The new church of San Francisco, the first Christian temple in Peru, was endowed with two thousand two hundred and twenty pesos of gold. The amount assigned to Almagro's company was not excessive, if it was not more than twenty thousand pesos;' and that reserved for the colonists of San Miguel, which amounted only to fifteen thousand pesos, was unaccountably small. There were among them certain soldiers who, at an early period of the expedition, as the reader may remember, abandoned the march and returned to San Miguel. These, certainly, had little claim to be remembered in the division of booty. But the greater part of the colony consisted of invalids, men whose health had been broken by their previous hardships, but who still, with a stout and willing heart, did good service in their military post on the sea-coast. On what grounds they had forfeited their claims to a more ample remuneration it is not easy to explain.

Nothing is said, in the partition, of Almagro himself, who, by the terms of the original contract, might claim an equal share of the spoil with his associate. As little notice is taken of Luque, the remaining partner. Luque himself was, indeed, no longer to be

7 "Se diese á la gente que vino con el Capitan Diego de Almagro para ayuda á pagar sus deudas y fletes y suplir algunas necesidades que traian, veinte mil pesos." (Acta de Reparticion del Rescate, MS.) Herrera says that 100,000 pesos were paid to Almagro's men. (Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 2, cap. 3.) But it is not so set down in the instrument.

8" En treinta personas que quedaron en la ciudad de san Miguel de Piura dolientes y otros que no vinieron ni se hallaron en la prision de Atagualpa y toma del oro porque algunos son pobres y otros tienen necesidad señalaba 15,000 ps de oro para los repartir S. Señoria entre las dichas personas." Ibid., MS.

benefited by worldly treasure. He had died a short time before Almagro's departure from Panamá ;9 too soon to learn the full success of the enterprise, which, but for his exertions, must have failed; too soon to become acquainted with the achievements and the crimes of Pizarro. But the Licentiate Espinosa, whom he represented, and who, it appears, had advanced the funds for the expedition, was still living at St. Domingo, and Luque's pretensions were explicitly transferred to him. Yet it is unsafe to pronounce, at this distance of time, on the authority of mere negative testimony; and it must be admitted to form a strong presumption in favor of Pizarro's general equity in the distribution, that no complaint of it has reached us from any of the parties present, nor from contemporary chroniclers."

The division of the ransom being completed by the Spaniards, there seemed to be no further obstacle to their resuming active operations and commencing the march to Cuzco. But what was to be done with Atahuallpa? In the determination of this question, whatever was expedient was just." To liberate him would 9 Montesinos, Annales, MS., año 1533.

10 The "Spanish Captain," several times cited, who tells us he was one of the men appointed to guard the treasure, does indeed complain that a large quantity of gold vases and other articles remained undivided, a palpable injustice, he thinks, to the honest Conquerors, who had earned all by their hardships. (Rel. d'un Capitano Spagn., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 378, 379.) The writer, throughout his Relation, shows a full measure of the coarse and covetous spirit which marked the adventurers of Peru.

" "Y esto tenia por justo, pues era provechoso." It is the sentiment imputed to Pizarro by Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 3. cap. 4.

be to set at large the very man who might prove their most dangerous enemy,—one whose birth and royal station would rally round him the whole nation, place all the machinery of government at his control, and all its resources, one, in short, whose bare word might concentrate all the energies of his people against the Spaniards, and thus delay for a long period, if not wholly defeat, the conquest of the country. Yet to hold him in captivity was attended with scarcely less difficulty; since to guard so important a prize would require such a division of their force as must greatly cripple its strength, and how could they expect, by any vigilance, to secure their prisoner against rescue in the perilous passes of the mountains ?

The Inca himself now loudly demanded his freedom. The proposed amount of the ransom had, indeed, not been fully paid. It may be doubted whether it ever would have been, considering the embarrassments thrown in the way by the guardians of the temples, who seemed disposed to secrete the treasures, rather than despoil these sacred depositories to satisfy the cupidity of the strangers. It was unlucky, too, for the Indian monarch that much of the gold, and that of the best quality, consisted of flat plates or tiles, which, however valuable, lay in a compact form that did little towards swelling the heap. But an immense amount had been already realized, and it would have been a still greater one, the Inca might allege, but for the impatience of the Spaniards. At all events, it was a magnificent ransom, such as was never paid by prince or potentate before.

These considerations Atahuallpa urged on several of

the cavaliers, and especially on Hernando de Soto, who was on terms of more familiarity with him than Pizarro. De Soto reported Atahuallpa's demands to his leader; but the latter evaded a direct reply. He did not disclose the dark purposes over which his mind was brooding." Not long afterwards he caused the notary to prepare an instrument in which he fully acquitted the Inca of further obligation in respect to the ransom. This he commanded to be publicly proclaimed in the camp, while at the same time he openly declared that the safety of the Spaniards required that the Inca should be detained in confinement until they were strengthened by additional reinforcements. 13

Meanwhile the old rumors of a meditated attack by the natives began to be current among the soldiers. They were repeated from one to another, gaining something by every repetition. An immense army, it was reported, was mustering at Quito, the land of Atahuallpa's birth, and thirty thousand Caribs were on their way to support it." The Caribs were distributed

12 "I como no ahondaban los designios que tenia le replicaban ; pero él respondia, que iba mirando en ello." Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 3, cap. 4.

3 ་་ Fatta quella fusione, il Governatore fece vn atto innanzi al notaro nel quale liberaua il Cacique Atabalipa et l'absolueua della promessa et parola che haueua data a gli Spagnuoli che lo presero della casa d'oro c'haueua lor cōcessa, il quale fece publicar publicamēte a suon di trombe nella piazza di quella città di Caxamalca." (Pedro Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 399.) The authority is unimpeachable, for any fact, at least, that makes against the Conquerors, since the Relatione was by one of Pizarro's own secretaries, and was authorized under the hands of the general and his great officers. De la gente Natural de Quito vienen docientos mil Hombres de Guerra, i treinta mil Caribes, que comen Carne Humana." Xerez,

14 "

by the early Spaniards rather indiscriminately over the different parts of America, being invested with peculiar horrors as a race of cannibals.

It was not easy to trace the origin of these rumors. There was in the camp a considerable number of Indians, who belonged to the party of Huascar, and who were, of course, hostile to Atahuallpa. But his worst enemy was Felipillo, the interpreter from Tumbez, already mentioned in these pages. This youth had conceived a passion for, or, as some say, had been detected in an intrigue with, one of the royal concubines. '5 The circumstance had reached the ears of Atahuallpa, who felt himself deeply outraged by it. "That such an insult should have been offered by so base a person was an indignity," he said, "more difficult to bear than his imprisonment;"" and he told Pizarro "that, by the Peruvian law, it could be expiated, not by the criminal's own death alone, but by that of his whole family and kindred."" But Felipillo was too important to the Spaniards to be dealt with so summarily; nor did they probably attach such Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 233.—See also Pedro Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, ubi supra.

15" Pues estando asi atravesose un demonio de una lengua que se dezia ffelipillo uno de los muchachos que el marquez avia llevado á España que al presente hera lengua y andava enamorado de una muger de Atabalipa." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-The amour and the malice of Felipillo, which, Quintana seems to think, rest chiefly on Garcilasso's authority (see Españoles célebres, tom. ii. p. 210, nota), are stated very explicitly by Zarate, Naharro, Gomara, Balboa, all contemporaneous, though not, like Pedro Pizarro, personally present in the army.

16" Diciendo que sentia mas aquel desacato, que su prision." Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 7.

27 Ibid., loc. cit.