Last Conquistador: Mansio Serra De Leguizamon and the Conquest of the Incas

by Stuart Stirling

The Inca civilization of Peru was one of the greatest of the ancient civilizations of the Americas. In the 1530s the Spanish, led by the conquistador Pizarro, arrived in Peru. In their search for gold, they devastated the Inca culture, destroying its treasures, killing its leaders and bringing to an end the infrastructure of its empire.


With Pizarro came one Mansio Serra de Leguizamon, who became the last of the Spanish conquistadors to die. This book tells his amazing story. He died at the age of seventy-eight, leaving a unique and famous apology for the conquest in his will. This book takes this remarkable document as its starting point, weaving a fascinating, sometimes disturbing tale of the vicious subjugation of the Inca civilization.

Genres: History

Hardcover

First published June 12, 2001

Reviews

[Glenn Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was the initial conquest and then a series of civil wars among the Spanish. The nominal subject of this book was called the last conquistador because he lived the longest. Most were killed not by the locals, but by each other as greed for riches, power and territory compelled that each turn inward. While the Spanish were not killing each other, they were out fighting the different tribes and blocking the Dutch and English from landing. This particular gentleman is interesting because he was on the losing side of the civil wars almost each time and was captured each time, held as a prisoner and tortured each time. Each time, he also escaped from jail to his plantation where his own assigned Indians treated him and helped him get back. He was also one of the few to know the wrongs committed to the Indians and upon his death gave to them all his wealth and an apology.

[Julian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent review of Peruvian conquest

This book reviews and references many primary sources, and centers it’s story around one particular conquistador, the last one. The book conveys the chaos, fear, lust, and greed of the conquest, and rightly puts primary sources in context, that context usually being that a conquistador that seeks to portray himself in the best possible light. Not content with this bias, the author draws from a wide range of sources to give a clearer picture of what was actually happening, and is clear about when he is conjecturing and what he bases it on. A great summary of a dreadful time, and a man who seems to be a decent man among horrible company.

[Wim Kamerbeek · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is well researched and has some new insights in the conquest of the Inca-empire. I found it a bit hard to read with many complicated sentences, like reading a not so well knotted quipu. Hey, but English is not my mother tongue.

[Davy Bennett]

Donating my 2nd copy. 2024.