History of the Conquest of Peru: With a Preliminary View of the Civilization of the Incas, Volume 1Phillips, Sampson, 1855 |
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Acosta adventurers afforded Almagro America ancient Annales año Atahuallpa authority Aztecs Barcia capital cavalier Caxamalca character Cieza Cieza de Leon civilization coast commander Conq Conquerors Conquest Cordilleras Cronica curacas Cuzco deity del Peru Descub discovery distance empire enterprise expedition favourable Felipillo fortunes furnished Garcilasso gente gold and silver ground havia Hernando Pizarro Herrera Hist historian Huascar Huayna Capac Ibid Incas Indian Indios inhabitants labours land Luque maize Manco Capac manner ment monarch Montesinos mountains nations natives nature nobles Ondegardo Oviedo Pachacamac Panamá Pedrarias Pedro Pizarro person Peru Peruvian Piru present Prim prince quarters quipus Quito race Real Relacion del Primer Relacion Sumaria royal Sarmiento seemed Señor shore sovereign Spaniards Spanish spirit temple tenian tierra tion Tumbez Tupac Inca Yupanqui ubi supra vessel Viracocha voyage writer Xerez Zarate
Popular passages
Page 156 - A perfect judge will read each work of wit With the same spirit that its author writ; Survey the whole, nor seek slight faults to find Where Nature moves, and rapture warms the mind; Nor lose for that malignant dull delight, The gen'rous pleasure to be charm'd with wit.
Page 172 - he said, ' on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, desertion, and death; on this side, ease and pleasure. There lies Peru with its riches; here Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian. For my part, I go to the south.
Page 41 - It was conducted over pathless sierras buried in snow ; galleries were cut foi leagues through the living rock ; rivers were crossed by means of bridges that swung suspended in the air ; precipices were scaled by stairways hewn out of the native bed ; ravines of hideous depth were filled up with solid masonry : in short, all the difficulties that beset a wild and mountainous region, and which might appal the most courageous engineer of modern times, were encountered and successfully overcome.
Page 43 - ... beneath. Yet these light and fragile fabrics were crossed without fear by the Peruvians, and are still retained by the Spaniards over those streams which, from the depth or impetuosity of the current, would seem impracticable for the usual modes of conveyance. The wider and more tranquil waters were crossed on balsas — a kind of raft still much used by the natives — to which sails were attached, furnishing the only instance of this higher kind of navigation among the American Indians.
Page 273 - Pizarro saw that the hour had come. He waved a white scarf in the air, the appointed signal. The fatal gun was fired from the fortress. Then springing into the square, the Spanish captain and his followers shouted the old war-cry of
Page 269 - Others were clad in pure white, bearing hammers or maces of silver or copper; and the guards, together with those in immediate attendance on the prince, were distinguished by a rich azure livery, and a profusion of gay ornaments, while the large pendants attached to the ears indicated the Peruvian noble. Elevated high above his vassals came the Inca Atahuallpa, borne on a sedan or open litter, on which was a sort of throne made of massive gold of inestimable value. The palanquin was lined with the...
Page 65 - All the plate, the ornaments, the utensils of every description, appropriated to the uses of religion, were of gold or silver. Twelve immense vases of the latter metal stood on the floor of the great saloon, filled with grain of the Indian corn: the censers for the perfumes, the ewers which held the water for sacrifice, the pipes which conducted it through subterraneous channels into the buildings, the...
Page 282 - In the hope, therefore, to effect his purpose by appealing to the avarice of his keepers, he one day told Pizarro that if he would set him free he would engage to cover the floor of the apartment on which they stood with gold. Those present listened with an incredulous smile; and, as the Inca received no answer, he said, with some emphasis, that "he would not merely cover the floor, but would fill the room with gold as high as he could reach"; and, standing on tiptoe, he stretched out his hand against...
Page 64 - Gold, in the figurative language of the people, was "the tears wept by the sun," and every part of the interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates and studs of the precious metal. The cornices which surrounded the walls of the sanctuary were of the same costly material ; and a broad belt or frieze of gold, let into the stonework, encompassed the whole exterior of the edifice.
Page 41 - Ambition, avarice, the love of change, the morbid spirit of discontent, those passions which most agitate the minds of men, found no place in the bosom of the Peruvian. The very condition of his being seemed to be at war with change. He moved on in the same unbroken circle in which his fathers had moved before him, and in which his children were to follow.