He was
willing to save the soul of his victim from the terrible
expiation in the next world, to which he had so cheerfully
consigned his mortal part in this.
During Atahuallpa's confinement, the friar had repeatedly
expounded to him the Christian doctrines, and the Indian monarch
discovered much acuteness in apprehending the discourse of his
teacher. But it had not carried conviction to his mind, and
though he listened with patience, he had shown no disposition to
renounce the faith of his fathers. The Dominican made a last
appeal to him in this solemn hour; and, when Atahuallpa was bound
to the stake, with the fagots that were to kindle his funeral
pile lying around him, Valverde, holding up the cross, besought
him to embrace it and be baptized, promising that, by so doing,
the painful death to which he had been sentenced should be
commuted for the milder form of the garrote, - a mode of
punishment by strangulation, used for criminals in Spain. *30
[Footnote 30: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p.
234. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Conq. i Pob. del
Piru, Ms. - Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 400.
The garrote is a mode of execution by means of a noose drawn
round the criminal's neck, to the back part of which a stick is
attached. By twisting this stick, the noose is tightened and
suffocation is produced. This was the mode, probably, of
Atahuallpa execution. In Spain, instead of the cord, an iron
collar is substituted, which, by means of a screw is compressed
round the throat of the sufferer.
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