Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 19, 2025
On a dull afternoon in November, 1532, Pizarro entered Caxamalca, and undismayed by the innumerable host that confronted him, went to pay a visit of courtesy to the Inca. He was gloomily received by Atahualpa, who chanced to be observing a fast, but who promised to return his visit on the following day.
The Inca moved toward the city in the afternoon, but stopped just outside the walls, to the great annoyance of the Spaniards, who had found the long wait a trying experience indeed. Late in the afternoon, Pizarro received a message that Atahualpa had changed his mind and would not visit him until the following day. This did not suit his plans at all.
The seven of them made short work of unlashing the spar and getting it back to the torpedo-boat, and the Janequeo was soon under way again and stealing up the harbour once more. The Atahualpa was the next ship they came to, and to their unbounded satisfaction they found that she was unprotected by a boom.
By the time, then, that Pizarro and his horde of robbers overran the land, there were millions upon millions of dollars-worth of precious metals and precious stones in the possession of the Inca and his nobles. You have heard of the ransom which Pizarro exacted from Atahualpa; how a large room was twice filled with gold, to the value of fifteen millions of your pounds?
He rejected indignantly the idea that he, "The Lord of the Four Quarters of the Earth," owed allegiance to any Charles V. or any other earthly monarch, of whom he had never heard and who had assuredly never heard of him either. Valverde had referred to the book in his hand as he had spoken and Atahualpa now asked to see it. The volume was a clasped one and he found it difficult to open.
This great mine was the Laurium of Venus. The display of gold in the vaults connected with it exceeded a hundredfold all that the most imaginative historian has ever written of the treasures of Montezuma and Atahualpa.
From the moment of his arrival at Caxamalca Pizarro prudently lodged his soldiers in a temple and a palace belonging to the inca, where they were sheltered from any surprise. Then he sent one of his brothers with De Soto and twenty horse-soldiers to the camp of Atahualpa, which was distant only three miles, to announce to him his arrival.
At the same time the envoys gave an account of the wonderful riches they had seen, which confirmed Pizarro in the project which he had formed of seizing the unfortunate Atahualpa and his treasures by treachery. Several Spanish authors, and notably Zarate, disguise these facts, which no doubt appeared to them too odious, and altogether deny the treachery towards Atahualpa.
From Tumbez he went next to the Rio Puira, discovered the harbour of Payta, the best on this coast, and founded the colony of San-Miguel, at the mouth of the Chilo, in order that vessels coming from Panama might find a safe shelter. It was here that Pizarro received some envoys from Huascar, who informed him of the revolt of Atahualpa, the brother of Huascar, and asked his aid.
The dread of a cruel death, extorted from the trembling victim his consent to be baptized. The ceremony was performed; and Atahualpa, instead of being burnt alive, was strangled at the stake. Pizarro then proceeded in his career of cruelty and rapacity, till, in ten years, he subdued the whole of this great empire, and divided it among his followers.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking