of all appeared four hundred men, in an uniform drefs, as harbingers to clear the way before him. He himself, fitting on a throne or couch, adorned with plumes of various colours, and almost covered with plates of gold and filver enriched with precious ftones, was carried on the fhoulders of his principal attendants. Behind him came fome chief officers of, his court, carried in the fame manner. Several bands of fingers and dancers accompanied this cavalcade; and the whole plain was covered with troops, amounting to more than thirty thousand men.

Strange harangue of father Valverde.

As the Inca drew near the Spanish quarters, father Vincent Valverde, chaplain to the expedition, advanced with a crucifix in one hand, and a breviary in the other, and in a long difcourfe explained to him the doctrine of the creation, the fall of Adam, the incarnation, the fufferings and refurrection of Jefus Chrift, the appointment of St. Peter as God's vicegerent on earth, the tranfmiffion of his apoftolick power by fucceffion to the popes, the donation made to the king of Caftile by pope Alexander of all the regions in the New World. In confequence of all this, he required Atahualpa to embrace the Chriftian faith, to acknowledge the fupreme jurifdiction of the pope, and to fubmit to the king of Caftile as his lawful fovereign; promifing, if he complied instantly with this requifition, that the Caftilian monarch would protect his dominions, and permit him to continue in the exercife of his royal authority; but if he fhould impioufly refufe to obey this fummons, he

denounced war against him in his maiter's name, and threatened him with the most dreadful effects

This ftrange harangue, unfolding deep myf teries, and alluding to unknown facts, of which no power of eloquence could have conveyed at once a distinct idea to an American, was fo lamely tranf lated by an unfkilful interpreter, little acquaint ed with the idiom of the Spanifh tongue, and incapable of expreffing himself with propriety in the language of the Inca, that its general tenor was altogether incomprehenfible to Atahualpa. Some parts in it, of more obvious meaning, filled him with aftonifhment and indignation. His reply, however, was temperate. He began with obferv ing, that he was lord of the dominions over which he reigned by hereditary fucceffion; and added, that he could not conceive how a foreign priest fhould pretend to difpofe of territories which did not belong to him; that if fuch a prepofterous grant had been made, he, who was the rightful poffeffor, refufed to confirm it; that he had no inclination to renounce the religious inftitutions eftablished by his ancestors; nor would he forfake the fervice of the Sun, the immortal divinity whom he and his people revered, in order to worship the God of the Spaniards, who was fubject to death; that with respect to other matters contained in his difcourfe, as he had never heard of them before, and did not now understand their meaning, he defired to know where the prieft had learned things fo extraordinary.,, In this book,"

anfwered Valverde, reaching out to him his breviary. The Inca opened it eagerly, and turning over the leaves, lifted it to his ear: This," fays he,,,is filent; it tells me nothing; "and threw it with difdain to the ground. The enraged monk, running towards his countrymen, cried out.,, Το arms, Chriftians, to arms; the word of God is infulted; avenge this profanation on thofe impious dogs. "b)

Pizarro a tacks the Peruvians. and feizes the Inca.

Pizarro, who, during this long conference, had with difficulty reftrained his foldiers, eager to feize the rich fpoils of which they had now fo near a view, immediately gave the fignal of affault. At once the martial mufick ftruck up, the cannon and mufkets began to fire, the horse fallied out fiercely to the charge,the infantryrushed on,fword in hand. The Peruvians, aftonifhed at the fuddennefs of an attack which they did not expect, and dismayed with the deftructive effects of the firearms, and the irresistible impreffion of the cavalry, fled with univerfal confternation on every fide, without attempting either to annoy the enemy, or to defend themfelves. Pizarro, at the head of his chofen band, advanced directly towards the Inca; and though his nobles crowded around him with officious zeal, and fell in numbers at his feet, while they vied one with another in facrificing their own lives, that they might cover the facred perfon of their fovereign, the Spaniards foon penetrated to the royal feat; and Pizarro feizing the Inca by the arm, dragged him to the ground, and carried

b) See NOTE VI.

him as a prifoner to his quarters. The fate of the monarch increafed the precipitate flight of his followers. The Spaniards pursued them towards every quarter, and with deliberate and unrelenting barbarity continued to flaughter wretched fugitives, who never once offered to refift. The carnage did not ceafe until the clofe of day. Above four thousand Peruvians were killed. Not a fingle Spaniard fell, nor was one wounded but Pizarro himself, whofe hand was flightly hurt by one of his own foldiers, while struggling eagerly to lay hold on the Inca. e)

The plunder of the field was rich beyond any idea which the Spaniards had yet formed concerning the wealth of Peru, and they were so tranfported with the value of the acquifition, as well as the greatnefs of their fuccefs, that they paffed the night in the extravagant exultation natural to indigent adventurers on fuch an extraordinary change of fortune.

Dejection of the Inca.

At first the captive monarch could hardly believe a calamity which he fo little expected to be real. But he foon felt all the mifery of his fate, and the dejection into which he funk was in proportion to the height of grandeur from which he had fallen. Pizarro, afraid of lofing all the advantages which he hoped to derive from the poffeffion of fuch a prifoner, laboured to confole him with profeffions of kindness and refpect, that correfponded ill with his actions. By refiding among the Spaniards, the Inca quickly difcovered their

*) See NOTE VII.

ruling paffion, which, indeed, they were no wife folicitous to conceal, and by applying to that, made an attempt to recover his liberty..

His offer of a ransom,

He offered as a ranfom what aftonished the Spaniads, even after all they now knew concerning the opulence of his kingdom. The apartment in which he was confined was twenty-two feet in length and fixteen in breadth; he under took to fill it with veffels of gold.as high as he could reach. Pizarro closed eagerly with this tempting propofal, and a line was drawn upon the walls of the chamber, to mark the ftipulated height to which the treasure was to rife.

Atahualpa, tranfported with having obtained fome profpect of liberty, took measures inftantly for fulfilling his part of the agreement, by fending meffengers to Cuzco, Quito, and other places, where gold had been amaffed in largeft quantities, either for adorning the temples of their gods, or the houses of the Inca, to bring what was neceffary for completing his ransom directly to Caxamalca. Though Atahualpa was now in the custody of his enemies, yet so much were the Peruvians accuftomed to respect every mandate iffued by their fovereign, that .his orders were executed with the greafted alacrity. Soothed with hopes of recovering his liberty by this means, the fubjects of the Inca

were