CHAPTER VI.

GOLD ARRIVES FOR THE RANSOM.-VISIT TO PACHACAMAC. -DEMOLITION OF THE IDOL. THE INCA'S FAVORITE GENERAL. THE INCA'S LIFE IN CONFINEMENT.-ENVOYS' CONDUCT IN CUZCO.—ARRIVAL OF ALMAGRO.

1533.

SEVERAL weeks had now passed since Atahuallpa's emissaries had been despatched for the gold and silver that were to furnish his ransom to the Spaniards. But the distances were great, and the returns came in slowly. They consisted, for the most part, of massive pieces of plate, some of which weighed two or three arrobas, a Spanish weight of twenty-five pounds. On some days, articles of the value of thirty or forty thousand pesos de oro were brought in, and, occasionally, of the value of fifty or even sixty thousand pesos. The greedy eyes of the Conquerors gloated on the shining heaps of treasure, which were transported on the shoulders of the Indian porters, and, after being carefully registered, were placed in safe deposit under a strong guard. They now began to believe that the magnificent promises of the Inca would be fulfilled. But, as their avarice was sharpened by the ravishing display of wealth such as they had hardly dared to imagine, they became more craving and impatient. They made no allowance for the distance and the difficulties of the way, and loudly inveighed against the tardiness with

which the royal commands were executed. They even suspected Atahuallpa of devising this scheme only to gain a pretext for communicating with his subjects in distant places, and of proceeding as dilatorily as possible, in order to secure time for the execution of his plans. Rumors of a rising among the Peruvians were circulated, and the Spaniards were in apprehension of some general and sudden assault on their quarters. Their new acquisitions gave them additional cause for solicitude: like a miser, they trembled in the midst of their treasures.',

Pizarro reported to his captive the rumors that were in circulation among the soldiers, naming, as one of the places pointed out for the rendezvous of the Indians, the neighboring city of Huamachuco. Atahuallpa listened with undisguised astonishment, and indignantly repelled the charge, as false from beginning to end. "No one of my subjects," said he, "would dare to appear in arms, or to raise his finger, without my orders. You have me," he continued, "in your power. Is not my life at your disposal? And what better security can you have for my fidelity?" He then represented to the Spanish commander that the distances of many of the places were very great; that to Cuzco, the capital, although a message might be sent by post, through a succession of couriers, in five days from Caxamalca, it would require weeks for a porter to travel over the same ground with a heavy load on his back. "But, that you may be satisfied I am proceeding in good faith," he added, "I desire

Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 6.-Naharro, Relacion sumatia, MS.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 204.

you will send some of your own people to Cuzco. I will give them a safe-conduct, and, when there, they can superintend the execution of the commission, and see with their own eyes that no hostile movements are intended." It was a fair offer; and Pizarro, anxious to get more precise and authentic information of the state of the country, gladly availed himself of it.”

Before the departure of these emissaries, the general had despatched his brother Hernando with about twenty horse and a small body of infantry to the neighboring town of Huamachuco, in order to reconnoitre the country and ascertain if there was any truth in the report of an armed force having assembled there. Hernando found every thing quiet, and met with a kind reception from the natives. But before leaving the place he received further orders from his brother to continue his march to Pachacamac, a town situated on the coast, at least a hundred leagues distant from Caxamalca. It was consecrated as the seat of the great temple of the deity of that name, whom the Peruvians worshipped as the Creator of the world. It is said that they found there altars raised to this god, on their first occupation of the country; and such was the veneration in which he was held by the natives that the Incas, instead of attempting to abolish his worship, deemed it more prudent to sanction it conjointly with that of their own deity, the Sun. Side by side the two temples rose on the heights that overlooked the city of Pachacamac, and prospered in the offerings of their respective votaries. "It was a cunning arrange

Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap, Parcia, tom. iii. pp. 203, 204.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.

ment," says an ancient writer, "by which the great enemy of man secured to himself a double harvest of souls." 3

But the temple of Pachacamac continued to maintain its ascendency; and the oracles delivered from its dark and mysterious shrine were held in no less repute among the natives of Tavantinsuyu (or "the four quarters of the world," as Peru under the Incas was called) than the oracles of Delphi obtained among the Greeks. Pilgrimages were made to the hallowed spot from the most distant regions, and the city of Pachacamac became among the Peruvians what Mecca was among the Mahometans, or Cholula with the people of Anahuac. The shrine of the deity, enriched by the tributes of the pilgrims, gradually became one of the most opulent in the land; and Atahuallpa, anxious to collect his ransom as speedily as possible, urged Pizarro to send a detachment in that direction, to secure the treasures before they could be secreted by the priests of the temple.

It was a journey of considerable difficulty. Twothirds of the route lay along the table-land of the Cordilleras, intersected occasionally by crests of the mountain-range, that imposed no slight impediment to their progress. Fortunately, much of the way they had the benefit of the great road to Cuzco; and "nothing in Christendom," exclaims Hernando Pizarro, “equals the magnificence of this road across

3 "El demonio Pachacama alegre con este concierto, afirman que mostraua en sus respuestas gran contento: pues con lo vno y lo otro era el seruido, y quedauan las animas de los simples malauenturados presas en su poder." Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 72.

the sierra." In some places the rocky ridges were so precipitous that steps were cut in them for the travellers, and, though the sides were protected by heavy stone balustrades or parapets, it was with the greatest difficulty that the horses were enabled to scale them. The road was frequently crossed by streams, over which bridges of wood and sometimes of stone were thrown ; though occasionally, along the declivities of the mountains, the waters swept down in such furious torrents that the only method of passing them was by the swinging bridges of osier, of which till now the Spaniards had had little experience. They were secured on either bank to heavy buttresses of stone. But as they were originally designed for nothing heavier than the foot-passenger and the llama, and as they had something exceedingly fragile in their appearance, the Spaniards hesitated to venture on them with their horses. Experience, however, soon showed they were capable of bearing a much greater weight; and though the traveller, made giddy by the vibration of the long avenue, looked with a reeling brain into the torrent that was tumbling at the depth of a hundred feet or more below him, the whole of the cavalry effected their passage without an accident. At these bridges, it may be remarked, they found persons stationed whose business it was to collect toll for the government from all travellers.5

4"El camino de las sierras es cosa de ver, porque en verdad en tierra tan fragosa en la cristiandad no se han visto tan hermosos camitoda la mayor parte de calzada." Carta, MS.

nos,

"Todos los arroyos tienen puentes de piedra ó de madera: en un rio grande, que era muy caudaloso é muy grande, que pasamos dos veces, hallamos puentes de red, que es cosa maravillosa de ver; pasa