The annunciation was received with enthusiasm by the
people, attached to the memory of his illustrious father, and
pleased that they were still to have a monarch rule over them of
the ancient line of Cuzco.
Every thing was done to maintain the illusion with the Indian
population. The ceremonies of a coronation were studiously
observed. The young prince kept the prescribed fasts and vigils;
and on the appointed day, the nobles and the people, with the
whole Spanish soldiery, assembled in the great square of Cuzco to
witness the concluding ceremony. Mass was publicly performed by
Father Valverde, and the Inca Manco received the fringed diadem
of Peru, not from the hand of the high-priest of his nation, but
from his Conqueror, Pizarro. The Indian lords then tendered
their obeisance in the customary form; after which the royal
notary read aloud the instrument asserting the supremacy of the
Castilian Crown, and requiring the homage of all present to its
authority. This address was explained by an interpreter, and the
ceremony of homage was performed by each one of the parties
waving the royal banner of Castile twice or thrice with his
hands. Manco then pledged the Spanish commander in a golden
goblet of the sparkling chicha; and, the latter having cordially
embraced the new monarch, the trumpets announced the conclusion
of the ceremony. *1 But it was not the note of triumph, but of
humiliation; for it proclaimed that the armed foot of the
stranger was in the halls of the Peruvian Incas; that the
ceremony of coronation was a miserable pageant; that their prince
himself was but a puppet in the hands of his Conqueror; and that
the glory of the Children of the Sun had departed for ever!
[Footnote 1: Pedro Pizarro, Descub.
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