The invitation he had
so unsuspiciously accepted to visit them in their quarters
afforded the best means for securing this desirable prize. Nor
was the enterprise so desperate, considering the great advantages
afforded by the character and weapons of the invaders, and the
unexpectedness of the assault. The mere circumstance of acting
on a concerted plan would alone make a small number more than a
match for a much larger one. But it was not necessary to admit
the whole of the Indian force into the city before the attack;
and the person of the Inca once secured, his followers, astounded
by so strange an event, were they few or many, would have no
heart for further resistance; - and with the Inca once in his
power, Pizarro might dictate laws to the empire.
In this daring project of the Spanish chief, it was easy to see
that he had the brilliant exploit of Cortes in his mind, when he
carried off the Aztec monarch in his capital. But that was not
by violence, at least not by open violence, - and it received the
sanction, compulsory though it were, of the monarch himself. It
was also true that the results in that case did not altogether
justify a repetition of the experiment; since the people rose in
a body to sacrifice both the prince and his kidnappers. Yet this
was owing, in part, at least, to the indiscretion of the latter.
The experiment in the outset was perfectly successful; and, could
Pizarro once become master of the person of Atahuallpa, he
trusted to his own discretion for the rest.
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