dead Inca, Huana Capac, were engaged in a fierce struggle for the
throne.

This in itself was something of a shock to the devout subjects of the
Inca race, looking as they did upon the Imperial Children of the Sun as
superhuman beings. It was thus a war of demigods waged by doubting and
diffident mortals. The arrival of the Spaniards increased, of course,
the drama of the situation. At the period of their advent Huasca was
obtaining the worst of the struggle, and, seeing the possibility of
salvation in the arrival of the newcomers, he sent to these beseeching
their help. It can be imagined with what avidity Pizarro seized upon
this pretext to enter into the domestic affairs of the nation. Atahualpa
unconsciously helped to play the fate of the unfortunate Inca race still
further into the hands of the Spaniards. Learning of the warlike might
of the white man, he also sent an embassy of friendship to Pizarro, and
a little later, in 1532, he started out in order to effect his first
meeting with the strangers. This took place at Caxamalca.

[Illustration: THE DEFEAT OF THE PERUVIANS OUTSIDE CUZCO.

_From a seventeenth-century engraving._]

In an evil moment for himself Atahualpa had determined to do his utmost
to impress these foreigners from overseas with the evidence of his
wealth and power. His body was covered with golden plates, armour, and
decorations which shone with a strange brilliance as they flashed back
the rays of the sun from its worshipper. He was attended, moreover, by a
chosen company of nobles, whose adornments, although by comparison less
splendid, were sufficient to cause the Spaniards' eyes to start from
their heads with wonder and freshly-awakened lust.