ample proof that no harm is intended you, though
your captain, I am told, mistrusts me. If you think it will please him
better, I will come with few attendants and those unarmed."

De Soto warmly assured the Inca that no man could doubt his sincerity,
and begged him to consult his own taste entirely in reference to the
manner in which he would approach the Spaniards.

Upon the return of the cavalier to Pizarro, with an account of the
interview, that perfidious chieftain proposed to his men, that they
should seize the Inca and hold him in captivity as a hostage. Mr.
Prescott, in his account of this infamous procedure, speaks of it in
the following apologetic terms:

"Pizarro then summoned a council of his officers, to consider
the plan of operations, or rather to propose to them the
extraordinary plan on which he had himself decided. This was
to lay an ambuscade for the Inca, and take him prisoner in
the face of his whole army. It was a project full of peril,
bordering as it might well seem on desperation. But the
circumstances of the Spaniards were desperate. Whichever way
they turned they were menaced by the most appalling dangers.
And better was it to confront the danger, than weakly to
shrink from it when there was no avenue for escape. To fly
was now too late. Whither could they fly? At the first signal
of retreat the whole army of the Inca would be upon them.
Their movements would be anticipated by a foe far better
acquainted with the intricacies of the Sierra than
themselves; the passes would be occupied, and they would be
hemmed in on all sides; while the mere fact of this
retrograde movement would diminish the confidence and with it
the effective strength of his own men, while it doubled that
of the enemy."

The next morning was Saturday, the 16th of November, 1532. The sun
rose in a cloudless sky, and great preparations were made by the Inca
to display his grandeur and his power to his not very welcome guests.
A large retinue preceded and followed the monarch, while a courier was
sent forward to inform Pizarro of his approach. The Inca, habited in a
dress which was glittering with gems and gold, was seated in a
gorgeous open palanquin, borne upon the shoulders of many of his
nobles.

It was five o'clock in the afternoon, when the Inca, accompanied by a
small but unarmed retinue, entered the public square of the city. The
tents