“The decent deportment of the Peruvian monarch, the order of his court, and the reverence with which his subjects approached his person and obeyed his commands, astonished those Spaniards who had never met in America with anything more dignified than the petty cazique of a barbarous tribe. But their eyes were still more powerfully attracted by the vast profusion of wealth which they observed in the Inca’s camp. “The rich ornaments worn by him and his attendants, the vessels of gold and silver in which the repast offered to them was served up, the multitude of utensils of every kind formed of those precious metals, opened prospects far exceeding any idea of opulence that a European of the sixteenth century could form. “Early in the morning the Peruvian camp was all in motion. But as Atahualpa was so solicitous to appear with the greatest splendour and magnificence in his first interview with the strangers, the preparations for this were so tedious, that the day was far advanced before he began his march. Even then, lest the order of the procession should be deranged, he moved so slowly, that the Spaniards became impatient, and apprehensive that some suspicion of their intention might be the cause of this delay. In order to remove this, Pizarro despatched one of his officers with fresh assurances of his friendly disposition. “At length the Inca approached. First of all appeared four hundred men, in a uniform dress, as harbingers to clear the way before him. He himself, sitting on a throne or couch adorned with plumes of various colours, and almost covered with plates of gold and silver enriched with precious stones, was carried on the shoulders of his principal attendants. “Behind him came some chief officers of his court, carried in the same manner. Several bands of singers and dancers accompanied the cavalcade, and the whole plain was covered with troops, amounting to more than thirty thousand men. “As the Inca drew near the Spanish quarters, Father Vincent Valverde, chaplain to the expedition, advanced, with a crucifix in one hand and a breviary in the other, and in a long discourse explained to him the doctrine of the Creation, the fall of Adam, the incarnation, the sufferings and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the appointment of St. Peter as God’s vicegerent on earth, the transmission of his apostolic power by succession to the popes, the donation made to the King of Castile, by Pope Alexander, of all the regions of the New World.