f Almagro, of course. Almost
directly after his return he founded the city of Lima, intending this to
supersede Cuzco as the future capital of the country.

All this while the breach between Pizarro and Almagro had widened. In
1535 the latter, realizing that even the Empire of the Incas was not
sufficiently large to hold the pair of Spanish leaders, determined to
make for the South. The expedition was a tragic one. Almagro, though his
spirit was undaunted, was now aged in years, and the barren country of
the Atacama Desert and the attacks of the hostile Indians rendered the
enterprise a failure from a monetary point of view. Almagro had invested
all his fortune in this, and his affairs now became desperate.

[Illustration: PIZARRO AND ATAHUALPA.

_From a seventeenth-century engraving._]

In the meantime the crafty Pizarro had been permitted to enjoy very
little peace and tranquillity in Peru. Manco Capac had bided his time,
and his Indian subjects, fervently loyal to the sacred dynasty, had
crowded about him in their thousands. The Peruvians now assumed the
aggressive. Thousands of Inca troops scoured the country, and, falling
on remote and unprepared bands of Spaniards, obtained some modicum of
revenge in slaughtering all they found.

[Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN. CUZCO.

_From "Histoire des Yncas," Amsterdam, 1737._]

Encouraged by such minor successes, the Inca army advanced against the
main bodies of the Spaniards. Some historians place the numbers of the
native troops at no fewer than 200,000. With astonishing suddenness the
situation became altered. Pizarro found himself besieged in Lima, while
his brothers, shut up in Cuzco, experienced an equal difficulty in
beating off the attacks of the serried native ranks. Had the Spanish
army in Peru been left to its own devices, there is no doubt but that
their doom would have been sealed. The irony of fate, however, chose
this very moment for the return of Almagro. Marching up with his grim
and travel-worn band, he found himself before Cuzco, surveying the
beleaguered Spaniards and the investing Incas.

Manco Capac had gleaned something of the disputes between the European
leaders. He made advances to Almagro, and did all he could to win him to
his side; but Almagro, little cause though he had to love Pizarro,
proved himself stanch. He was in consequence attacked by the Inca
troops, but these he repulsed with heavy losses, and then entered Cuzco
in triump