58 The Ravine of the Unburied Dead. \^JvhV, 



highland district roll in dismal echo to the thunders of European 

 warfare. Alpahula was no common cazique of a petty Indian tribe. 

 He was a man of superior talents, as well as indomitable bravery ; but 

 neither talents nor bravery could long avail a primitive American warrior 

 against the militaiy skill and superior arms of his eastern adversary. 

 Juan Di Alcantara, the Spanish General, received strong reinforcements 

 from his powerful kinsman of the same name, and Alpahula, after many 

 desperate encounters with his foe, was at length totally defeated and 

 made a prisoner. The fallen chief had, during the action, sought for 

 death in vain. It was no part of the policy of his enemies to bestow on 

 him such a boon. A report had reached their ears that treasured hordes, 

 the decoration of many a palace fitted for an Inca's residence, the orna- 

 ment of many a profaned temple of the glorious god of day had been 

 concealed by Alpahula in some mountain cave, deep amid the recesses of 

 the Andes. Riches, which might more 'than satisfy the most rapacious 

 adventurer, were, it was confidently believed, to be found in compen- 

 dious abundance by once discovering the place where the vanquished 

 cazique had hidden his treasures. Neither threats nor persuasions could, 

 however, prevail on him to reveal this important secret, and he was left 

 on the thirtieth day of his miserable confinement with an assurance that 

 he Avould be visited by the torture early on the succeeding morning if, 

 ere that period, he failed in divulging the hiding-place of his vast 

 wealth. 



Caziqvie Alpahula was confined in one of the meanest apartments of 

 his own palace. Like most of the public edifices of the less heated 

 regions of his country, it was a heavy, low building, constructed of stones 

 taken just as they fell from the mountains, or were dug from the quarry, 

 and only made to unite with each other by a tedious selection of corres- 

 pondent angles and indentures, projections and hollows. Unacquainted, 

 however, as they were with any cement, the tediousness of this process 

 prevented not the persevering Indian from joining these huge masses 

 with an introgressive nicety of union which might astonish a civilized 

 eye. As windows did not enter into the luxuries of a western palace, 

 and the conqaeroj's of Alpahula had supplied him with no substitute for 

 that blessed light whence they had banished him, the cazique saw not 

 the dismantled state in which lay the residence of his ancestors — its 

 golden vessels and decorations removed, and its plates of precious metal 

 torn from the walls they had so recently encrusted. 



A soft footstep was heard, and a faint light sti-eamed into his dismal 

 apartment. The Indian chief deemed that his appointed hour of bodily 

 endurance was arrived. The weight of his chains prevented his rising 

 to an erectness of person which might have fitly corresponded with the 

 determined attitude of his indomitable soul ; but he spoke in a tone of 

 stern composure. " Llorn hath broken," he said, " and you come to 

 execute your foul purpose. Do your worst pleasure. Here — your pri- 

 soner and your victim — I defy you." The lamp was instantly set down. 

 It shone on a tall and slender form. Alpahula felt his knees clasped 

 with fervent devotion, and beheld his daughter at his feet. Natural 

 affection overcame for a moment every sterner feeling in the bosom of 

 the Indian warrior, and clasping his child in his worn and fettered ai'ms, 

 he shed tears of parental tenderness on her head. For some time they 

 remained in each other's arms without speaking, and as the lamp with 

 gradual increase of light began to sliew objects more distinctly in the 



