470 / 1070
444
Royal
·
Commentaries.
BooKL
there pre[ent, nor whofoever he was, did he put any
to
death; for
if
cheir recire-
ªment was onely to give way or place to the Horfe in his cariere, as was probable,
ic was.
fo
far from being a faulc; or to deferve punifhmem, that it was a piece of
civility and reípeét, which t!hey deíired to fhew unto thofe w}Jom they eíteemed
to be Children of the Sun; and to have done otherwife, or to have obíl:ruéted
the way and paífage of thefe íl:rangers, would have [eemed a piece of impiety
and prophanation towards thofe whom they confeífed to be of Divine Race, and
def~ended from th€ Heavens. Nor was
Atahualpa
fo íl:upid in his underíl:anding,
as to ílay his own
Jndians
in the prefence of the Ambaífadours whom he had em–
ployed to pay Honour and Worfhip
to
them , and to aífure them of all fecurity
and-prot~füon. N_or is it probable that
Hernando de Soto
would have been fo rude
at1d di&:ourteous as to ride up to the very Nofe of the King, with whom he carne
to treat in behalf of tne Ernperour and the Pope : By all which, it
is
greatly to
be
-larnented, when we coaíid€r with how little care Men give Relations of paífages
which.occur in thofe·i:emoce par~ without regard to the reputation of tl-iat peo.–
ple. The
Inca Atahuatpa
(
as we mall declare more partiailarly hereafter) fhewed
himfelfvery generm1s and ,real toward~be
Spaniards
;
and therefore it may be law–
fulf
for us ro render a charaéter of his abilities, difcretion and underfianding with
which Nacure had eQdued him : for
in
regard we have rnade mention ar large
of
al! the Tyrannies and Cruelties- which he comrnitted, the rule oí Hiíl:ory doth
oblige us not
to
con<;ea-1 che mixtures of Verme whi€h appeared
in
him, urrlels we
wou!d approve our felves falfe by writing a Romance
in
rhe place oftrue Hiíl:ory.
That wnich I repott, proceeds from me relation of many
Spani11rds
who were prn–
fenc ac all che aétion, being fuch as I received from their own mouths, at chofe–
times of converfation which they paífed in my Father's farnily', wñen a great part
of their entertainment was to recount the many paífages and accidents -which oc–
curred in this Conque{!;; the fame
l.
have heard confirmed from feveral
Indi11M,
who at che viíics which they made to
my
Mother, did frequently difcourfe ofchofe
Aétions, and panicularly oí what happened in the Reign oí
Atahualpa
to
the time
of his Death, amibuting al! the misfortunes which befell him to the
J
udgrnent of
God, for t_he Tyrannies and Cruelties he committed upon his own family.
And farcher I am able to confirm the truth of thefe particulars from the repares
fent me by my School¡fellows, who took che trouble to extraét them out of the
Hiíl:orica,l Annals of .t!il<llr refpeétive Councries wbere their Mothers were born ,
as I faid in th€ firíl: Pare of this Hiíl:ory. To thefe Relations I have che Autho–
rity far~her to add of that curious and accurate Farher
Bla. Palera,
who was rhe
Son of one of chofe who was a íellow Prifoner wirh
Atahualpa,
and was born and
\xed on the Confines of
Caj{amarca,
and
fo
might have advamages to extraét che
Records from their Originals, as he him_felf dorh atteíl: ; and indeed he hath been
. very lar~e
in
d€fcribing.the fucceíf~ and paífages ,~hich occurred in rhat Kingdom,
and wh1ch by c-omparmg them w1t
h orher Relar1ons, I have found agreeable t<>
the trueíl: reporrs. And farrher I do
av.er, rhat I {half trace che fame way rhat che
Spanifh
Hiíl:orians direét me, makin
g ufeof their Commemaries in fuch rnatcers
wherein they may_be ufef~ll
to
me, a_nd /hall add and enlarge in what chey come
íhorr, orare defic1ent, as m many chmgs they may be, for wanc of reading amJ
knowledge of Hiftorians.
CH A P .
•