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.

The unhappy monarch asked if this were really so, and, on its being confirmed by Pizarro he consented to abjure his own religion, and receive baptism.  The ceremony was performed by Father Valverde, and the new convert received the name of Juan de Atahuallpa,—­the name of Juan being conferred in honor of John the Baptist, on whose day the event took place.

Atahuallpa expressed a desire that his remains might be transported to Quito, the place of his birth, to be preserved with those of his maternal ancestors.  Then turning to Pizarro, as a last request, he implored him to take compassion on his young children, and receive them under his protection.  Was there no other one in that dark company who stood grimly around him, to whom he could look for the projection of his offspring?  Perhaps he thought there was no other so competent to afford it, and that the wishes so solemnly expressed in that hour might meet with respect even from his Conqueror.  Then, recovering his stoical bearing, which for a moment had been shaken, he submitted himself calmly to his fate,—­while the Spaniards, gathering around, muttered their credos for the salvation his soul.  Thus by the death of a vile malefactor perished the last of the Incas.

* * * * *

=_George Bancroft, 1800-._= (Manual, pp. 487, 491, 531.)

From the “History of the United States.”

=_129._= VIRGINIA AND ITS INHABITANTS IN EARLY TIMES.

The genial climate and transparent atmosphere delighted those who had come from the denser air of England.  Every object in nature was new and wonderful.  The loud and frequent thunder-storms were phenomena that had been rarely witnessed in the colder summers of the north; the forests, majestic in their growth, and free from underwood, deserved admiration for their unrivalled magnificence; the purling streams and the frequent rivers, flowing between alluvial banks, quickened the ever-pregnant soil into an unwearied fertility; the strangest and the most delicate flowers grew familiarly in the fields; the woods were replenished with sweet barks and odors; the gardens matured the fruits of