urged to betray all the accomplices in his rebellion." "You and I," he replied, "are the only conspirators: you for having oppressed the country with exactions which were unendurable, and I for having wished to free the people from such tyranny." The Inca's companions in misfortune were his wife Micaela, his sons Hipolito and Fernando, his brother-in-law Antonio Bastidas, his uncle Francisco Tupac Amaru, Tomasa Condemaita the Cacica of Acos, José Verdejo and Andres Castelo, captains in the Inca's army, and the executioner Oblitas.

Verdejo, Castelo, Oblitas, and Bastidas were hung at once. The rest were heavily chained, tied up in the bags which are used for carrying the maté or Paraguay tea, and dragged backwards into the centre of the square by horses. Francisco and Hipolito Tupac Amaru, the one an old man verging on fourscore years, the other a youth of twenty, then had their tongues cut out, and, with Tomasa Condemaita, were garrotted by an iron screw, the first that had been seen in Cuzco. Micaela, the wife of the Inca, was then placed on the same scaffold, her tongue was cut out, and the screw was placed round her neck in presence of her husband; but she suffered cruelly, because her neck was so small that the screw failed to strangle her. The executioners then placed a lasso round her neck, and pulled different ways, at the same time kicking her in the stomach and bosom until they succeeded in killing her. The Inca was then taken into the centre of the square, his chains were taken off, and his tongue was cut out. He was then thrown on the ground; lassos, secured to the girths of four horses, were fastened to his wrists and ankles, and the horses were made to drag different ways, "a spectacle never before seen at Cuzco." As the unfortunate

7 One account says that he was tortured until one arm was dislocated, by the garruche, by order of Matta Linares.

Guzman MSS.

8 Letter from Gen. del Valle, Sept. 30, 1781.

9

Inca's body was thus raised into the air, his youngest son Fernando, a child of ten years, who had been forced to witness this horrible massacre of his relations, uttered a heartrending shriek, the knell of which continued to ring in the ears of those who heard it to their dying day. The horses did not pull at the same time, and the body remained suspended like a spider for many minutes, until at last the · brutal miscreant Areche, who was looking on from a window in the College of the Jesuits, caused the head to be cut off.' The child Fernando was then passed under the scaffold, and sentenced to be banished for life to one of the penal settlements in Africa.

Many of the Spanish citizens were present, but not an Indian was to be seen. They afterwards declared that, while the horses were torturing the Inca, a great wind arose, with torrents of rain, and that even the elements felt the death of the Inca, whom the inhuman and impious Spaniards were torturing with such cruelty.2

The heads, bodies, and limbs of the victims were sent to the different towns of Peru, and to the villages round Cuzco,3 in order to strike terror into the hearts of the Indians; but this proceeding of course had the opposite effect, and goaded them to fury. By the humane exertions of the Inca the war had hitherto been carried on without unnecessary bloodshed, and he had always protected unarmed persons and women; but, after the perpetration of these barbarities in Cuzco, it became a war of extermination, and during the following year not less than 80,000 people fell victims to the vengeance of the Indian and Spanish troops.

In the revolting cruelty of Areche may be traced the abject terror of a dastardly and craven mind; and to this cowardice may also be imputed the concessions which were afterwards wrung from him. Tupac Amaru did not die in vain; for, after the suppression of his revolt, the repartos were abolished, and the mitas were much modified.

Thus fell the last of the Incas. He was a man of whom his nation might well be proud, and will bear comparison with the greatest monarchs of his race. Having enjoyed the best education which Spanish policy at that time permitted to the people of the colonies, he brought a cultivated mind, a clear understanding, untiring industry, and devoted zeal for the welfare of his countrymen to his important duties as a wealthy and influential cacique. When he afterwards undertook the office of defender of the oppressed Indians he displayed an amount of patient perseverance, combined with great ability in the advocacy of their cause, which excited the admiration of the Bishop of Cuzco and others of the more enlightened Spaniards. Finally, after he had unwillingly become convinced that all remonstrance was useless, he, in his appeal to arms, combined promptitude of action with great moderation in his demands; his edicts were remarkable for their good sense and humanity; and had his efforts been met by the Spaniards in a corresponding spirit, the viceroy of the King of Castille might at length have succeeded in enforcing the practical observance of the humane laws of his master.

But this was not to be. Instead of a calm and enlightened

statesman, and Spain had many such, the viceroy placed full powers in the hands of a wretch whose conduct was a mixture of cowardice, atrocious cruelty, and incapacity. Fortune decided in favour of the Spaniards, and the Inca fell into the power of a man whose vile nature was excited to acts of unequalled barbarity by the terror which his position and his incompetence had caused him. I have felt obliged to relate the shocking circumstances of the death of Tupac Amaru in justice to the Indians; for who can be surprised if afterwards they frequently refused to give quarter to any of the hated race of Chapetones, as they called the Spaniards? and no atrocity was ever perpetrated by them which can be compared to the execution of the Inca and his family, committed by the deliberate sentence of a Spanish judge.5

5 When Señor Zea, of Bogota, was in Paris, Kotzebue undertook a journey on purpose to obtain information from him respecting Tupac Amaru, having conceived the idea of writing a tragedy founded on his rebellion. But Zea,

being a Colombian, knew little or nothing about it.

Kotzebue, however, continued his inquiries respecting Peru, which resulted in his play The Virgins of the Sun, and hence Sheridan's Pizarro.

CHAPTER X.

1

DIEGO TUPAC AMARU — FATE OF THE INCA'S FAMILY INSURRECTION OF PUMACAGUA.

WHILE the events occurred in the valley of Vilcamayu which ended in the capture of the Inca Tupac Amaru and his family, the whole of the Collao was in a state of insurrection, and all Spaniards had to escape for their lives to Puno, La Paz, or Arequipa.

Don Joaquim Antonio de Orellana,' Governor of Puno, made a most gallant defence of that town, with a force consisting of 180 musketeers, 647 pikemen, 44 artillerymen with 4 guns, and 254 cavalry. He retreated behind his entrenchments when the Inca advanced as far as Lampa, in December 1780; but in February 1781, in spite of the heavy rains, he marched to Lampa, where he flogged an Indian until he confessed that his rebel countrymen were on an adjacent mountain called Catacora. Orellana found the rebel army drawn up in an almost inaccessible position, with colours flying; and, while seeking for a place where his troops might ascend, they suffered from a storm of hail and snow. The Spaniards were divided into two assaulting parties, but the showers of stones which the Indians hurled from their slings obliged them to retreat, and Orellana himself was wounded in the jaw.

He found it prudent to fall back towards Puno, and, on

Orellana was a native of Cuenca, and descended from the great navigator of the Amazons.