sight of Spanish horses and sound of Spanish
guns. The Incan guards fled, and Atahualpa was easily captured.

The Spaniards locked Atahualpa in the “Ransom Room” that still stands in
Cajamarca. Atahualpa offered to fill the room once over with gold and twice
over with silver, in exchange for his release. By the dimensions of the room, this
amounted to 3,366 cubic feet of gold and 6,732 cubic feet of silver.

King Atahualpa’s general, Rumiñahui (“Stone Face”), was given two months
to gather and deliver the treasure to the Spaniards. When Pizarro executed
Atahualpa before the due date, Rumiñahui never delivered. Though he was
eventually captured and tortured to death by the Spanish, Rumiñahui never
revealed the location of the Incan treasure.

Pizarro squabbled over lands with his fellow conquistador, Diego de
Almagro, and eventually ordered him decapitated at the prison in Cusco. Diego
de Almagro’s son, nicknamed “El Mozo,” was half Native American. Vowing to
avenge his father, El Mozo raised an army of supporters and attacked Pizarro’s
palace at Lima, Peru, on June 26, 1541.

Pizarro was somewhere between sixty-two and seventy years old at the time
of this surprise attack. While trying to buckle on his armor, Pizarro managed to
kill two of the attackers with his sword. While his sword was trapped in a third
man, the attackers slit Pizarro’s throat. He fell to the ground and was stabbed
repeatedly. Pizarro drew a cross on the floor in his own blood and called out to
Jesus Christ before dying. In 1977, Pizarro’s decapitated head was discovered in
a lead box, hidden in a secret basement niche in the cathedral at Lima, Peru.

After assassinating Pizarro, El Mozo briefly became governor of Peru. But El
Mozo was soon captured by the Spanish at the Battle of Chupas on September

16, 1542. He was executed in the city square at Cuzco.
After five hundred years, it is difficult to know the fates of Pizarro’s Famous

Thirteen knights. Pedro de Candia was a firearms expert who was killed by El
Mozo at the Battle of Chupas. Domingo de Soraluce eventually became the ruler
of Panama and attempted to sail home to Spain with a fortune in gold. He died at
sea, and his ship was robbed before it reached port.

Over the centuries, many treasure hunters have met their death pursuing the
Incan gold. A Franciscan monk named Father Longo, an Ecuadorian miner
named Don Atanasio Guzmán, a British sea captain named Barth Blake, a
Scottish treasure hunter named Erskine Loch, an American geologist named Bob
Holt—these are just a few of the adventurers who met violent or mysterious
deaths while seeking the Incan treasure.

Whether or not the treasure is cursed is a matter of speculation. Whether it is
hidden in Ecuador or Peru is also a matter for debate. If the towns of Olvidados
and Casa Azar exist, they are too small to be found on any map. As of the
publication of this book, the location of the Incan treasure remains a mystery.

Acknowledgments



Thank you to my family and friends, without whom I would be far too well
adjusted to consider a career in writing. Special thanks to Brianne Johnson, Dana
Borowitz, and Beau Flynn, for their help and encouragement. Many thanks to
my brilliant editor, Michael Green, and to my younger editors, Christopher
Adler, Evan Parter, Leila Pagel, and Harper Oreck. Lastly, thank you to Scott
Carr, for inviting me to the party.