392 



THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. 



country, besides possessing very correct notions in regard to 

 Europe and the United States. 



The conversation turned upon the conquest of Mexico and 

 Peru, and our friend, Don Francisco, who, by the way, was 

 as thin and as dry as Don Quixote himself, was very warm in 

 the praise of Cortez and Pizarro. He defended the latter in the 

 part he took in the death of Atahualpa the Inca, who was, ac- 

 cording to him, an usurper, and deserving of his fate. When 

 I urged Pizarro's ignorance and baseness, he argued that per- 

 haps any other chief would have pursued a similar policy 

 under similar circumstances, and that it was hardly probable, 

 that a man who held such entire sway amongst his followers, 

 should be unable either to read or write — particularly as he 

 governed men, who, according to the Fray Calancha, under- 

 stood both those arts — Don Francisco therefore concluded that 

 such reports had been propagated through envy by his cotem- 

 poraries. 



About four o'clock the next morning, we were roused by the 

 ringing of bells and firing of rockets, accompanied by the music 

 of hautboys, horns, and violins, which were altogether too noisy 

 to permit us to sleep. We found it to be a part of a church 

 ceremony, and when we looked out upon the street, the stars 

 were brilliant, and the sky almost transparent. 



Soon after sunrise we visited the plaza, which foriris part of 

 every Spanish town. We found numbers of people in the 

 street, passing thither to purchase the day's provisions, or re- 

 turning with their baskets already filled. Now and then we 

 passed a door, where two or three old men, in morning gowns 

 of calico, and white cotton caps, sat smoking the segarrito,, 

 and enjoying the freshness of the morning. 



Along one side of the plaza, next to the church, were the 

 market women, sitting amidst heaps of fruit and vegetables, 

 shaded by mats propped up with canes. The women were all 

 Indians, short, and square built, having coarse black hair, braid- 

 ed down the back, black eyes, set well apart, white teeth, and 

 flat noses. The expression of the countenance is sad and very 

 placid, from which might be inferred their great docility, and 

 patience of suflfering. The color of the skin is a dark copper, and 



