the first Spanish colony in Peru; to which he gave the name of St. Michael.

The original founder of the Peruvian empire was Mango Capac, a man who, gifted with powers beyond the level of his kind, and calm and dispassionate himself, by nicely discriminating the passions of his fellow creatures, was able to work upon them with effect, and turn them to his own profit and glory. He observed that the people of Peru were naturally addicted to superstition; and that they had a peculiar veneration for the orb of day. He pretended therefore to be descended from that glorious luminary, whose worship he was sent to establish, and whose authority he was entitled to exercise. By this romantic fiction, which was extremely well adapted to the prejudices of those on whom he intended to impose, he easily duped a credulous people; and by this artifice alone, brought a considerable extent of territory under his jurisdiction. The foundation of his empire being thus laid on superstition, he extended his dominions still farther by arms. But, to his honour be it recorded that, whether he employed fraud or force, it was with a view of promoting happiness, and fixing its influence. He united and civilized the roving and barbarous tribes; he bent them to laws, and inured them to arms; he softened them by the institution of a benevolent religion; and in proportion as he exalted their spirit by patriotism, he subdued their hearts by the effect of principle. In no part of America had agriculture and the arts made such remarkable progress; or men advanced so far in the refinements that embellish life.

A race of princes succeeded Mango, distinguished by the title of Incas, and revered by their subjects as the undoubted descendants of their great god, the sun. The twelfth of these now filled the throne, who was named Atabalipa. His father Guaiana Capac had extended his hereditary dominions by the addition of the province of Quito, which now constitutes a part of Spanish Peru. To secure himself in the possession of this conquest, he had married the daughter of the legitimate prince of that country; and of this marriage was sprung the reigning emperor. His elder brother, Huescar, by a different mother, VOL. I.--(6)

૨

had claimed the succession to the whole of his paternal dominions, not excepting Quito, which devolved on Atabalipa by a double connection. A civil war had been kindled on this account; which, after various turns of fortune, and greatly weakening the empire, terminated in favour of the younger brother; who now detained Huescar a prisoner in the tower of Cusco, the capital of the Peruvian empire.

Thus the seeds of anarchy were engendered; and the cause of dissolution had begun to operate, before the arrival of Pizarro. In this feeble and disjointed state of the empire, the ominous predictions of religion joined their force to human calamities. Prophecies were recorded, and dreams were recollected, which foretold the subjugation of the empire by persons unknown, whose description was supposed to correspond with that of the Spaniards. In particular, they had an old tradition, which had been universally received, that the elder son of one of their Incas, in ancient days, had seen a strange kind of phantom, who called himself Virachoca, or offspring of the sun. His dress and appearance were entirely different from those of the Peruvians; his beard was long, his garments flowed down to his feet, and in his hand he held an animal absolutely unknown to the young prince. This fable was so firmly believed, and so deeply rooted in the minds of the Peruvians, that they no sooner saw a Spaniard with a beard, his legs covered, and holding his horse by the bridle, than they exclaimed, See there is the Inca Virachoca,' or the son of the sun. Pizarro now directed his course towards Caxamalca, a small town at the distance of twelve days march from St. Michael, where Atabalipa was encamped with a considerable body of troops. Before he had proceeded far, an officer dispatched by the Inca met him with a valuable present from that prince, accompanied with a proffer of his alliance, and assurances of a friendlý reception at Caxamalca. Pizarro, according to the usual artifice of his countrymen in America, pretended to come as the ambassador of a very powerful monarch, and declared that he was now advancing with an intention to offer Atabalipa his aid against those enemies who disputed his title to the throne.

6

As they now approached near to Caxamalca, Atabalipa renewed his professions of friendship; and as an evidence of his sincerity, sent them presents of greater value than the former; and promised to visit the Spanish commander next day in his quarters. The decent deportment of the Peruvian monarch, the order of his court, and the reverence with which his subjects approached his person and obeyed his commands, astonished those Spaniards, who had never met in America with any thing more dignified than the petty cazique of a barbarous tribe. But their eyes were still more powerfully attracted by the vast profusion of wealth which they observed in the Inca's camp. The rich ornaments worn by him and his attendants, the vessels of gold and silver in which the repast offered to them was served up, the multitude of utensils of every kind formed of those precious metals, opened prospects far exceeding any idea of opulence that an European of the sixteenth century could form.

While their minds were yet warm with admiration and desire of the wealth which they had beheld, they gave such a description of it to their countrymen, as confirmed Pizarro in a resolution which he had already taken; knowing of what consequence it was to have the Inca in his power. For this purpose, he formed a plan as daring as it was perfidious. Notwithstanding the character that he had assumed of an ambassador from a powerful monarch, who courted an alliance with the Inca, and in violation on the repeated offers which he had made to him of his own friendship and assist ance, he determined to avail himself of the unsuspicious simplicity with which Atabalipa relied on his professions, and to seize the person of the Inca during the interview to which he had invited him.

Early in the morning, the Peruvian camp was all in motion. But as Atibalipa was solicitous to appear with the greatest splendour and magnificence in his first interview with the strangers, the preparations for this were so tedious, that the day was far advanced before he began his march. Even then, lest the order of the procession should be deranged, he moved so slowly, that the Spaniards became impatient,

and apprehensive that some suspicion of their intention might be the cause of this delay. In order to remove this, Pizarro dispatched one of his officers with fresh assurances of his friendly disposition. At length the Inca approached. First of all appeared 400 men, in an uniform dress, as harbingers to clear the way before him. He himself, sitting on a throne or couch, adorned with plumes of various colours, and almost covered with plates of gold and silver enriched with precious stones, was carried on the shoulders of his principal attendants. Behind him came some chief officers of his court, carried in the same manner. Several bands of singers and dancers accompanied this cavalcade; and the whole plain was covered with troops, amounting to more than 30,000 men.

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 discourse explained to him the doctrine of the creation, the fall of Adam, the incarnation, the sufferings, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the appointment of St. Peter as God's vicegerent on earth, the traustaission of his apostolic power by the succession to the popes, the donation made to the king of Castile by pope Alexander of all the regions in the New World. In consequence of all this, he required Atabalipa to embrace the Christian faith, to acknowledge the supreme, jurisdiction of the pope, and to submit to the king of Castile as his lawful sovereign; promising, if he complied instantly with this requisition, that the Castilian monarch would protect his dominions, and permit him to continue in the exercise of his royal authority; but if he should impiously refuse to obey this 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, unfolding deep mysteries, and alluding to unknown facts, of which no power of eloquence could have conveyed at once a distinct idea to an American, was so lamely translated by an unskilful interpreter, little acquainted with the Spanish tongue, and incapable of expressing himself with propriety in the language of the Inca, that

its general tenor was altogether incomprehensible to Atabalipa. Some parts in it, of more obvious meaning, filled him with astonishment and indignation. His reply, however, was temperate. He began with observing, that he was lord of the dominions over which he reigned by hereditary succession ; and added, 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, who was the rightful possessor, refused to confirm it; that he had no inclination to renounce the religious institutions established by 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 Spaniards, who was subject to death; that with respect to other matters contained in his discourse, as he had never heard of them before, and did not now understand the meaning, he desired to know where the priest had learned things so extraordinary. In this book, replied Valverde, 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 enraged monk, running towards his countrymen, cried out, To arms, Chris tians, to arms; the word of God is insulted; avenge this profanation on those impious dogs.'

Pizarro, who, during this long conference, had with difficulty restrained his soldiers, eager to seize the rich spoils of which they had now so near a view, immediately gave the signal of assault. At once the martial music struck up, the cannon and muskets began to fire, the horses sallied out fiercely to the charge, the infantry rushed on sword in hand. The Peruvians, astonished at the suddenness of an attack which they did not expect, and dismayed with the destructive effect of the fire-arms, and the irresistible impression of the cavalry, fled with universal consternation on every side, without attempting either to annoy the enemy, or to defend themselves. Pizarro, at the head of his chosen 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