*47 To this Atahuallpa replied by renewed assurances of
the fact, adding that the deed had been perpetrated, without his
privity, by Huascar's keepers, fearful that he might take
advantage of the troubles of the country to make his escape.
Pizarro, on making further inquiries, found that the report of
his death was but too true. That it should have been brought
about by Atahuallpa's officers, without his express command,
would only show, that, by so doing, they had probably anticipated
their master's wishes. The crime, which assumes in our eyes a
deeper dye from the relation of the parties, had not the same
estimation among the Incas, in whose multitudinous families the
bonds of brotherhood must have sat loosely, - much too loosely to
restrain the arm of the despot from sweeping away any obstacle
that lay in his path.
[Footnote 47: "Sabido esto por el Gobernador, mostro, que el
pesaba mucho: i dijo que era mentira, que no le havian muerto,
que lo trujesen luego vivo: i sino, que el mandaria matar a
Atabalipa." Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 204.]
Chapter VI
Gold Arrives For The Ransom. - Visit To Pachacamac. - Demolition
Of The Idol. - The Inca's Favorite General. - The Inca's Life In
Confinement. - Envoy's Conduct In Cuzco. - Arrival Of Almagro.
1533.
Several weeks had now passed since Atahuallpa's emissaries had
been despatched for the gold and silver that were to furnish his
ransom to the Spaniards. But the distances were great, and the
returns came in slowly.
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