a, if
only by the right of sword, and the forces of his generals were
sufficiently great to render it impossible for the son of Huascar,
named Manco Capac, who had escaped the massacre of his kinfolk and who
was the legitimate heir to the throne, to claim the crown.

Pizarro, with a fine show of rectitude, affected to be horrified by
this evidence of brutal cruelty, and although Atahualpa claimed no
connection with the assassination of Huascar, it was impossible to
acquit him of it. Greatly desiring his freedom, Atahualpa, who had
observed the Spanish greed for gold, made an extraordinary proposition
to Pizarro. They were together in a room twenty-two feet long by
seventeen feet broad. Standing on his tiptoes and reaching as high as
he could, probably about eight feet, for he was a tall man, {86}
Atahualpa offered to fill the room with gold to the height he had
touched, if, when he had completed his undertaking, Pizarro would
release him.

Pizarro jumped at the offer, and well he might for no such proposition
had ever before been offered in the history of the world. The cubic
contents enclosed by the figures mentioned are three thousand three
hundred and sixty-six feet, or in round numbers, one hundred and
twenty-five cubic yards. Such a treasure was even beyond the most
delirious dreams of the conquerors.[8]

As soon as these astonishing terms had been formally accepted in
writing by Pizarro, the Inca sent orders to all parts of his dominion
for the people to bring in their treasures. He also directed the royal
palaces and temples to be stripped, and his orders were obeyed. He had
stipulated that he be allowed two months in which to raise the ransom
and day after day a stream of Indians poured into the city loaded with
treasure which dazzled the eyes of the astonished and delighted
conquerors. Atahualpa had stipulated also that the gold was not to be
smelted--that is, he would not be required to fill the spaces solidly
with ingots, but that it should be put into the room just as it was
brought in and allowed to take up as much space as was required, even
though it might be in the shape of a manufactured article.

[Illustration: "They Burst Upon the Ranks of the Unarmed Indians."]

{87}

Some of the gold was in the shape of ingenious plants and animals, one
especially beautiful object being the corn plant with blades of gold
and tassels of silver. Pizarro, to his credit, ordered that some of
these speci