742 
PERU. 
emperor of Germany) the mod liberal conceffions. He 
was made chief governor of all the country he fubdued ; 
Almagro adelavtado, or king’s lieutenant; and Luque 
was appointed the firft bifhop of Peru. 
Thus encouraged, Pizarro returned to Panama, whence 
he foon after failed with three fmall vefl'els, containing 
only 186 foldiers, and arrived at the bay of St. Matthew 
in thirteen days. He advanced by land as quickly as 
poftible towards Peru. At the province of Coaque he 
furprifed the natives, and feized their vefl'els of gold and 
fiver to the amount of feveral thoufand pounds fterling. 
He continued his march along the coaft, meeting with 
fcarcely any reiiftance till he arrived at the ifland of Puna 
in the bay of Guayquil. Here he fpent iix months in 
reducing the inhabitants to fubjeftion. From Puna he 
proceeded to Tumbez, and from thence to the river 
Piura, near the mouth of which he eftablifhed, A.D. 1532, 
the firft: Spanifh colony in Peru, to which he gave the 
name of Sr. Michael. Before, however, this colony was 
founded, Pizarro received two reinforcements amounting 
to about thirty men each ; the one commanded by Be- 
nalcazar, the other by Soto; both diftinguifhed officers. 
At the time when the Spaniards firft vifited Peru, 
Huanca Capac was feated on the throne. He was the 
twelfth of a line of incas, or kings, of whom Mango Capac 
(the founder of a city and inventor of many ufeful arts) 
was the firft. In thecourfe of his reign, Huanca Capac 
i'ubjeCted to his rule the kingdom of Quito, a conqueft 
of fuch extent and importance as almoft doubled the 
power of the Peruvian empire. He married the daughter 
of the vanquiflied monarch of Quito, by whom he had a 
fon named Atabalipa, whom, on his death at Quito, he 
appointed fucceflor in that kingdom, leaving the reft to 
Huafcar, his eldeft fon, by a mother of the royal race. 
Huafcar, difcontented with his father’s will, required his 
brother to renounce the government of Quito, and to 
acknowledge him as his lawful fuperior, which Atabalipa 
refufed, and marched againft Huafcar in hoftile array. 
Vitftory declared itfelf in favour of Atabalipa, who made 
a cruel ule of his fuccefs, feizing the crown of Peru, and 
attempting to exterminate the royal race by putting to 
death all the children of the Sun defcended from Mango 
Capac. 
When Pizarro landed in the bay of St. Matthew, this 
civil w'ar raged between the brothers with the greateft 
fury. His alliance and afliftance were fought by Ata¬ 
balipa, which he readily promifed, and thus was allowed 
to march his troops in fafety acrofs the fandy defert 
between St. Michael and Motupe, where their career 
might eafily have been flopped. He then fent meflengers 
inviting Atabalipa to vifit him in his quarters; which he 
readily promifed. On the return of thefe meflengers, they 
gave fuch a defcription of the wealth which they had 
feen, as determined Pizarro to feize upon the Peruvian 
monarch, in order that he might more eafily come at the 
riches of his kingdom. 
The next day the inca approached Caxamalca 
without fufpicion of Pizarro’s treachery. But, as he 
drew near the Spanifh quarters, Vincent Valverde, chap¬ 
lain to the expedition, advanced with a crucifix in one 
hand, and a breviary in the other, and in a long difcourfe 
attempted to convert him to the catholic faith. This 
the monarch declined, avowing his refolution to adhere 
to the w'orfhip of the Sun ; at the fame time he wiflied to 
know where the prieft had learned the extraordinary 
things which he had related. “ In this book P’anfwered 
Valverde, reaching out to him his breviary. The inca 
opened it eagerly, and turning over the leaves railed it to 
his ear: “This,” fays he, “ is filent, it tells me nothing,” 
and threw it with difdain to the ground. The enraged 
monk, running towards his countrymen, cried out,“To 
arms, Chriftians, to arms ! the word of God is infulted; 
avenge the profanation on thefe impious dogs.” Pizarro 
immediately gave the fignal of aflault, which terminated 
in the deftrudlion of 4000 Peruvians, without the lofs of 
3 
a Angle Spaniard. The plunder of the field was rich 
beyond any idea which even the conquerors had yet 
formed concerning the wealth of Peru. 
The inca, who was taken prifoner, quickly difcovered 
that the ruling paflion of the Spaniards was avarice ; he 
offered, therefore, to recover his liberty by a fplendid 
ranfom. The apartment in which he was confined was 
22 feet long by 16 in breadth ; this he undertook to fill 
with vefl'els of gold as high as he could reach. Pizarro 
clofed with the propofal, and a line was drawn upon the 
walls of the chamber to mark the ftipulated height to 
which the treafure was to rife. Atabalipa performed his 
part of the contract, and the gold which his fubjedls 
brought in was worth between three and four hundred 
thoufand pounds fterling. When they aflfembled to di¬ 
vide the fpoils of this innocent people, procured by de¬ 
ceit, extortion, and cruelty, the tranfaftion began with a 
folemn invocation to heaven, as if they expected the 
guidance of God in diftributing thofe wages of Iniquity. 
In this divifion, above eight thoufand pefos, at that time 
not inferior in effeftive value to io,oool. fterling in the 
prefent day, fell to the (hare of each horfe-foldier. Pizarro 
and his officers received dividends in proportion to the 
dignity of their rank. 
The Spaniards having divided the treafure among them, 
the inca infilled that they fliould fulfil their promife of 
fitting him at liberty. But nothing was further from 
Pizarro’s thoughts; he was even at that very moment 
planning fchemes to take away his life : an aflion the 
raoft criminal and atrocious that ftains the Spanifh name, 
amidft all the deeds of violence committed in carrying 
on the conqueft of the New World. In order to give 
fome colour of juftice to this outrage, and that he might 
not Hand fingly refponfible for the commiflion of it, 
Pizarro refolved to try the inca with all the formalities 
obferved in the criminal courts of Spain. The charges 
exhibited againft him were “ the depofition and death of 
his brother; the permiffion of offering up human facri- 
fices; the keeping of a great number of concubines ; and 
the exciting his fubjefts to take arms againft the 
Spaniards.” On thefe he was found guilty, as his infa¬ 
mous judges had predetermined, and condemned to be 
burnt alive. Friar Valverde proftituted the authority of 
his facred funflion to confirm the wicked fentence, and 
by his fignature warranted it to be juft. Pizarro ordered 
him to be led to execution ; and the cruel prieft offered 
to confole, and attempted to convert, him. * The dread 
of a cruel death extorted from the trembling viftim a de¬ 
fire of being baptized. The ceremony was performed; 
and Atabalipa, inftead of being burnt, was ftrangled at 
the flake. (A.D. 1533.) 
The death of the inca was no fooner known, than the 
principal nobility at Cuzco proclaimed the brother of 
Huafca as his fucceffor: but Pizarro fet up a fon of 
Atabalipa ; and two generals of the Peruvians claimed 
the fovereign power for themfelves. Thus was this 
wretched country torn to pieces at once by foreigners, 
and by a domeftic war among themfelves. The Peru¬ 
vians, however, gained fome confiderable advantages over 
the Spaniards even in this diftrafted condition, which in¬ 
duced Pizarro to make peace with them, which he knew how 
to violate when his affairs required it. Accordingly, he 
fhortly after renewed the war; and made himfelf inafter 
of Cuzco, then the capital of the empire. New grants 
and fupplies now arrived from Spain, by which Pizarro 
obtained 200 leagues along the fea-coaft to the fouth- 
ward of his former government, and Almagro a grant of 
200 more to the fouthward of Pizarro’s. It foon be¬ 
came a contefted point in whofe territory the city of 
Cuzco lay; but it was at length awarded to Pizarro, and 
a reconciliation was effected between thefe two ruffians. 
Almagro then fet out on an expedition againft Chili ; 
and the Indians, feeing the Spaniards thus divided, 
gained courage to attack them. The inca, under pre¬ 
tence of holding a facred feftival, repaired to an affembly 
of 
