124 CRANIA AMERICANA. 



the same purpose ; and thus when Huayna Capac died, early in the fifteenth 

 century, no less than four hundred persons expired hy their own hands, in the 

 ambitious delusion of accompanying their dead monarch in his new existence.* 



The Peruvians were as shrewd and politic as the other Americans, and 

 habitual victory over the nations that surrounded them, gave them both confidence 

 and supremacy. When, however, they were opposed to a people better armed 

 yet infinitely inferior in number to themselves, their courage in a great measure 

 forsook them; and we are astonished at the spectacle of a powerful empire laid 

 in ruins by a handful of brigands.f It must be granted that the latter were better 

 armed, defended by coats of mail, and in part mounted on horseback ; yet when 

 it is recollected that after the first shock of Pizarro's treachery, the natives could 

 have opposed a thousand men to one of their invaders, it seems at first view 

 incredible that the Peruvians should have yielded to so contemptible a forccj 

 Some redeeming circumstances, however, mark this seeming pusillanimity of the 

 Peruvians. The Spaniards had possession of the person of their king, who was 

 kept as a hostage for the forbearance of his subjects; and the successors of the 

 former having excited the avarice of their countrymen, they flocked to Peru in 

 such numbers that the disparity of force became every day less. When at last 

 this injured people was goaded to resistance, their courage was such as better 

 became their cause, but it was too late to be effectual. Had they possessed but 

 a fourth part of the valor of the Araucanians, fifty years would not have sufficed 

 for their subjugation. 



* Herrera, Dec. Ill, Lib. VIII, Cap. 1. 



t The empire of Peru ceased in 153.3, by the murder of Atahualpa. There is a consolation in 

 knowing that all the leaders in the atrocities which were perpetrated in this conquest, died violent 

 deaths ; from Pizarro, who fell by the hands of his countrymen, to the infamous Valverde, who was 

 sacrificed to the vengeance of the Indians. 



% Pizarro's invading force consisted of sixty-two horsemen, and one hundred and two foot soldiers, 

 of whom twenty were armed with cross-bows, and three with muskets. — Robertson, Hist. J3m. II, 

 p. 52. ^m, Ed, 



