314 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 



and 432 ; where, however, by errors of the press, the longi- 

 tude is once 48 40', and afterwards 80 40', instead of, as 

 it should be, 80 54' from Paris (or 78 32' from Green- 

 wich), (English edit. p. 173, and note 159). 



( 13 ) p. 290. "Accompanied by inconvenient ceremonies 

 of Court etiquette" 



In conformity with a highly ancient Court ceremonial, 

 Atahuallpa spat not on the ground, but into the hand of 

 one of the principal ladies present ; " all," says Garcilaso, 

 ff on account of his majesty." El Inca nunca escupia en el 

 suelo, sino en la mano de una Sefiora mui principal, por 

 Majestad, (Garcilaso, Comment. Eeales, P. ii. p. 46). 



( 14 ) p. 290. " Captivity of Atahuallpa ! y 



A short time before the captive Inca was put to death, 

 he was taken into the open air, in compliance with his re- 

 quest, to see a large comet. The " greenish black comet, 

 nearly as thick as a man," (Garcilaso says, P. ii. p. 44, una 

 cometa verdinegra, poco menos gruesa que el cuerpo de un 

 hombre), seen by Atahuallpa before his death, therefore in 

 July or August 1533, and which he supposed to be the 

 same malignant comet which had appeared at the death of 

 his father, Huayna Capac, is certainly the one observed by 

 Appian (Pingr6, Cometographie, T. i. p. 496 ; and Galleys 

 " Notice of all the Paths of Comets hitherto computed," in 

 " Giber's Leichtester Methode die Bahn eines Cometen zu 

 berechnen," 1847, S. 206), and which, on the 21st of July, 

 standing high in the north, near the constellation of Perseus, 



