. These
organized and audacious attacks by the enemy, and the sudden death of
Toparca under suspicious circumstances, led him to believe that
Chalicuchima, the second war-captain, was acting treacherously,--as he
very probably was. After rejoining Almagro, Pizarro had Chalicuchima
tried; and being found guilty of treason, he was promptly executed. We
cannot help being horrified at the manner of the execution, which was by
fire; but we must not be too hasty in calling the responsible individual
a cruel man for all that. All such things must be measured by
comparison, and by the general spirit of the age. The world did not then
deem the stake a cruelty; and more than a hundred years later, when the
world was much more enlightened, Christians in England and France and
New England saw no harm in that sort of an execution for certain
offences,--and surely we shall not say that our Puritan forefathers were
wicked and cruel men. They hanged witches and whipped infidels, not from
cruelty, but from the blind superstition of their time. It seems a
hideous thing now, but it was not thought so then; and we must not
expect that Pizarro should be wiser and better than the men who had so
many advantages that he had not. I certainly wish that he had not
allowed Chalicuchima to be burned; but I also wish that the shocking
pages of Salem and slavery could be blotted from our own story. In
neither case, however, would I brand Pizarro as a monster, nor the
Puritans as a cruel people.

At this juncture, the Inca Indian Manco came in gorgeous fashion to
Pizarro and proposed an alliance. He claimed to be the rightful
war-chief, and desired that the Spaniards recognize him as such. His
proposition was gladly accepted.

Moving onward, the Spaniards were again ambushed in a defile, but beat
off their assailants; and at last entered Cuzco November 15, 1533. It
was the largest Indian "city" in the western hemisphere, though not
greatly larger than the pueblo of Mexico; and its superior buildings and
furnishings filled the Spaniards with wonder. A great deal of gold was
found in caves and other hiding-places. In one spot were several large
gold vases, gold and silver images of llamas and human beings, and
cloths adorned with gold and silver beads. Among other treasures Pedro
Pizarro, an eye-witness and chronicler, mentions ten rude "planks" of
silver twenty feet long, a foot wide, and two inches thick. The total
treasure secured footed up 580,200