BOOK from the infamy of having perpetrated fuch a

VI.

1533.

Diffolution of government and order in

Peru,

crime°.

ON the death of Atahualpa, Pizarro invefted one of his fons with the enfigns of royalty, hoping that a young man without experience might prove a more 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 Huafcar, as Inca". But neither poffeffed the authority which belonged to a fovereign of Peru. The violent convulfions into which the empire had been thrown, first 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 strangers, and at last fuffering 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 most licentious exceffes. So many defcendants

Vega, p. 11. lib. i. c. 37. Xerez, i. 235. Herrera, dec. 5. lib. iii. c. 5.

P Vega, p. 11. lib. ii. c. 7.

a Herrera, dec. 5. lib. ii. c. 12. lib. iii. c. 5.

of

1

VI.

1533.

of the Sun, after being treated with the utmost BOOK indignity, had been cut off by Atahualpa, that not only their influence in the state diminished with their number, but the accustomed reverence for that facred race fenfibly decreased. In confequence of this ftate of things, ambitious men in different parts of the empire afpired to independent authority, and ufurped jurisdiction to which they had no title. The general who commanded for Atahualpa in Quito, feized the brother and children of his master, put them to a cruel death, and disclaiming any connection with either Inca, endeavoured to establish a separate kingdom for himself.

vances to

THE Spaniards, with pleasure, beheld the Pizarro adfpirit of difcord diffufing itself, and the vigour Cuzco. of government relaxing among the Peruvians. They confidered thofe diforders as fymptoms of a state hastening 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 forefeen. No fooner did his brother Ferdinand, with the offi

Zarate, lib. ii. c. 8. Vega, p. 11. lib. ii. c. 3, 4.

BOOK cers and foldiers to whom he had given their

VI.

1533.

discharge after the partition of the Inca's ransom, arrive at Panama, and display their riches in the view of their astonished countrymen, than fame fpread the account with fuch exaggeration through all the Spanish fettlements on the South Sea, that the governors of Guatimala, Panama, and Nicaragua, could hardly restrain the people under their jurifdiction, from abandoning their poffeffions, and crowding to that inexhauftible fource of wealth which feemed to be opened in Peru'. In spite 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 in St. Michael, under the command of Benalcazar. The Peruvians had affembled fome large bodies of troops to oppose his progress. 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 slaughter. 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

s Gomara Hift. c. 125. Vega, p. 11. lib. ii. c. i. Herrera, dec. 5. lib. iii. c. 5.

fuper

VI.

15336

fuperftitious veneration for the ornaments of BOOK their temples, or out of hatred to their rapacious conquerors, exceed in value what had been received as Atahualpa's ranfom. But as the Spaniards were now accustomed to the wealth of the country, and it came to be parcelled out among a great number of adventurers, this dividend did not excite the fame surprise, either from novelty, or the largeness of the fum that fell to the fhare of each individual '.

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 ".

WHILE his fellow-foldiers were thus employed, Quito con quered by Benalcazar, governor of St. Michael, an able and Benalcazar. enterprifing officer, was afhamed of remaining inactive, and impatient to have his name diftin guished among the discoverers and conquerors of the New World. The feafonable arrival of a fresh body of recruits from Panama and Nicaragua, put it in his power to gratify this paffion. Leaving a fufficient force to protect the infant settlement entrusted to his care, he placed himself

t See NOTE XVIII.

VOL. III.

"Herrera, dec. 5. lib. v. c. 2.

M

at

VI.

17533

BOOK at the head of the reft, and fet out to attempt the reduction of Quito, where, according to the report of the natives, Atahualpa had left the greatest part of his treasure. Notwithstanding the distance of that city from St. Michael, the difficulty of marching through a mountainous country covered with woods, and the frequent

Alvarado's expedition.

nd fierce attacks of the beft troops in Peru, commanded by a skilful leader, the valour, good conduct, and perfeverance of Benalcazar furmounted every obftacle, and he entered Quito with his victorious troops. But they met with a cruel mortification there. The natives, now acquainted to their forrow with the predominant paffion of their invaders, and knowing how to disappoint it, had carried off all those treasures, the profpect of which had prompted them to undertake this arduous expedition, and had fupported them under all the dangers and hardships wherewith they had to ftruggle in carrying it on ".

BENALCAZAR was not the only Spanish leader who attacked the kingdom of Quito. The fame of its riches attracted a more powerful enemy. Pedro de Alvarado, who had distinguished him

w Zarate, lib. ii. c.9. Vega, p. 11. lib. ii. c. 9. rera, dec. 5. lib. iv. c. 11, 12. lib. v. c. 2, 3. lib. vi.

Her

c. 3.

felf