ced by a detachment of one hundred men with an additional
number of horses under the command of young Hernando de Soto, another
gallant Estremaduran, and quite the most attractive among this band of
desperadoes, whose {68} design was to loot an empire and proclaim the
Holy Gospel of Christ as the Spanish people had received the same. I
have no doubt at all that the desire to propagate their religion was
quite as real and as vividly present to them at all times as was their
greed for gold. They had a zeal for God, but not according to
knowledge; like the men of the Middle Ages who bore the cross on their
hauberks, every Spaniard was a crusader. Aside from De Soto, there is
no single character of all those, either Indian or Spaniard, who for
fifteen years made Peru a bloody battle-ground, except the unfortunate
young Inca Manco Capac, who is entitled to the least admiration or
affection.

In April, 1532, Pizarro embarked his men on the ships and landed, not
without some fierce fighting, at Tumbez, on the coast of Peru. At last
the expedition was on solid ground and nothing prevented its further
advance. On the 18th of May, therefore, they took up the march for the
interior, little dreaming of the ultimate fate that awaited them all.

III. "A Communistic Despotism."

The empire of Peru well deserved the title of Magnificent. The highest
civilization attained on the Western Hemisphere had been reached on
this South American coast. A form of government unique in history had
been developed and put in operation by a capable and enlightened
people. It was a "communistic despotism," a community with a despot
and a ruling class superimposed upon its socialism. The sway of these
despots was exceedingly mild and gentle, even if absolute. With
wonderful ingenuity and a rare capacity for organization, upon the {69}
ruins of an older civilization, they built the Inca Empire.

The Incas were the ruling tribe, the Emperor being the Inca par
excellence. Their empire was as thoroughly organized as it is possible
for a community to be. Indeed, it was organized to death; the Inca was
the empire, and one source of the empire's speedy downfall was due to
the fact that the national spirit of the Peruvians had been so crushed
by the theocratic despotism of their rulers that they viewed the change
of masters with more or less indifference. When the Incas conquered a
country and people they so arranged affairs as to incorporate