They had philosophers, who taught morals, cultivated poetry, and composed plays, which were acted before the king by the great men of the court, officers, &c. They were acquainted with painting and statuary; but in all the implements of mechanic arts they were extremely deficient. Though many goldsmiths were constantly employed, they had never invented an anvil of any metal, but used a hard stone, and beat their plate with round pieces of copper instead of hammers; nor had they any files or graving tools. Their carpenters had no other tools than hatchets of copper or flint; nor had they learned the use of iron; though the country affords mines of it. Their knives were also made of flint or copper.

This country was first made known to Europe by the Spanish governor of Santa Maria, in Darien, Nunez de Balboa, who accidentally learned from a young cacique that there was a country abounding with gold about six days' journey to the south. Balboa set out, therefore, on the 1st day of September, 1513, about the time that the periodical rains began to abate. He had only 190 Spaniards along with him; but all of them were veterans, inured to the climate of America, and very much attached to their leader: 1000 Indians attended them, with their fierce dogs, to carry their provisions and other necessaries. After a painful journey of twenty-five days, Balboa arrived at the South Sea; when he went into it up to the middle, and took possession of the coast and ocean in the name of the king of Spain. That part of the South Sea he called the Gulf of St. Michael; a name it still retains. From some of the caciques he extorted provisions and gold; others sent him presents voluntarily. He now led back his followers to Santa Maria, to refresh them, and sent an account to the court of Spain of the important discovery he had made, demanding 1000 men to conquer the new country he had discovered. But the king appointed Pedrarias Davila to supersede him, with the command of fifteen stout vessels and 1200 soldiers. Balboa submitted to the king's pleasure, yet the new governor tried him for some pretended irregularities committed before his arrival, and fined him of almost all he was worth. In the mean time, the Spaniards, paying no regard to the treaties concluded by Balboa with the natives, plundered and destroyed them indiscriminately, from the gulf of Darien to lake Nicaragua. The new comers had also arrived about the middle of the wet season, when the excessive rains produced the most fatal diseases. To this was joined an extreme scarcity of provisions; so that in a month above 600 Spaniards perished. Balboa sent remonstrances to Spain against the new governor; on which the king appointed Balboa to supersede him with very extensive authority; enjoining Pedrarias to support him in all his enterprises. But though a reconciliation took place in appearance, so far that Pedrarias agreed to give his daughter in marriage to Balboa, he soon after had him condemned and executed on pretence of disloyalty. On the death of Balboa, further discoveries were laid aside for some time; but there were three persons at Panama who determined to go in

quest of this country. These were Francis Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, and Hernand Luque. We have adverted already to the general history of their proceedings here, but some further particulars will gratify such of our readers as wish to understand the spirit of the Spanish conquests. Pizarro and Almagro were soldiers of fortune, and Luque was an ecclesiastic, who acted at Panama as a priest and schoolmaster. Their confederacy was authorised by Pedrarias; and each engaged to employ his whole fortune in the adventure. Pizarro, being the least wealthy, engaged to take upon himself the greatest share of the fatigue and danger, and to command the armament. Almagro offered to conduct the supplies of provisions and reinforcements; and Luque was to remain at Panama, to superintend their general interests. In 1524 Pizarro set sail from Panama with a single vessel of small burden, and 112 men, selecting the most improper season of the whole year, i. e. when the periodical winds, which were then set in, were directly opposed to his course. The consequence was, that, after beating about for seventy days, with much danger and fatigue, he had advanced scarcely as far to the south-east as a skilful navigator will now make in three days. He touched at several places of Terra Firma, however, and at the Pearl Islands, where he was found by Almagro, who had set out in quest of him with a reinforcement of seventy men, and had suffered similar distresses. But the country of Popayan, showing a better aspect, and the inhabitants being more friendly, they determined not to abandon their scheme. Almagro returned to Panama, but the bad accounts of the service gave his countrymen such an unfavorable idea of it, that Almagro could levy only eighty men. The disasters and disappointments they met with, in this new attempt, were scarcely inferior to those they had already experienced, when part of the armament at last reached the bay of St. Matthew on the coast of Quito, and landed at Tacamez, where they met with a more fertile country than any they had yet seen; the natives also being more civilised, and clothed in cotton or woollen stuffs, adorned with gold and silver. But some of the adventurers had informed their friends of their many dangers and losses, which weighed so much with Peter de los Rios, the successor of Pedrarias, that he prohibited the raising of new recruits, and even despatched a vessel to bring home Pizarro and his companions from Gallo. Almagro and Luque advised Pizarro not to relinquish an enterprise on which they had built all their hopes. He therefore refused to obey the governor's orders, and entreated his men not to abandon him. But the calamities to which they had been exposed had such an effect, that when he drew a line upon the sand with his sword, telling such as wished to return, that they might pass over it, only thirteen remained with him. Pizarro with his little troop now fixed their residence on the island of Gorgona, where they continued five months, in the most unwholesome climate, when a vessel arrived from Panama, Almagro and Luque having prevailed on the governor to send them relief. He now therefore sailed to the south-east, and in twenty days landed on

the coast of Peru, at Tumbez, remarkable for its stately temple, and a palace of the incas or sovereigns of the country. Here they found the reports concerning the riches of the country were true; not only ornaments and sacred vessels being made of gold and silver, but even such as were for common use. Yet to attempt the conquest of this opulent empire with their slender force would have been madness; they contented themselves with viewing it, procuring two of the beasts called Llamas, some vessels of gold and silver, and two young men, whom they instructed in the Castilian language. With these Pizarro arrived at Panama in 1527.

Huana Capac, the twelfth monarch from the founder of the native empire, was at this time on the throne; a prince no less conspicuous for his abilities in war than for his pacific virtues. By him the kingdom of Quito was subdued, which almost doubled the extent of the Peruvian empire. Huana married the daughter of the conquered monarch, by whom he had a son named Atahualpa, or Atabalipa, to whom, at his death in 1529, he left the kingdom of Quito, bestowing the rest of his dominions on Huascar, his eldest son, by a mother of the royal race. This produced a civil war, in which Atabalipa proved victorious, and afterwards, to secure himself on the throne, put to death all the descendants of Manco; but he spared the life of his rival Huascar, who was taken prisoner, that, by issuing orders in his name, he might establish his own authority. This contest had now so much engaged the attention of the Peruvians, that, on the return of the Spaniards, they never attempted to check their progress. The first intelligence Pizarro received of it was a message from Huascar, asking his assistance against Atabalipa. Pizarro, therefore, determined to push forward, while intestine discord put it out of the power of the Peruvians to attack him with their whole force. Leaving a garrison in St. Michael, he began his march with only sixty-two horsemen, and 102 foot. He proceeded to Caxamalca, where Atabalipa was encamped, and was met by an officer with a valuable present from the Inca, accompanied with a proffer of his alliance. Pizarro pretended to come as the ambassador of a very powerful monarch, who wished to aid him against his enemies. As the object of the Spaniards in entering their country was otherwise altogether incomprehensible, the Peruvians had formed various conjectures concerning it. Pizarro's declarations of his pacific intentions, now, therefore, removed all the Inca's fears. The Spaniards were thus allowed to march across the sandy desert between St. Michael and Motupe, and through a defile in the mountains so narrow and inaccessible that a few men might have defended it. As they approached to Caxamalca, Atabalipa sent them presents of still greater value. On entering Caxamalca, Pizarro took possession of a large court, on one side of which was a palace of the Inca, and on the other a temple of the sun, surrounded with a strong rampart. When he had posted his troops in this advantageous station, he despatched Hernando Soto, and his brother Ferdinand, to the camp of the Inca, to desire an interview. Here

But

they were treated with respectful hospitality, and Atabalipa promised to visit the Spanish commander next day. The decent deportment of the Peruvian monarch, the order of his court, and the reverence with which his subjects obeyed his commands, astonished the Spaniards. their eyes were more powerfully attracted by the vast profusion of wealth which they observed. On their return to Caxamalca, they gave such a description of it as confirmed Pizarro in a resolution which he had already taken, as daring as it was perfidious. He determined to avail himself of Atabalipa's unsuspicious simplicity, to seize his person. Dividing his cavalry, therefore, into three squadrons, under his brothers Ferdinand, Soto, and Benalcazzar; and forming the infantry into one body, except twenty of most tried courage, whom he kept near his own person; he placed his artillery, consisting of two field-pieces, and the cross-bow men, opposite to the avenue by which Atabalipa was to approach. Early in the morning, the Peruvian camp was in motion. But as Atabalipa was solicitous to appear with the greatest splendor and magnificence in his first interview with the strangers, the day was far advanced before he began his march. At length the inca approached. First appeared 400 men in uniform, as harbingers. He himself sitting on a throne, almost covered with gold, silver, and precious stones, was carried on the shoulders of his principal attendants. Behind him came his chief officers. Several bands of singers and dancers accompanied the cavalcade; and the whole plain was covered with troops, amounting to about 30,000 men. As the inca drew near the Spanish quarters, father Vincent Valverede, chaplain to the expedition, advanced with a crucifix in one hand, and a breviary in the other, and in a long discourse pretended to announce the true doctrine of the creation, the fall of Adam, the incarnation, the sufferings and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the appointment of St. Peter as God's vicegerent on earth, the transmission of his apostolic power by succession to the popes, and the donation made to the king of Castile by pope Alexander of all the regions in the New World. In conclusion he required Atabalipa to embrace the Christian faith, to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the pope, and to submit to the king of Castile as his lawful sovereign; promising, if he complied, that the Castilian monarch would protect his dominions, and permit him to continue in his authority; but, if he should impiously refuse to obey this summons, he denounced war against him in his master's name. This strange harangue, unfolding deep mysteries, and alluding to unknown facts, of which no power of eloquence could have conveyed a distinct idea to an American, was so lamely translated by an unskilful interpreter, that it was incomprehensible to Atabalipa. But some parts in it, of obvious meaning, filled him with astonishment and indignation. His reply, however, was temperate. He said that he was lord of his own dominions by hereditary right; that he could not conceive how a foreign priest should pretend to dispose of territories which did not belong to him: that he, being the rightful possessor, refused to con

firm it; that he would not forsake the service of the Sun, the immortal divinity whom he revered, to worship the God of the Spaniards, who was subject to death; that with respect to other matters, as he had never heard of them before, he desired to know where he had learned things so extraordinary. In this book,' answered Valverede, reaching out to him his breviary. The inca opened it, and turning over the leaves, lifted it to his ear: This,' says he, 'is silent; it tells me nothing;' and threw it with disdain to the ground. The enraged monk, running to his countrymen, cried out, To arms, Christians, to arms! the word of God is insulted! avenge this profanation on these impious dogs.' Pizarro immediately gave the signal of assault. At once the martial music struck up, the cannon and muskets began to fire, the horse sallied out fiercely, the infantry rushed on, sword in hand. The Peruvians, astonished at the unexpected attack, fled with universal consternation, without attempting to defend themselves. Pizarro, at the head of his chosen band, advanced directly towards the inca; and though his nobles crowded around him with zeal, and fell in numbers at his feet, the Spaniards soon penetrated to the royal seat; and Pizarro, seizing the inca by the arm, dragged him to the ground, and carried him a prisoner to his quarters. The fate of the monarch increased the precipitate flight of his followers. The Spaniards pursued them towards every quarter, and, with deliberate and unrelenting barbarity, continued to slaughter the wretched unresisting fugitives. Above 4000 Peruvians were killed. Not a single Spaniard fell, we are told, nor was one wounded but Pizarro himself slightly. The plunder taken was immense, but the Spaniards were still unsatisfied; which being observed by the inca, he endeavoured to apply himself to their ruling passion, avarice, to obtain his liberty; and, therefore, offered such a ransom as quite astonished them. The apartment in which he was confined was twenty-two feet in length, and sixteen in breadth; all this space he engaged to fill with vessels of gold as high as he could reach. The proposal was eagerly caught by Pizzaro, and a line was drawn upon the walls to mark the stipulated height.

Atabalipa, anxious for his.liberty, immediately despatched messengers into all parts of the empire, to collect the quantity of gold which he had promised; and, though the unfortunate monarch was now in the hands of his enemies, such was the veneration which his subjects had for him, that his orders were obeyed with as great alacrity as if he had been at full liberty. In a short time Pizarro received intelligence that Almagro was arrived at St. Michael with a reinforcement. This was a matter of no small vexation to Atabalipa, who now considered his kingdom as in danger of being totally overrun by these strangers. For this reason he ordered his brother Huascar to be put to death, lest he should join against him. In the mean time, the Indians daily arrived at Caxamalca with vast quantities of treasure; the sight of which so much inflamed the Spaniards, that they insisted upon an immediate division: and this being complied with, there VOL. XVII.

fell to the share of each horseman 8000 pesos, worth as many pounds sterling, and half as much to each foot soldier, Pizarro and his officers receiving shares proportionable to their dignity. A fifth part was reserved for the emperor, together with some vessels of curious workmanship. After this, Atabalipa was very importunate with Pizarro to recover his liberty; but the Spaniard, with unparalleled treachery and cruelty, had now determined to put him to death. But, to give some show of justice to this detestable action, Pizarro instituted a court of judicature for trying him. He appointed himself and Almagro, with two assistants, as judges; an attorney-general to carry on the prosecution in the king's name; counsellors to assist the prisoner in his defence; and clerks to record the proceedings. Before this strange tribunal, a charge was exhibited still more amazing. That Atabalipa, though a bastard, had usurped the royal power; that he had put his brother and lawful sovereign to death; that he was an idolater, and had offered up human sacrifices; that he had a great number of concubines, &c. On these heads they proceeded to try the sovereign of a great empire, over whom they had no jurisdiction. To all these charges the inca pleaded not guilty. He called heaven and earth to witness the integrity of his conduct, and how faithfully he performed his engagements, and the perfidity of his accusers. He desired to be sent over to Spain, to take his trial before the emperor; but no regard was paid to his entreaties. He was condemned to be burnt alive; which cruel sentence was mitigated to strangling; and the unhappy monarch was executed without mercy. Hideous cries were set up by his women as the funeral procession passed by their apartment; many offered to bury themselves alive with him; and, on being hindered, strangled themselves out of grief. The whole town of Caxamalca was filled with lamentations, which quickly extended over the whole kingdom.

Yet this murder of Atabalipa did no service to the Spaniards. Friends and enemies accused them of inhumanity and treachery. Loads of gold that were coming to Caxamalca by order of the deceased inca were now stopped; this was the first consequence of their late iniquitous conduct. The two factions of Indians also united against Pizarro; and many of the Spaniards not only exclaimed against the cruelty of the judges, but would even have mutinied, had not a sense of the impending danger kept them quiet. At Cuzco the friends of Huascar proclaimed Mango Capac, the legitimate brother of the late inca: on which Pizarro set up Taparpa, the son of Atabalipa. Immediately he set out for Cuzco. An army of Indians opposed his progress, but the Spanish cavalry bore down every thing before them. The conquerors gained a great booty; and Pizarro despatched Almagro to reduce Cuzco, while he himself founded a new colony in Xauna. Ferdinand Soto was detached with sixty horse to Cuzco, to clear thé road for the remainder of the army. Meantime Taparpa died; and, as the Spaniards set up no person in his room, the title of Manco Capac

F

mies. But Pizarro conducted this transaction with the illiberal spirit of a party-leader. Large districts, in parts of the country most cultivated and populous, were set apart as his own property, or granted to his brothers, his adherents and favorites. To others, lots less valuable and inviting were assigned. The followers of Almagro, amongst whom were many of the original adventurers to whose valor Pizarro was indebted for his success, were totally excluded. They therefore murmured in secret, and meditated revenge. Rapid as the progress of the Spaniards in South America had been since Pizarro landed in Peru, their avidity of dominion was not yet satiated. The officers to whom Ferdinand Pizarro gave the command of different detachments penetrated into several new provinces; and though exposed to great hardships in the cold regions of the Andes, and amidst the woods and marshes, they made considerable discoveries and conquests. Peter de Valdivia re-assumed Almagro's scheme of invading Chili; and made such progress in the conquest of the country, hat he founded the city of St. Jago. But the enterprise of Gonzales Pizarro was the most remarkable. He set out from Quito at the head of 340 soldiers, nearly one-half of whom were horsemen, with 4000 Indians. Excess of cold and fatigue proved fatal to the greater part of these last. The Spaniards, though more robust, suffered considerably; but, when they descended into the low country, their distress increased. During two months it rained incessantly, without any interval of fair weather to dry their clothes. The vast plains upon which they were now entering, either without inhabitants, or occupied by the rudest and least industrious tribes in the New World, yielded little subsistence. They could not advance a step but through woods or marches. Such incessant toil, and scarcity of food, would have dispirited any trcops. But the fortitude and perseverance of the Spaniards were insuperable. They persisted in struggling on, until they reached the banks of the Napo, one of the arge rivers which run into the Maragnon. There, with infinite labor, they built a bark, which was manned with fifty soldiers, under Francis Orellana. The stream carried them down with such rapidity that they were soon far a-head of their countrymen, who followed slowly by land. At this distance from his commander, Orellana formed the scheme of distinguishing himself, by following the course of the Maragnon until it joined the ocean, and by surveying the vast regions through which it flows. This scheme was as bold as it was treacherous. For, if he violated his duty to his commander, and abandoned his fellow soldiers in a pathless desert, his crime is somewhat balanced by the glory of having ventured upon a navigation of nearly 2000 leagues, through unknown nations, in a vessel hastily constructed with green timber, and by very unskilful hands, without provisons, without a compass, or a pilot. But his courage and alacrity supplied every defect. Committing himself fearlessly to the guidance of the stream, the Napo bore him along to the south until he reached the great channel of the Maragnon. He

sometimes seized by force the provisions of the fierce savages seated on its banks, and sometimes procured a supply of food by a friendly intercourse. After a long series of dangers and distresses, which he encountered with amazing magnanimity, he reached the ocean, where new perils awaited him. These he likewise surmounted, and got safe to the Spanish settlements in the island of Cubagua; whence he sailed to Spain.

The vanity natural to travellers who visit regions unknown to the rest of mankind prompted him to mingle an extraordinary proportion of the marvellous in the narrative of his voyage. He pretended to have discovered nations so rich that the roofs of their temples were covered with plates of gold; and described a republic of Amazons so warlike and powerful as to have extended their dominion over a considerable tract of the fertile plains which he had visited; fables hardly yet exploded. The voyage, however, deserves to be recorded, not only as one of the most memorable occurrences in that adventurous age, but as the first event that led to any certain knowledge of those immense regions that stretch east from the Andes to the ocean. No words can describe the consternation of Pizarro, when he did not find the bark at the confluence of the Napo and Maragnon, where he had ordered Orellana to wait for him. But, imputing his absense from the place of rendezvous to some unknown accident, he advanced above fifty leagues along the banks of the Maragnon, expecting every moment to see the bark appear with a supply of provisions. At length he came up with an officer whom Orellana had left to perish in the desert, because he had remonstrated against his perfidy. From him he learned the extent of Orellana's crime; and his followers perceived at once their own desperate situation. The spirit of the stoutest hearted veteran sank within him; and all demanded to be led back instantly. Pizarro was now 1200 miles from Quito; and in that long march the Spaniards encountered hardships greater than those they had endured in their progress outward. Hunger compelled them to feed on roots and berries, to eat all their dogs and horses, to devour the most loathsome reptiles, and even to gnaw the leather of their saddles and sword belts: 4000 Indians, and 210 Spaniards, perished in this wild and disastrous expedition, which continued nearly two years; and, as fifty men were aboard the bark with Orellana, only eighty got back to Quito. These were naked like savages, and so emaciated with famine or worn out with fatigue, that they had more the appearance of spectres than of men. But Pizarro, on entering Quito, received accounts of a state of things that threatened calamities more dreadful than those through which he had passed. From the time that his brother made the partial division of his conquests above-mentioned, the adherents of Almagro no longer entertained any hope of bettering their condition. Great numbers in despair resorted to Lima, where the house of young Almagro was always open to them: and the slender portion of his father's fortune, which he enjoyed, was spent in affording them subsistence. The warm attachment with which