eir hair long. Sandals
covered the feet, and in the ear-lobes were inserted round pegs. The
people reared and grazed cattle, as we have seen, and were hunters and
fishermen. They grew potatoes and many other root crops, bananas,
tobacco, and cotton, and sowed extensive fields of maize. They had all
the characteristics of the American race--a short skull, sharply cut
features, and a powerfully built body.

* * * * *

For centuries the Inca people had lived in undisturbed repose in their
beautiful valleys and on their sunlit tablelands between the mountain
ranges--or _cordilleras_, as they are called--which compose the Andes.
If their peace was occasionally disturbed by neighbouring tribes,
messages in knotted signs flew through the country, and the roads were
full of armed men; but the Inca kings dreamed of no serious danger. For
several hundred years their power had passed from father to son, and no
neighbour was strong enough to wrest the sceptre from the Inca king's
hand. Not a whisper of such names as Chimborazo and Cotopaxi had
reached Europe.

A great Inca had recently died and bequeathed his power to his two sons,
Huascar and Atahualpa. Just as always in the Old World, such a partition
produced friction and disputes, and at length civil war broke out. After
four hundred years, we read with sorrow the account of the suicidal
strife which harried old Peru, divided the Inca people into two hostile
factions, and thus made them an easy prey to the conquerors.

Scarcely had the clash of arms died out after the brave and chivalrous
Cortez had burned his ships on the coast of Mexico, subdued the kingdom
of Montezuma, and placed it under the crown of Castille, before another
Spanish conqueror, the rough, cruel, and treacherous Pizarro, cast his
eyes southwards, covetous of new gold countries. With a handful of
adventurers, he made his way down to Peru, but soon perceived that he
could not succeed without help from the home country. The Emperor
Charles V. listened to his tale of gold and green forests, and in the
year 1531 Pizarro set out again, this time with a company of 180
well-armed cavaliers. By degrees he gathered fresh reinforcements,
landed on the coast of Peru, and marched into the Inca kingdom.

Pizarro was clever and courageous, but, unlike Cortez, he was a base man
and a scoundrel. He had no education or proper feeling, and could not
even write his name, but he was cunning an