he might be fent to Spain, where a monarch would be the arbiter of his lot. But pity never touched the unfeeling heart of Pizarro. He ordered him to be led inftantly to execution; and, what added to the bitterness of his laft moments, the fame monk who had juft ratified his doom, offered to confole, and attempt to convert him. The most powerful argument Valverde employed to prevail with him to embrace the Christian faith, was a promise of mitigation in his punishment. The dread of a cruel death extorted from the trembling victim a defire of receiving baptifm. The ceremony was performed; and Atahualpa, inftead of being burnt, was ftrangled at the stake. n)

Several Spaniards protest against it.

Happily for the credit of the Spanish nation, even among the profligate adventurers which it fent forth to conquer and defolate the New World, there were perfons who retained fome tincture of the Caftilian generofity and honour. Though, before the trial of Atahualpa, Ferdinand Pizarro had fet out for Spain, and Soto was fent on a feparate command at a diftance from Caxamalca, this odious tranfaction was not carried on without cenfure and oppofition. Several officers, and among those fome of the

m) Zarate, lib. ii. c. 7. Xeres, p. 233. Vega, p. 11. lib. i. Gomara Hift. c. 117. Herrera, dec. 5. lib.

c. 36, 37.

iii. c. 4.

greatest reputation and moft refpectable families in the fervice, not only remonftrated, but protefted against this measure of their general, as difgraceful to their country, as repugnant to every maxim of equity, as a violation of publick faith, and an ufurpation of jurisdiction over an independent monarch, to which they had no title. But their endeavours were vain. Numbers, and the opinion of fuch as held every thing to be lawful which they deemed advantageous, prevailed. Hiftory, however, records even the unfuccefsful exertions of virtae with applaufe; and the Spanish writers, in relating events where the valour of their nation is more confpicuous than its humanity have not failed to preserve the names of those who made this laudable effort to fave their country from the infamy of having perpetrated fuch a crime. o)

Diffolution of government and order in Peru.

On the death of Atahualpa, Pizarro invefted one of his fons with the enfigns of roya 1ty, hoping that a young man without expe rience might prove a mere paffive inftrument in his hands, than an ambitious monarch, who had been accustomed to independent command. The people of Cuzco, and the adjacent country, acknowledged Manco Capac, a brother of Huaf

o) Vega, p. II. lib. i. c. 37. Xeres, i. 235. Herrera, dec. 5. lib. iii. c. 5.

car,

as Inca. p) But neither poffeffed the authority which belonged to a fovereign of Peru. The violent convulfions into which the empire had been thrown, firft by the civil war between the two brothers, and then by the invafion of the Spaniards, had not only deranged the order of the Peruvian government, but almost diffolved its frame. When they beheld their monarch a captive in the power of ftrangers, and at last suffering an ignominious death, the people in feveral provinces, as if they had been fet free from every restraint of law and decency, broke out into the moft licentious exceffes. q) So many defcendents of the Sun, after being treated with the utmost indignity, had been cut off by Atahualpa, that not only their influence in the ftate diminished with their number, but the accustomed reverence for that facred race fenfibly decreased. In confequence of this. fate of things, ambitious men in different parts of the empire aspired to independent authority, and ufurped jurifdiction to which they had no title. The general who commanded for Atahualpa in Quito, feized the brother and children of his mafter, put them to a cruel death, and difclaiming any connection with either Inca, endeavoured to eftablish a separate kingdom for himself. r)

P) Vega, p. II. lib. ii. c. 7.

q) Herrera, dec. 5. lib.. ii. c. T2.. lib. iii. 5

1) Zarate, lib. ii. c. 8. Vega, p. IL. lib. B. & 3, 4..

Pizarro advances to Cuzco.

The Spaniards, with pleasure, beheld the fpirit of difcord diffufing itself, and the vigour of government relaxing among the Peruvians. They confidered thofe diforders as fymptoms of a ftate haftening towards its diffolution. Pizarro no longer hefitated to advance towards Cuzco, and he had received fuch confiderable reinforcements, that he could venture, with little danger, to penetrate fo far into the interior part of the country. The account of the wealth acquired at Caxamalca operated as he had foreseen. No fooner did his brother Ferdinand, with the officers and foldiers to whom he had given their discharge after the partition of the Inca's ranfom, arrive at Panama, and difplay their riches in the view of their aftonifhed countrymen, than fame fpread the account with fuch exaggeration through all the Spanish fettlemens on the South Sea, that the governors of Guatimala, Panama, and Nicaragua, could hardly reftrain the people under their jurifdiction, from abandoning their poffeffions, and crowding to that inexhauftible fource of wealth which feemed to be opened in Peru. s) In fpite of every check and regulation, fuch numbers reforted thither, that Pizarro began his march at the head of five hundred men, after leaving a confiderable garrifon

s) Gomara Hift. c. 125. Vega, p. II. lib. ii. c. I. Herrera, dec. 5. lib. iii. c. 5.

in St. Michael, under the command of Benalcazar. The Peruvians had affembled fome large bodies of troops to oppose his progrefs. Several fierce encounters happened. But they terminated like all the actions in America; a few Spaniards were killed or wounded; the natives were put to flight with incredible flaughter. At length Pizarro forced his way to Cuzco, and took quiet poffeffion of that capital. The riches found there, even after all that the natives had carried off and concealed, either from a fuperftitious veneration for the ornaments of their temples, or out of hatred to their rapacious conquerors, exceeded in value what had been received as Atahualpa's ranfom. But as the Spaniards were now accuftomed to the wealth of the country, and it came to be parcelled out among a greater number of adventurers, this dividend did not excite the fame furprise either from novelty, or the largeness of the fum that fell to the fhare of each individual. t)

During the march to Cuzco, that fon of Atahualpa whom Pizarro treated as Inca, died, and as the Spaniards fubftituted no perfon in his place, the title of Manco Capac feems to have been univerfally recognized. u)

t) See NOTE IX.

u) Herrera, dec. 5. lib, v. c. 3...