“In this division above eight thousand pesos, at that time not inferior in effective value to as many pounds sterling in the present century, fell to the share of each horseman, and half that sum to each foot-soldier. Pizarro himself, and his officers, received dividends in proportion to the dignity of their rank. “The Spaniards having divided among them the treasure amassed for the Inca’s ransom, he insisted with them to fulfil their promise of setting him at liberty. But nothing was further from Pizarro’s thoughts. During his long service in the New World, he had imbibed those ideas and maxims of his fellow soldiers, which led them to consider its inhabitants as an inferior race, neither worthy of the name nor entitled to the rights of men. In his compact with Atahualpa, he had no other object than to amuse his captive with such a prospect of recovering his liberty as might induce him to lend all the aid of his authority towards collecting the wealth of his kingdom. Having now accomplished this, he no longer regarded his plighted faith; and at the very time when the credulous prince hoped to be replaced on his throne, he had secretly resolved to bereave him of life. “Many circumstances seemed to have concurred in prompting him to this action, the most criminal and atrocious that stains the Spanish name, amidst all the deeds of violence committed in carrying on the conquest of the New World. Though Pizarro had seized the Inca, in imitation of Cortes’s conduct towards the Mexican monarch, he did not possess talents for carrying on the same artful plan of policy. Destitute of the temper and address requisite for gaining the confidence of his prisoner, he never reaped all the advantages which might have been derived from being master of his person and authority. “Atahualpa was, indeed, a prince of greater abilities and discernment than Montezuma, and seems to have penetrated more thoroughly into the character and intentions of the Spaniards. Mutual suspicion and distrust accordingly took place between them. The strict attention with which it was necessary to guard a captive of such importance, greatly increased the fatigue of military duty. The utility of keeping him appeared inconsiderable; and Pizarro felt him as an encumbrance from which he wished to be delivered. “But in order to give some colour of justice to this violent action, and that he himself might be exempted from standing singly responsible for the commission of it, Pizarro resolved to try the Inca with all the formalities observed in the criminal courts of Spain. Pizarro himself, and Almagro, with two assistants, were appointed judges, with full power to acquit or to condemn; an attorney-general was named to carry on the prosecution in the King’s name; counsellors were chosen to assist the prisoner in his defence, and clerks were ordered to record the proceedings of court.