Atahualpa, solicitous to appear with the greatest splendour and magnificence in his first interview with the strangers, took up so much time in his preparations, that the day was far advanced beföre he began his march, and moved so slowly, that the Spaniards were apprehensive their intention was suspected. To remove this, Pizarro despatched one of his officers with fresh assurance of his friendly disposition.

The Inca at length approached, preceded by four hundred men in an uniform dress, as harbingers, to clear the way before him. He himself, sitting on a throne, adorned with plumes of various colours, and almost covered with plates of gold and silver, enriched with precious stones, and was carried on the shoulders of his principal attendants. Behind him came some chief officers of his court, carried in the same manner, attended by several bands of musicians, and the whole plain was covered with troops, amounting to more than thirty thousand men. As the Inca drew near the Spanish quarters, father Vincent Valveidi, chaplain to the expedition, advanced with a crucifix in one hand, and a breviary in the other, and in a long discourse, attempted to explain to him the fall of Adam, the incarnation, sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the appointment of St. Peter as God's vicegerent on earth, the transmission of his apostolic power by succession to the popes, and the donation made by pope Alexander to the king of Castile of all the regions in the New World.

In consequence of all this, he required Atahualpa to embrace the Christian faith, and acknowledge the pope as supreme head of the church, and the king of Castile as his lawful sovereign; promising, that if he instantly complied, the Castilian monarch would take him under his protection, and permit him to continue in the exercise of his royal authority; but if he should impious ly refuse to obey his summons, he denounced war against him in his master's name, and threatened him with the most dreadful effects of his vengeance.

This strange harangue.upon abstruce subjects, and unknown: facts, it was impossible at once to make an untutored Indian un derstand. It was altogether incomprehensible to the Inca. Those parts of more obvious meaning, filled him with astonishment and indignation. His reply, notwithstanding, was temperate. He observed, that he was lord over the dominions he governed, by hereditary right; that he could not conceive how a foreign priest should pretend to dispose of territories which did not belong to him; that if such a preposterous grant had been made, he, as rightful possessor, refused to confirm it; and that he had no inclination to renounce the religious faith of his ancestors, nor would he forsake the service of the sun, the immortal divinity, whom he and his people revered, in order to worship the god of the Spa

niards, who was subject to death; that as to the other parts of the discourse, as he could not understand their meaning, he wished to know where he had learned things so extraordinary. "In this book," answered Valverdi, reaching out to him his breviary. The Inca opened it eagerly, and turning over the leaves, lifted it to his ear: "This," says he, "is silent: it tells me nothing," and threw it with disdain to the ground. The monk, enraged at this action, ran to wads his countrymen, and cried out," Christians! to arms! to arms! the word of god is insulted, avenge this profanation on those impious dogs!"

Pizarro gave the signal of assault: instantly the martial music struck up, the cannon and muskets began to fire, they sallied out fiercely to the charge, and the infantry rushed on sword in hand. The astonished Peruvians, dismayed at the suddenness of the attack, so altogether unexpected, and the irresistible impression of the cavalry, and the fire arms, fled with universal consternation in every quarter, without attempting any defence. Pizarro, at the head of his chosen band, advanced directly towards the Inca; and notwithstanding his nobles vied with each other in sacrificing their own lives to cover the sacred person of their sovereign, the Spaniards soon penetrated to the royal seat; and Pizarro having seized the Inca by the arm, dragged him to the ground, and carried him as a prisoner to his quarters.

The Spaniards, elated with success, pursued the fugitive Peruvians in every direction, and with unrelenting barbarity, continued the slaughter until the close of the day, without meeting with any resistance. About four thousand Peruvians were killed; not one Spaniard fell, and Pizarro was the only one that was hurt, having received a slight wound from one of his own soldiers, while struggling eagerly to lay hold of the Inca. The plunder of the field was rich beyond any idea which the Spaniards had formed concerning the wealth of Peru.

Transported with their success, and the value of their plunder, they passed the night in mirth and rejoicings, as might have been expected from such needy adventurers, upon such a sudden change of fortune: their exultation was extravagant, and without any remorse for having slain so many innocent people, without any just cause or provocation.

At first the Inca could hardly believe a calamity so unexpected to be real. But he soon felt all the misery of his fate; his dejection was equal in proportion to the grandeur from which he had fallen. Pizarro, fearing he should lose the great advantages he had promised himself, by having him in his possession, endeavoured to console him, with professions of kindness and respect, that did not in the least correspond with his actions. By residing among the Spaniards, Atahualpa soon discovered their ruling passion; which they were in nowise careful to conceal; and by

applying to that, made an attempt to recover his liberty. The offer he made for his ransom astonished the Spaniards. The apartment in which he was confined, was twenty-two feet in length, and sixteen in breadth; this he undertook to fill with vessels of gold, as high as he could reach. Pizarro closed eagerly with this tempting proposal, and a line was drawn upon the walls of the chamber, to mark the stipulated height, to which the trea Sure was to rise.

Pleased with having a prospect of liberty, the Inca took measures instantly for fulfilling his part of the agreement, by sending messengers to Cuzco, Quito, and other places, where gold had been amassed, with orders to bring what was necessary for obtaining his ransom, immediately to Caxamalca. The Peruvians accustomed to respect every mandate of their sovereign, with the greatest alacrity executed his orders. Deceived with the hopes of regaining his liberty by this means, and afraid of endangering his life, by forming any other scheme for his relief, and though the force of the empire was entire, no preparations were made, and no army assembled, to avenge their own wrongs, or those of their monarch.

The Spaniards remained at Caxamalca unmolested. Small detachments marched into the remote provinces of the empire, and instead of meeting with any opposition, were received with distinguished marks of respect.

About the month of December, 1532, Almagro landed at St. Michael with such a reinforcement as was nearly double in number to the forces with Pizarro. The arrival of this long expected succour, was not more agreeable to the Spaniards, than alarming to the Inca. He saw the power of his enemies increase; and ignorant of the source from whence they derived their supplies, or the means by which they were conveyed to Peru, he could not foresee to what a height the inundation that poured in upon his dominions might arise.

While his mind was agitated by these reflections, he learned that some of the Spaniards, in their way to Cuzco, had visited his brother Huascar, in the place where he kept him confined, and that the captive prince had represented to them the justice of his cause, and that if they would espouse it, he had promised them a quantity of treasure, vastly exceeding what he was to give for his ransom. He clearly perceived his own destruction to be inevitable, if the Spaniards should listen to this proposal; and as he well knew their insatiable thirst for gold, he had not the least doubt but that they would close in with the proposal,

To prevent which, and to save his own life, he gave orders that Huascar should be put to death; which was obeyed like all his other commands, with scrupulous punctuality. The Indians, meanwhile, daily arrived from different parts of the kingdom,

loaded with treasure. A great part was now amassed of what had been agreed upon, and Atahualpa assured the Spaniards that the only reason why the whole was not brought in, was the remoteness of the provinces where it was deposited.

But such vast piles of gold, presented continually to the view of needy soldiers, had so inflamed their avarice, that it was impossible any longer to restrain their impatience to obtain possession of this rich booty. The whole, except some vessels of curious workmanship, reserved as a present for the emperor, was melted down, and after deducting a fifth for the emperor, there remained one million five hundred and twenty-eight thousand and five hundred pesos, to Pizarro and his followers, besides a hundred thousand pesos as a donative to Almagro, and his soldiers. The festival of St. James, the patron saint of Spain, was the day chosen for the division of this large sum; it began with a solemn invocation with the name of God, and with ridiculous grimace, pretended (for they could not be in earnest) they expected the guidance of heaven, in distributing those wages of iniquity. Eight thousand pesos, equal to as many pounds sterling in the present century, fell to the share of each horseman, and half that sum to each foot-soldier. Pizarro and his officers received dividends in proportion to their rank.

There is no record in history, of a sum so great ever being divided among so small a number of soldiers. Many of them having thus unexpectedly acquired what they deemed a competency, were so impatient to retire and spend the remainder of their days in their native country, that they demanded, with clamorous importunity, their discharge. Pizarro, sensible that from such men he could expect neither enterprise in action nor fortitude in suffering, persuaded at the same time that wherever they went the display of their wealth would allure other adventurers, granted their suit without reluctance, and permitted above sixty of them to accompany his brother Ferdinand, whom he sent to Spain with an account of his success, and the present destined for the emperor.

The treasure being now divided among the Spaniards, the Inca demanded his liberty agreeably to their promise. Pizarro, instead of fulfilling this, had secretly determined to take away his life. Though he had seized the Inca, in imitation of Cortes's conduct towards the Mexican monarch, he was destitute of the talents for carrying on the same artful.policy, by which he might have derived still greater, advantages, from being master of his person. Atahualpa is allowed by the Spanish historians to be a prince of greater abilities than Montezuma, and penetrated more thoroughly into the character and intentions of the Spaniards. Mutual suspicion and distrust soon took place between them. Almagro and his followers from selfish motives demanded his life;

but the unhappy prince inadvertently contributed to hasten his own fate; during his confinement, he had attached himself with peculiar affection to Ferdinand Pizarro, and Hernando Soto, who had behaved with more decency and attention to the captive monarch, than the other officers. Soothed with such respect from persons of high rauk, he delighted in their society. But in the presence of Pizarro he was overawed and uneasy; this soon became mingled with contempt.

He considered that among all the European arts, that of reading and writing the most to be admired. He long deliberated with himself, whether he should consider it as a natural or an acquired talent. In order to determine this, he desired one of the soldiers who guarded him, to write the name of God on the nail of his thumb. This he shewed to several Spaniards, asking its meaning; and to his amazement they all returned the same answer. At length Pizarro entered; and on presenting it to him, he blushed, and with some confusion was obliged to acknowledge his ignorance. From that moment Atahualpa considered him as a mean person, less instructed than his own soldiers; and he had not address enough to conceal the sentiments with which this discovery inspired him. To be the object of a barbarian's scorn, so mortified the pride of Pizarro, and excited such resentment in his breast, as added force to all the other considerations which prompted him to put the Inca to death.

But that he might not be alone responsible for the commission of so violent and unjust an action, he resolved to try him with all the formalities observed in the criminal courts in Spain. Pizarro himself, and Almegro, with two assistants, were appointed judg. es, with full power to acquit or to condemn; an attorney-general was named to carry on the prosecution in the king's name; coun sellors were chosen to assist the prisoner in his defence; and clerks were appointed to record the proceedings of the court.

Before this mock tribunal a charge was exhibited altogether so absurd, that the effrontery of Pizarro in making it the ground of a serious procedure, is as surprising as his injustice in dep.iving the monarch of a great empire of his liberty, and then bring him to trial for exercising his sovereignty, agreeably to the known customs and laws established before the Spaniards ever came amongst them; and over whom they had no jurisdiction.

To judges predetermined in their opinion, the accusations appeared sufficient. They pronounced Atahualpa guilty, and condemned him to be burned alive. Friar Valverdi prostituted the authority of his sacred function to confirm this sentence, and by his signature warranted it to be just.

Astonished at his fate, Atahualpa endeavoured to avert it by his tears, by promises and by entreaties, that he might be sent to Spain, where a monarch would be the arbiter of his fate. The