It explains his conduct in not occupying the mountain passes,
which afforded such strong points of defence against invasion.
But that a prince so astute, as by the general testimony of the
Conquerors he is represented to have been, should have made so
impolitic a disclosure of his hidden motives is not so probable.
The intercourse with the Inca was carried on chiefly by means of
the interpreter Felipillo, or little Philip, as he was called,
from his assumed Christian name, - a malicious youth, as it
appears, who bore no good-will to Atahuallpa, and whose
interpretations were readily admitted by the Conquerors, eager to
find some pretext for their bloody reprisals.
Atahuallpa, as elsewhere notice, was, at this time, about thirty
years of age. He was well made, and more robust than usual with
his countrymen. His head was large, and his countenance might
have been called handsome, but that his eyes, which were
bloodshot, gave a fierce expression to his features. He was
deliberate in speech, grave in manner, and towards his own people
stern even to severity; though with the Spaniards he showed
himself affable, sometimes even indulging in sallies of mirth.
*32
[Footnote 32: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p.
203.]
Pizarro paid every attention to his royal captive, and
endeavoured to lighten, if he could not dispel, the gloom which,
in spite of his assumed equanimity, hung over the monarch's brow.
He besought him not to be case down by his reverses, for his lot
had only been that of every prince who had resisted the white
men.
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