VI. 1535 altogether vain. All perceived that a vigorous BOOK effort of the whole nation was requifite to expel them, and the preparations for it were carried on with the fecrecy and filence peculiar to Americans. As grefs. 1536. AFTER fome unfuccefsful attempts of the Inca and proto make his escape, Ferdinand Pizarro happening to arrive at that time in Cuzco, he obtained permiffion from him to attend a great festival which was to be celebrated a few leagues from the capital. Under pretext of that folemnity, the great men of the empire were affembled. foon as the Inca joined them, the standard of war was erected; and in a fhort time all the fighting men, from the confines of Quito to the frontier of Chili, were in arms. Many Spaniards, living fecurely on the fettlements allotted them, were maffacred. Several detachments, as they marched carelessly through a country which feemed to be tamely fubmiffive to their dominion, were cut off to a man. An army amounting (if we may believe the Spanish writers) to two hundred thousand men, attacked Cuzco, which the three brothers endeavoured to defend with only one hundred and seventy Spaniards. Another formidable body invefted Lima, and kept the governor closely fhut up. There was no longer any communication between the two cities; VI. 1536. BOOK cities; the numerous forces of the Peruvians fpreading over the country, intercepted every meffenger; and as the parties in Cuzco and Lima were equally unacquainted with the fate of their countrymen, each boded the worst concerning the other, and imagined that they themfelves were the only perfons who had furvived the general extinction of the Spanish name in Peru. Siege of IT was at Cuzco, where the Inca commanded in perfon, that the Peruvians made their chief effort. During nine months they carried on the fiege with inceffant ardour, and in various forms; and though they difplayed not the fame un daunted ferocity as the Mexican warriors, they conducted fome of their operations in a manner which difcovered greater fagacity, and a genius more fufceptible of improvement in the military art. They not only obferved the advantages which the Spaniards derived from their difcipline and their weapons, but they endeavoured to imitate the former, and turn the latter against them. They armed a confiderable body of their braveft warriors with the fwords, the fpears, and bucklers, which they had taken from the Spanish e Vega, p. 11. lib. ii. c. 28. Zarate, lib. iii. c. 3. Cieca de Leon, c. 82. Gomara Hift. c. 135. Herrera, dec. 5. lib. viii. c. 5. foldiers parts VI. foldiers whom they had cut off in different BOOK of the country. These they endeavoured to marshal in that regular compact order, to which experience had taught them that the Spaniards were indebted for their irrefiftible force in action. Some appeared in the field with Spanish mufkets, and had acquired fkill and refolution enough to use them. A few of the boldeft, among whom was the Inca himself, were mounted on the horses which they had taken, and advanced briskly to the charge like Spanish cavaliers, with their lances in the reft. It was more by their numbers, however, than by thofe imperfect effays to imitate European arts and to employ European arms, that the Peruvians annoyed the Spaniards'. In spite of the valour, heightened by despair, with which the three brothers defended Cuzco, Manco Capac recovered poffeffion of one half of his capital; and in their various efforts to drive him out of it, the Spaniards loft Juan Pizarro, the best beloved of all the brothers, together with fome other perfons of note. Worn out with the fatigue of inceffant duty, diftreffed with want of provifions, and defpairing of being able any longer to refift an enemy whofe numbers daily increased, the foldiers became impatient to abandon Cuzco, in hopes either of joining f See NOTE XXI. 1536. VI. 1536. any BOOK their countrymen, if of them yet furvived, or of forcing their way to the fea, and finding some means of escaping from a country which had been fo fatal to the Spanish name. While they were brooding over thofe defponding thoughts, which their officers laboured in vain to dispel, Almagro appeared fuddenly in the neighbourhood of Cuzco. Arrival of THE accounts tranfmitted to Almagro con Almagro, of his con duct. and motives cerning the general infurrection of the Peruvians, were fuch as would have induced him, without hesitation, to relinquish the conquest of Chili, and haften to the aid of his countrymen. But, in this refolution he was confirmed by a motive lefs generous, but more interesting. By the fame meffenger who brought him intelligence of the Inca's revolt, he received the royal patent creating him governor of Chili, and defining the limits of his jurifdiction. Upon confidering the tenor of it, he deemed it manifeft beyond contradiction, that Cuzco lay within the boundaries of his government, and he was equally folicitous to prevent the Peruvians from recovering poffeffion of their capital, and to wreft it out of the hands of the Pizarros. From impatienee to accomplish both, he ventured to return by a new Herrera, dec. 5. lib. viii. c. 4. route; VI. 15365 route; and in marching through the fandy plains BOOK on the coast, he fuffered, from heat and drought, calamities of a new fpecies, hardly inferior to those in which he had been involved by cold and famine on the fummits of the Andes. 1537. His opera His arrival at Cuzco was in a critical moment. The Spaniards and Peruvians fixed their eyes tian.." upon him with equal folicitude. The former, as he did not study to conceal his pretenfions, were at a lofs whether to welcome him as a deliverer, or to take precautions against him as an enemy. The latter, knowing the points in contest between him and his countrymen, flattered themselves that they had more to hope than to dread from his operations. Almagro himself, unacquainted with the detail of the events which had happened in his absence, and folicitous to learn the precife posture of affairs, advanced towards the capital flowly, and with great circumfpection. Various negociations with both parties were fet on foot. The Inca conducted them on his part with much addrefs. At first he endeavoured to gain the friendship of Almagro; and after many fruitlefs overtures, defpairing of any cordial union with a Spaniard, he attacked him by furprise with à numerous body of chofen troops. But the Spanish discipline and valour maintained their wonted fuperiority. The Peruvians were repulfed VOL III. N |