which scattered fragments only remain, is variously estimated from fifteen hundred to two thousand miles." No celebrated conqueror of the old world ever pursued such perfect system and method in the conduct of a campaign as did the Incas. Stations for couriers were built at regular intervals throughout the main routes, by means of which messages or light burdens could be conveyed with incredible celerity to any required distance. Granaries and storehouses filled with supplies for the army stood, under care of appointed officers, at convenient intervals, and all these provisions and supplies being furnished from the state funds, no man felt them as an extraordinary burden.

A strange but sagacious policy was observed towards a conquered nation. The Peruvian worship of the sun was immediately introduced; all the laws of the empire were enforced, and its customs established; but, that the yoke might not be too galling, the privileges as well as the duties of a subject were extended to the conquered people. The former nobles and governors were not uncommonly continued in office, and a paternal care was taken of the necessities and interests of the whole populace. With all this, no steps were omitted which would tend to completely denationalize the newly-acquired country. Large colonies of Peruvians were transplanted from their own country to the new, and their places supplied by an equal number of those whose habitations they occupied. The language of the conquerors was every where introduced, and its use encouraged until, with the lapse of years, a complete assimilation was brought about.

All this complete course of despotism was said by the Spanish historians, who wrote from observation, and before the old order of things was entirely overturned, to be precisely that which was best adapted to the Peruvian race, and to the country and climate which they inhabited. The people were contented with their lot, and looked upon

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their priests and rulers with the utmost reverence. man could be rich," says Prescott, "no man could be poor, in Peru; but all might enjoy, and did enjoy, a competence. Ambition, avarice, the love of change, the morbid spirit of discontent, those passions which most agitate the minds of men, found no place in the bosom of the Peruvian. ⚫ He moved on in the same unbroken circle in which his fathers had moved before him, and in which his children were to follow."

We cannot help a feeling of natural regret that the ruthless invasion of the Spaniards should have uprooted all these ancient and venerated customs. There was not, as with the Aztecs, a bloody system of religion, whose annihilation could reconcile us to almost any violence on the part of those who came to overturn it. There were, indeed, occasional scenes of human sacrifice at the great religious solemnities; but these were the exception, not the rule. The people at large lived on in peace and quietness, contented with the government and institutions under whose influence they lived, and by whose care they were secured in the possession of the competencies of life.

We have already mentioned the successes and conquests of Tupac Yupanqui, and his son Huayna Capac. The latter prince, having reduced the kingdom of Quito, the modern Equador, took up his residence at its capital, and devoted his attention to beautifying his acquisition, and establishing the Peruvian policy upon a firm basis throughout its limits.

The first expeditions of the Spaniards to the Peruvian coast, took place during the latter years of this monarch, and the accounts are said to have filled his mind with gloomy forebodings of the overthrow of his empire. His sagacious perception readily recognized the vast superiority over his own nation, evident in the vessels, arms, intelligence, and enterprise of the strangers. Huayna

Capac died about the year 1525, leaving his only legitimate son, Huascar, the regular successor to his throne. Instead of confirming the old order of descent, the king's fondness for another son, named Atahuallpa, (Atabalipa, as spelt by many old writers) led him, upon his death-bed, to bestow upon his favorite a portion of his kingdom. Upon the subversion of the ancient dynasty at Quito, Huayna Capac had taken the daughter of the last native prince as one of his concubines. From this union sprung the prince of whom we are speaking. The share of empire bequeathed to Atahuallpa was that of his maternal ancestors, in which his father had so long resided, and to whose improvement he had devoted his declining years. The rest of the wide domains of Peru were left in possession of Huascar.

This new order of things produced no evil effects for about five years. Huascar maintained his court at the old capital, Cuzco, while Atahuallpa remained at Quito; neither interfering with the other's rights of jurisdiction. Their respective subjects readily acquiesced in the new arrangement.

Different accounts are given of the first causes of rupture between the brothers; but whatever occasioned it, the contest which ensued was bloody and disastrous in the extreme. But for the disturbed and distracted state of the empire consequent upon this civil war, it would have been utterly impossible for the Spaniards, with the insignificant force which they finally brought into the field, to have overcome and subverted such an immense and powerful empire.

The first important engagement between the armies of the contending princes took place at Hambata, about sixty leagues south from Quito. In this battle, Huascar's forces were utterly defeated, and his victorious brother pressed onward to Tumebamba, no great distance from Tumbez. This city belonged to Atahuallpa's kingdom,

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but the inhabitants had taken up arms in favor of HuasIn vain did they sue for mercy from the conqueror: the whole district was ravaged, and all male adults were put to death. Proceeding on his march, Atahuallpa reached Caxamalca, where he took up his quarters, and sent forward the chief portion of his army to meet the forces prepared for the protection of the ancient capital of Peru.

A bloody and desperate battle was fought near the city, in which the invader was again completely victorious. Huascar was taken prisoner, and placed in close confinement, but his brother had enough of natural humanity to order that all respect should be shown him in his fallen. fortunes. If we are to believe some accounts, Atahuallpa sullied the fame which his successes might have acquired him, by acts of the most unheard-of barbarity. It is said that he put to death, and that too by lingering tortures, all of the royal family upon whom he could lay his hands, including the female branches of the family, that he might cut off all possibility of a rival appearing to contest his right to the throne. Modern historians have pointed out so many discrepancies and improbabilities in the details of this transaction, that they must be now considered as grossly exaggerated, if not utterly false.

Atahuallpa, now claiming the title of Inca, and rejoicing in the possession of the whole of the immense empire of his father, held his court at Caxamalca. In the midst of his exultation and triumph, news was brought of a fresh arrival of Spanish ships upon the coast.

CHAPTER III.

PIZARRO'S VISIT TO SPAIN AND APPLICATION TO THE EMPEROR. HIS FOUR BROTHERS. FUNDS PROCURED FOR A NEW EXPEDITION TO PERU. VESSELS AGAIN FITTED OUT AT PANAMA.- LANDING OF THE SPANIARDS UPON THE PERUVIAN COAST.-PLUNDER AT COAQUE. THE MARCH TOWARDS TUMBEZ.- BATTLES ON THE ISLE OF PUNA.- TUMBEZ DESERTED.-SETTLEMENT OF SAN MIGUEL.MARCH INTO THE INTERIOR.- PASSAGE OF THE ANDES.- MESSAGES FROM ATAHUALLPA.- ENTRY INTO CAXAMALCA.

As Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque, received no encouragement from the governor, at Panama, in the prosecution. of their plans; and as their funds were exhausted by the first expeditions, it became necessary to seek the assistance of some powerful patron, or to abandon the enterprise. In this emergency, Luque advised an immediate application to the Spanish court. In the discussion of the question as to who should undertake this duty, Almagro strongly urged the expediency of trusting the whole matter to the prudence and soldierly intrepidity of his unlettered companion-in-arms, Pizarro. He was the man who had seen and experienced more than any other of the nature of the land of promise, and his unflinching determination and perseverance seemed to qualify him as well to press his suit at court, as to undergo the disappointments and physical hardships of the conquest itself.

Pizarro consented to the proposal, and sailed for Spain, where he arrived early in the summer of 1528, carrying with him specimens of Peruvian art and wealth, together with natives of the country, and several of the beasts of burden peculiar to Peru. He was favorably received, and his accounts were credited by the Emperor Charles the Fifth; and the royal consent was obtained to the prosecution of the mighty undertaking of conquest. No pecu