This procedure was so contrary to all the laws and usages of the empire, that the Peruvians, though they revered in the highest degree their deceased monarch, who had added such lustre to his reign, could not contentedly submit to the division of the empire. They urged on Huascar, therefore, to require his brother to renounce his claim to the government of Quito, and acknowledge him as his liege lord. Atahualpa, however, had already gained a large body of Peruvian troops, who had followed his father to Quito, and who were the best portion of the army. He therefore not only refused to comply with his brother’s demand, but marched against him with a chosen army. A civil war ensued. Atahualpa, being superior in force, triumphed over Huascar, the rightful monarch; and, conscious that he was only partially descended from the Incas, he sought to confirm himself by utterly exterminating all the children of the sun, or the descendants of Manco Capac. To establish yet further his own authority, he kept his brother alive, in whose name he issued his own orders to the various parts of the empire. The effect of this civil war was most disastrous to this hitherto prosperous empire. It rent it asunder at the very time when a crafty foe was preparing its subjugation, and when the force of united counsels and efforts were needed for the safety of the nation. Had the Spaniards entered Peru under the reign of Huayna Capac, they would have found a far different state of things, and possibly Peru might, for many succeeding years, have enjoyed prosperity under the sway of her own beneficent monarchs, instead of being trampled under the foot of a foreign invader.