102 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Mr. Boyce's Special Car in the Mountains. 



gold among them, and it was this fact that led to their 

 overthrow by the terrible Spaniards. 



Atahualpa was the last emperor of f he Incas. During 

 the early part of his reign he was constantly at war with 

 his brother, Huascar, who tried to usurp the throne. But 

 Atahualpa, with his enormous resources and an army of 

 70,000 men, finally conquered his traitorous brother. At 

 this time the Inca empire had reached its greatest expan- 

 sion, including all of the habitable parts of Ecuador, 

 Peru, and Bolivia, three-fourths of Chile and a large por- 

 tion of Argentina, stretching nearly the entire length of 

 the South American continent, and from the Pacific Ocean 

 to the eastern foot of the Andes Mountains. The realm 

 had reached the acme of its glory; then the Spaniards 

 came. Everything would have turned out differently for 

 the Incas, no doubt, had they possessed horses to ride 

 and had they known of the uses of gunpowder. Their 

 beasts of burden, however, were only llamas, a sort of 

 large, long-necked species of sheep, and their implements 

 of warfare were, for the most part, only such weapons as 

 men use in fighting each other hand to hand. But ex- 

 plosive powder had been invented by the Chinese a long 

 time before this, and finally it had been adapted to use in 

 firearms in Europe, and the Spaniards, armed with this 

 terribly destructive agent, were going about the little 

 known regions of the world, gathering gold for their king 

 and themselves by what was, in truth, force and robbery. 

 In this way they conquered and looted all of South Amer- 

 ica. 



It was in 1532 that word was brought to Atahualpa, 

 the Inca king, that a small army of strange-looking men, 

 who had white faces upon which grew hair, and who rode 

 astride strange, big animals, had landed on the 

 coast at Tumbez, down on the gulf of Guaya- 

 quil, Ecuador. This proved to be the begin- 

 ning of the invasion under the leadership of 

 the notorious Spanish adventurer, Pizarro. 

 He had learned of the wealth of the Incas, 

 and had been authorized by the king of Spain 

 to conquer their kingdom, remitting to the 

 royal treasury one-fifth of the gold he might 

 get. Pizarro and his followers finally reached 

 the great upper plateau and camped near a 

 town called Cajamarca. The Inca emperor 

 sent Pizarro a friendly message and asked if 

 he might visit the Spanish camp. Pizarro 

 granted the request, and when Atahualpa ar- 

 rived, the Spaniards killed the emperor's body- 

 guard and made him a prisoner. The Incas 

 could not defend themselves, since the Span- 

 iards wore coats of mail and shot the help- 

 less Incas down with powder and bullets. The 

 Inca emperor was imprisoned in a large room, 

 which was closely guarded, while Pizarro pro- 

 ceeded to conquer the surrounding country, 

 slaughtering great numbers of the people. 



One day Atahualpa sent for Pizarro and 

 said: "I will fill this room in which I am 

 held prisoner with gold as high as I can reach, 



if you will let me go free." Pizarro 

 eagerly agreed, and gold was brought 

 in by Atahualpa's faithful subjects 

 until the tremendous ransom was 

 complete, amounting, it is said, to 

 about $23,000,000 of modern money. 

 One-fifth of this huge sum was sent 

 to Spain and the remainder divided 

 among Pizarro and his men, even 

 those who received the smallest por- 

 tion being made rich. Pizarro, as 

 might have been expected for he was 

 one of the greatest robbers in human 

 history did not keep his word with 

 the Inca emperor, and, instead of set- 

 ting him at liberty, had him executed 

 on the public square of Capamarca. 

 During the confusion and panic that 

 spread through the region following 

 this awful deed, Pizarro marched to 

 Cuzco, the capital, and captured it. 

 After that, having received additional 

 soldiers from Spain, the looting in- 

 vaders swiftly conquered the various 

 Indian tribes throughput the Inca empire, and taking pos- 

 session of the land, divided it up in large estates, compel- 

 ling the Indians to pay tribute to the Spanish. Thus, 

 through bloodshed and treachery, the great Inca empire 

 was overcome and fell, and the invaders were left to fight 

 among themselves over the land and spoils. And fight 

 they did, each captain claiming more territory and riches 

 than his fellows, and there was almost constant warfare 

 in the country. Finally Pizarro himself was assassinated 

 by jealous officers of the expedition. He had been ap- 

 pointed governor, and had established himself in Lima, 

 where he lived surrounded by every luxury that gold 

 could buy. There, one night while he was eating dinner 

 in his palace, twenty of his treacherous followers rushed 

 in and killed him, though he fought desperately to the 

 last. However, the assassins gained nothing, for it chanced 

 that Vaca de Castro, a royal commissioner from Spain, 

 arrived in the midst of the confusion and the guilty ones 

 were executed in the public square of Lima. 



After that, through many years, one governor after 

 another was appointed by the king of Spain to rule over 

 the conquered country, despoiling it through pillage and 

 taxes, and sending gold and riches to the treasury of 

 Spain. Vice-captain-generals from Spain ruled in Argen- 

 tina, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia, wringing 

 money from the inhabitants for the Spanish crown. Final- 

 ly the inevitable storm of revolution broke out all over 

 South America. This was in 1806, and years and years 

 of war and bloodshed followed. At last, under the chief 

 leadership of General Simon Bolivar of Colombia and 

 General San Martin of Argentina, after many great bat- 

 tles, the Spanish power was entirely broken and inde- 



Cocoa Chewers, 



