His subjects had free access to
their sovereign, and every day he received visits from the Indian
nobles, who came to bring presents, and offer condolence to their
unfortunate master. On such occasions, the most potent of these
great vassals never ventured into his presence, without first
stripping off their sandals, and bearing a load on their backs in
token of reverence. The Spaniards gazed with curious eyes on
these acts of homage, or rather of slavish submission, on the one
side, and on the air of perfect indifference with which they were
received, as a matter of course, on the other; and they conceived
high ideas of the character of a prince who, even in his present
helpless condition, could inspire such feelings of awe in his
subjects. The royal levee was so well attended, and such
devotion was shown by his vassals to the captive monarch, as did
not fail, in the end, to excite some feelings of distrust in his
keepers. *43
[Footnote 43: Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms. - Naharro,
Relacion Sumaria, Ms. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru lib. 2, cap. 6.]
Pizarro did not neglect the opportunity afforded him of
communicating the truths of revelation to his prisoner, and both
he and his chaplain, Father Valverde, labored in the same good
work. Atahuallpa listened with composure and apparent attention.
But nothing seemed to move him so much as the argument with which
the military polemic closed his discourse, - that it could not be
the true God whom Atahuallpa worshipped, since he had suffered
him to fall into the hands of his enemies.
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