Chapter V

_Peru discovered by Francisco Pizarro.--He invites the Inca
to visit him.--Description of the Inca.--Rejects the
Bible.--Treacherously seized by Pizarro.--The Inca
proposes to ransom himself.--The ransom brought.--Pizarro
seizes the gold, then murders the Inca.--Conquers Peru._

When the Spaniards first discovered the Pacific, Peru was a mighty empire. It extended from north to south more than 2000 miles. Cuzco, the capital city, was filled with great buildings, palaces, and temples, which last were ornamented, or covered, rather, with pure gold. The improvements of civilized life were far advanced; agriculture was the employment of the quiet villagers; in the cities manufactures flourished; and science and literature were in a course of improvement which would, doubtless, have resulted in the discovery of letters.

Their government was a regular hereditary monarchy; but the despotism of the emperor was restricted by known codes of law. They had splendid public roads. That from Cuzco to Quito extended a distance of 1500 miles or more. It passed over mountains, through marshes, across deserts. Along this route, at intervals, were large stone buildings, like the caravanseras of the East, large enough to contain thousands of people. In some instances these caravanseras were furnished with the means of repairing the equipments and arms of the troops or travellers.

Such was the ancient empire of Peru, when Francisco Pizarro, an obscure Spanish adventurer, with an army of only sixty-two horsemen and a hundred or two foot-soldiers, determined to invade it. He, like all the other Spaniards who went out to South America, was thirsting to obtain gold. These men, miscalled _Christians_, gave up their hearts and souls to the worship of mammon, and they committed every horrible crime to obtain riches. But the _Christian_ who now _cheats_ his neighbor in a quiet way-of-trade manner, to obtain wealth--is he better than those Spaniards? I fear not. Had he the temptation and the opportunity, he would do as they did.

At the time Pizarro invaded Peru, there was a civil war raging between Atahualpa, the reigning monarch, or Inca, as he was called, and his brother Huascar. These brothers were so engaged in their strife, that Pizarro had marched into the country without being opposed, and entered the city of Caxamala on the 15th of November, 1532. Here the army of the Inca met the Spaniards. Pizarro was sensible he could not contend with such a multitude, all well armed and disciplined, so he determined by craft to get possession of the person of the Inca.

He sent to invite the Inca to sup with him in the city of Caxamala, and promised then to give an account of his reasons for coming to Peru. The simple-hearted Inca believed the Spaniards were children of the sun. Now the Inca worshiped the sun, and thought he himself had descended from that bright luminary. He was very anxious, therefore, to see the Spaniards, and could not believe they meant to injure him; so he consented to visit Pizarro.

Atahualpa took with him twenty thousand warriors, and these were attended by a multitude of women as bearers of the luggage, when he set out to visit the Spaniards. The person of the sovereign was one blaze of jewels. He was borne on a litter plated with gold, overshadowed with plumes, and carried on the shoulders of his chief nobles. On his forehead he had the sacred tuft of scarlet, which he wore as the descendant of the sun. The whole moved to the sound of music, with the solemnity of a religious procession.

When the Inca entered the fatal gates from which he was never to return, his curiosity was his chief emotion. Forgetting the habitual Oriental gravity of the throne, he started up, and continued standing as he passed along, gazing with eagerness at every surrounding object. A friar, named Valverde, now approached, bearing a cross and a Bible. The friar commenced his harangue by declaring that the pope had given the Indies to Spain; that the Inca was bound to obey; that the book he carried contained the only true mode of worshiping Heaven.

“Where am I to find your religion?” said the Inca.

“In this book,” replied the friar.

The Inca declared that whatever might be the peaceful intentions of the Spaniards, “he well knew how they had acted on the road, how they had treated his caciques, and burned his cottages.” He then took the Bible, and turning over some of the leaves, put it eagerly to his ear.

“This book,” said he, “has no tongue; it tells me nothing.” With these words he flung it contemptuously on the ground.

The friar exclaimed at the impiety, and called on his countrymen for revenge. The Inca spoke a few words to his people, which were answered by murmurs of indignation. At this moment Pizarro gave the signal to his troops: a general discharge of cannon, musketry, and crossbows followed, and smote down the unfortunate Peruvians. The cavalry were let loose, and they broke through the Inca’s guard at the first shock. Pizarro rushed forward at the head of a chosen company of shield-bearers, to seize the Inca.

That sovereign was surrounded by a circle of his high officers and devoted servants. They never moved except to throw themselves upon the Spanish swords. They saw that their prince was doomed, and they gave themselves up to his fate. The circle rapidly thinned, and the Inca would soon have been slain, had not Pizarro called to his soldiers to forbear. He wished to take the Inca alive, that he might extort gold from him for his ransom.

Pizarro, therefore, rushed forward, and, seizing the Inca by the mantle, dragged him to the ground. The Peruvians, seeing his fall in the midst of the Spanish lances, thought he was slain, and instantly gave up the battle. In the force of their despair they burst through one of the walls and fled over the open country. More than two thousand were left dead within the gates, while not a single Spaniard had been killed. It was a murder rather than a battle.

The Spaniards proceeded to plunder the camp of the Inca, and he, seeing their passion for gold, offered to purchase his ransom. He offered to cover the floor of the chamber where he was confined with wedges of gold and silver. The Spaniards laughed at this, as they conceived, impossible proposal. The Inca thought they despised the small sum he had offered, and starting to his feet, he haughtily stretched his arm as high as he could reach, and told them he would give them that chamber full to the mark he then touched with his hand. The chamber was twenty-two feet long, sixteen wide, and the point he touched on the wall was nine feet high.

Pizarro accepted the proposal, and sent messengers to Cuzco to obtain the ransom. These brought back twenty-six horse loads of gold, and a thousand pounds’ weight of silver. The generals of the Inca also brought additional treasures of gold and silver vessels, and the room was filled. Pizarro grasped the treasure, and divided it among his troops, after deducting one fifth for the king, and taking a large share for himself.

Pizarro had promised to set the Inca at liberty; but it is probable he never intended it. After he had, in the name of the Inca, drawn all the gold he could from the country, he barbarously murdered the poor Indian chief!

There is a tradition that the fate of the Inca was hastened by the following circumstance. One of the soldiers on guard over him, wrote the name of God on the thumb nail of the Inca, explaining to him at the same time the meaning of the word. The Inca showed it to the first Spaniard who entered. The man read it. The Inca was delighted; and Pizarro appearing at the moment, the important nail was presented to him. But Pizarro could not read! the conqueror of Peru could not write his name; and the Inca manifested such contempt towards him for this ignorance, that Pizarro resolved he should not live.

After the Inca’s death, another long and bloody war, or, rather, ravage, commenced. The Spaniards finally took Cuzco, the royal city, plundered the temples, and desolated the land, till the Peruvians, in despair, submitted to their chains, and became the slaves of the Spaniards.

Since that time the Spanish power has always governed Peru, till the revolution in 1823, when the colonists threw off the yoke of the mother country. But, in justice to the kings of Spain, it should be remembered that they have frequently made laws to protect their Indian subjects in South America. Still the poor natives were often, indeed always, cruelly oppressed by the colonists. But now the spirit of liberality and improvement is ameliorating the condition of all the laboring classes in the independent Republic of Peru, and the Indians are entitled to the privileges of free citizens.