The  caitiffs  thoughts  were  still  intent  on  plunder,
though  the  heaps  of  gold  which  Atahuallapa  had  offered
to  place  at  his  disposal  appeared  too  magnificent  for
beUef.
Atahuallapa  directed  his  officers  to  proceed  with  their
Spanish  associates  to  Cuzco,  the  capital  of  the  empire,
and  possess  themselves  of  all  the  precious  metal  con-
tained in  the  royal  treasuries.  If  this  supply  should  be
found  insufficient,  they  were  ordered  to  strip  the  temples
of  their  golden  adornments,  and  to  call  on  the  nobility
for  contributions.  All  the  subjects  of  the  Inca  at  Cuzco,
and  on  the  road  to  that  metropolis,  were  enjoined  to
show  the  three  Spanish  messengers  all  the  attention  and
respect  which  were  due  to  the  Inca  himself.     These


DISCOVERER    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI.      225


orders  were  strictly  obeyed.  The  three  Spaniards,  (par-
ticular &yorites  of  Pizarro,  and  scoundrels,  of  course),
when  they  arrived  at  Cuzco,  soon  became  intoxicated
with  the  honors  which  were  shown  them  in  obedience
to  the  Inca's  commands.  They  repaid  the  kind  and
reverential  attentions  of  the  Peruvian  nobles  vrith
mockery  and  insult.  They  committed  the  most  beastly
and  sacrilegious  offenses  in  the  temples  dedicated  to  the
"unknown  God,"  whom  the  Peruvians  "ignorantly  wor-
shiped" under  the  name  of  Pachacamac,  "  the  life  and
soul  of  the  imiverse."  These  vile  emissaries  of  Puarro,
as  one  of  their  own  countrymen  acknowledges,  perpe-
trated every  species  of  outrage  on  the  persons  and  prop-
erty of  the  inhabitants ;  and  the  latter  were  restrained
from  putting  them  to  death  only  by  that  reverence
which  the  Peruvians  always  yielded  to  the  mandates  of
their  chief  magistrate.*

*   Vide  Quintana'B  "  Life  of  Pizarro,"  Eng.  Trans,  p.  190.
15


226  LIFE    OF    FEBDINAKD    D£    SOTO,


CHAPTER    XIX.
