NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 351

where to fix the prefuraption of guilt. Even amidft theendeavours of the Spanifh writers to palliate the proceedingsof Pizarro, one plainly perceives, that it was his intention,as well as his intereft , to feize the Inca , and that hehad taken meafures for that purpofe previous to any fufpicionof that monarch’s defigns.

Garcilaffo de la Vega , extremely folicitous to vindicatehis countrymen, the Peruvians, from the crime of havingconcerted the deftrudtion of Pizarro and his followers, andno Iefs afraid to charge the Spaniards with improperconduct towards the Inca , has framed another fyftem. Herelates, that a man of majeftic form, with a long beard,and garments reaching to the ground, having appeared invifion to Viracocha, the eighth Inca , and declared , that hewas a child of the Sun, that monarch built a temple inhonor of this perfon, and erected an image of him,refembling as nearly as poffible the lingular form in which,he had exhibited himfelf to his view. In this temple, divinehonors were paid to him, by the name of Viracocha. P. i.lib. iv. c. 21. lib. v. c. 22. When the Spaniards firftappeared in Peru , the length of their beards, and thedrefs they wore, ltruck every perfon fo much with theirlikenefs to the image of Viracocha, that they fuppofed themto be children of the Sun, who had defcended from heavento earth. All concluded, that the fatal period of thePeruvian empire was now approaching, and that the thronewould be occupied by new poffeffors. Atahualpa himfelf,confidering the Spaniards as meffengers from heaven , wasfo far from entertaining any thoughts of refilling them,that he determined to yield implicit obedience to theircommands. From thofe fentiments flowed his profeffionsof love and refped. To thofe were owing the cordialreception of Soto and Ferdinand Pizarro in his camp, andthe fubmilfive reverence with which he himfelf advancedto vilit the Spanifh general in his quarters; but from thegrofs ignorance of Philipillo, the interpreter , the declarationof the Spaniards, and his anfwer to it, were fo ill explained,that by their mutual inability to comprehend each other’s