Impatient to know the nature of the reception he might expect from Atahuallpa, Pizarro had no sooner entered Cajamarca than he sent Hernando de Soto and his brother, Hernando Pizarro, to salute the Inca and to invite him to dine on the following day, at the same time begging that his majesty would let them know where they were to make their headquarters. The Spanish envoys were accompanied by a bodyguard of cavalry and made their appearance at the Inca’s camp in a sumptuous manner, dressed in splendid armor and carrying themselves with the arrogance and grace characteristic of the Castilian. They found the sovereign in the courtyard of his royal quarters, where he received them with such absence of demonstration that they were disconcerted and at a loss to understand his extraordinary attitude. They rode up slowly until within a few feet of the Inca, when, after making a respectful salute, Hernando Pizarro repeated his brother’s message. Atahuallpa heard it without giving the least sign of interest, without even a change of expression; the only response came from one of his nobles, in the single word “_Ari_,” which signified “It is well.” It was an embarrassing moment and left Pizarro’s ambassadors totally ignorant of the Inca’s intentions; but Hernando Pizarro was not of a disposition to accept such a situation as final, and he again addressed the Indian sovereign, requesting him to speak to them himself, explaining that he was Pizarro’s brother and had come to learn from the Inca’s own lips what was his royal pleasure. At this, Atahuallpa deigned to answer, with a smile, that he was keeping a fast, which would end the following morning, when he would be pleased to visit Pizarro; that, in the meantime, his guests were to occupy the royal _tambo_, or inn, in the great square of the city, “except the Hall of the Serpent, in the midst,” which he reserved for his own use. During their interview with Atahuallpa, the Spaniards had an excellent opportunity to observe the Inca, who was seated on a cushion in the midst of his nobles and the princesses of the royal household. The monarch, who was thirty years of age, was of grave and kingly bearing, and had handsome, well-cut features; he wore a simpler costume than his courtiers, who were gorgeous in gayly ornamented attire; his crown was the crimson _masca paicha_, which he had assumed with the sovereignty of Cuzco, after his brother Huascar’s defeat. The appearance of the Inca, his splendid court, his troops numbering fifty thousand men, the evidences of great wealth, seen even in the large golden vessels from which the Spaniards were invited to drink the _chicha_ offered by Atahuallpa’s order—everything impressed Pizarro’s envoys with the hopelessness of their scheme of conquest, and they returned to their chief with gloomy faces.