of the chayne which they put vpon him." He eagerly demanded his liberation, and Pizarro, with a vile show of equity, caused the notary to execute a full release of the engagement to which, as the price of his freedom, the unfortunate Inca had been bound. But he still held him in close confinement, darkly meditating the means of freeing himself from one whom the reverence of his subjects had made too dangerous. A pretext was not long wanting. Absurd and unfounded rumors of a great rising among the Indians began to circulate in the Spanish camp. Pizarro, with the air of an injured man, taxed his captive with the suspected plot. "You are jesting," said his victim, with a smiling face, but with secret alarm; “you always say things to me in jest! What are I or my people, that we should take arms against men so valiant as yourselves? do not utter these jests." But the innocence of the Inca availed him little. The soldiers, especially those of Almagro, began to clamor for a march to fresh regions of treasure. Atahuallpa must be first disposed of, and Pizarro, as a preliminary step, dispatched De Soto, the best friend of the unfortunate Inca, on a short expedition. After his departure, an infernal scheme, under the guise of law, for the murder of the prisoner, was hastily concocted. Pizarro and Almagro, sitting as judges, went through the formal mockery of a trial of their captive, on charges of usurpation, idolatry, adultery, and attempt to excite insurrection. This shameful indictment is described even by a Spanish contemporary as "a badly-contrived and worsewritten document, devised by a factious and unprincipled priest, a clumsy notary without conscience, and others of the like stamp, who were all concerned in this villany."

Indian witnesses were examined, and their testimony was perverted by the wicked interpreter to prove the guilt of the Inca. Whatever were the proof, the judgment, as a matter of course, went against him, and he was sentenced by the two judges, with the concurrence of the infamous Friar Valverde, to be burned alive that same night in the great square of Caxamalca. To the honor of several of the Spanish officers, they

vehemently remonstrated against this barbarous decision, and entered a written protest against the proceedings.

When his cruel sentence was communicated to the unfortunate Atahuallpa, tears fell from his eyes, and he exclaimed, "What have I done, or my children, that I should meet such a fate? And from your hands, too," he said, turning to Pizarro; "you who have met with friendship and kindness from my people, with whom I have shared my treasures, who have received nothing but benefits at my hands." In the most affecting manner, he besought that his life might be spared, offering double the ransom he had paid, if time were only given to obtain it.

Pizarro, at this touching appeal, turned aside-weeping, it is said-but his atrocious purpose remained unaltered; and his victim, recovering his self-possession, from that moment displayed the true Indian calmness and fortitude. That same evening (August 29th) he was conducted, chained hand and foot, to the place of execution, where the army, by torch-light, stood arrayed around the stake. By his side, like an evil spirit, hovered the infernal friar, Valverde, urging him to embrace the faith of his murderers. Anxious to secure so distinguished a convert, he even assured him, before the pyre was lighted, that if he would be baptized, he should die by the less torturing death of the garrote.* Pizarro confirmed the promise, and the Inca, yielding to their devices, received this devilish travesty of the sacrament, with the name of Juan, in honor (!) of St. John the Baptist.†

Turning to Pizarro, he besought him, as a last request, to have compassion on his children, and to take them under his protection. "Was there no other one in that dark company

• An instrument of strangulation, still commonly used in Spanish execution. It consists of a collar of iron, tightened by a screw around the throat of the sufferer, and effecting at the same time suffocation and crushing of the vertebræ.

The singular fact is related by one who was present, that the Inca's secret reason for acceding to this proposal was his belief that, if his body was not actually destroyed by fire, "the Sun, his father, would the next morning restore him to life!" Imagination could devise no circumstance more touching.

who stood grimly around him, to whom he could look for the protection of his offspring? Perhaps he thought there was no other so competent to afford it, and that the wishes so solemnly expressed in that hour might meet with respect, even from his conqueror. Then, recovering his stoical bearing, which for a moment had been shaken, he submitted himself calmly to his fate, while the Spaniards, gathering around, muttered their credos for the salvation of his soul! Thus by the death of a vile malefactor perished the last of the Incas."*

The next day, his obsequies, with pompous solemnity, were celebrated in the church—a solemnity somewhat disturbed by the tumultuous entrance of a great number of his wives and female relatives, avowing their intention to sacrifice themselves, according to custom, on his tomb. Several, despite the remonstrances of the Christians, "laid violent hands on themselves, in the vain hope of accompanying their beloved lord to the bright mansions of the Sun."

De Soto, on his return, learned with horror and amazement of the deed which had been perpetrated in his absence. He hastened to Pizarro, "and found him," says a contemporary writer, "exhibiting much sentiment, with a great felt hat clapped on his head, by way of mourning, and well pulled over his eyes." To the angry remonstrances of his officer, he answered that he had been too hasty, and laid the blame upon others. A scene of fierce recrimination ensued between the generals, the friar, and others accessary to the iniquitous deed -each endeavoring to shift the responsibility on to the rest; a sufficient confession that their crime was utterly indefensible.

Thus ends one of the very darkest pages of Spanish and American history. No reader of feeling or reflection will require comment on a deed bearing in its face the brand of such odious perfidy, ingratitude, and cruelty. In return for his own good faith, for the submission of his empire, for the surrender of unhoped treasure, the unhappy victim met with imprisonment, chains, and the sentence to a cruel and revolting death.

* Prescott's Conquest of Peru.

Despite his pompous affectation of regret (remorse he may well have felt) the burden of this damning infamy rests almost entirely on the head of Pizarro. Whatever instruments he employed, the deed was his own-a deed which could never have been committed by any but such as himself-men naturally fierce, rapacious and cruel, uneducated, save in the superstitions of a wretched dogmatism, and trained from childhood to scenes of blood, oppression, and violence. Doubtless a dark and cruel policy was his main and prompting motive; but it is said that the incentive of personal pique was not wanting. The imprisoned Inca, delighting in the mysterious art of writing, (which he regarded as a new sense) had caused the name of God to be inscribed on his nail, and presented it to each of the soldiers, charmed with their ready and concurrent response. Pizarro, who had never learned to read, was unable to answer him and the ill-concealed contempt of the Inca, it is said, awakened a hatred in the heart of his conqueror, that ere long found its bloody gratification.

To one who, like the ancient Greek, believes in an avenging Nemesis, there is something very comfortable in recalling the violent deaths which befell nearly all the actors in this doleful tragedy-though little reflection is needed to show that the evil wishes and undisciplined passions which prompted the crime, only worked out their legitimate end in involving its authors in fresh and fatal adventures.

Old Purchas (abating one or two mistakes in fact, such as the complicity of Soto) gives, in a few words, a more terse and edifying version of their end than any writer on the subject: "But God the righteous Iudge, seeing this villainous act, suffered none of those Spaniards to die by the course of Nature, but brought them to euill and shamefull ends.

*

*

His" (Atahuallpa's) "Murtherers dyed, as is said, the like bloudy ends; Almagro was executed by Piçarro, and hee slaine by yong Almagro; and him Vacca de Castra did likewise put to death. John Piçarro was slaine of the Indians. cther of the Brethren was slaine with Francis.

Martin an Ferdinandus

was imprisoned in Spaine and his end vnknowne; Gonzales was done to death by Gasca. Soto dyed of thought in Florida; and ciuill warres eate vp the rest in Peru."*

CHAPTER IX.

CONDITION OF PERU-MARCH TO CUZCO-FIGHT WITH THE INDIANSEXECUTION OF CHALLCUCHIMA-ENTRANCE INTO CUZCO-FRESH plunDER OF TREASURE-CORONATION OF THE INCA MANCO CAPACFOUNDATION OF LIMA-RECEPTION OF HERNANDO IN SPAIN -DISPUTES OF ALMAGRO AND THE PIZARROS.

THE death of the Inca was the signal for a general disruption of the Peruvian empire. His subjects, accustomed for generations to rely implicitly on the guidance and command of a single ruler, found themselves without a head, and committed the excesses which attend a sudden relief from long-accustomed restraint. Many of the nobles set up governments of their own, and a species of anarchy prevailed throughout Peru.

Pizarro, with what ceremony he could, invested with the royal dignity a youth named Toparca, a brother of his victim; and then, with five hundred Spaniards, and a large retinue of Indians, set out for Cuzco. They reached Xauxa without molestation; and there defeated, with much slaughter, a large body of Indians drawn up to oppose them. Here Pizarro halted, and sent forward De Soto, with sixty horse, to reconnoitre the route. That adventurous cavalier, after a fatiguing march, was attacked on the sierra of Vilcaconga by a force of Indians, with such fury and resolution, that all the courage and discipline of the mounted cavaliers barely saved them from defeat. A number were killed, and the remainder were

* Valverde, perhaps as culpable as any, gained the bishopric of Cuzco, the grand object of his ambition; but a few years after perished, with others, in a massacre by the Indians.