WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 59I 



and other officials, to come to Cuzco for this purpose ; and when 

 they came in from the nearer territories with a desire for peace and 

 tranquillity in the empire, and he got them all together, he ordered 

 them murdered in the most savage manner. 



1585. The same course was followed by the instruments of his 

 cruelty, fit disciples of such a master, imitating their leader ; they 

 murdered with savage and diverse torture as many as they could 

 find of the blood royal, without sparing a single person ; they even 

 made martyrs of women and children, indulging the licentious ex- 

 cesses which war brings in its train and especially such a rebellious, 

 cruel, and treacherous war as this. This murderous and arbitrary 

 persecution lasted some 2| years ; and they kept poor King Huascar 

 Inca prisoner, until at the behest of the savage rebel, who was likewise 

 prisoner already at the hands of the Spaniards, he ordered his 

 officers to kill him, having tried to use other pretexts with the 

 Spaniards, which did not avail him. 



These contentions arose for the reasons given, but not without 

 Divine Providence, for thus that most opulent heathen monarchy 

 of the Incas, which had begun with the first Mango Capac in the 

 year 1031, and had lasted 500 years in its wealth and magnificence, 

 had seen those kings subdue so many tribes and civilize the savage 

 and untutored natives with their laws, in harmony with the Law of 

 Nature, in order that they might the more easily receive the Evan- 

 gelical Law, so similar to it. Accordingly Don Francisco Pizarro 

 entered that most opulent and far-flung empire in the year 1531 

 with only 160 Spaniards ; he underwent and suffered unbelievable 

 hardships in his explorations, as the histories relate ; and after 

 traveling over wide wastes and parched sandy deserts, he climbed 

 the sierra and came to the great valley of Cajamarca, where he had 

 information that the powerful insurgent King Atahualpa was staying 

 with all his court in company with all the lords and caciques of those 

 extensive realms, and with 70,000 soldiers, conducting a cruel and 

 very bloody war with the legitimate lord and king of that empire. 

 Huascar, whom he was already holding imprisoned, having captured 

 him by cunning treachery, and having cruelly put to death all those of 

 the blood royal, executed by his order and command [4 words 

 illegible]. 



Chapter XCIV [87] (91) 



Describing the Imprisonment of Atahualpa, and Other Matters. 



1586. It was when Atahualpa was flushed with these victories and 

 this magnificence and power in the year 153 1, that he was met by 



