the Inca to visit his quarters, and then,
taking them unawares, killed a large number of his followers and took
him prisoner. The effect was precisely what Pizarro had hoped for. The
"Child of the Sun" once captured, the Indians, who had no law but his
command, no confidence but in his leadership, fled in all directions,
and the Spaniards remained masters of the situation.

They treated the Inca at first with respect, and while keeping him a
prisoner, allowed him a measure of freedom, and free intercourse with
his subjects. He soon saw a door of hope in the Spaniards' eagerness for
gold, and offered an enormous ransom. The offer was accepted, and
messengers were sent throughout the empire to collect it. At last it
reached an amount, in gold, of the value of nearly three and a half
million pounds sterling, besides a quantity of silver. But even this
ransom did not suffice to free the Inca. Owing partly to the malevolence
of an Indian interpreter, who bore the Inca ill-will, and partly to
rumours of a general rising of the natives instigated by the Inca, the
army began to demand his life as necessary to their safety. Pizarro
appeared to be opposed to this demand, but to yield to his soldiers, and
after a form of trial the Inca was executed. But Pizarro cannot be
acquitted of responsibility for a deed which formed the climax of one of
the darkest chapters in Spanish colonial history, and it is probable
that the design coincided only too well with his aims.

_III.--Triumph of Pisarro; his Assassination_

There was nothing now to hinder the victorious march of the Spaniards to
Cuzco, the Peruvian capital. They now numbered nearly five hundred,
having been reinforced by the arrival of Almagro from Panama.

In Cuzco they found great quantities of treasure, with the natural
result that the prices of ordinary commodities rose enormously as the
value of gold and silver declined, so that it was only those few who
returned with their present gains to their native country who could be
called wealthy.

All power was now in the hands of the Spaniards. Pizarro indeed placed
upon the throne of the Incas the legitimate heir, Manco, but it was only
in order that he might be the puppet of his own purposes. His next step
was to found a new capital, which should be near enough to the sea-coast
to meet the need of a commercial people. He determined upon the site of
Lima on the festival of Epiphany, 1535, and named it "Ciudad de los