HISTOKY OF THE CITY. 229 



treachery, he was swept up the plains of Quito. Mocha, 

 Latacunga, and the capital, fell successively into the hands 

 of the victorious Inca. Upon the plains of Hatuntaqui, 

 in the province of Imbabura, the most northern part of 

 the Quito valley, was fought the terrible battle which 

 decided the fate of the Caran nation. "To the horla^ the 

 emblem of Peruvian royalty, was added the emerald of 

 the Scyris." Quito now became one of the capitals of the 

 Inca empire. During the reign of Huayna-Capac, the 

 Peruvian kingdom attained its culminating point of gran- 

 deur. It embraced the principal Indian tribes of the 

 plateaux of the Andes, and stretched for more than two 

 thousand miles along the Pacific coast, while claiming as 

 its subjects many of the tribes of the tropic interior. It 

 was by this Inca that many of those great works of in- 

 ternal improvement, Avhose remains are still so magnifi- 

 cent, were constructed, Quito was joined to Cuzco by that 

 royal road which swept the entire length of the kingdom. 

 " As prudent and highly politic," says Hassaurek, " as the 

 conduct of Huayna-Capac is generally reputed to have 

 been, so imprudent and impolitic was the division of the 

 empire on his death-bed, bequeathing his paternal domin- 

 ions, Cuzco, to his first-born, Iluascar, and to Atahuallpa, 

 the kingdom of Quito," From that imwise division may 

 be dated the fall of the Peruvian empire. Jealousies 

 speedily kindled into war, and for the first time Inca joined 

 battle with Inca. Huascar was taken prisoner in the 

 battle of Quipaypan, and Atahuallj^a seized the entire 

 kingdom. 



Just at this moment, while the kingdom was convulsed 

 by these internal strifes, the western shore of the empire 

 was startled by the Spanish invaders. We need not tell 

 of the cruel crushing of the Inca nation, the confinement 

 of Atahuallpa, the golden ransom, the perfidy of the con- 

 querors, the sad fate of the last of the royal line of the 



