discharge of musketry was heard, and as
the smoke cleared off, a number of the prisoners were seen struggling
and writhing in agony on the ground. Some of them lay still enough, for
they, more fortunate, were shot dead; while the wounded uttered the most
fearful shrieks and cries for mercy. More than two-thirds stood erect,
unharmed by the bullets. The soldiers, loaded as fast as they could,
and again sent forth a deadly fire from their muskets. The number of
prisoners was fearfully thinned. The soldiers fired again and again,
and each time fewer remained alive. At last but two Indians continued
standing side by side, unscathed by the fire. I was in hopes that they
might have been pardoned; but no, the soldiers advancing, presented
their pieces at their breasts and shot them dead, while those who lay
wounded on the ground were likewise put out of their misery.

All eyes were now turned towards the chief Manco. I know not on what
account his limbs were allowed to remain unfettered. Perhaps they
thought that among such a crowd a single man could do no one an injury.
He walked along towards the spot where his murdered countrymen lay in
heaps, with his head erect, and a firm, unfaltering step. The priest
followed him; but he waved him off, as if his services were of no
further avail. Even the officers seemed to feel some respect for him;
and I saw one of them give him a handkerchief, with which to give the
signal for the soldiers to fire. He stood boldly facing them, with his
eye firmly fixed on his executioners, a little way on one side of the
heap of dead men. My heart felt ready to burst; yet painful as it was,
I could not withdraw my sight from him. I anxiously watched for the
fatal moment. He gave a leap upwards it appeared, and threw the
handkerchief in the air. The soldiers fired; but when the smoke cleared
we could not distinguish his body on the ground. The head and shoulders
of a man were, however, seen in the waters of the river, and he was
striking out with powerful strokes towards the opposite shore, where at
the same instant a number of Indians were observed plunging in to meet
him.

"See, Pedro, he has escaped--he has escaped!" I exclaimed. "It is
Manco I am certain; how bravely he swims. They will not be so cruel as
to kill him now. He will reach the opposite shore. Ah! alas, he sinks.
No, he has only dived; see, he comes up some way down the stream."

The firing party advanced to the