NEW SERIES, VOL. I, No. 23.]
CRABBIER. :WESTBROOK,
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
Printing Oiler—Front Street. oppoßlie Bart.! Hotel
Publication Office—Locust Street, opposite the P. O.
TERM..—The COLUMBIA Sett In published every
Saturday morning at the low price of ONE DOLLAR A
YEAR IN ADVANCE, or one dollar and fifty cent., If
not paid Within nne month of the time of subscribing.
Single armies. THREE CENTS.
Teams OP ADlMBSlSlNG—AdVerliferflelllll not exceed
ing n sqloire three times for el. and 25 cvnts for each
additional insertion. 'I hose of a greater length'', pro
portion. Co.A. liberal discount made to yearly adver
tisers.
JOD PRI XTIXO —Stich as !rand-hills, Posting-hills,
Card*. Imhels, Pamphlets. Blanks of every description
Circulars, etc.etc.. executed with neatnessanddespatch
and on reasonableternis.
A vigorous prosecution of the War,the best means
to secure a speedy and
HONORAELE PEACE.
Trout St
No. 42.
Front St
WALNUT COLONNADE,
CHEAP FASHIONABLE
CLOTHING EMPORIUM.
1A.E13 ifa, YalelatilL
No. 42, Front street, directly opposite the
Bridge, and three doors below Black's Hotel,
COLUMBIA, PENNA.,
Would respectfully call the attention of the public
to his stock of Fashionable and Cheap Clothing,
which exceeds in extent, elegance, and variety,
any hitherto opened in this vicinity, and which he
. pledges himself to sell at prices lower than even Le
has before offered. Just look at the prices:
Gentlemen's Fine Cloth Dress
Coats, from
Gcnticmncn•s Fine Cloth Frock
Coats, from
Gentlemen's Fine Cloth Sacks
and Goatees. from
Gentlemen's Fine Cloth and Cas
•imerc Pant., from
Satin and Silk Velvet Vests, Plain
and Fancy, being the only kind
of this quality for sale in this
place, from 2.50 to 4.00
Roundabounts and Pea Jackets, 1.00 to 3.00
Shirts, plain and fancy, 373 to 1.50
Satinet Pantaloons, 1.50 to 3.00
Gentlemen's Cotton Half-hose, 6.1 to IS/
.. Silk Handkerchiefs, 373 to 1.00
Cotton do 6.1 to 123
Cravats, a new article, 373 to 1.00
Suspenders, - 61 to 373
Umbrellas, 311 to 1.50
Leather and Hair Trunks, 50 to 1.00
Travelling Iligs and Vannes, 1.00 to 2.50
Ladies' Pravelling Rigs, a beauti
ful article,
A Large Assortment of Fine and Medium Cloaks
ALSO—A large assortment of
BOYS' CLOTHING,
Such as Pants, Vests, Roundabouts, and Shirts, and,
in short, every article of apparel required by the
gentleman, the mechanic or the laborer, with a va
riety of fancy goods, calculated to tickle the taste
and secure the patronage of all classes and condi
tions of men.
My thanks arc due, and I hereby tender ahem to
the world of my patrons, for former favors, and I
am determined to prove the sincerity of my grab
!ado, by untiring efforts to furnish a Fashionable
Wardrobe to every patron of the Colonade Hall of
Fashions, as cheap as the itheapest, and as good as
the best.
REMEMBER TIIE 3 BIG DOORS,
the place to buy cheap Clothing, No. 42, Front
Street, Columbia, Pa., directly opposite the Bridge,
and three doors below Black's Hotel.
For further parneulars, engnito of the Captain on
board. JAM ES L. PIZ ETSMAN.
Columbia, Oct. 9th, 1847.
N. EL A branch of the above establishment,where
all the articles Amin:rated, and at the panic prices,
may be obtained, has been opened in No. 4, Shrei
ner's Walnut Front.
NEW FALL GOODS.
rpHE subscribers have just received their supply
I_ Fall and %Violet., Foreign and Domestic Dry
Goods, to which they invite the attention or their
friends and the public generally.
CLOTH , CASSIVICHILES, Etc.
Their stock consists of superior French, and
English Black, Blur, Brown, Mixed, and Olive
Cloths; plain and Farley Cassimcrs, Sattinets,
Tweeds, Jeans; Velvet and other Vestings.
Gry de Rhine, Swiss and Matteona Dices Silks.
ALPACAS.—PIuin, Plaid, and Striped, at 18,
25, 31, 37, 50 eta., &c. English, German, and
French Merinocs; Plain Paris Cashmeres and De
Laines, Lama and Tinier Plaids.
French, Ballston and Manchester Ginghams;
Prints of every style and price; Plain and Plaid
Limeys; Taper Gauze and other White and color
ed Flannels.
SIIIRTINGS.—Three quarters, four quarters,
five quarters, six quarters and ten quarters Bleached
and Brown Sheetings, Blankets, Tickings, Chocks,
Doeskins, C.c.
A splendid assortment of Trimmings, Gimps,
Silk and Cotton Fringes; Thread, Victoria and
Bobbin Edgings and Insertings ; Lisle, Victoria
and Brussels Lace, Collerettes,Gloves, Hosiery, &c.
BE:8111A3,
Loaf, Pulverised, Crushed, Havnnna and Brown
Sugars; Syrup, L. H. N. 0. Molasses; Honey;
Rio, Laguayra and Java Coffees; and the superior
Tons of the Canton Tea Company of New Yurk.
Oils, Fish, &c. ALSO :
China, Glass tic Queensware.
of wt,iott will be sold as LOW as the
LOWEST, for cash or produce.
Thankful for the liberal sham of !patronage
heretofore received, they will by strict attention to
business endeavor to, merit a continuance or the
public's favor. J. D. & J. WRIGHT.
Columbia, Sept. 1847.—tf.
Stoves, Stoves.
THE subscribers have constanly on hand a
full assortment of Wood. Coal. and Cooking
Stoves of every size and descrint ion, Cannon
Stores. Also, Headenbnrg's Patent
AIR-TIGHT PARLOR STOVES,
which has given full satisfaction in all cr,ses.
The public are invited to call and exaWne for
themselves, at the hardware Store of
Oct. 9—tf RUMPUS & HESS.
A FRESH assortment of all kinds of the best
spices just received at
septlll7—tf YOUNG alc. CASSEL'S No. 50.
THE COLUMBIA SPY
THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH . .
Ye who would save your feature• florid
Lithe limbs, bright eyes. unwrinkled forehead,
From age's devastation horrid,
Adopt this plat.—
'Tw ill make, in climates cold or torrid,
A hale old man :
Avoid In youth luxutinite diet;
Restrain the passions' lawless riot I
Devoted In domestic quiet,
Be wisely Kay;
So shall ye. spite of age's Sat,
'tells( decay.
Seek not in mammon'• worship, pleasure,
But find your richest. dourest treasure
111 books. friends. music, poliehed lelaurs;
Let miiid. not sense,
Make the sole scale by which ye measure
Your opulence
This is the solace—this tile science
-I.l(e's purest, sweetest, best appliance,
That disappoints nut roan's relriuce.
W e'er Il le state ;
nut chatlencee, with calm defiance,
Time, fortune. fate.
CONQUEST OF PERU.
History of the Conquest of Peru, with a Prelimi
nary View of the Cintlization of the Incas.
The historian of the Conquest of Mexico worth
ily completes that labor with a History of the Con
quest of Peru. It is very ably executed. Though
(tie materials arc less brilliant than those of the
struggle and adventure of Cortez, we derive from
the present work a higher impt casion of the writer's
powers. The style is less forced. The subject is
as thoroughly grasped, with an easier treatment.
It is not a paradox to say that Mr. Prescutt's
partial blindness, unassumingly described in the
preface to the present work, enables him, in an
historical sense, to see with greater depth and ac
curacy. Ile has to weigh all his authority with a
thoughtful intentness; nothing is rejected (as with
the best inquirers occurs too often) on a cursory
and imperfect glance; all has to be considered with
impartial care; his materials stored in the mind
before the pen is taken in hand, have time to assimi
late with his habits of thuuglit and most natural
modes of expression ; and the result, in the present
as in farmer instances, is exhibited in historical
writing of a very high order. Mr. Prescott avows
himself a disciple of the Hameln school of history.
He would place his readers amid the vivid realities
of the scenes and times of which he writes; but
whir the means of critical judgment as well as of
clear perception. And for the most part he suc
ceeds in this. Excellent arc his descriptions of
events, and in the discrimination of results he is
generally just and fair.
The history before us is constructed like its pre•
decessor. In an introductory book the native insti
tutions of the Incas, as they existed before the fierce
and bloody inroads of Pizarro, are elaborately per.
frayed; and the remaining books areoccupied with
the norative of the conquest, and of the desperate
feuds of the conquerors. For the conquest of Peru
differs from that of Mexico in the singular impor.
lance of the events which intervened before the final
settlement of the country. Less than ten years
were employed in the victory, and upwards of
twenty in taming the victors. Mr. Prescott has
vividly set before us these rude, fierce broils, omit
ting no finer trait with which his Spanish heroes
may scantily hare redeemed their ferocity, their
bigotry, or their barbarous rapacity.
The condition of a country at the period of its
subjugation must always in some sort determine
the moral justice of the conquest and the character
and motives of the conquerors. So considered, we
know nothing in history so striking as the differ
ence which presents itself, in estimating the proper.
tions of glory and of shame to be awarded to Spain,
in respect of her rapid conquest of the two remark
able nations which had begun the work of civiliza
tion on the great western continent. There seems
little reason to suppose that the Mexicans and Pe.
ruvians were even conscious of each other's exis
tence; yet were they both, almost simultaneously,
pursuing a career of conquest over barbarous races,
one in the north and the other in the south, with
results (in respect of the conquered) in many re
spects strikingly similar, thougi. by means—and
with effects upon themselves—directly opposed.—
At the time when Spain stepped in upon the scene,
the contrasts of character and civilization in Mexi
co and in Peru were es those of darkness and of
light. And here we find the source of the satisfac
tion with which we cannot but contemplate, with
all its drawbacks, the career of Cortez; and of the
shame and sorrow with which, notwithstanding
much that redeemed them, we peruse the achieve.
merits of Pizarro.
Mr. Prescott's materials have been more abun
dant for description of the condition of the incas,
titan he possessed in describing that of the Aztecs,
and there is nothing more interesting in the present
book than these introductory chapters. They
paint a picture of Peruvian civilization which in.
deed isstartling. We may compare it, too, in its
origin and growth, by Mr. Prescott's help, with
that of the Mexican. We may observe, in war, the
exterminating system of the Aztecs, side by side
with the more prudent policy of amalgamation pur
sued by the Meas. We may contrast the grinding
fear with which the iflexicans held down the infe
rior race, and were weakened by it; with the pa.
rental love by which the Peruvians raised it up, and
received strength from its adhesion. In religion, in
agriculture, in all the larger details of government,
the sante marked superiority exists. In what may
be termed the more learned arts, on the other hand ;
in astronomy, in the means of communicating
thought, and even in the minute mechanical arts;
the Mexican appears to have excelled the Peru.
vian. Why this should have been, would open a
difficult question. The broad types of civilization
which occur in pursuing the comparison are evi.
dently those of the T 1 • and the Persian. Mr.
Prescott finds resemblances to the the Chinese, the
Hindostanee, and the Egyptian, in his description
of the Aztecs; bat their government would seem
to have been at once the most patriarchal and must
absolute that ever existed in the world. It was a
thocracy more effective than that of the Jaws; a
85.00 to 910.00
4.00 to 10.00
2.50 to 5.00
2.00 to 4.00
2.00 to 2.50
AND LANCASTER AND YORK COUNTY RECORD.
From Llueli'v Living Age
COLUMBIA, R&. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1847.
despotism more potent than that of Catholic Rome.
Individual rights had no existence in it. In a land
where manufitctures and agriculture had made
large advances, where even social refinements ex
ercised singular influence, where public.. troika
were carried to an extent unprecedented—money
did not exist; property seems to have been un
known; and, unless by express sanction ...nd aid of
the government, the exercise of any craft or labor,
the indulgence of any amusement, a change of
residence. or of dress, even the selection of a wife,
were prohibited to the Peruvian. Government
pervaded and overlooked all. The monarch bud the
authority of divinity; only less divine, and with a
power which supported yet never controlled his
own, were the slues of hereditary nobles; and to
these, in their united sway, there was absolute and
unconditional submission. It is impossible to ac-
count for the moral and physical condition of a
people apparently so enslaved—as that condition
was discerned at the period of their conquest—ex
cept by the supposition of a most gentle, careful,
snd patriarchal administration of these powers.—
We must assume it to have been so, to a most ex
traordinary degree. The people were governed as
by a loving but exacting rather.
A native of that some New World on which the
experiment was tried, and from which it has passed
without leaving a trace or vestige, now writes its
strange history; doubtful, it may be, if the very
opposite experiment which has fnllot.vcd, and is
now in actual progress, will have a better or more
enduring fate!
It is not easy to comprehend the genius and the
full import of institutions so opposite to ihose.of a
free republic, where every man, however humble
his condition, may aspire to the highest honors of
the state—may select his own career, and carve
out his s fortune in his own way; where the light of
knowledge, instead of being concentrated on a
chosen few, is shed abroad like the light of day,
and suffered to fall equally on the poor and the
rich ; where the collision of man with man wakens
a generous emulation that calls out latent tolent and
tasks the energies to the utmost; where a conscious
ness of independence gives feeling of self-reliance
unknown to the timid subjects of a despotism;
where, in short, the government is made for man—
not as in Peru, where the mnn seemed to be made
only fur the government. The New World is the
theatre on which these two political systems, so
opposite in their character, have been carried into
operation. Tho empire of the incas has passed
away and left no trace. The other great experi
tricot is still going on—the experiment which is to
solve the problem, so long contested in the Old
World, of the capacity of man fur self-government.
Alas for humanity, if it should fail!
00 It *
" We must not judge too hardly of the unfortu
nate native,because be quailed before the cwiliza.
tion of the European. We must not be insensible
to the really great results that were achieved by
the government of the incas. We must not forget,
that under their rule, the meanestattic people en
joyed a fur greater degree of personal comfort, at
least a greater exemption from physical suffering,
than was possessed by similar classes in other
nations on the American continent—greater, proba •
bly, than was possessed by these classes in most of
the countries of feudal Europe. Under their sceptre
the higher orders of the state had made advances
in many of the arts that belong to a cultivated com
munity. The foundations of a regular government
were laid, which in an age of rapine secured to its
subjects the inestimable blessings of tranquility and
safety. fly the well sustained policy of the incas,
the rude tribes of the forest were gradually drawn
from their fastnesses, and gathered within the folds
of civilization; and of these materials was con.
structed a flourishing and populous empire, such as
was to be found in no other quarter of the Ameri.
can continent."
The extraordinary union or the despot and pairi•
arch in the character of the inca, will be noted in
this curious extract:
The sovereign was placed at an immeasurable
distance above his subjects. Even the proudest of
the Inca noLi lily, claiming a descent from the same
divine original as himself, could not venture into
the royal presence, unless barefoot, and bearing a
light burden on his shoulders in token of homage.
As the representative of the sun, he stood at the
head of the priesthood, and presided at the most
important of the religious festivals. He raised
armies, and usually commanded them in person.
He imposed taxes, made laws, and provided fur
their execution by the appointment of judges,
whom he removed at pleasure. He was the source
from which everything flowed—all dignify, all
power, all emolument. He was, i■ short, in the
well-known phrase of the European despot,.. him
self the state.'
"The inca asserted his claims as a superior be,
ing by assuming a pomp in his manner of living,
well calculated to impose on his people. Ills dress
was of the finest wool of the vicuna, richly dyed,
and ornamented with a profusion of gold and pre
cious stones. Round hi■ head was wreathed a
turban of many-colored folds, called &tutu ; and a
tasselled fringe, like that worn by the prince, but of
a scarlet color, with two feathers of a rare and cur
lions bird, called the caraquenque, placed upright
in it, were the distinguishing insignia of royalty.
The birds from which these feathers were obtained
were timed in a desert country among the moon.
tains; and it was death to destroy or to take them.
as they were reserved for the exclusive purpose of
supplyingthe royal head-gear. Every succeeding
monarch was provided with a new pair of these
plumes, and his credulous subjects fondly believed
that only two individuals of the species had ever
existed to furnish the simple ornament for the dia
dem of the Incas.
"Although the Peruvian monarch was mind se
far above the highest of his aubjecte.be condo-
scended to mingle occasionally with them„and took
great pains personally to inspect the condition of
the humbler classes. He presided at. some of the
religious celebrations, and on these occasions cnter•
tained the great nobles at his table, when lie com
plimented them, after the fashion of more civilized
nations, by drinking the health of those whom he
most delighted to honor.
"But the most effectual means taken by the
incas for communicating with their people, were
their progresses through the empire. These were
conducted, at intervals of several years, with great
sta,te and magnificence. The sedan, or litter, in
which they travelled, richly emblazoned with gold
and emeralds, was guarded by a numerous escort.
The men who bore it their shoulders were pro.
vided by two c•ties; especially appointed for the
purpose. It was a post to be coveted by no one,
if, as is asserted, a fall was punished with death.
They travelled with ease and expedition, halting at
the tabus, or ions, erected by government along
the route, and occasionally at the royal palaces,
which in the great towns afforded ample accommo.
dations to the whole of the monarch's retinue. The
noble roads which traversed the table-land were
lined with people, who swept away the stones and
stubble from their surface, strewing them with
sweet scented flowers, and vying with each other
in carrying forward the baggage from one village
to another. The monarch halted from tithe to time
to listen to the grevisnces of his subjects, or to settle
some points which had been referred to Isis decision
by the regular tributsals. As the princely train
wound its way along the mountain passes, every
place was thronged wills spectators eager to catch
a glimpse of their sovereign; and, when he raised
the curtain of Isis litter, and showed himself to their
eyes, the air was rent with acclamations as they
invoked blessings on his bead. Tradition long
commemorated the spots at which he halted, and
the simple people or , the country held them in rev
erence as places consecrated by the presence of an
BESI
Thou to make an object of unrestrained affection
out of what would seem an image of the most re
pulsive tyranny, is something of the same process
which we note in their wonderful cultivation of a
cheerless soil. Out of a desert they made a para.
disc. Canals and aqueducts, nobly executed, fer
tilized the sterile ground ; hills, too precipitous and
stony to be tilled, were cut and hewn into terraces,
and covered deep with earth that the husbandman
might not toil in vein; everywhere richness re
placed barrenness; and as little amid the everlast
ing winter on the heights of the Cordilleras, as in
the freshness of perpetual spring on the table-lands
below, do this extraordinary people seem to have
spared their patient and discriminating labor. We
take Mr. Prescott's account of their great roads
and pnsts. Even their wonderful proficiency in
architecture yields to the interest of these:
"The most considerable were the two which ex.
tended from Quito to Clam and again diverging
from the capital, continued in a southern direction
toward Chili.
"One of these roads passed over the grand pla.
teau, and the other along the lowlands on the bor.
dere of the ocean. The former was much the more
difficult achievement, from the character ofthe coon
try. It was conducted over pathless sierras buried
in snow; galleries were cut four leagues through
the living rocks; rivers were crossed by means of
bridges that swung suspended in the air; preci.
pices were scaled by stairways hewn out ofthe na
tive beds; 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 mod.
ern times, were encountered and successfully ore:-
come. The length of the road, of which scattered
fragments only remain, is variously estimated from
fifteen hundred to two thousand miles; and atone
pillars, in the manner of European milestones. were
erected at stated intervals of somewhat more than
a league all along the route. Its breadth scarcely
exceeded twenty feet. It was built of heavy flags
of freestone, and in some parts, at least, covered
with a bituminous cement, which time has made
harder than the stone itself. In some places where
the ravines had been filled up with masonry, the
mountain torrents steering on it for ages, have
gradually eaten away through the base, and left
the sttherincumbent mass—such is the cohesion of
the materials—still spanning the valley like an
arch!
"Over some of the boldest streams it was neces
sary to construct suspension bridges, as they are
termed, made of the tough fibres of the maguey, or
of the osier of the country, which has an extraordi
nary degree of tenacity and strength. The osiers
were woven into cables of the thickness of a man's
body. The huge ropes, then stretched across the
water, were conducted through rings or holes cut
in immense buttresses of stone raised on the oppo.
site banks of the river, and there secured to heavy
pieces of tinier. Several of t hese enormous cables.
bound together, formed a bridge, which, covered
with planks, well secured and defended by a railing
of the same osier materials on the sides, afforded
a safe passage fur the traveller. The length of this
aerial bridge, sometimes exceeding two hundred
feet, caused it, confined es it was only at the ex.
tremities, to dip with an alarming inclination to.
wards the centre, while tho motion given to it by
the passenger occasioned as oscillation still more
frightful, as his eye wandered over the dark abyss
of waters that foamed and tumbled many a fathom
beneath. Yet these light and fragile fabrics were
crossed without fear by the Peruvians, and are still
retained by the Spaniards over those strea ma which,
from the depth or impetuosity of the current, would
seem impracticable for the usual motes of convey-
ER
"Thu system or comrauoieatton through thcir
dominions was still further improved by the Peru•
vian sovereigns, by the introduction of posts, in the
same manner as was done by the Aztecs. The
Peruvian posts, however, established on all the
great routes that conducted to the capital, were on a
much inure extended plan than those in Mexico.
Al! along these routes small buildings were erected,
at the distance of less than five miles asunder, in
each of which a number of runners or chasquis, as
they were called, were stationed, to carry forward
the despatches of government. These despatches
were either verbal or conveyed by means of quipus,
and sometimes accompanied by a thread of crim.
son fringe worn round the temples of the ince,
which was regarded with the same implicit defer
ence as the signet ring of an oriental despot.
"The chasquis were dressed in a peculiar livery.
intimating their profession. They were all trained
to the employment, and selected for their speed and
fidelity. As the distance each courier had to per
form was small, and as he had ample time to refresh
himself at the stations, they ran over the ground
with great swiftness, and messages were carried
through the whole extent of the long routes at the
rate of a hundred and fifty miles a day. The office
of the chasquis was not limited to carrying despa telt
es. They frequently brought various articles for
the use of the court; and in this way fish from the
distant ocean, fruits, game, and different commodi.
tics from the hot regions on the coast, were taken
to the capital in good condition, and served fresh at
the royal table. It is remarkable that this impor
tant institution should have been known to both the
Mexicans and Peruvians without any correspon
dence with one another; and that it should have
been found among two barbarian nations of the
New World, long before it was introduced among
the civilized nations of Europe.
"By these wise contrivances of the incas, the
most distant parts of the long-extended empire of
Peru were brought into intimate relations with each
other. And while the capitals of Christendom, but
a few hundred miles apart, remained as far asunder
as if seas had rolled b:stiveen them, the great cap.
itals Cuzco and Quito were placed by thelligh.roads
of the incas in immediate correspondence. Intelli
gence from the numerous provinces was transmitcd
on the wings of the wind to the Peruvian metropo
lis, the great focuslo which all the lines of commit.
nication converger Not an insurrectionary move.
ment could occur, net an invasion of the remotest
frontier, before the tidings were conveyed to the
capital, and the imperial armies wore on their march
across the magnificent roads of the country to sup.
press it. So admirably was the machinery con
trived by the American despots for maintaining
tranquillity throughout their dominions! It may
remind us of the similar institutions of ancient
Rome, when, under the Caesars, she was mistress of
half the world."
Mr. Prescott's essay embraces, in like manner,
accounts of their religion and military tactics, their
agriculture and modes of cultivation, their legal ad.
ministration and provisions for justice, their dra.
matic exhibitions, and other various details of their
civilization and prosperity; but we cannot dwell
longer on the settractive theme.
We may possibly speak, at a future day, of the
most strictly historical pallor Mr. Prescott's !shows.
We shall best satisfy the readers curiosity at pre.
sent, by exhibiting, in a few striking extracts, the
tone and spirit of tile narrative. It is life-like al.
ways; the dramatic collisions of character arc fully
exhibited; and the deeper b cenes of the tragedy lose
nothing in intensity and power :
rizAnnes nary r.XPERIENCE or rant;
"On the departure ofhis vessels Pizarro marched
into the interior, in the hope of finding the pleasant
chatnpagna country which had been promised him
by the natives. But at every step the forest seemed
to grow denser and darker, and the trees towered
to a height such as he had never seen, even in these
fruitful region., where nature works nn so gigmtic
a scale. Hill continued to rise above hill, as ho
advanced, rolling onward, as it were, by successive
waves, to join that colossal barrier of the Andes,
whose frosty aides, far away above the clouds, spread
out like a curtain of burnished silver, that seemed
to connect the heavens with the earth.
"On crossing these woody eminences, the felon
adventurers would plunge into ravines of frightful
depth, where floe exhalations of a humid soil steamed
up amidst the incense of sweet-scented flowers,
which shone through the deep glnoms in every con.
ecivable variety of color. Birds, especially of the
parrot tribe, mocked this fantastic variety of nature
with tints as brilliant as those of the vegetable
world. Monkeys chattered in crowds above their
heads, and made grimness like fiendish spirits of
these solitudes ; while hideous reptiles, engendered
in the slimy depths of the pools, gathered round the
footsteps of the wanderers. Here was seen the
gigantic boa, coiling his unwieldy folds above the
trees, so as hardly to be distinguished from their
trunks, till he was ready to dart upon his prey:and
alligators lay basking on the borders of the streams,
or, gliding under ilia waters, seized their incautious
victim before he was aware of their approach.
Many of the Spaniarda r perished miserably in this
way, and others were waylaid by the natives, who
kept a jealous eye nn their movements, and availed
themselves of every, opportunity to Like them at ad.
vantage. Fourteen of Pizarro's men were cut sag'
at once in a canoe which had stranded on the bank
of a stream.
"Famine came in addition to other troubles, and
it was with difficulty that they found the means of
sustaining life on the scanty fare of the forest—oc
casionally the potato, as it grew without cultivation,
or tho wild cocoanut, or, on the shore, the salt and
bitter fruit of the mangrove; though the shore was
lees tolerable than the ibrest, from the swarms of
mosquitoes which elimpelled the wretched advent or
ere to bury their bodies up to their very faces in the
sand. In this extremity or suffering they thought
only of return ; acid all schemes of avarice and am-
[Witor,E NUMBER. 914
hition—except with Pizarro and a few dauntless
spirits--were exchanged for the one craving desire
to return to Panama."
When this desire took more resolved shape, Pi
zarro met it by a resolve yet more decisive:
"Drawing his sword, he traced a line with it on
the sand from cast to west. Then turning towards
the south,'Friends and comrades!' he said, 'on
that aide 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 bravo Castilian. For my part, Igo
to the south.' So saying he stepped across tho
line. He was followed Ly the brave pilot Rai: ;
next be Pedro do Candia, a cavalier, born, as his
Mime imports, in one of the isles of Greece. Elev.
en others successfully crossed the line, thus inti.
mating their willingness. , to abide the fortunes of
their leader for good or evil."
• One or the treacherous massacres by Pizarro is
.thus vividly described:
"Pizarro saw that the hour had come. Ho
waved a white scarf in the air, the appointed sig.
nal. 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 'St.
Sago and at them P It was answered by the battle
cry of every Spaniard in the city, as rushing from
the avenues of the great halls in which they wcro
concealed, they poured into the plaza, horse and
foot, each in his own dark colrimn, and threw them.
selves into the midst of the Indian crowd. The
latter taken by surprise, stunned by the report of
artillery and muskets, the echoes of which rever
berated lilsethunder from thesurrounding, buildings,
and blinded by tile smoke which rolled in sulphur
oua volumes along the square, were seized with a
panic. The knew not whither to fly for refuge
from the coming ruin. Nobles and commoners—all
were trampled down under the fierce charge of the
cavalry, who dealt their blows right and left, with
out sparing; while their swords, flashing through
the thick gloom, carried dismay into the hearts of
the wreteliLd natives, who now, for the first time,
saw the horse and the rider in all their terrors,
They made no resistence—as, indeed, they had no
weapons with which to make it. Every avenue to
escape was closed, for the enterance to the square
was choked up with the dead bodies of men who
had perished in vain efforts to fly; and such was
the agony of the survivors under the terrible pres
sure of their assailants, that a large body of In
dians, by their convulsive struggles burst through
the wall of stone and dry clay which formed part
of the boundary of the plaza It tell, leaving an
opening of more than a hundred paces, thrOugh
which multitudes now found their way into the
country, still hotly pursued by Ow cavalry, who,
leaping tire fallen rubbish, hung on the rear of the
fugitives, striking them down all directions.
Meanwhile the fight, or rather massacre; cur..
tinned hot around the inca, whose person was the
great object of the assault. His faithful nobles,
rallying abort him, threw themselves in the way of
the assailants, and strove, by tearing them' from
their saddles, or, St least, by offering their own
bosoms es a mark for their vcageance,to shield their
beloved master. It is said, by sortie authorities,
that they carried weapons concealed under their
clothes. If so, it availed them little, as it is not
pretended that they used them. But. the most timid
animal will defend itself when at bay. That they
did not so in the present instnnee is proof that they
had nu weapons to rise. Yet they still continued
to force back the cavaliers, clinging to their horses
with dying grasp, and, as ono was cut down, an•
other taking the place of his fallen comrade with a
loyalty truly afflicting.
...The Indian monarch stunned and bewildered,
saw his faithful subjects falling around hint without
hardly comprehending his situation. * The litter on
which he rode, heaved to rind fro, as the mighty
press swayed backwards and forwards; and he
gazed on the overwhelming ruin,like some forlorn
mariner, who, tossed
. about in his bark by the furl.
0113 elements, sees the lightning flash and hears
the thunder bursting around him, with the con•
scionaness that ho can do nothing to avert his tate.
At length, weary with the work of destruction, the
Spaniards, as the shades of evening grew deeper,
felt afraid that the royal prize might, after all, elude
them ; and some of the cavaliers made a desperate
attempt to end the affray at once by taking Atahu.
alpa's life. But Pizarro who was nearest his per.
son, called out with stentorian voice, 'Let no one,
who values his life, strike at the ince: . and, stretch.
ing nut his arm to shield him, ho received a wound
on his hand from ono of Ilia own men—tire only
wound received by a Spaniard in the action.
"The struggle now became fiercer than ever
round the royal litter. It reeled more and more,
and at length several of the nobles who supported
it baying been slain, it was overturned, and the In.
&in prince would have come with violence to the
ground, had not his fall been broken by the efforts
of Pizarro and some nther of the cavaliers who
caught him in their arms. The imperial boric was
instantly snatched from his temples by a soldier
named Estete, and the unhappy monarch, strongly
secured, was removed to a neighboring building,
where he was carefully guarded."
In delineation of the character of the hero of the
conquest, it seems to ns that groat judgement is
shown. Neither the lights nor the shades are too
broadly or deeply drawn. What allied hint to Cor.
ter, and what widely separates them, in his patient
endurance; his incredible presoverance, his freedom
from bigotry, his insatiable avarice, Iris reckless
perfidy, and his indomitable cruelty, is patiently
and well set forth. We have neither a perfect hero, .
nor an absolute monster, but undoubtedly 4 most
extraordinary man. Ile is at tha same time one of
those men, of whose ignorance of the intellectual
ado, and utter inability to read or to writs, we can
hear without regret or surprise.