deign to listen to what to him may seem a wild and incredible
story, but which is strictly true in every particular.
"When in the dim and remote past our Lord and Father the Sun took
compassion upon us his people, he sent two of his children--Manco Capac
and Mama Oello Huaco--to earth in order that they might form us into a
united and consolidated nation. These two established themselves in a
certain spot, the locality of which had been divinely revealed to them
by a certain sign--even as your identity, Lord, has been revealed to us;
and our forefathers gathering about them, the ancient and royal city of
Cuzco was built, wherein Manco Capac took up his abode as our first
Inca. Now, Manco Capac, being of divine origin, was endowed with
marvellous wisdom and knowledge, even to the foreseeing of future
events; and among the events which he foretold was that of the conquest
of our country by the Spaniard. He also formulated many wise and
righteous laws for the government of the people, which laws were further
added to by his successors.
"Now, with the building of the city of Cuzco and his establishment
therein as Inca, Manco assumed royal dignity, and inaugurated a code of
stately ceremonial for all those who formed his court and might have
occasion to come to it. He also arrayed himself in regal garments and
adorned his person with certain regal ornaments, of which the collar now
worn by you, Lord, was the most important next to the imperial borla, or
tasselled fringe of scarlet, adorned with coraquenque feathers, which
was the distinguishing insignia of royalty.
"When in the fullness of time Manco was called home to the mansions of
his father the Sun, he gave minute instructions, before his departure,
as to the disposal of everything belonging to him, including his royal
jewels. Some of these he ordained were to be deposited with his body in
the great temple of the Sun at Cuzco. But the jewel which you are now
wearing, Lord, he decreed was to be handed down from Inca to Inca, even
unto the last of the race; and it was so. Atahuallpa wore it as he
entered the city of Caxamalca at the head of his vassals and retinue on
the afternoon of that fatal day when he fell into the hands of the
treacherous Spaniards and, helpless to prevent it, beheld thousands of
his unarmed followers slaughtered like sheep in the great square. But
he did not wear it on the night when, at the command of the false and
treacherous Pizarr
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