They had need of all their daring.  For when they had penetrated to Caxamalca they found the Inca encamped there at the head of a great host of his subjects, and knew that if his uncertain friendliness towards them should evaporate, they would be in a desperate case.  Pizarro then determined to follow the example of Cortes, and gain possession of the sovereign’s person.  He achieved this by what can only be called an act of treachery; he invited the Inca to visit his quarters, and then, taking them unawares, killed a large number of his followers and took him prisoner.  The effect was precisely what Pizarro had hoped for.  The “Child of the Sun” once captured, the Indians, who had no law but his command, no confidence but in his leadership, fled in all directions, and the Spaniards remained masters of the situation.

They treated the Inca at first with respect, and while keeping him a prisoner, allowed him a measure of freedom, and free intercourse with his subjects.  He soon saw a door of hope in the Spaniards’ eagerness for gold, and offered an enormous ransom.  The offer was accepted, and messengers were sent throughout the empire to collect it.  At last it reached an amount, in gold, of the value of nearly three and a half million pounds sterling, besides a quantity of silver.  But even this ransom did not suffice to free the Inca.  Owing partly to the malevolence of an Indian interpreter, who bore the Inca ill-will, and partly to rumours of a general rising of the natives instigated by the Inca, the army began to demand his life as necessary to their safety.  Pizarro appeared to be opposed to this demand, but to yield to his soldiers, and after a form of trial the Inca was executed.  But Pizarro cannot be acquitted of responsibility for a deed which formed the climax of one of the darkest chapters in Spanish colonial history, and it is probable that the design coincided only too well with his aims.

III.—­Triumph of Pisarro; his Assassination

There was nothing now to hinder the victorious march of the Spaniards to Cuzco, the Peruvian capital.  They now numbered nearly five hundred, having been reinforced by the arrival of Almagro from Panama.

In Cuzco they found great quantities of treasure, with the natural result that the prices of ordinary commodities rose enormously as the value of gold and silver declined, so that it was only those few who returned with their present gains to their native country who could be called wealthy.

All power was now in the hands of the Spaniards.  Pizarro indeed placed upon the throne of the Incas the legitimate heir, Manco, but it was only in order that he might be the puppet of his own purposes.  His next step was to found a new capital, which should be near enough to the sea-coast to meet the need of a commercial people.  He determined upon the site of Lima on the festival of Epiphany, 1535, and named it “Ciudad de los Reyes,” or City of the Kings, in honour of the day.  But this name was before long superseded by that of Lima, which arose from the corruption of a Peruvian name.