Capac the Inca, observing the imprudence of the Spaniards in thus dividing their forces, and leaving only a small number for the defence of Cuzco, under Juan and Gonzales Pizarro, resolved to avail himself of the advantage their weakness gave him.

Though strictly watched by the Spaniards, he found means to communicate his scheme to the persons whom he had appointed to carry it into execution. After some. unsuccessful attempts of the Inca to make his escape, Ferdinand Pizarro happened at that time to arrive in Cuz.co. He obtained permission of him to attend a great festival which was to be celebrated a few leagues from the capital. Under pretext of that solemnity, the chiefs of the empire were assembled.. No sooner had the Inca joined them, than the standard of war was erected, and in a short time all the fighting men from Quito to Chili were in arms. Many Spaniards, living securely on the settlements allotted them were massacred. Several small detachments, as they marched carelessly through the coun try, were entirely cut off.

The

An army amounting (according to the Spanish histo rians) to two hundred thousand men, attacked Cuzco, which the three brothers attempted to defend, with only a hundred and seventy Spaniards. Another numerous body invested Lima, and kept the governor close shut up. communication between the two cities was cut off; the very great forces of the Peruvians spreading over the country, interrupted every messenger; which kept the two parties in Cuzco and Lima ignorant of the fate of each other.

At Cuzco, where the Inca commanded in person, they made their greatest effort. During nine months they car ried on the siege with incessant ardour, and in various forms; and though they displayed not the undaunted ferocity of the Mexican warriors, they conducted their ope rations with sagacity. They endeavoured to imitate the Spaniards in their discipline, and use of their arms, which they had taken from those they had slain. Their bravest warriors were armed with spears, swords, and bucklers: some appeared in the field with Spanish muskets, and had acquired skill and resolution enough to use them. The Inca, and a few of the boldest were mounted on horses, like Spanish cavaliers, with their lances. In spite of the

valour, heightened by despair, with which the three brothers defended Cuzco, Manco Capac recovered possession of one half of his capital; and before the Spaniards could drive him out of it, they lost Juan Pizarro, the best beloved of all the brothers, together with some persons of note. Exhausted by fatigue, distressed with want of provisions, and despairing any longer of being able to resist an enemy, whose numbers daily increased, the soldiers became impatient to abandon Cuzco, in hopes of joining their countrymen, if any survived, or of forcing their way to the sea, and finding some means of escaping from a country which had been so fatal to the Spanish name.

At this critical moment Almagro appeared suddenly in' the neighbourhood of Cuzco. By the same messenger who brought him the intelligence of the Inca's revolt, he received the royal patent creating him governor of Chili, and defining the limits of his jurisdiction. Upon considering the tenor of it, he concluded it was manifest beyond contradiction, that Cuzco lay within the boundaries of his jurisdiction. He was therefore equally desirous to prevent the Peruvians from recovering possession of their capital, and wrest it out of the hands of the Pizarros.

Almagro unacquainted with events which had happened in his absence, and solicitous of gaining every intelligence necessary, advanced slowly towards the capital, and with great circumspection. Various negociations with both parties were set on foot. The Inca at first endeavoured to gain the friendship of Almagro, but despairing of any cordial union with a Spaniard, after many fruitless attempts to accomplish it, he attacked him by surprize with a numerous body of chosen troops. These were repulsed with great slaughter, and a great part of their army dispersed, and Almagro marched to the gates of Cuzco without interruption. The Pizarros had rendered themselves odious by their harsh domineering manners, while the generous, open, affable temper of Almagro gained him many adherents of the Pizarros.

Encouraged by this defection, he advanced towards the city by night, surprized the centinels, or was admitted by them, and immediately invested the house where the two brothers resided, and compelled them, after an obstinate resistance, to surrender at discretion. Almagro's claim of jurisdiction over Cuzco was universally acknowledged, and

a form of administration established in his name. In this conflict only two or three persons were killed, but it was soon followed by scenes more bloody.

Francis Pizarro having dispersed the Peruvians who had invested Lima, and received some considerable reinforcements from Hispaniola and Nicaragua, ordered five hundred men, under the command of Alonzo de AL varado, to march to Cuzco, and relieve his brothers. This body advanced near to the capital, before they knew that they had any enemy more formidable than Indians to encounter. They were astonished when they beheld their countrymen posted on the banks of the river Abancay, to oppose their progress. Almagro wished rather to gain, than conquer them, and endeavoured by bribes and promises to seduce their leader. The fidelity of Alvarado was not to be shaken, but his talents for, war were not equal to his integrity. Almagro amused him with various movements, the meaning of which he could not comprehend, while a large detachment of chosen soldiers passed the river in the night, surprized his camp, and took him prisoner, with his principal officers, after having routed his troops before they had time to form.

Had Almagro known as well how to improve, as to gain, a victory, this event must have been decisive. Roderigo Orgognez, an officer of great abilities, who had served under the Constable Bourbon, when he led the imperial army to Rome, had been accustomed to bold and decisive counsels, advised him instantly to issue orders for putting to death Ferdinand and Gonzalo Pizarro, Alvarado, and a few other persons whom he could not hope to gain, and to march directly to Lima, before the governor had time to prepare for his defence. But Almagro, although he saw at once the utility of this counsel, had not suffered himself to be influenced by sentiments like those of a soldier of fortune, grown old in the service, or the chief of a party who had drawn his sword in a civil war. Feelings of hu manity restrained him from shedding the blood of his opponents; and dreaded being deemed a rebel for entering a province which the king had allotted to another.

As he was solicitous that his rival should be considered the aggressor, he marched back to Cuzco to wait his approach. Pizarro, whose spirit had remained unshaken under the rudest shock of adversity, was almost over

whelmed with such a tide of misfortunes, as now at once poured in upon him. But he was preserved from sinking under it, by the necessity of attending to his own safety, and the desire of revenge. He took measures for both with his usual sagacity.

The command which he had of the sea coast, by which he was enabled to receive supplies both of men and military stores, gave him an advantage which his rival could not expect. As it was his interest to gain time, he had recourse to arts, which he had before practised with success, and Almagro was weak enough to be amused with a prospect of terminating their differences, by some amicable accommodation. Pizarro by varying his proposals, and shifting his ground, when it suited his purpose, protracted the negociations for several months, in which time Gonzalo Pizarro, and Alvarado, found means to corrupt the guard of soldiers to whose care they were intrusted, and not only escaped themselves, but persuaded sixty of the men who had formerly guarded them, to accompany them in their flight.

One of the brothers being now at liberty, the governor by another act of perfidy procured the release of the other. He proposed that every point in controversy should be submitted to their sovereign; that until his decision was known, each should possess whatever part of the country he now occupied; that Ferdinand Pizarro should be set at liberty, and return instantly to Spain, together with the officers whom Almagro proposed to send thither, to justify his claims. Notwithstanding the design of this artifice was so obvious, and the insincerity of the governor had been so often experienced, yet did Almagro, with a credulity approaching to infatuation, conclude an agreement on these

terms.

No sooner had Ferdinand Pizarro recovered his liberty, than the governor threw off the mask; the treaty was forgotten, pacific and conciliating measures were no more mentioned; he openly declared that in the field, and not in the cabinet, by arms and not by negociation, was their difference to be adjusted; that it must now be determined who must be master of Peru.

His preparations were so rapid, that seven hundred men, were soon ready to march towards Cuzco. The command of these was given to his two brothers, who

were urged on by the desire of vengeance, and that ran corous enmity flowing from family rivalship; they in vain attempted to march across the mountains, in the direct road from Lima to Cuzco, but were forced to alter their route, by a march towards the south, along the coast. as far as Nasca; and then turning to the left, penetrated through the defiles in that branch of the Andes, which lay between them and the capital.

Almagro, instead of defending those difficult passes, waited the approach of the enemy in the plain of Cuzco. He was induced to take this resolution for two reasons; his followers amounted only to five hundred men, and he was afraid of weakening such a feeble body, by sending any detachment towards the mountains. His cavalry far exceeded those of the enemy, both in number and discipline, and it was only in an open country that he could avail himself of that advantage.

The Pizarros after surmounting the difficulties and obstructions which arose in their march through the desart, and horrid regions which lay in their way to Cuzco, at length appeared in the plain, where Almagro's forces were drawn up ready to receive them. Though countrymen and subjects of the same sovereign, and each with the royal standard displayed; and though they beheld the surrounding mountains, covered with a vast number of Indians, assembled to enjoy the spectacle of their mutual carnage, and prepared to attack the successful party; so fell and implacable was their rancour, that not one pacifie counsel, not a single proposition from either party toward an accommodation was offered.

Almagro at this time unfortunately was so worn out with the fatigues of service, to which his advanced age was unequal, that, at this important crisis he could not exert his usual activity, and was obliged to commit the leading of his troops to Orgognez, who, though an officer of great merit, possessed not that ascendancy over the spirit and affections of the soldiers, as the chief whom they had been so long accustomed to follow and revere.

The conflict was fierce, and maintained by each party with equal courage; on the side of Almagro were more veteran soldiers, and a larger proportion of cavalry; but these were counterbalanced by Pizarro's superiority in numbers, and by two companies of well disciplined mus

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