Pizarro had promised to set the Inca at liberty; but it is probable he never intended it. After he had, in the name of the Inca, drawn all the gold he could from the country, he barbarously murdered the poor Indian chief! There is a tradition that the fate of the Inca was hastened by the following circumstance. One of the soldiers on guard over him, wrote the name of God on the thumb nail of the Inca, explaining to him at the same time the meaning of the word. The Inca showed it to the first Spaniard who entered. The man read it. The Inca was delighted; and Pizarro appearing at the moment, the important nail was presented to him. But Pizarro could not read! the conqueror of Peru could not write his name; and the Inca manifested such contempt towards him for this ignorance, that Pizarro resolved he should not live. After the Inca’s death, another long and bloody war, or, rather, ravage, commenced. The Spaniards finally took Cuzco, the royal city, plundered the temples, and desolated the land, till the Peruvians, in despair, submitted to their chains, and became the slaves of the Spaniards. Since that time the Spanish power has always governed Peru, till the revolution in 1823, when the colonists threw off the yoke of the mother country. But, in justice to the kings of Spain, it should be remembered that they have frequently made laws to protect their Indian subjects in South America. Still the poor natives were often, indeed always, cruelly oppressed by the colonists. But now the spirit of liberality and improvement is ameliorating the condition of all the laboring classes in the independent Republic of Peru, and the Indians are entitled to the privileges of free citizens. CHAPTER VI. _Indian tradition.--Manco Capac.--His reign.--Religion.--Property.-- Agriculture.--Buildings.--Public roads.--Manufactures.-- Domestic animals.--Results of the conquest of the country by the Spaniards._ The Peruvians have a tradition that the city of Cuzco was founded in this manner. The early inhabitants of the country were ignorant, and brutal as the wild beasts of the forest, till a man and woman of majestic form, and clothed in decent garments, appeared among them. They declared themselves to be children of the sun, sent to instruct and to reclaim the human race. They persuaded the savages to conform to the laws they proposed, united them, the Indians, together in a society, and taught them to build the city. Manco Capac was the name of this wonderful man; the woman was called Marna Ocollo. Though they were the children of the sun, it seems they had been brought up very industriously; for Manco Capac taught the Indians agriculture, and other useful arts; and Marna Ocollo taught the women to spin and weave, and make feather garments.